Nodame Cantabile is a manga series written and illustrated by Tomoko Ninomiya. It was serialized in Kiss magazine by Kodansha from July 2001 to October 2009, with a total of 23 volumes. In December 2009, a two-volume sequel titled “Nodame Cantabile: Encore Opera Chapter” also began serialization in Kiss. Later in 2016, a one-shot epilogue chapter was published in the April edition of Kiss. The whole series has had over 37 million copies in circulation as of March 2015, making it the best-selling josei manga in history.

The original manga has been adapted as four TV series. In 2006, Nodame Cantabile was made into an award-winning live-action drama that aired on Fuji TV. In 2008, a sequel TV special was aired in January, titled “Nodame Cantabile New Year's Special in Europe”. Two live-action movie sequels to the TV drama starring the same cast were produced. The first film “Nodame Cantabile: The Movie I” was released in 2009, while the second film “Nodame Cantabile: The Movie II” was released in 2010. Both films were among the top ten highest-grossing domestic films of 2010.

The manga was adapted into a two-season anime series by Fuji TV and animated by J.C.Staff. The first season titled “Nodame Cantabile”, was broadcasted in 23 episodes from January to June 2007. The second season titled “Nodame Cantabile: Paris Chapter”, was broadcasted in 11 episodes from October to December 2008.

The story of Nodame Cantabile started with the main protagonist Chiaki Shinichi. He was a 3rd year piano student at the Momogaoka Music Academy in Japan. Shinichi was an accomplished pianist and was following in his father’s footstep – the famous pianist Chiaki Masayuki.

Coming back to Japan from the time living abroad, Shinichi was really popular with female students due to his good looks and musical ability. However, Shinichi was a perfectionist. He was highly critical of his own works and others. He thought that the level of students at his school was low. Shinichi’s dream was to go back to Europe, meeting his beloved mentor Sebastiano Viera and learned to become a famous conductor just like him.

At Momogaoka Music Academy, Shinichi was rumored to be a favorite student of the acclaimed professor Etoh Kouzo. Two female students looked at Shinichi from a window as he was walking by, they got excited and wanted to go see his lesson.

One of the girls turned to talk to her other friend and realized that she has started eating. That was Noda Megumi, nicknamed Nodame. Nodame had a happy expression while eating, she didn’t even care about the handsome Shinichi.

Shinichi was deep in thought in the midst of his piano lesion. He recalled the news about a male student from the conducting major leaving to study abroad in Europe. Feeling jealous and frustrated, Shinichi played an aggressive note.

His professor Etoh hit him in the head with a paper fan and harshly scolded him. As the school concerto competition drawing near, Shinichi had to pay attention or he would lose. Professor Etoh then discovered a score (the conductor’s sheet music that has every musician’s part in it) inside Shinichi’s songbook. He mocked Shinichi’s dream of becoming a conductor and said that he should give that up. Shinichi got angry and insulted Etoh on his bad teaching skills that led to all his students sounding the same. Etoh stormed off in a rage and refused to teach Shinichi anymore.

When Shinichi was a small kid, he was introduced into the world of classical music by his father. He got the chance to see Europe’s greatest orchestras and operas. Then, Shinichi saw a performance by the famous conductor Sebastiano Viera. Soon, Shinichi dreamt of becoming just like Viera and would follow his father to work.

On one of Viera’s rehearsals, Shinichi got noticed by Viera by pointing out the mistake that a violinist was making. From then on, Viera started to mentor Shinichi. Unfortunately for him, when his parents got divorced, Shinichi had to follow his mother back to Japan.

Shinichi was lost in thought again as he was walking down the hall. That was when he heard an incredible melody. Just as Shinichi was about to go find the source of that melody, his girlfriend Tagaya Saiko called out for him. She was mad about Shinichi’s reckless fight with his professor.

At the bar, Shinichi told Saiko that he only applied into piano major to hone his piano skill and studied conducting on his own. He said that Viera was the only teacher that he would accept and that he refused to waste his time on other teachers.

When Saiko confronted Shinichi about his reason for not going back to Europe, it was revealed that Shinichi had a fear of flying. This came from traumatic incident in the past when he survived an airplane crash landing. Shinichi also feared the sea as he almost drowned when he was little. Seeing Shinichi’s childish attitude and empty dreams, Saiko got angry and dumped him.

Meanwhile, Nodame was returning home from the supermarket and found a drunk Shinichi sleeping in front of her apartment door. Nodame remembered Shinichi’s face and took him inside.

Shinichi was later woken up by Nodame’s beautiful playing of a piece by Beethoven. However, he was instantly shocked by the sight of Nodame playing piano in a room full of garbage.

That was how Shinichi met Nodame.