Noda, Megumi

野田恵

Also known as Nodame, a portmanteau of her family name and the first mora of her given name. At the start of the series, Noda is a twenty-year-old, free-spirited second-year music student. She is portrayed as a complete slob: her cooking and cleaning skills are so atrocious that mushrooms grow on her clothes and anyone who dares to eat her food gets poisoned (though she herself has never been poisoned). However, she is an incredibly talented pianist who primarily plays by ear in a cantabile style. In love with Chiaki, she constantly follows him around, claiming to be his "wife," and relies on him to help her through sticky situations. She sometimes feels a compulsive need to play the piano, neglecting everything else to do so. Additionally, she seems to enjoy childish manga and movies. She is constantly hungry; Chiaki feeds her dinners, and she also steals many lunches from her fellow friend, Maki. Nodame has a tendency to speak cryptically (sometimes she doesn't even understand herself), often refers to herself in the third person, and uses nonsense words like mukya and gyabo.
Initially, Nodame is very dependent on Chiaki regarding ambition. Despite her remarkable talent, she has little intention of becoming a professional pianist and wants to become a kindergarten teacher, although many feel she is too reckless and lacks the appropriate sensibility to be responsible for teaching children. Her piano style is considered completely haphazard, diverging from the original intent in dynamics, rhythms, and even themes. Realizing that her current attitude towards music will eventually drive her apart from Chiaki, Nodame gradually develops the necessary drive to pursue music for her own sake. Her attitude towards music is largely due to a past incident where she was hurt by a teacher who demanded she play music "as it's written."
Nodame's character is based on a real-life counterpart with the same name.