Nodame Cantabile Chapter 136 – The End

Nodame finally finds her resolution – to be a pianist with Prof. Auclair’s guidance. She was quite adamant at being a kindergarten teacher in the beginning. As for Chiaki, it’s off season for the Roux Marlet orchestra and financially, the orchestra is still seeing red. Things are still not too bad as they are booked to perform at a harvest festival, to be more precise, an onion festival in the French countryside much to their disappointment but still, it’s better than nothing.

So, what happens to the rest of the gang?

• Yun-Long decides to return to his mom in China. Before he leaves, his parting word to Chiaki and co. at the boarding house is that he’ll allow them to do a concert in China if they become famous someday. Haha. It’s as if he own the entire country as noted by Chiaki.
• Tanya isn’t too shabby either. She’s doing quite well in her exams and with her mom’s support, she’s able to stay in Paris for a little longer while pursuing music. On top of that, Kuroki (the oboist) requested her to be his accompanist for his upcoming competition in Germany. Love is indeed in the air for those two.
• Frank too, is doing well and upon a professor’s recommendation (and many other professors), Rui (the famous Chinese pianist who played at Chiaki/Stressemen concerto) asked him to perform a duet with her.

It appears that Luka (the boy genius who was Nodame’s classmate at one time) has developed a crush on Nodame. He even declared that would be a greater conductor than Chiaki someday and make her shine. Lol.

As for Stressemen, he was seen riding a rollercoaster at a theme park with Elise’s “supervision”. He looks somewhat “sad” in a humourous way – probably because Chiaki is now making his name as a conductor without needing his help any longer and also now that Nodame has gone back to Chiaki (just my opinion). No matter how forlorn he looked, he still wishes those two well.

And finally, it’s Nodame’s Mozart recital at the Mozart-obsessed acquaintance of Prof. Auclair’s castle. Yup. It’s the very same Mozart piano recital where she adorned those wig and period costumes and performed Mozart…and she’s at it again. What a Déjà vu.

~The End~

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I’m still trying to swallow the fact that Nodame Cantabile has now reached the end of the road. I wish that there’s more to it. Heck, there’s no Chiaki-Nodame piano concerto! It would be a perfect ending if that happen since it is Nodame’s dream to perform a piano concerto with her beloved Chiaki. And come to think of it, nothing much was mentioned about those back in Japan. Oh well…

On another note, the author Ninomiya Tomoko has started another manga  mini-series related to Nodame Cantabile entitled Noda-Can BS centered on the main manga’s supporting character.  To compensate their lack of appearances in the main manga (in the Paris arc) perhaps?

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This post is written based on Nodame Cantabile chapter 136 scanlated by Which Scanlations. Many thanks to them for making the English translation (at least until the official English translation by Del Ray is out) available to non-Japanese fans.