THIS is as close a manga adaptation as you will ever see in real life dramas. So, you have to realize, that this tops the goofyness and weirdness of many J-dramas by quite a bit. I have never read the manga-version, but you can literally see in each scene the angle and direction of comedy manga-drawins, it is SO MUCH over the top. Naturally, this is a very light-hearted drama, although it touches here and there some serious intentions of the characters. The female lead Nodame is this quirky, non-ambitious, a little bit crazy and childish girl, who in fact, is as good a musician as it gets - and this was plotwise the most interesting part for me, seeing her try (for some time at least). The protagonist Chiaki is the typical high-quality musician, who suffers from PTSD and dares not to board a plane or ship to go abroad for studying. One day Franz Stresemann (oh my God, the Japanese version of this German or Austrian dude, is just....lol), a widely known conductor (and pervert), comes to the school and shakes everything a bit up and Chiaki never gets rid of Nodame again... There is SOME sort of love story, but not really what you are used to, so don't expect too much in this aspect. The best part for me was to see the ambitions of most of the orchestra members rise and them trying to reach their goals, whilst listening to some fine music. If you're looking for some really goofy entertainment right straight out of a manga, then you should give this a try. (If you want to see the more realistic and longer version, then go to Korea's version - Tomorrow's Cantabile, which I found to be just as entertaining in its own way.) PS: The thing I loved most about this drama... was hands down the fart-song and how Harisen danced to it. It was DIVINE :D