Nodame Cantabile Special Lesson 1 : Devil in D (Minor?)

Hmm... For those of you who've been wondering what's been missing from Nodame Cantabile (the anime) fear not... for the obligatory beach episode is finally here!


This short special feature (about 14 minutes in length including OP and ED) takes place just before Chiaki, Nodame and gang arrive at the music camp (episode 7 thereabouts). In fact, it starts out exactly as episode 7 did, with Nodame, Mine and Masumi annoying the hell out of Chiaki in Mine's car, only turns out that the gang stopped by the sea before their final destination, much to Chiaki's horror since he never did get over that fear of boats and the sea (alluded to in ep 1). And of course, Chiaki doesn't want to reveal his phobia to his adoring entourage, which of course still doesn't stop Nodame and Masumi in their lousy attempts at wooing him to and in the water, so cue hilarity.

It's great watching all the things I loved about Nodame Cantabile again in this extra feature to the series again: hearing Kawasumi Ayako as Nodame and her signature Mukyaa~!, as well as Seki Tomokazu voicing a non-trashy role (here's looking at you, KimiAru), and pondering Masumi's actual gender for the umpteenth once again... and no CGI instrument-playing to confuse me in sight! Though it's hardly been a year since the series ended (so any sense of nostalgia seems to be a little too indulgent on my part), this was still a enjoyable 14 minutes for me as a fan. Now if only they'll eventually be doing anime specials on the Europe arc as they're doing with the live action...