NANA/ Nodame Cantabile/ La Corda D'oro

I'm in the mood of NANA today...so I shall blog about it. How often can you find 'coincidence'?. How often can you find two different person who has the same name and same age? It all happens with NANA. This is another masterpiece of Ai Yazawa, if not the best mangaka ever. I never once feel bored whenever I'm with her mangas. Her works are just simply awesome, and I must stress that she's more of a realist than any other mangaka. But that doesn't mean I dislike Kanan Minami or Hino Matsuri or any other mangaka out there. Nana Koumatsu (Hachi) is always unlucky when it comes to guys. She was always two-timed. So one day she thought she has met the right guy, Shouji. After a while they dated, he decided to go to Tokyo to pursue his studies. Unbearable by such distance, Nana ran out from her house to look for him in Tokyo. On the way to Tokyo, she met a girl. Her name is also Nana Oosaki and so happen both were 20 years old. Our Nana Oosaki is a singer previously until Ren(her bf) left to Tokyo for Trapnest. She was so sad that she wanted to be a famous singer in order not to lost to Trapnest who has stolen her boyfriend away from her. And so the story goes on.....

This manga consists of 15 takoubans so far, and it is still ongoing in Japan. I have no idea how long will this manga be since it's so popular. They even have an anime for this, contaning 51 episodes, however so far only 29 episodes has been released. I'm still waiting for the remaining. I wanna know how it goes on. However, so far the anime has been following the manga pretty close. I wonder can they finish up the whole NANA series in 51 episodes...hmm, my doubt. Ohh and there'll be a NANA 2 movie coming up. Hmm I don't know if it's just me but I think Mika Nakashima don't suit for Nana Oosaki character. As has been seen in NANA movie, MIka Nakashima is pretty cool tempered when the Nana character she played supposed to be hot tempered. Hmm...And also in NANA 2, they changed actress who plays Hachi character. Our new Hachi doesn't even suit her style. She's too matured looking to play Hachi role....Gimme back my old Hachi!

Anyway leaving that aside, what I wanna show is Nana style. I love her punk style, with the black eyeliner, short skit, with stokings, of course her accesories...arghz.. I don't know how to explain. To have a better look....

*Pic taken from Nana-nana.net*

And how I wish there's Vivien Westwood store in Malaysia. I love most of their rings, especially the one that Nana is using.

*Pic taken from Hervia.com*

So that's about NANA. Next we go to Nodame Cantabile. This is about the son of a famous pianist, Shinichi Chiaki who dream to study abroad and become a conductor just like his mentor. Sadly his fear of flying has blown his plans away. He then become pessimistic as his friends achieved everything that he always wanted, so he was thinking if he should just quit music. He, however, then met a new student, Megumi Noda(Nodame). She can't cook, she can't clean, she can't even keep her own room tidy, but she can play the piano in incomparable Cantabile style. She then teaches or reminded Chiaki of something he has long forgotten, that is to enjoy music no matter where he is. I personally haven't read the manga, but it sound so interesting that I'm downloading it NOW! Lolx. The anime is yet to be released till next year. However, currently they're having a life-action drama based on the manga, and it's been runinng until episode 8/11 now.

In the live-action drama, Fuji TV employees has come up with the idea of opening tha cafe in July. Thsi is in order to promote the series. The team members has asked about 100 eating and drinking establishments in Tokyo for their co-operation. Here are the cast for the life action series....

I don't know if it's just me or what but somehow I felt that the main female lead Juri Ueno really look like the manga character. And the male lead, Hiroshi Tamaki does not exactly look like. =p

Now we move on to La Corda D'oro. Hino Kahoko transfer to this musicial school. And one day she happen to meet the fairy of that musicial school. Because she's the only one who can see the little fairy, Lili, thus Lili gave Hino a magical violin. Even though its a magic violin, Hino has to put her heart into it to play out a wonderful tune. Thus it's all about her feeling towards the music. She was then selected to join the concurs, though she doesn't know how to play any instruments. She then meet Tsukimori Len, who also play the violin. However, Len treated her coldly because he thinks she's his rival after the incident where whe plays his song better than him. Ahahah. Then there's Ryou(Tsuchiura Ryoutarou), who plays the piano but stopped a long time ago because of the previous concurs(never mention what exactly happen). We have also Kazuki Hihara who plays the trumpet. He's a happy going person, bubbly and talks alot. He alwats cheer up Hino-chan when she's down. There's on time he played a song together with Hino at the garden(center) if the school and attracted all students there. Yunoki Azuma is a rich, and very popular among the girls in the school. He's a nice guy who always help Hino-chan. Yunoki plays the flute. And we also have Shimizu Keiichi who plays the cello. He rarely make any apprearance(so far) in the anime. Keiichi always sleep at the back of the school. I think that explain his rare appearance. So you've heard all the character so let me introduce who is who.

Left to right(top): Kazuki Hihara, Shimizu Keiichi, Kanazawa Hiroto, the teacher(not intro), Ousaki Shinobu, just showed up in episode 4(not intro), and Tsuchiura Ryoutarou. Left to right(bottom): Yunoki Azuma, Hino Kahoko, and Tsukimori Len.

Episode: 4(ongoing)
Original Creator: Yuki Kure
Series Director: Shin Katagai
Art Director: Chikako Shibata
Anime director: Noriko Tejima
Music: Mitsutaka Tajiri
OP: Brand New Breeze by Kanon
ED: CRESENDO by Stella Quintet

I guess I'm in the mood for music anime this season. It's also my inspiration to play the piano again! That's because I want to learn to play all of the anime song(if possible). But I simply sucks at playing piano. Mind me because I've stopped for 6 years! Eheheh. See stupid of me not to update now I have so much to tell....LOLXx XD