Nana

Edit

What would you like to edit?

SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links  

NANA is definitely one of the best mangas that I've ever read. There's something about it that makes it very different from other ones, so I personally think it's a must-read. Anyways, my review may contain some spoilers, but I'll try my best not to reveal too much.

Story- 10
The first thing that comes to mind when I think of NANA is how incredibly realistic it is compared to many other mangas. It starts out very normal like any other shoujo/josei manga; introducing the two main characters who both happen to have the name Nana. It pretty much follows the life of these two girls as ... they meet on a train to Tokyo, and then later decide to share an apartment. It may sound a bit dull and boring, but the story always draws you in and makes you wonder what would happen next. Personally what I think is best about the story is the realistic aspect of it, since I've always loved serious and realistic mangas/animes. After reading so many silly mangas with unrealistic story plots, I found it very refreshing to read something completely different. In fact, it's so realistic to the point that I find myself wishing that it wouldn't be so realistic, since NANA definitely isn't your happily ever after story.

Art- 7
Well, I hate to say this but the art of NANA isn't the best. It's not that the mangaka is a bad artist or anything, but the style of NANA just doesn't appeal to me very much. I also don't really like how some of the backgrounds seem as if they are a completely different style of art. Sometimes it looks as if the characters are standing in front of some wallpaper rather than in the actual place so that kinda bothers me. On the other hand, I love how much detail the mangaka puts in the characters and their clothes.

Character- 10
I'm not giving this section a 10 because I think all the characters are perfect and love them all to death, but rather because there is at least one thing I don't like about almost all the characters. That may sound weird, but the reason why I like it is because of how realistic it makes them and how it makes you able to relate to them very easily. I can easily imagine all the characters being real people, and almost all of them are very well developed. Another thing I like about the manga NANA is how the mangaka isn't afraid to put in traits like selfishness and possessiveness and have the characters realize those traits in themselves. I don't think I've ever read another manga that had that, so I was pretty impressed when I first read those parts.

Enjoyment- 9
I really don't have much to say here...all I have to say is that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this.

Overall- 9
Okay, I'll just be repeating myself here if I say how much I enjoyed it, so I'll just add a few things here that I didn't put up here. So another thing I like about NANA is how it makes you think a bit about life in general. The things that the characters say sometimes made me realize some stuff, and now because of NANA I think I can understand people a bit better. :3

Recommendation-
I recommend this manga to people who like realistic plots that have a bit of humor in it. But if you're someone that likes fairy tail plots, happily ever afters, perfect princes/princesses, or couples that have no problems then this definitely isn't the manga for you. And it's also for an older audience so please don't read it if you're really young. o3o

Do you think including sex in a story makes the story mature and for mature audience? Then might enjoy this manga, as that is exactly the target audience of this smut.

The only reason why I kept reading this manga is to try to discover why everyone seems to like this series. I regret to inform you I have failed in this task. For a manga that claims to be about romance and friendship, it surely doesn't have much of either of those. Sure, there are relationships, but actual displays of romance or friendships are scarce. Mostly it's just conflicts, harlotry and playboys - who slept ... with who, who got cheated on, break ups, new relationships... honestly if that's enough content for you, just ask the nearest teenage girl in your vicinity to tell you the latest gossip and you'll get exactly that. The problem with Nana is that all of it feels empty. We're supposed to feel like there are some feelings between those characters, but it lacks displays of actual affections, like it’s something that only happens off-screen and we only get to see the aftermath of unhealthy relationship. The reader constantly gets spammed by this youthful imprudence that only makes me want to shout "Just grow the fuck up already" at the pages.

The characters are unsympathetic and uninteresting. Trendy designs are the only thing they can offer, and even that is already outdated. Same as I don't need a manga to tell me that water is drinkable, I also don't need a manga to tell me that teenagers tend to not be exactly the best at making life decisions. Especially one that doesn't look like it has any conclusion or interesting overall meaning in mind and yet takes up so much volumes. Sure, some of the characters get their sob story and background info, but that still doesn't change that their present version is just not interesting. Reading Nana just feels like reading a generic chick lit. Well, now that I think about it, it is actually a chick lit, so it's nothing not something that should have surprised me.

There is one good thing about this manga though, and that is the art. Even as someone who generally doesn't enjoy the shoujo style of illustrations I liked it, and while it didn't make the manga good as a whole, it certainly made reading it slightly better.

I feel like the target audience of Nana is mainly those at the age of protagonists and similar still with the mindset that spending their teen years indulging in sex and relationship drama while smoking cigarettes is so much cool and oh would it be so interesting if it were me. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone that wants something beyond a telenovela-tier content.

There is one very simple thing to ask when talking about Nana, where the hell did it all go wrong ?

Nana starts off wonderfully, a cast full of colorful and unique characters and intriguing plotlines and goals of those characters. The anime covers roughly half of the manga and up until the final few episodes of the anime Nana is a perfect series. However at one point everything just starts to go downhill. The downward shift is not much of a problem in the anime since it doesn't cover a lot of it and the events that occur are still acceptable. But when the anime ... is over and you have to jump onto the manga to see how the story progresses, thats when Nana really becomes a pile of steaming hot garbage.

Before getting to the major problems lets start by addressing the smaller ones. The series completely drifts away from music especially after the anime ends. The biggest reason I was so interested in this show was because of the music and being a band trying to become famous and seeing what band members live through in their personal life. The story does a wonderful job in the beginning when it comes to this. The characters that are related to the band part of the series are very interesting for the first half of the series. I especially love that the story is not afraid of underage drinking, smoking and sex. The reason for this is because it is more realistic, these activities are very common in high school (in my country they are at least) and university years especially so the story not being afraid to show them is a wonderful decision. Sadly however as I have said the story drifts away from music completely and just turns into a fuckfest where everyone stars to fall in love with everyone and a fuck ton of unnecessary drama and idiotic situations occur from this.

I am going to talk about the problems that come up with all the characters in a moment but firstly I must talk about Hachi. Hachi might be the single worst main character I have seen in any anime or manga. She starts off fine, being an airhead, energetic woman who has an unhealthy dependency on men and being romantically or sexually wanted by men. This is an interesting background in my opinion and the reader would expect Hachi to overcome this dependency and grow as a person but sadly this is not what happens. She becomes worse and worse when it comes to relationships with the opposite sex and hurts a lot of people some of which very close to her. I mean at leats thats what was supposed to happen but for some reason everything Hachi does in the story is forgiven or overlooked by everybody around her. She has zero character devolopment and turns into a horrible person but still everyone and I mean EVERYONE for some reason never get upset with her and treat her like she is the most precious most important person in the world. If we move on from this problem and return to Hachi's character she is basically a spoiled little child in a 20 year old's body. She is nowhere near likeable and becomes absolutely insufferable as the series progresses.

This might be an outrageous statement on my hand but through out the series I never once understood why anybody cared so much about Hachi. When you think about it this cast of characters who are supposed to know eachother since they were high school students for some reason all care more about Hachi then eachother for the most part. And Hachi isn't even with them for a long time, she is there for only a couple of months and after that she goes away due to the pregnancy situation.

The biggest problem with the series in general is how the characters change overtime. At some point everyone just loses all of their interesting characteristics and the only thing about them becomes the relationships with one another. And towards the final chapters the everyones characteristics start completely changing super suddenly and out of place that you don't even know what the hell is the reason for anything anymore. They become absolute polar opposites of themselves in an instant than turn back and change and change and change ALL THE FUCKING TIME. Everything turns into a shitshow drama festival.

Especially Nana (not Hachi) is effected the most from this problem. She becomes the single worst character in the story. She is always bouncing between dedicating her life to Hachi, dedicating her life to Ren and completely focusing on her career. And these bounces happen literrally chapters between eachother. But for the most part she is focused on Hachi and as I've said I never understood this. Why the hell is Hachi so important for everyone especially her. She is the worst of the bunch when it comes to the forgiving of Hachi about everything.

The series also introduces a bunch of side characters who do nothing but complicate things because a lot of characters look so damn similar due to the art style.

It is time to sum up this horribly written review where I basically emptied my pent up frustration to this series. Nana took up almost a whole week of my life with multiple nights of staying up until the morning to read of watch it and when it comes to the anime I cant say i regret it. The anime was very solid as I've said, one of my favorites, or to be honest was one of my favorites. The manga has completely outshined all the positive opinions I had had about the anime as well. I gave a score of 4 due to 40% of the series being a 9 and the other 60% being a 1 but trust me and do not read the manga at all. Just watch the anime and leave it at that. It is not worth the time and effort. And especially it is not worth learning the rest of the story since it is more of a fuckfest than a story in general.