I read the first volume of Nodame Cantabile in breaks or handfuls of minutes of down time at work. I found it pleasant but not particularly interesting, but since I still needed something to read at work and had money to burn, I got the next volume (though didn't finish it till now). Now, though, I'm considerably poorer and am using actual free time to read this. Under those circumstances, I don't think I'll be continuing this.

I'm not big on series with excessively silly characters. I love good humor, but characters who produce wacky hijinks don't tend to be complex enough to be interesting reads in the long run. They also have a tendency to be incredibly annoying. The characters of Nodame Cantabile are so far not wacky to the point of irritation for me, and I do think I am more interested in them than any other characters that are this silly that I've seen in manga in recent memory. Still, while somewhat impressive, it's not saying all that much overall. They're still not much more than their silly surface personalities.

Chikai, the main character, is the only down to earth one of the whole bunch, and he's rather a jerk. I do like how the manga acknowledges that that is going to get in his way of being a conductor despite his talent. The pages in this volume when Chikai attempts to conduct the orchestra and has difficulty were maybe the one moment I was truly interested the entire read. However, he's not interesting enough to hold the series on his own, and one feels a little lost as to why all these nice, rather silly people are so attracted to him? Perhaps his looks, but I don't buy that. Part of this is that I don't remember the events of the first volume so well at this point, but really one should get a feeling why people are drawn to him just by seeing them interact, one would think. And I think there ARE possible reasons to like Chikai. But all the characters are so silly, the only feeling I really get is either that all these characters are gluttons for punishment, or they are just so incredibly dense they do not realize how horrible he treats them all.

...That kind of this is pretty common in manga, though, and this one does pull it off in a less annoying way than a lot do. Again, it's pleasant, and for that moment with Chikai conducting, feeling the tension in the air, I started thinking it might be fun to get the next volume after all. Then the scene ended, and I realized that I shouldn't be continuing this for one really worthwhile moment every volume or two. If something is going to be this relaxed in pace and so lacking in tension, for me it needs characters that are a little less dense so they can have some more interesting interactions. ( )