Nodame Cantabile OVA

This OVA is a side story to the paris chapter of the "Nodame Cantabile" franchise. Unlike the other side stories, it does not focus on Nodame and Chiaki or the regular side characters such as Mine. Instead it's a short side story about Yukihisa Matsuda who, for those that have a good eye for detail and are better at remembering Japanese names than I, will recognise as the replacement for Chiaki as conductor for the Rising Star Orchestra, briefly mentioned towards the end of the first season of "Nodame Cantabile".

The upside is that this is an entertaining side story, retaining a lot of the quirky ... humour and much of the feel of the series. The downside is that the main focus Matsuda who, in addition to not having appeared in the franchise previously and making me wonder "who the heck is he?!", is a character that simply can't match the charm exhibited by the majority of the regular cast of the series. Rather than a side story about Matsuda, I'd rather have seen a side story about Nodame or Chiaki, or Mine, or Kuroki, or just about any other more established members of the cast. As it is, there's a certain emotional detachment about watching this feeble Matsuda guy for the measely 25 minutes he's in for the entirety of the franchise.

Still, at the end of the day, it's an enjoyable if not spectacular standalone episode of the franchise, and it's certainly a lot better than that 10 min DVD special for the first season. But I doubt I'll be revisiting this when I'm rewatching the franchise...

Nodame Cantabile has quickly become one of my favorite shows of all time but this OVA is just yikes yikes yikes.

I could overlook the show's mildly stereotypical treatment of its gay characters and its weird sexual harassment "comedy" with Stresemann as those are things you kind of just need to look past when viewing anime, especially older titles, but this was the straw that broke the camel's back. The character this OVA focuses on(I don't even remember his name) has no redeeming qualities, and isn't likeable or funny or interesting to watch. I was actually really confused for the first 5 or so minutes of ... the episode because he literally hasn't even appeared other than a blink it and miss it mention at the end of season 1. And that isn't even the most offensive part of this OVA.

Newsflash: Rape isn't funny. It's not funny when it's happening to a woman, and it's just as bad when it's happening to a man. I guess you could attribute a lot of the problematic aspects of the show to the time period it came out(and I did during season 1), but this was just too far for me and I'm honestly pretty disgusted with the ending of this episode. Really soured my view of this anime in the worst way possible.