Lady Nimue
How I Met Your Mother in Classical Music University
Having read the Nodame Cantabile manga, watched the anime, Japanese drama, and Korean drama, I was really excited for this version since it is one of my favorite mangas. Despite having been disappointed with You're My Destiny, my expectation for this drama is really high.
This drama gets really draggy in the middle parts and because I expected it to follow the original plot, I decided to watch all 40 episodes of this drama and watched how they're going to utilize this amount of episodes to tell Chin's version of this Nodame Cantabile. Upon finishing it, despite the ending being sweet and will satisfy most viewers, it didn't satisfy me in a lot of ways.
PART I: PROS
I really liked that they toned down the ML's character because I didn't like him in the original because he was a bit harsh on the FL, especially on the final arc. Because of this, we get a lot of sweet moments.
Since this drama is 40 episodes long, I was really hoping they will include the Paris Arc since that Arc is my favorite on the manga and I am glad they did.
I really liked that they tried to include Chinese instruments despite it feeling surreal and kind of forced.
I loved the ending's final concerto because it made the story come into a full circle.
PART II: CONS
--- THE FL ---
They kind of followed the events of the source material but without the satisfaction of seeing the FL develop as a pianist. One of the reasons why I liked the manga was not because of the romance. Instead, because even if the FL is very in-love with the ML, she still had her own agency as a character who has her own struggles, dreams, feelings, and other interests that don't revolve around the ML.
What happened with this drama is that EVERY character in this drama treats the FL like a toddler, especially the ML and Mr. Fisher. The result of this? The FL remains a toddler. She's timid, immature, and insecure. Not only that, she seems like a shelled version of Nodame whose reason for existence revolves around him.
GONE was the eccentric Nodame that I cheered for, cried, and celebrated with when she becomes a professional pianist. The world FINALLY gets to hear her wonderful unorthodox playstyle when she had her world tour. Instead, she's a generic clingy C-drama FL.
--- THE BORING SUBPLOT ---
I really get that they're trying to put a twist on the source material by trying to include some elements of modern music and I think draw some parallels on it? The concept but the execution was BLAND.
The thing is, what it brought me was more confusion, especially with what happened with one of the subplots. I never knew that an opera singer transitioning into a pop singer is really boring because of how it was told. This really pissed me off because the writers could've used the screen time allotted for this boring subplot could've been used to deepen the FL's interesting character development.
---INTERESTING NEW CONCEPT, BLAND EXECUTION---
The blending of the classical and modern aspects of music was really a missed opportunity because the message that I got was "THE CLASSICAL MUSIC WORLD IS BORING AS HELL SO YOU HAVE TO MODERNIZE IT" instead of "EACH OF THESE WORLDS HAS THEIR OWN BEAUTY" or "HOW DO THESE WORLDS INFLUENCE ONE ANOTHER IN AN INTERESTING WAY" sort of.
While I’ve given this drama the benefit of the doubt, I’ve heard that this drama was supposed to introduce Chinese audiences to classical music. Well, they’ve certainly done an abysmal job at that, and it infuriated me more! Here, the criticisms about this drama's musicality choices actually make sense.
Such a shame really that in the end, these two worlds are still far apart.
--- THE ENDING ---
The ending of the character arc of the ML and FL? THIS IS NOT ONE OF THOSE DRAMAS THAT YOU CAN PULL THAT KIND OF ENDING ON THE CHARACTERS.
PART III: Conclusion
Unlike the source material which took its time to build its classical world in an interesting and nuanced way which this drama tried to do but failed therefore this drama fails as an adaptation. They had freakin' 40 EPISODES to make the protagonists interesting! Instead, they wasted it on boring subplots that do not tie into the story.
Instead, what I got was a long-winded drama of How I Met Your Mother in a Classical Music University.
This drama gets really draggy in the middle parts and because I expected it to follow the original plot, I decided to watch all 40 episodes of this drama and watched how they're going to utilize this amount of episodes to tell Chin's version of this Nodame Cantabile. Upon finishing it, despite the ending being sweet and will satisfy most viewers, it didn't satisfy me in a lot of ways.
PART I: PROS
I really liked that they toned down the ML's character because I didn't like him in the original because he was a bit harsh on the FL, especially on the final arc. Because of this, we get a lot of sweet moments.
Since this drama is 40 episodes long, I was really hoping they will include the Paris Arc since that Arc is my favorite on the manga and I am glad they did.
I really liked that they tried to include Chinese instruments despite it feeling surreal and kind of forced.
I loved the ending's final concerto because it made the story come into a full circle.
PART II: CONS
--- THE FL ---
They kind of followed the events of the source material but without the satisfaction of seeing the FL develop as a pianist. One of the reasons why I liked the manga was not because of the romance. Instead, because even if the FL is very in-love with the ML, she still had her own agency as a character who has her own struggles, dreams, feelings, and other interests that don't revolve around the ML.
What happened with this drama is that EVERY character in this drama treats the FL like a toddler, especially the ML and Mr. Fisher. The result of this? The FL remains a toddler. She's timid, immature, and insecure. Not only that, she seems like a shelled version of Nodame whose reason for existence revolves around him.
GONE was the eccentric Nodame that I cheered for, cried, and celebrated with when she becomes a professional pianist. The world FINALLY gets to hear her wonderful unorthodox playstyle when she had her world tour. Instead, she's a generic clingy C-drama FL.
--- THE BORING SUBPLOT ---
I really get that they're trying to put a twist on the source material by trying to include some elements of modern music and I think draw some parallels on it? The concept but the execution was BLAND.
The thing is, what it brought me was more confusion, especially with what happened with one of the subplots. I never knew that an opera singer transitioning into a pop singer is really boring because of how it was told. This really pissed me off because the writers could've used the screen time allotted for this boring subplot could've been used to deepen the FL's interesting character development.
---INTERESTING NEW CONCEPT, BLAND EXECUTION---
The blending of the classical and modern aspects of music was really a missed opportunity because the message that I got was "THE CLASSICAL MUSIC WORLD IS BORING AS HELL SO YOU HAVE TO MODERNIZE IT" instead of "EACH OF THESE WORLDS HAS THEIR OWN BEAUTY" or "HOW DO THESE WORLDS INFLUENCE ONE ANOTHER IN AN INTERESTING WAY" sort of.
While I’ve given this drama the benefit of the doubt, I’ve heard that this drama was supposed to introduce Chinese audiences to classical music. Well, they’ve certainly done an abysmal job at that, and it infuriated me more! Here, the criticisms about this drama's musicality choices actually make sense.
Such a shame really that in the end, these two worlds are still far apart.
--- THE ENDING ---
The ending of the character arc of the ML and FL? THIS IS NOT ONE OF THOSE DRAMAS THAT YOU CAN PULL THAT KIND OF ENDING ON THE CHARACTERS.
PART III: Conclusion
Unlike the source material which took its time to build its classical world in an interesting and nuanced way which this drama tried to do but failed therefore this drama fails as an adaptation. They had freakin' 40 EPISODES to make the protagonists interesting! Instead, they wasted it on boring subplots that do not tie into the story.
Instead, what I got was a long-winded drama of How I Met Your Mother in a Classical Music University.
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