I've been meaning to watch this show for a while and now that I've finally finished it I'm glad to say it was definitely not a waste. There was a good deal of praise being given to this series as a whole but I tried to ignore that as much as possible and watch without any prior opinions. In the end I don't think any of that praise is being misplaced. The show is definitely not perfect, far from it I think, but even with it's imperfections it still manages to keep hold of a coherent and engaging story. I feel that sequels and second
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seasons are often doomed from the beginning by having to live up to whatever standard it's predecessor set. Luckily I think overall this season managed to shoulder this burden without even breaking a sweat.
Story- The plot picks up almost where the first season left off. I say almost because this part actually takes place a year after the previous seasons events. As a result I was completely befuddled as to what was going on for at least two episodes, at which point they bring you pretty much back up to speed as to what's happened and what's going on. After that it's more of the same for a bit and I mean that in a very literal sense. The beginning of the second season felt like serious deja vu to me but it didn't take too long to break away into the meat of the new story. In general I really enjoyed the story itself, there were lots of unexpected twists and turns and I was left guessing what was going to happen up until the very end. Unfortunately some of these twists were more desirable than others. It's hard to really explain my frustration about this without giving things away but I'll do what I can. Basically this show takes far too much delight in resurrecting people that were thought to/should be dead. This became a huge annoyance to me but alas, there is nothing that can be done about it. Also at times I felt like they were just pushing things along in order to finish in the right amount of time. In the end however, everything holds together and aside from a few minor holes the plot concludes very nicely. To me the ending was executed extremely well and is what kept me from giving the story a lower score.
Art- I'm no expert in this field but I think the art was done well. I guess the CLAMP character design is very like it or hate it and I like it so that's my opinion. Aside from basic design I thought that at times things felt a little too chaotic and messy but it was never anything detrimental. Also I think the one on one battles were done very nicely, they were very smooth and pleasing to watch.
Sound- As far as openings and endings go I was split between thinking they were decent and just not liking them. There wasn't anything downright terrible just my personal taste. The actual soundtrack itself though was very good. I wouldn't go so far to say every track is a masterpiece but by the end of the show even the tracks I didn't like in at first had grown on me. It is almost entirely orchestral with some choral things thrown in as well which is right up my ally of interest. In general though the music really added to the overall atmosphere of the show and did an excellent job at enhancing dramatic points.
Characters- I think that character development was good but was nothing ground breaking. I think most of the development was used up on Lelouch, Suzaku, and C.C. with everyone else sort of taking the back seat, or maybe sitting all the way at the back of the bus. Really, aside from the aforementioned three I don't think there was any significant development at all or if there was it was poorly done. None of the supporting characters get a lot of screen time and some simply disappear entirely. Also I feel that although there is development in the main characters it is shakily done and none of it felt very smooth or natural to me. I saw a lot of potential with cast but I feel it was just left alone dew to time restraints. In the end though the characters do what they're supposed to in order to drive the plot along and I don't think it detracts much from the overall effect, it just prevents the show from being that much more amazing.
Enjoyment- Even after all of the imperfections I still really enjoyed this show. The characters and story really pulled me in and didn't let go until the very end. The show blurred the line between who was good and who was evil to such an extent that it was almost invisible until the very last few minutes and it kept me on the edge of my seat. There were far more high points than low points and I thought the ending was simply amazing. If you've seen the first season you'd be committing a crime to not watch this was one. If you haven't seen the first season then what are you waiting for? Watch it so you can watch this season!
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Oct 16, 2009
I've been meaning to watch this show for a while and now that I've finally finished it I'm glad to say it was definitely not a waste. There was a good deal of praise being given to this series as a whole but I tried to ignore that as much as possible and watch without any prior opinions. In the end I don't think any of that praise is being misplaced. The show is definitely not perfect, far from it I think, but even with it's imperfections it still manages to keep hold of a coherent and engaging story. I feel that sequels and second
...
Jul 29, 2009
Nodame Cantabile
(Anime)
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Alright this is my first review but I felt obligated to do it because I am an aspiring classical musician and this show is all about classical music.
Anyways down to business. There are plenty of good reviews of this anime so I'll keep this fairly short and stick to what I know. First off I want to say I was very skeptical about watching this show. Usually anything that deals with classical music for the masses is done poorly and they often use extremely popular and over played pieces. I'm very happy to say this is not the case in Nodame Cantabile. I was continuously ... |
