Nana

While I've only watched up to episode 23 I've read up to chapter 36 in the manga and from there I gave up. I don't think I can properly review this anime as I haven't finished it but I feel that I need to say a little something.

Nana was really addicting at first, it seemed interesting and it was a mature story. I've also seen the anime and read the manga Paradise Kiss by the same author and it had a similar vibe. I thought I'd like it. I did like it at first, but then it started going down the wrong path. I don't ... have much to complain about with the art and sound, but as for the story and characters I have a lot I don't like about them.

I really hate the main character Nana Komatsu. At first I thought I'd be able to deal with her, as she had her nice moments, but I couldn't bring myself to watch an anime when I hated the main character so much. I am willing to accept a few slip ups, but her actions in the anime are just ridiculous.

I really liked the other characters too at first, but none of them were doing what I wanted them to do, none of them. Basically nothing was going good. Some people may enjoy drama but when it goes this far it is just boring and unbearable.

I finally couldn't take it anymore. Everything was going bad and I needed to know if something would eventually go right, and so I skipped ahead and spoiled myself. And what did I discover? That nothing got better and that it only got even more terrible and convoluted. How are any of the things that happen in this anime supposed to make the viewers happy? I at least expect some positive things to happen after all of the crap that goes down, but what do I get? More crap.

I am tired of watching entire romance anime filled with drama only to give the viewers a little bit of happiness at the last episode. (I don't even know if they give us at least that, from what I could tell from the spoilers I don't have much faith in any sort of happiness appearing.) Nana is full of drama and even if you tell me "it gets better" there is no way I am going to wade through all of this crap to get to the better parts. I'm just not that patient, I have better things to do with my time.

Remember, this review is from someone who did not finish the anime or the manga. I am just telling you what I can see from where I'm standing. Just know that this anime isn't going to be a fun ride if you don't like dealing with so much drama.

FIRST of all-- i dont often write reviews, and to be honest i tend to be picky so you may or may not agree with what i have to say. but im putting this out there as a WARNING for anyone else like me who read the reviews and came to an entirely different conclusion. This anime has an amazing story, crazy good character establishment, and the art and sound are of course up to par. WHY then did i give this such a poor score? because according to reviews, synopses, and even by genre this was supposed to be a perfect story. every perfect ... story has their tragedies, their tear-jerkers, and their heart wrenching scenes. but in the end, a perfect story leaves you with a warm fuzzy feeling. haha ok so i dont need it to be some shallow "the prince and princess live happily ever after" shit. but i expected to feel satisfied after heartbreak occurred over and over again. i wont ruin this review by adding a serious spoiler here but i want you to know that after several depressing episodes leading up to the finale, the "happy ending" was nowhere to be seen. for me, this was an anime that was the work of a genus. the one obstacle that killed this story for me was the one name i needed to see on the happy ending list; NOBUO.

Nana has probably got to be one of the heaviest and most depressing anime I've ever watched so far, it's a lot more straight forward with topics here and I like how the dialogue runs smoothly in each episode. Every voice actor did a perfect job.

- Spoilers for the next part of this review -





... Now what I don't like about this show is how Hachi is made to be an idiot here (sadly there are women who act like this irl). Right after the episode where she decided to keep the baby and stay with Takushit, I realized that this bitch wasn't ever going to leave this man regardless of how he treats her. One minute he acts all nice then the next minute when he gets angry, he puts her down and somehow Hachi doesn't see any red flags at all. I really wanted Hachi to get an abortion and find her own self-worth with actual character development instead of repeating the same cycles by acting like she is in love with these men.


What really concerns me is the number of high ratings this anime has, like how do you give such a crappy and rushed ending a 9 or 10. We don't even know if Nana and Ren got together in the end or if they're dead. After all of that past tense shit going on in every beginning and ending of each episode only to not have a good ending, we're supposed to be satisfied with it the way it is???

The first time i watched Nana was back in middle school. I couldn't finish it because I was crying so hard when she broke the news to Nobuo about [you know what]. It totally broke my heart into pieces. Now in my mid-twenties rewatching it (and still crying hard over it), it is such an amazing example of real-life relationships in anime. Some characters SUCK and are horrible people, but their actions always align with their own morality and judgement. Some characters are awesome but have fatal flaws that, if they were real, would make you grip them on the arms, shake them and scream, ... "What is wrong with you?!"-- But that's so rooted in reality and everyone you come across in life. There will always be directionless girls with low self-esteem who gaga over men while simultaneously not giving a damn about them like Hatchi. There will always be people who think their only worth lies in the one thing they're good at, and who have major abandonment issues like Nana. Sometimes the best characters can act like total fools and it could all be repaired if they would just talk it out, but they won't or can't. It can be frustrating to see multiple characters with good attributes act horribly or make the wrong decision, but again, I think this is the ultimate slice of life and while it's annoying af, it adds to the realism. Even cheaters, mixed up feelings of love when you're dating someone, and longing are well portrayed in this show.

Sure, the downtime can be a total drag, but that's also the appeal at the same time. It's such an incredible slice of life. You are witnessing the characters in what feels like real-time, and in a real way with everyone getting snippets of info slowly from everyone else about the latest gossip/news.
If you're feeling a little directionless in life and have a strong friendship (or multiple) that you're scared of seeing fade away, this show is for you. If you're a young girl/woman who is aimlessly living and hopping from guy to guy, this show is for you. If you love Vivienne Westwood (RIP my queen), love punk/rock and seeing how music industries work, this show is for you.
---
Be warned though, in the instance of cheating in this show, Ai Yazawa seems to think that the person cheated on should fight for / try to stay with the cheater. A stance that isn't really OK imo. It can be super frustrating to watch, but Yazawa fleshes out their mixed feelings better later on in the story and it brings some closure to that cruddy plotline. Also, the manga has never been finished and many believe it will never be resumed. Don't go in hoping for a happy ending.

This anime literally gave me a stroke. I know I can't stop you from watching it because of how acclaimed it is, but it genuinely enraged me to the point that I have to post a review.

Maybe Nana is a masterpiece and I am the one with no taste. But I had such a bad time that I am willing to be biased. This show is hot garbage. Why is every single character borderline insane? Why can't they go to therapy? Instead they torture themselves, each other, and innocent me. Is this a hidden public service media to educate youth on the importance of ... mental health? And I hate myself for being a masochist because I binged it in two days. I simply couldn't stop watching this train wreck.

To summarise, Nana is the story of two young women in Tokyo pursuing their career and love. They are clearly gay for each other but keep dating trash men for some bizarre reason. Apparently the manga is on hiatus and not all of the material is adapted into the 47-episode anime. Apparently in the manga things got even worse for the characters. Unbelievable.

Plot: 8/10
I have no idea what the author is smoking to come up with such insane plot lines.
Character: 7/10
Nana is well-written, she is cool, stubborn, independent, with many vulnerabilities that flesh out her character. Hachi and Layla are lovable but they need counselling. It is painful to watch these two suffer.
The men are trash... with some exceptions of course, but there is a particularly trash man who brings down the average.
Voice acting: 8/10
Enjoyment: 2/10

This anime gave me an identity crisis. I call myself a shoujosei fan but didn't like Nana? Scandalous.

*Note: Since both the main girls are named Nana, I will use the primary narrator's nickname Hachiko when referring to her for clarity's sake.

The first half of this was pretty interesting - it definitely felt like we were building up to a very touching GL story when watching Hachiko's various failures in dating men. There are allusions to it as well in her internal narrations ("Nana, if you and I were lovers, I wonder if things would have been different...") but overall, we spend most of our ... time watching Hachiko making the same mistakes over and over and getting increasingly frustrated with each new toxic man she falls in with and builds her entire identity around. I get this is probably supposed to allow for her to have an arc, but when I'm almost 30 episodes in and she still doesn't seem to have learned much, you have a pacing issue that just can't be reconciled. It's possible this problem is unique to the anime, as I understand it didn't complete the entire story told in the manga - I wouldn't know and I'm not sure I want to find out.

Nana as a character is a bit more complex and interesting with a clearer development arc. The way she tries to balance her tough persona with allowing herself to be loved and show tenderness was really compelling. However, this took a backseat to everything Hachiko thinks/feels about of a quarter of the way in. A more balanced view of both characters throughout the series would have been nice.

The animation style is pretty painfully 2000s - weird, long, disproportionate bodies for everyone, weirdly round eyes - the One Piece fan in me doesn't mind, but if that's something you personally care about, well, consider that a heads up.

If you don't usually like romances or are looking for one to get you into the genre, I would highly recommend starting somewhere else, as this is a lot to swallow.

The first OP, rose, is a banger though, and one of the few I never skip no matter how long of a binge session I've been on.

i don't EVER write reviews so this is serious business for me. ahem.

FUCK THIS CURSED ANIME, FUCK THE CHARACTERS, AND FUCK AI YAZAWA for her stupid misogynistic ideals.

not a single good thing happened on here. ai yazawa seems to think that complex characters have to be the scum of the earth just for them to be layered. THAT'S NOT THE SAME THING. a complex character isn't someone who just does awful shit constantly. complexity comes from motivations, contradictions, growth, and internal conflict. here it just feels like everyone is terrible and we're supposed to treat that as depth.

she also seems to think that cheating is ... normal? and that it's somehow a more complicated thing than it actually is?? the show keeps framing it like it's this deep, emotional gray area, but most of the time it's just people being selfish and hurting each other while the narrative just kind of shrugs at it.

i'm not one to point out culture in things that i watch, but this anime is FULL of cultural and societal influence and not in a good way. the relationships constantly push this weird dynamic where the men have the overall presence and the women are the ones who have to adjust themselves around that. we see it with shoji saying idiotic things like "i can't say i love you, japanese men don't do that" like that's supposed to excuse emotional immaturity. we see it with ren refusing to use protection because HE wants children, so nana o is the one who has to constantly be on the pill and deal with the consequences. somehow the burden always lands on the women while the men get to be "complicated." this is not me singling out japan as a whole, but come on, japan does not treat women as fully autonomous beings and unfortunately it is accepted as the norm. which is why i can't fully blame her for writing her characters like this. BUT I DO BLAME HER LOWKEY.

It's treated like this is what makes the characters deep, but honestly it just comes across as weirdly misogynistic, and we can see the patriarchal views spilling straight into the writing.

ren refusing to use protection because he wants children is FUCKED UP. reira being a straight-up PEDO is FUCKED UP. don't even get me started on TAKUSHIT. mind you, a good chunk of these character's narratives was completely avoidable and unnecessary.

hachi is actually not too bad of a character, but her character is dumbed down completely and oversimplified. she has no defining qualities except her obsessions, and everyone around her ridicules her while being shit people themselves. there is no resolution to hachi's story, she does not improve as a character. it feels unresolved, and my annoyance is mainly skewed toward the fact that to me she would've been a well-written character if it wasn't for her idiocy masquerading as complexity. of course this is hardly her fault. AI YAZAWA I'M LOOKING AT YOU.

i'm a completionist but this one was insufferable, especially after finding out that it literally does not get better. i will not be punishing myself further.

Being a fairly new anime fan myself, the only reason I even found this show was because I watched "Golden Time" and heard that the character NANA was a reference to this show. Of course, seeing that NANA was one of the top 100 anime of all time according to MyAnimeList, I just had to give the show a try.

The beginning had me immediately drawn in! The diversity and the chemistry between the two Nana's and their developing character/relationships were really great!

But as the series continued, it just got worse and worse...

The main characters became less and less likeable, especially Nana O., character development ... was rather forced or unexplained, and the motives of the character's actions were never reasonable or explained unlike in the beginning of the series. And to top it all off, the writing got more sloppy and unfocused as the series continued; sometimes even getting the chronology of the story wrong!

I haven't read the manga, yet I'm very certain that it is better than this anime. So in case you haven't seen the anime yet, I HIGHLY recommend that you read the manga instead!

I was looking out for a decent romance to watch, I found out this had a great score on MAL, so I started it. Well, that wasn't one of my best choices I made in my life, the anime starts pretty interesting but after just a bunch of episodes it becomes "boring" or should I rather say hurtfull to watch. Both main characters (black Nana and red Nana) are pretty interesting itself although, the red Nana becomes a pain to watch, so naive, stupid and careless, I'm impressed how she's already 20+ and so ignorant. Overall the anime has a lot of emotions like sadness, ... depression and some episodes are just sad to watch. If you like sad anime with good music I reccomend it, otherwise don't even start it.

I didn't read the manga and I will do it.

After saying this I can talk about the anime. It started so well that I was really excited every time an episode was ending that I wanted to watch another one straight away but more I was heading towards the end more it start to losing it, I know and I am sorry, because I red a lot of good reviews over here but seriously, I was sooo disappointed by the way it ends. I mean I never had so many questions in my entire life, it leaves you with this hole in the chest that ... needs to be feel somehow, for me it was Icecream.

I mean it was perfect, amazing music, amazing story (is really really really amazing I wish there were more anime like this on) the character were all perfect and well structured and then...poof!!! All gone!!!! WHYYYYYY????

Anyway, I am going to find straight away the manga because I NEED TO KNOW!!!!

Story: At the beginning of this show its seems like an all out comedy, but as the story progresses you can start to see the story is more sad than funny. The ending is unclear whether it is a happy one, or a sad one.
Art: The art was great in its own way. Some of the things got kinda annoying, like the little white tear things on their heads sometimes, but I liked the unique art.
Sound: i liked the opening and ending songs, and all the other songs they sang during the show.
Characters: nana/hachi- often could be described has a whinny character, but ... she was a great person to be the heart of all the drama.
punk nana- even tho at the beginning of the show she seemed together with only a few problems, as the show progressed you could see just how much she needed nana/hachi.
I enjoyed the show a lot other than the constant drama. overall the show is worth spending your time on

Nana is one of those shows that I can totally understand why people might get interested in. It has a very different atmosphere compared to a lot of other Slice of Life and Romance shows. Not only is it actually portraying adults, it's also adressing some romance aspects that you usually don't see adressed in anime, like for example that just loving someone doesn't necessarily mean you will have a fulfilling relationship. You have to work for it and sometimes life just has different plans for you. And this is something that drew me into the show as well. The problem is just that Nana ... is also a series that is a bit too real and forgets at the end that realism doesn't mean you have a good story. Which ultimately leads to a very unsatisfying ending. And while I can appreciate a lot from the show, we all know that if the ending is bad then it can ruin the whole show for someone. But if that introduction was not enough, let me go into a bit more detail.

As you probably know already from the synopsis, Nana is the story about two girls who are both called Nana and who are both 20 years old. The first Nana is a singer who was in love with the bassist of their former band (Ren), but he decided to go to Tokyo and join a different band leaving her behind. The second Nana (which to avoid confusion is refered to as Hachi in the show, so I'll do that from this point as well) is a kind of naive girl who already got into several relationships in parts because of her naiveté. Similar to the first Nana, her boyfriend (Shoji) moves to Tokyo to study art at a university, but instead of breaking up, they stayed together and once Shoji was accepted into the unversity their plan was for Hachi to follow him which she ultimately does. Nana and Hachi randomly meet on the train to Tokyo and later become roommates in the same apartment to save money and from this point on, the story taks off.

While both Nanas start out with pretty different lifes, over time, they become closer and closer, not just in terms of relationship but their general life as well. For example, while Nana still wants to be in a band even without her ex-boyfriend, Hachi not only becomes a fan of this new band, but interacts with all of the band members and meets people she would have never met without Nana's involvement. In the same way, Hachi does not only help Nana to kickstart her new band by supporting her, but also helps her in other aspects of her life that I am not going to spoil here. Overall, the characters are well done (though I want to mention here that this comes with a big asterisk that I am going to explain in a bit), you can understand where they come from, some have had bad childhoods for example and while you might not agree with some of their actions, they never do anything that comes out of nowhere or doesn't fit their character. The only thing that was a bit jarring at times was how the characters would crack jokes at serious moments (even 4th wall breaks at one point), but even that I could explain with the characters only being around 20 and having to somehow live with all the circumstances around them. And while the constant drama was something that could become tiring, especially because it's not just your typical anime drama that you feel can get resolved with one or two talks, that alone wasn't enough to make me dislike the show at least in some aspects. Because I actually thought the drama was overall well made. The problem is just that with so much drama, the conclusion has to be well done to make up for it and sadly this wasn't the case.

Which brings us to the negatives of the show. And just for completion sake, yes, the artstyle is a bit strange in some places especially when it comes to limbs (mostly arms) that can look off at times. And honestly, hearing the same song over and over again was also getting a bit boring at the end. But overall, these are small things that alone wouldn't have hindered my enjoyment of the show. As I wrote in the beginning of this review, the show does a really good job at creating realistic scenarios. Because while the act of being in a band to become famous isn't something most people can relate to, what they might be able to relate to are the relationships in the show. Both in terms of romantic but also just platonic friendly ones. The show makes it clear that relationships are a pretty fragile thing. Even if you have the best intentions and like/love the other person, simple things can already create cracks that over time become bigger and bigger and if you don't adress them early enough, things will break apart with both sides being left sad and disappointed. And this doesn't just go for the two Nanas, but the side characters as well, because nearly every character in this show has a somewhat problematic relationship (maybe aside from Jun and Kyousuke) which enforces this overall theme. And while this was super interesting at the beginning, at around episode 30, I was seriously starting to wonder where the show wanted to go with it. Because it seemed, it was just going with the same idea over and over without actually changing anything.

One aspect this was heavily noticable in was in certain character arcs. While the characters do have some sort of development over time, there are also things that seemingly go nowhere or at least in directions that feel really strange. For example, one big issue of Hachi in the beginning is how she doesn't value money or is at least very bad with it. Because she doesn't really know what she wants to do job wise, she is only getting simple jobs that bring her enough money to get by, but not enough to significantly save something. Though, this issue also exists, because every excess money she has, she is constantly spending on clothes and other itmes she wants to have. Now, with an obvious flaw like this, you can already see that this might be part of her overall character arc in the bigger picture, but without any spoilers, the way this is adressed in the end is just really unsatisfying. While I can make excuses for why this part went the way it did, because yes, the way it goes is kind of realistic, as mentioned before, realism just doesn't necessarily make for a good story. Especially if you only adress it in passing at the end and don't actually examine this deeper with the character.

To maybe show this better, let me give you another example, where I can be a bit more detailed. At one point Nana mentions to Hachiko that she might lose so many jobs because she isn't actually doing something she enjoys. So she should look for something she wants to do instead of just doing job after job. And the next job we see Hachi doing is one where she gives out food samples to attract people to buy something. Which seems to be in reference to the fact that since she started to live with Nana, she enjoyed making food for others. So you are interested to see where this goes. And it just goes nowhere. Like seriously. Her friend mentions at the end "Wow, you seriously became a good cook" and that's literally the conclusion of that development.

Which brings us to the biggest issue with the show which is the ending. The ending is just not satisfying. Not only does it feel like it comes really abruptly, which is super strange considering that every episode has some voice overs of either Nana which happen after the ending, but it also ends on a note that is just bad in my opinion. Yes, I understand where this ending comes from. It is basically all said with that one comment Nana makes in the last episode regarding Nobu. I understand that. And I even understand that this ending is realistic and that some people (and maybe even the author) have experienced something similar in their lifes. But I seriously have to ask, if I want people in fictional shows (that go through the same struggles as me) reach the same unsatisfying conclusion as me? Or do I want to see them reach a better version because it is finctional? Again, I can totally see how people can relate to that ending, I just don't see why you would enjoy this ending for characters you spend 47 episodes following.

All in all, Nana is a strange show to me. While I can totally see the appeal with the themes the story is adressing (as this drew me in as well), I am really struggling to understand why so many people did not have mixed feelings about this ending. Again, a show could be the best thing to exist, if it fails to land the ending, it just leaves a bad taste. And it also means, it is a show that I would never want to watch again. While I enjoyed a lot of things on my first watch, knowing that this ultimately leads to this ending, makes the drama that you have to go through not really worth it.

It has such great character building, the relationships and dialogue are real and beautiful. It's also funny, tender and cruel which would make for the most amazing show if it wasn't so infuriating with such dissatisfying conclusions. If you like to be kept on your tippy toes then this will definitely do it for you. I can see why the ending could be seen as beautiful in its own way but for me it did not hit the spot and it felt really awful, like all the happiness and sadness it made me feel up until the end was for nothing.

at the begging i thought it's gonna be boring as hell - u know: two strange girls from nowhere magically started being friends after few hours and then they live together without knowing each other ugh.. IM BORED- but after few eps i was literally drawn into it. such a trifle, but i was caught by it. ending filled w nostalgia, i expected sth more but at the end of the day i think it is as it should be. ofc i hate the way how hachi acted and how loud she is, but i wouldn't change one thing in this anime (well.. maybe nobu's ... fate :() still i will mention it as a lovely-dummy addictive anime

1. If you ever want to see through or understand the mind of those stupid easily carried away girls also known as bimbo, this anime is for you, though not all bimbos are the same and in this anime, it happens to be the nice friendly one.

2. If you ever get confused over whether or not you are lesbian/gay because you feel possessive/obsessive towards your same sex friend despite having no sexual desire to them, this anime is also for you. Loners or introverts often feel this way towards their only friend because they don't have many friends and they don't want to lose them, ... it's a common occurrence, not a sexuality.

3. If you ever get confused over whether or not you love someone romantically just because you admire your same sex friend and want to be close to them, this anime is also for you, because this is normal common thing in friendship, it's not a sexuality.

The only reason this anime have high score is because a lot of the audience are women (obviously), and sadly, most of them do indeed empathize with the characters because most of them are like this. though they may fail to see which part is realistic and which part is fantasy. in a way, this anime is very woman, because most of them don't know what they want, and they can be deliberately shallow and have savior complex, they want to be loved but they keep falling for some version of toxic men, just like the character in this anime.

To be honest this anime is just a normal drama to me, these things happen often, but obviously not so sweet like the blatant female fantasy that happens in this anime. For example, the protagonist thoughts and characters are relatable to most women in real life, but in reality big musicians do not fall in love to their groupies. Hachi's sentiment about the desire to shallow fancy things (trendy clothes, big house, fancy food and furniture) in life is real, but the scenario of multiple hot men genuinely falling in love to a woman who has weak resolve to commit is not real. I mean, lets be real, Hachi got pregnant 6 months after being away from home, that's a shorter duration than the pregnancy itself, in real life women like this are the type who are either crying in abortion clinic or the struggling single mothers desperate to find love, men do not like them. In real life men do not like Hachi.

As for Nana, a lot of loners in real life share that sentiment of possessiveness, attraction and fear of losing towards their friend, but in this period of time where people think personality trait is a gender, they can easily mistake their love towards their friend as a hint of their unexplored sexuality, while in reality its not sexuality unless you feel sexual desire. It's only that they feel like they don't have any other better friend and afraid of losing them, this happens often, and is actually normal, just like how it's portrayed and told in the flow of this anime. Nana and Hachi are not confused bisexuals, they are friends having sentiments often happen in friendships.

I see negative reviews, and I actually agree with them, though many are written by men and they probably don't know the core traits of women is to be completely driven by love and to succumb to it, Hachi is a stupid shallow woman, its only natural for men to not be able to empathize with her, this alone proves that men indeed do not like women like Hachi in real life, so this anime is still far from realistic. The only realistic part of this anime is just the flawed thoughts of the female characters, also the common daily life drama like cheating and break ups, which isn't an impressive drama, story wise.

The animation is fair-good overall. There are some good scenes when the bands are playing music, but otherwise not a lot of flash. There are some very good backgrounds, but the character detail ranges from poor to good. The character detail is mostly good, but there are scenes where it's lacking. The characters are good, they don't really develope at the pace that I would like though. That being said they have a good amount of depth to them. The story is also good, the plot is engaging, but it does feel overly complicated and drawn out. Nothing wrong with a long anime with a ... complicated story, but only if that story and length are meaningful. The actual pacing is very good. Plot points come at a decent pace and the anime kept me engaged despite my issues with the plot itself. The voice acting was overall fair. The casting is good, but the performances are just okay(fair) and not the best. That and the voice acting for certain characters is annoying from time to time. The soundtrack is good. The actual tracks are very good, but there just are not enough of them for 47 episodes. That being said the ops/eds are pretty great. Across the board Nana is a good anime, but not great. It doesn't do anything particularly poorly, but it doesn't do anything particularly well either. I enjoyed it and do believe it is a good anime, but the length and amount of plot make it hard to recommend to everyone. If you like shoujo this is a decent way to spend your time. 6.80/10