Nana

Nana Komatsu Nana

I’d like to do a plug for Nana, an anime that has been around for a while, and is now in licensing limbo, in that it has been licensed in the US by Viz Media, but no release date is set. The Nana manga is by Ai Yazawa, who also wrote Gokinjo Monogatari and Paradise Kiss. All three manga feature young adult characters in the world of art school and fashion, and in the case of Nana, rock music. In each, the story concentrates on the love lives of the characters and their “adult relationships”.

The first episode of Nana has ditzy Komatsu Nana meeting punk Osaki Nana on an express train to Tokyo. Komatsu Nana meets her boyfriend, and sleeps with him at his flat, but is shocked when he makes it clear that he has no intention of letting her live with him. While flat-hunting, Komatsu Nana meets Osaki Nana again, and to save money they agree to share a flat in an old building. The opening credit music is Osaki Nana performing with her band.

All this turns out to be just a trailer for the rest of the anime. The next several episodes are flashbacks which show where these two girls came from, and by episode six or so we catch up with them at their shared flat. We also meet the other members of the two bands, Blast and Trapnest, and a few other minor Tokyo characters.

Some months ago I had watched only the first episode and while I liked it, I didn’t realise what a fascinating anime this was. There are a lot of interesting characters who do interesting things, and an insight into their world of bars, gigs, art school and music gigs. In short, a refreshing and welcome change from the production line of anime with school-student characters. Though they become friends, the two Nanas are very different. Komatsu Nana (“Hatchi”) doesn’t know what to do with herself and seems unable to manage without a boyfriend, while streetwise Osaki Nana is fixed on the goal of making a success of her band Blast.

2 thoughts on “Nana”

  1. I think the fascination comes from the fact that it takes a lot of the emotional drama that a soap opera or other shoujo manga provides, with similar situations (affairs, meaningless sex, fated meetings, angst) and makes them feel fresh again by letting the characters interact in a way that feels more natural and the situations less contrived than the usual shoujo material out there.

    Yes, each of the characters has a flaw, and often a tragic one… but they’re not defined strictly by them, nor are their situations purely ‘up’ or ‘down’ in terms of consequences and acts, which in turn keeps it from feeling stale… but that’s just my opinion. You may want to poll Itsumo of Itsumo’s Anime Blog for her opinions, among other bloggers.

  2. NANA is great, but I haven’t watched much shoujo to really compare it to anything else. I do like the character development and the story, although it didn’t turn out like I had planned.

    Luckily, there’s a second season planned when the manga finishes.

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