Our gluttonous main (and the best) character, Otonashi Saya.
Reverting to reviewing a slightly older anime in the form of Blood+, Nodame Cantabile can take a break from facing challenges to its throne. BTW, I have heard there will be a second season for Nodame later this year, and if it follows the recipe of the first season, Anime of The Year 2008 should be an easy win for Nodame Cantabile 2nd Season. Now, let’s go back to the mini-review of Blood+.
Story:-
Our heroine Otonashi Saya, a typical high-school girl with a suspicious amnesia that prevents her from remembering anything before her last one year of living, is attacked by a strange monster when she returned to her school to retrieve her forgotten shoes. From then on, she finds out that she is the only one who can save the world from those immortal monsters, and she embarks on a journey around the world to do so.
The story is very good, and do not be tricked by the simple synopsis above. This anime started rather slowly, at least during the time at Okinawa but the pace picked up steam when our protagonist and her gang started touring Europe to look for more monsters to exterminate. It is during that time where this anime really shines and got me really hooked up with the excellent plot developments that keeps me wanting for more, and this continued up until the time-jump where the problems begins.
The time-jump plot device really takes out the wind from the sail of this anime. While the quality of the story itself did not deteriorate, the time-jump messed-up the excellent pacing the anime has up until then and also confuses the character development a little. You know, up until the end, the anime did not explain what happened at the ship when it sinks while our protagonist and antagonist (presumably) fight, and also what the protagonist is doing during the gap in the time-jump. But the messed up pacing has more negative effect on the anime, because the anime failed to capture it back until the very end.
Character development is also done very well, and the main protagonist is simply the best character in the series. How her character was expanded is an integral essence in the series, and is equally important as the storyline itself. With more airtime, preferably the same airtime as the protagonist, the main antagonist could have been better than the one portrayed in the series.
The ending is decent, and it is really surprising that the director need only about 3 episodes or so to do so. At first I’m afraid that the ending will be rushed as the magical episode 50 approached, but in the end it turned out good. The only complaint I can have about the ending is that it is too typical and do not have enough essence that gives the preceding story justice.
Brand advertising seems to be prevalent in the early parts in the series. Not as blatant as the ones in Darker Than Black though.
Character Design:-
The character design in this anime is just average but quite realistic. The non-Japanese protagonist has black hair, which puts me in a bind whether I should give a praise or not, but the Caucasians characters here are blonde, so maybe hair color here is more politically correct than the majority of other Japanese anime reviewed here.
Voice Acting:-
The voice acting in this anime is good, but there is no one that stands out from the rest of the huge cast.
This is supposed to be a surveillance report, not a romance novel.
Music:-
The OST is great, and for the myriads of themes this anime has; the 1st and 3rd OP themes and the 3rd ED theme are very well done, especially the Angela Aki gig.
Animation/Direction:-
The animation for this anime is excellent, even in the fast-paced scenes. Unfortunately, choreography of those action and fighting scenes are just plain average though, especially the latter. The directing is generally good, but I think this series would have benefited greatly if a better director is in charge of this anime.
Conclusion:-
8 out of 10. Well, it is time to read some manga then. The internet at home is down so can’t really finish downloading Noir, which is the anime I want to watch next. Maybe I have to dig into my unwatched collection first to fill the gap as I wait until my connection is restored.
I want that mobile phone, which can open doors with ease.
