I just finished watching both the Nodame Cantabile live action and the anime, and some time prior to this, I watched the La Corda D’Oro anime. What do both have in common? Classical music.

When it comes to manga adaptations, some just don’t translate well into live action dramas, and watching the show makes you cringe. The Nodame Cantabile live action, despite retaining the exaggerations commonly found in manga, was filmed in such a way that makes it really enjoyable to watch. It helps that comedy plays an important part in the series as well. Also, having an interesting plot and a wonderful cast, it’s not surprising that the drama was well received when it started airing on TV.

さきAKB48の１０年桜を聞いた。（歌詞と英訳はこちら。）聞いた時、「あ～もうすぐ卒業だ・・・」こんな感じがあった。

大学での四年間はなんて早く過ぎる。この四年間、悲しいこと、つらいこと、もちろん楽しいこともあった。みんなといっしょうにすてきな思い出をたくさん作った。今から１０年後、みんな何をしてるかな？結婚して、家庭を持つ？その頃までにはみんな三十路を過ぎるね。（怖い！）

卒業後絶対また会おうね！

ほら　足元を見てごらん
これがあなたの歩む道
ほら　前を見てごらん
あれがあなたの未来

The song is about the dreams of someone and her future, and it’s such a beautiful song with it’s deep meaning. The melody is simple and soothing, and I feel that it serves to bring out the lyrics even more.

I personally like this version better than the original. The original version is good, just that I prefer how Konno’s voice goes with the song in this version. I think it’s worth a listen even if you don’t understand Japanese; translations are under the cut if you want to know the meaning of the song.

未来へ向かって　ゆっくりと　歩いてゆこう

It’s the season where everyone’s busy mugging; where 24 hours in a day is simply not enough and everyone hopes that the exams will be over soon so that life can go back to normal.

Given that my first paper is still 2 days away, I’m not too stressed right now, but I just know that my stress levels will increase exponentially as the exams go on. I have 4 papers on the last week of the exams, and on the Sunday after the exams end I have to take JLPT as well. It doesn’t help that practically all my papers are in the afternoon, because I feel that I end up losing a lot of time when I have afternoon papers. At least if my papers are in the morning I can spend the rest of the day studying for the next paper. If I have an afternoon paper, by the time I go home and take a nap, the day is practically gone already. Not good at all when the next paper is just 2 days later – it’s impossible to finish studying within that short period of time! Right now I’m just taking things one step at a time… holidays please come soon!

If you’re tired from studying or whatsoever, here’s a lively song to (hopefully) cheer you up!

ºC-ute – めぐる恋の季節 (Meguru Koi no Kisetsu, The Season of Returning Love)

Dance shot version of the same song: here (Love the dresses!)
Translation: here

皆、頑張れ！