Shinichi Chiaki is a fourth-year student at Momo no Hills Music University, and the man of the hour. He is known as "Chiaki-sama" because of his musical background, but there are those who don't like him and think he's just a fop who relies on his father. However, no one can deny Shuichi's musical talent, as he is already a top-notch violinist and pianist, and has a better understanding of music than the rest of the world, being able to tell if someone's music is okay just by listening to a little bit of it. Though Shinichi was recently
practicing to prepare for the piano auditions, he wasn't really keen on it, as his true ambition was to be a conductor.
Manichi, who has been attending concerts all over the world since he was a child thanks to his father, not only fell in love with music, but also admired the conductors on stage, and wanted to be a conductor when he grew up. By chance, Shinichi is recognized by a famous conductor in Vienna, who accepts him as his pupil, and the two of them agree that Shinichi will study with him when he grows up. Unfortunately, ten years later, Shinichi's parents divorced and his father returned to Japan, where he was involved in a plane crash and developed a strong phobia of airplanes, which led to Shinichi never daring to fly again, and his dream of studying abroad was also dashed.
Manichi is scolded by his teacher, Kozo Eto, for deserting during practice, and the unrepentant Manichi verbally confronts him, so Eto decides to stop coaching him. When Shinichi is about to leave the school, he hears a girl playing the piano, which is very spontaneous but not at all wrong. Just as Shinichi climbs up the stairs and is about to knock on the door to get to know each other, Shinichi's ex-girlfriend, the queen of the vocal department, Togatani Saeko, runs up to him.
That night, a drunken Shinichi says a lot of demoralizing things, angering Chaiko at his side, who leaves with a comment that she is most uncomfortable with demoralizing people.
Morning Shinichi woke up in a messy room, and incredibly, along with the mess, was the sound of a piano so beautiful that even his high-mindedness was convinced. Only when the other turned his face, the scruffy look made Shuichi fled in shock, out of the door he realized that the other lived next door to him, but it was a far cry from Shuichi's tidy room.
The school gave Shinichi a new tutor, Hiromu Okadani, who also tutors Megumi Noda, known as Nodame, and Okadani suggested that the two of them collaborate on a piece of music on two pianos.
Meanwhile, the A Orchestra, a spontaneous group of the best students from each department at Momoyogaoka University of Music, has been practicing for their regular recitals. They are represented by Kiyora Miki, who has returned from studying at Viana National University of Music.
On this day, for the first time, Nodame is approached by an eccentric man who speaks with a foreign accent, but he is actually the world-renowned conductor Franz von Stresemann.
Episode 2
Franz von Stresemann, who has been invited to Momoyogaoka University of Music to give a special lecture, is a world-renowned conductor who has been recognized as one of the world's leading conductors. Franz von Stresemann, a world-renowned conductor, is surprised that he has asked Megumi Noda, known for her unkempt appearance, to be the live signboard of the orchestra he initiated.
The orchestra, named SOK, includes Ryutaro on violin, Masumi on timpani in the orchestra department, and Sakura on double bass. Only they all failed miserably in their Waterloo on the A orchestra's side, except for Masumi.
On the other hand, Shinichi, who has been studying piano for four years at Momoyogaoka University of Music, has decided to apply for a transfer to the conducting department. Although Shinichi has never been able to go abroad to study conducting because of his fear of airplanes, Franz's visit to the school is a great opportunity for him, but Franz, who learns of this, opposes it because he hates Shinichi, and takes the SOK members he has elected out to join in the food and bonding.
But Ryutaro refuses to go to the party because he has to practice with his bandmates for a school memorial event. Not only that, but next week Ryutaro has to take a makeup exam for violin, and if he fails it again he will have to repeat the grade. Ryutaro asks Shinichi to accompany him on the piano, but not only is he rejected and humiliated, he decides to give up Western classical music for the supplementary exam and plays in the rock department. By chance, Ryutaro meets Nodame, who is also impressed by her piano, and asks Nodame to accompany him in the makeup exam.
To her surprise, Nodame's accompaniment of Ryutaro in the practice room was in perfect harmony with the sound of Ryutaro's violin, despite the fact that Nodame has always been an unorthodox player.
After the practice, as a token of his appreciation, Ryutaro treats Nodame to a meal at a Chinese restaurant near the school called "Riken", which is actually run by Ryutaro's father, Ryumi, and Nodame takes away a portion of the meal to give to her neighbor, Shinichi. When she returned home, she was witnessed by Chaiko entering Shinichi's room.
Masumi, who learned of the incident from Saiko, is devastated by her loss and believes that Nodame, who is Shinichi's new lover, is responsible for it, so she goes around slandering Nodame, sending her letters that she thinks will bring her misfortune, and other childish behaviors such as this.
Nodame was furious, so she asked Ryutaro to help her find the culprit, and they suspected that it was Masumi, who had always had romantic feelings for Shinichi, but only dared to look at her from a distance because she was of the same sex, and was even ordered by Shinichi not to come near her, who was the one who was responsible.
Masumi, who was caught, confessed to her behavior and declared war on Nodame, saying that whoever dates Shinichi first will be the winner.
Episode 3
Nodame tells Shinichi that he is needed as the conductor of the S Orchestra, a symphonic orchestra formed by Franz von Stresemann, a globally-renowned conductor who has come to teach at Momo no Hills, and who has been handpicked by the students. Originally, Franz didn't notice the scruffy-looking Nodame, but he actually tries to force a kiss on Nodame on his first day at the school, and is met with a full-on punch.
But Franz isn't dead set on getting a kiss from Nodame, and actually tells Nodame that he'll change his mind about letting Shinichi switch from the piano department to the conductor's department if she lets him have a kiss.
In order to test Shinichi's conducting skills, Franz deliberately chose Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 for the S Orchestra for Shinichi to conduct. What he did not expect was that the piece would not be difficult for Shinichi, as he had practiced the piece diligently under the influence of Vera, the conductor he admired most.
The day Shinichi finally stepped up to the podium and began practicing with the S Orchestra. However, the performance did not go smoothly. First of all, Ryutaro, who was in charge of the violin, played in a messy way and always made mistakes, then Tamaki's clarinet kept making strange noises, Kanai, who was playing the horn, often broke off in the middle of the session for no apparent reason, and so on, all kinds of strange situations came up. Hashimoto was so upset by Shinichi's high-handed attitude that he deliberately played in a haphazard manner, and when he noticed this, Shinichi stopped playing.
At this point, Franz finally appeared and pushed Shinichi away from him to take the podium, expressing his concern for the health of the members and the condition of the instruments, and then started to conduct the performance in the same way as Shinichi, and this time, the S Orchestra played in perfect harmony.
Manichi applied for a transfer to another department because of his admiration for Franz, but Franz didn't agree with him and told him that he could not transfer but he would still take him as a student and teach him how to conduct, and ordered him to continue practicing the piano.
On that day, Franz told the members of the S orchestra that they would be attending the regular performance in two weeks. He even appointed Shinichi as the assistant conductor of the S Orchestra and ordered Shinichi to practice with the group while he ran out to play.
Manichi, who has an important mission, finally starts practicing, but Sakura, who is in charge of the bass cello, is late for practice. In fact, she has to work part-time due to her father's company, so she can't come to practice all the time, and is blamed for this by Iwai, who is in charge of the bass cello as well as her.
That night, Sakura couldn't help but cry by the side of the road, but Nodame saw her and took Sakura back to her room.
In Nodame's room, Sakura cried about how she couldn't come to practice every day because of her part-time job, but to her surprise, Shinichi accused her of dropping out of school if she didn't even have time to practice in order to earn money for her tuition, pointing out that if she had so much time to cry out there, she might as well be practicing hard, which ended up making Sakura very upset because of Shinichi's words.
Nodame ran into Sakura at her part-time job store and told her that she knew what Shuichi had said was right and that she hated herself, and that she thought the S-band would be better off without her, but Nodame realized she didn't know how to comfort Sakura.
When Nodame returned to her apartment, she couldn't help but go to Shinichi and questioned why he was treating Sakura so coldly, accusing him of not knowing what poverty is and that he doesn't know anything about real music.
Episode 4
Nodame is thrilled when Shinichi is finally promoted from assistant conductor of the S Orchestra to full conductor. On the other hand, Franz, the founder of the S Orchestra, often goes to a custom store to play, but the girls there take Shinichi as their dream girl, which makes Franz so angry that he actually quits the S Orchestra.
On the other hand, A-band, a group of outstanding students led by Kiyori, who has returned from Vienna, declares that they want to compete with Shinichi. Unfortunately, Shinichi has no interest in winning or losing between the S-band and the A-band, and is only determined to make the most of this great opportunity.
Ryutaro and the others, on the other hand, are determined to take on the A-band, and have even ordered S-band uniforms to wear every day as they practice together. But Ryutaro took it upon himself to play rock music with his violin team, and was scolded by Shinichi, who told them that he would bring out the sheet music for the performance on Monday.
In the meantime the S Orchestra has become a topic of conversation among the lecturers, and Edo suggests that since Franz has left, they should simply disband the S Orchestra. However, Tanioka said he would love to see Shinichi conduct, and the result of the teachers' discussion was that the S Orchestra would be disbanded if it lost to the A Orchestra at the recital.
The time of the recital is getting closer and closer, and in order to publicize the recital, posters of the recital have been put up everywhere, with not only Franz's picture but also Shinichi's. Seeing the posters, Shinichi has his first sense of crisis, and he realizes the seriousness of the matter when he is provoked by Kato. The bad news doesn't stop there, because of the poster, a lot of people in the S-band are unhappy with Shuichi, and Okochi is very happy to learn about this, because he actually hates Shuichi for joining the S-band.
Ryutaro, who is in charge of producing the S Orchestra's concerts, is worried that he doesn't know what to do. Kiyoru, who has learned about the situation, gives Ryutaro an idea, saying that it is the conductor's job to point out the conductor's faults. Ryutaro then shouted in front of the members of the S Orchestra that he hoped everyone would work to get closer to the music Shinichi wanted to show.
Finally, Shinichi handed out the sheet music to everyone, but everyone in the S Orchestra was so focused on trying to read the sheet music that no one even bothered to look at Shinichi's conducting. Noticing this, Shinichi fainted on stage.
After returning to his room to rest, Shinichi took a shower and began to reflect on the day's events. Suddenly, he heard the sound of a piano in his room, and it turned out to be Nodame practicing Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, which had been performed by the S Orchestra. Although she did not play the piece according to the sheet music, her innocent and free-spirited personality was clearly shown. So Shinichi pulled Nodame into the S orchestra.
On the day of the performance, the large concert hall in Momoyogaoka was full of listeners, and everyone in the S Orchestra was so nervous that they didn't even go home the day before to practice.
When Shinichi conducted the S Orchestra in Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, the free-flowing performance instantly captured the hearts of the audience, and even the teachers sitting in the auditorium were shocked.
After the performance, the S Orchestra not only received a round of applause from the audience, but Ryumi also announced the great news that the S Orchestra could continue to exist.
Episode 5
A week has passed since Shinichi's debut as a conductor and the S Orchestra's first performance. Nodame casually enters and leaves Chiaki's room every day without his permission.
Meanwhile, Momoyogaoka University of Music was preparing for the annual school festival in earnest. Due to the great success of the S-band at their regular recitals
Ryutaro called the other members together and proposed that we all have a drag recital at the school festival. It was instantly approved by Nodame and Masumi.
One night, Makoto suddenly became very concerned about why exactly Franz was coming to Japan and googled it. It was discovered that he had lost track of him after his London performance last month, and that officials were currently trying to look around for him.
So Shinichi decides to seek the truth of the matter from Franz himself, when a woman named Alyssa shows up, claiming to be Franz's secretary and manager. She drives through the school in order to catch Franz, and since Franz has a picture of Minako, the chairman of the board of trustees of Momochioka University of Music, when she was young, Alyssa chases her all the way to Japan.
That night, Nodame and Ryutaro kept comforting Shinichi, who was depressed because he lost sight of Franz, when Franz, who was originally forcibly repatriated to Germany, suddenly appeared and handed Shinichi a sheet of music. This is the famous Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2, a very difficult piece to play in the piano field, and Franz orders Shinichi to play it for the A Orchestra at the Gakuen Festival.
Afterwards, the members of the S Orchestra gather to discuss Shinichi and the A Orchestra, accusing Ryutaro and Shinichi of betraying the S Orchestra, and so the crowd, determined to defeat the A Orchestra no matter what, also prepares to crossdress and begins practicing.
By chance, Shuichi learns that the song Franz has chosen is actually Minako's favorite. Shinichi believes that Franz chose the track to please Minako, and just when he is outraged, Alisa shows up and tells Shinichi about Franz and Minako's past.
It turns out that when he was a student, Franz studied piano and was a man of little determination and enthusiasm. He then met Minako, who was known as the university's Madonna, and in order to pursue the unattainable Minako, Franz began to specialize in conducting. Unfortunately, Minako took a break from her studies to return to Japan due to illness, but she and Franz have remained good friends ever since.
Alisa also told Shinichi that the reason Franz was willing to mentor him was because Minako didn't want Shinichi's talent to be buried, so she asked Franz to teach Shinichi how to conduct. Learning of this passage, Shinichi finally started practicing playing that piece.
Meanwhile, Nodame was working hard to prepare the costumes and set up the stage for the performance, when a lot of people called the school to ask questions about the school festival, and many inquired about how Shinichi would be appearing on stage then. It turned out that a magazine had reported on the A-band's regular public performances.
On the day of the festival, the members of the S-band came out in Japanese kimonos and played Rhapsody in Blue, and the S-band received a standing ovation for their performance.
Next up was the performance of Shinichi and the A Orchestra. Shinichi, dressed in a suit, stepped onto the stage and played the Piano Concerto No. 2 perfectly, and everyone on stage was instantly overwhelmed by his perfect technique. After the piece was finished, Zenichi stood up and spoke about his pursuit, passion and belief in conducting, receiving thunderous applause from the audience.
Episode 6
Recently, Nodame has been concentrating on her piano practice because she was stunned by Shinichi, who played the Piano Concerto No. 2 in the A Orchestra, under the baton of Franz, at the Gakuen Festival.
Meanwhile, Shinichi wakes up on the bed in Franz's room, where there is no sign of Franz, but Shinichi is surprisingly lying between two customs ladies. Previously, he had been taken by Franz on a three-day and three-night continuous tour of Ginza, Kyoto and hot springs, and had been made to feel exhausted, when Franz's secretary, Alisa, came running to tell Shinichi that Franz was planning to go back to Germany.
On the other hand, a group of S-band members, including Ryutaro and Masumi, are still basking in the aftermath of the school festival. The members who are already seniors have not found a way out after graduation so far, and no one from the S-band has gotten an inside track so far. Ryuutaro says that everyone should keep the S-band alive while they continue to look for jobs. While Sakura was also in favor of this this proposal, however, the other members calmly turned back to trying to find jobs after a moment of enthusiastic response.
At this point, Shinichi was approached by Kageko, a reporter for Classical Music-Life, a magazine specializing in classical music, who introduced him to music critic Sakuma. Sakuma heard Shinichi play at the Gakuen Festival and became a big fan of his music and planned to serialize a story about him in the magazine, and he and Kageko even expressed their desire to enjoy Shinichi's conducting next time. He and Keiko even say that they would like to see Shinichi conduct next time. They also say that they are looking forward to Shinichi studying abroad because they do not know that he has a phobia of airplanes. This gesture caused Shinichi's disgust, thinking that they had made up their own minds to say this and that without knowing anything about themselves, and left with a hard look on his face.
After returning home, Shinichi finds his former girlfriend, Chae-chan, waiting at the door. Currently enrolled in the vocal department, Chaiko has lost her confidence because she lost to Shaya in the violin performance. Unfortunately, instead of sympathizing with her, Shinichi made a snide remark, which made Chaiko throw down her purchases and leave.
Going back to his room, this time, Shinichi ran into Nodame, who was in his room, practicing hard on playing the piano in order to play the Piano Concerto No. 2 with Shinichi. So Shinichi takes Nodame to the school's practice room and decides to take on the role of Nodame's piano partner, and the two of them play together.
Makiko Rennae, who heard the performance from outside the door, was shocked by the perfection of the performance, even Eto was shocked and lost her words, and Saiko couldn't take it anymore and ran away screaming that she had had enough.
After the performance, Nodame fell asleep from exhaustion, and Shinichi was at a loss for words.
The next day, Shinichi gave Nodame her favorite sheet music and CDs, but Nodame said that she was satisfied that she had played with Shinichi. On the other hand, the S-band members have finally found their way. However, Ryutaro is not happy about this, he wants the S-band to continue to exist, but Shinichi tells him that this is unrealistic.
Manichi decides to take Nodame and Kiyora with him to form an orchestra of his own, and when he learns of this, Ryutaro wants to join, so Manichi asks him to join Orchestra A as a test.
At the party commemorating the disbandment of the S-band, many people apply to join Shinichi's new band, only to be rejected. Shinichi says he doesn't want the new band to be a continuation of the S-band.
Episode 7
The original candidate to be Nodame's dedicated instructor changes from Tanioka to Kato. Eto heard Nodame and Chiaki playing piano together by chance and volunteered to be Nodame's instructor. Unfortunately, Eto's high-handed attitude is resented by Nodame, who angrily snatches the whip he's waving in his hand and dashes out of the practice room, and runs to her former teacher Tanioka for help, but Tanioka can't do anything about it.
On the other hand, Shinichi takes Kiyora's advice and takes the members of his new band out for a drink. This new band is a collection of high achievers who have returned from studying abroad or other universities. On the Momochi side, besides Shinichi and Kiyora, only Ryutaro, Masumi and Sakura were selected. After three days of drinking, Shinichi proposed that the new orchestra play Mozart's Concerto in a Long Key.
Ryutaro tells Shinichi that Nodame has been acting a bit strange lately. Ryutaro's father, Ryu, is worried when he sees Nodame not eating her meals, although Shinichi finds it hard to worry, but is pulled away from the orchestra.
On this day Shinichi called all the members of the new orchestra and gathered at Momoyogaoka Sound University to practice. It was the first time the orchestra had ever played together, but it was surprisingly harmonious, with Kuroki, who possessed great skill and delicate expression, mesmerizing everyone.
After the practice, Shinichi and the others went together to Ryumi's Riken, where Saeko suddenly appeared, having booked the recital hall for Shinichi and the others, a small, unheard-of orchestra that was actually playing in a superb recital hall. Music critic Sakuma volunteers to publicize the performance for Shinichi and the others. Ryumi also contributes money to buy a whole page of Classical Music-Life as an advertising page. However, together with his son Ryutaro, he named the new band "R☆S Orchestra" in a haphazard manner.
After returning to his room, Shinichi saw that Nodame had eaten all the food Ryumi had prepared for him, and suddenly felt relieved.
The next day, the R☆S band started practicing at Momoyogaoka University of Music, and Nodame came in as if she was Shinichi's girlfriend, but Shinichi kicked her out, and Kuroki was attracted to Nodame. On the other hand, Ryutaro sees Kiyora practicing and realizes that Kiyora plays the violin very well, so he wants to join her. With that, the various messy commotions end, and the official R☆S practice finally begins. With Kuroki's head full of Nodame and Kiyora's shyness to start playing, what was originally a silver-colored impression turned into an appealing pink color.
Manichi, who learns that Eto has become Nodame's instructor, meets with Tanioka at a cafe. Coincidentally, they see Nodame running outside the window to escape Eto's clutches. Tanioka realizes that Nodame has changed a lot lately and tells Shinichi about it.
Manichi, who comes home and sees Nodame, accuses her of not skipping class, only to be rebuffed by Nodame, stating that she could pursue a career as a kindergarten teacher, which Manichi accuses her of not being able to do at all.
By chance, Nodame overhears a conversation between Shinichi and Chaiko, and learns that Shinichi has a serious phobia of airplanes, which prevents him from leaving the country. Shinichi's only goal is to make R☆S famous. In order to learn how to conduct, he borrowed Franz's latest CD from Sakuma, and was shocked at how well it was done.
Episode 8
Recently, everyone in the R☆S Orchestra has been busy with their respective promotions taking time off from work, so Shinichi has had to suspend the orchestra's activities for the time being. To Kiyora and the others, R☆S is nothing more than a time-limited toy, and although Shinichi understands their thoughts, he still can't help but feel psychologically sad. However, Shinichi is still convinced that R☆S is not a waste of time, and is still working hard to learn how to conduct with confidence.
With Nodame's help, Eto created the "Butt Gymnastics", which was to be danced with the kindergarteners. Eto gave Nodame a large amount of sheet music and assigned her to participate in the Maradona Piano Competition.
Kuroki, a member of R☆S, falls in love with Nodame at first sight and decides to give her a gift. In front of Kuroki, Masumi rants and raves about Nodame's strange behavior, claiming that Nodame is not the innocent, pathetic girl Kuroki believes her to be, but Kuroki simply refuses to believe her.
When Nodame learns that Shinichi has been neglecting his sleep and food in order to study command, she decides to cook for him and goes to the supermarket to buy groceries. Kuroki is shocked to learn that Nodame likes Shinichi.
On the day of the test, Kuroki, who was waiting for his number, was so preoccupied with Nodame that he didn't even realize that his musical instrument was submerged in water. He was in a panic and tried to find a replacement, but it was his turn soon.
Due to her lack of sleep, Kiyora did not do well in this test, and her instructor was greatly disappointed by this.
Manichi was taken aback when he read a message on the internet pointing out that Kikuchi and Katayama both managed to get good rankings, but Kiyora and Kuroki both failed.
That night, Kiyora and Ryutaro went to a hotel, where Kiyora was greatly chagrined that she had failed the test and resolved to treat R☆S's performance well, while on the other side of the room, Kuroki had the same thoughts as her.
R☆S finally started practicing again, and all the members were surprised by Shinichi's strict attitude, and they secretly called him "Oni Chiaki" behind his back.
Sakuma and Keiko also helped out with R☆S's concert, with Sakuma selling 100 tickets in no time, Keiko promoting R☆S in magazines, and even Ryumi putting up R☆S posters in Satsuen.
That night Shinichi returned home and once again dreamed of the tragic airplane crash when he was a child. As Shinichi was sweating profusely, thankfully Nodame shook him awake. Shinichi tells Nodame about his childhood plane crash and how he developed a phobia of airplanes, and how he has tried many ways to overcome this phobia, but to no avail.
Nodame took out the pocket watch that Franz gave her and shook it in front of Shinichi, who immediately fell asleep, and Nodame rushed to the bookstore to check out books on hypnosis.
The day before the performance, Shuichi took a ticket to Nodame and said he wanted Nodame to come and listen to Shuichi's music.
On the day of the concert, there were not only regular listeners, but also many professional orchestra connections and music critics. The concert was, of course, a huge success, and Shinichi, back home, continued his hypnotherapy sessions with Nodame.
Episode 9
Manichi, who has successfully overcome his fear of airplanes through Nodame's hypnosis, invites Ryutaro to join him on a flight to Hokkaido.
The R☆S band's first public performance is a huge success and creates a lot of buzz among the media. Masumi starts to think about his next performance and tries to get in touch with the rest of the band members, who are all still in a state of euphoria from their first success.
Manichiro, who was on a plane in Hokkaido looking up at the blue sky, felt confident about going abroad to study for the first time. Ryutaro told Shinichi that he hoped R☆S would perform again, which made Shinichi, who had been concentrating on R☆S activities because he couldn't study abroad, feel very complicated.
Nodame has recently stayed at Kato's house for special piano training, and she hopes to win the Maradona Piano Competition and use the prize money to pursue Shinichi.
Manichi, who returned to Tokyo with a lot of Hokkaido's specialty crabs, learns that Nodame is undergoing special training and runs to Eto's house to check on Nodame, and realizes that she is really practicing the piano seriously, so he is relieved to let Nodame stay at Kato's house.
And Nodame, who was concentrating on practicing, decided to play Schubert's Piano Sonata No. 16, which is very difficult, in order to stand out in the promotion competition.
On the other hand, R☆S has decided to perform at Suntory Plaza on Christmas Day, and Shinichi is very busy with this. Meanwhile, reporter Kyung-ja runs to tell Shinichi that she saw Franz appearing at the hotel.
Franz, who has now become a mentor to Shinichi, learns that Shinichi has completely overcome his fear of airplanes and asks him to go to Europe with him. He hoped that he could prepare in advance for the conductor's competition in Vienna next year, however, at this time, Shinichi was so full of R☆S's second performance this time that he could not agree to his teacher's request.
Episode 10
In order to get the prize money to be used for chasing after Shinichi to study in Europe together, Nodame is determined to become the winner of this year's Maradona Piano Competition, and it turns out that through a lot of hard work, Nodame manages to pass both the preliminary and the final rounds, and gets the right to appear in the official selection.
On the other hand, Shinichi is going all out for R☆S's Christmas recital and is determined to go to Europe to study after this recital, but he hasn't told the other members of the orchestra about this decision yet.
Meanwhile, Masumi has passed the written test for the professional orchestra and is about to face the practical skills test and final interview. As it has always been his dream to join a professional band, Masazumi has decided that even if he succeeds, he will have to take care of R☆S's activities as well.
Kiyora, who has been informed of this, has also made some plans, but in fact she has already decided to return to Vienna in the spring, and has told Ryutaro about this.
At this time, a violinist named Takahashi appeared in front of Shinichi and expressed his wish to join the R☆S orchestra. Takahashi, a third place winner at the Buffon International Violin Competition last year, had just returned from his studies in Paris, France last month, and said that he was better suited to the orchestra than Kiyora, and even played a piece in front of Shinichi and the others, and indeed, as he himself had said, his playing was impeccable. Ryutaro then welcomed Takahashi to the orchestra and told Kiyora that she could return to Vienna without confusion.
Nodame, who continues to practice at Eto's house, has already mastered Schubert's pieces without realizing it, much to Eto's shock. However, Nodame then collapsed with a high fever, caused by the strain of practicing the piano day and night.
On the day of Nodame's final selection for the competition, Shinichi and the others went to cheer Nodame on, and were shocked by the beautiful sound she produced on stage.
Episode 11
Nodame fails to win the Maradona Piano Competition despite her best efforts and returns to her hometown in Fukuoka Prefecture, devastated. Her parents are overjoyed to have their daughter home after two years, but the Nodame family is now destitute because their son, Yoshitaka, refuses to work and attends an expensive music college. Nodame decides to save the family and never touch the piano again.
That night, Shinichi and Ryutaro attended a reception at R☆S, and not only did Kiyora and Kuroki join the party, but also Takahashi, who was new to the group. During the party, Shinichi took the opportunity to announce the name of the new conductor. The members were happy to have a newcomer, and Shinichi saw this with a mixture of relief and loneliness at the same time.
A few days later, Shinichi finally found out from Ryumi that Nodame had gone back to her hometown, and that Nodame had left a message saying that she wanted Ryumi to deliver a Christmas cake to Shinichi on her behalf, and Shinichi, who had finally realized his true feelings for Nodame, rushed to Nodame's house.
Mr. Noda, who has been in Nodame's hometown for a long time, was so excited that he hugged Nodame from behind and invited her to go to Europe with him. Shinichi's appearance caused a big commotion in Nodame's house. Although they were shocked that Nodame was going to study abroad, they were more excited that Nodame actually had a boyfriend. So with the support of everyone, Shinichi dragged Nodame back to Tokyo the next day.
On Christmas Day, Shinichi had his last command, which for him was also his last student experience in Japan. Thinking back to his encounters with Nodame, Ryutaro and others, he couldn't help but burst into tears. At that moment, not only Shinichi, but also Nodame on the stage, and the members on the stage were in an emotional state. The performance thus ended in the raging passionate playing of the crowd, and after a quiet moment, the venue resounded with thunderous applause and cheers.