review: Nana

by Ai Yazawa
Rating: 4/5
Volumes/episodes:
manga: 21 (ongoing);
anime: 47;
j-drama: 2 movies
Mature content: not really (though in the manga you can sometimes see half-naked women)
Genre: Josei

On the train to Tokyo Nana meets Nana.
One Nana (later going by the nickname Hachi to avoid confusion) is following her boyfriend from a small town to the big city to live there. The other Nana, a punk girl, is going to Tokyo to become a professional singer. Shortly after they meet again and decide to rent a flat together. And so their friendship begins...
The story is mostly told by Hachi and focuses on her love life, the strong friendship between the two of them and their circle of friends. But also money problems, finding a job, unexpected pregnancy and, of course, the music business are issues covered.



Hachi got her nickname because she reminded Nana of a dog (Hachiko was a Japanese dog famous for it's loyalty). She's more or less your average shoujo/josei girl: careless, clueless, cute and caring. She's fickle, weak-willed, slightly possessive (esp. concerning Nana), a drama-queen, she flirts around and falls in love with every second guy she meets - no matter whether she has a boyfriend at the moment or not. When she starts out in Tokyo she really is a bit clueless and heavily depends on others to help her, but this gets a little better. Maybe clueless isn't quite the right expression; she is, in some ways, clueless, in other ways she's fake, manipulating and not as innocent as she looks. She doesn't seem to have acquired any skills and expertise and her only goal in live seems to be getting married. Even though this really sounds bad, for some reason she's not quite as annoying as the usual annoying anime girl.
Nana is proud, ambitious and honest. She is independent in a way, but also greatly relies on her friends in times of need and can be possessive, too, at times. She can be a little self-conscious regarding her quality as a singer. It is quite often mentioned that she acts like a guy, but I think that's only compared to the average girl in Japanese culture. She considers Hachi as some kind of pet for her and her band mates. Their relationship becomes very close, though, and several times it's hinted that they might be in love with each other.
The other characters are also well described. I kind of like Shion, though at first I found her suspicious. I like Miu, too.



I really loved the story until about half way into the anime (which I watched first). After that it just became very whiny and too much of a drama. It started out so promising - and then ended in another episode after episode of crying girls. But even so I kept on watching. The narration seems to come from the future looking back on things, and there's some comments here and there that made me wonder what happened. The last episode of the first season was a bit of a bitter-sweet one, with a glimpse into the future - but still leaving quite a few questions to be answered.
I wonder if there was a second season planned. The anime stops at chapter 42 (Volume 12) of the manga.

Because I was curious I went on with the manga.
There's more "flashes" into the future in the manga. The crying is a lot less annoying - probably because you can just flip over it (and don't have to hear it).
The manga finally reveals a very tragic event that is the big turn-around that apparently leads to the future events that are hinted at throughout the anime and manga. Naturally there's even more crying, but this time there's a valid reason. But I don't want to spoil...
So far there are 84 chapters released.


I dislike that this manga/anime really doesn't promote a healthy livestyle. Half the people are serious chain smokers, there's frequent drinking sessions, cheating on partners, self-harming, drug abuse, reckless driving and a 15-year-old boy working as a prostitute.
Besides, Yazawa's drawing style makes people look extremely thin. I don't really like that, but I got used to it. I do like the attention she gives to clothes and fashion.
I'll definitely will follow that one. The way the story is told - changing in between two different time settings - really makes you wonder what happened, you want to get to that point where the two different time setting finally meet.

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short reviews: Chihayafuru, Uta No Prince-Sama, Koukaku No Regios

Chihayafuru

At first I thought it was a bit weird - an anime about a card game? But I've really grown to like this one. It's generally classified as josei, there's 18 episodes so far and it's still going on.

When Chihaya befriends her new classmate Arata, he introduces her to the competetive card game karuta. She becomes obsessed with the game and starts dreaming of becoming the "Queen", the best female karuta player in Japan. When Arata moves away, she vows to keep on playing karuta.
Later when she's in high school she meets her old childhood friend and former karuta teammate Taichi again. She convinces him to try to form a karuta club at school. They need five members to officially form a club, so they look for suitable candidates.
The plot then follows them becoming friends, trying to get better, going to tournaments, etc.

What I really like about Chihayafuru ist that they don't magically win everything. There are defeats and set-backs. The characters are distinguishable, have their own strengths and weaknesses and all get some character development.
It's heart-breaking how Taichi - nice, good-looking, good in school, rich, good in sports - obviously loves Chihaya, they're such an amazing team, but she's completely oblivious of it and goes on raving about Arata.

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Uta no☆Prince-sama♪

Another one of these otome game adaptions (13 episodes). But what can I say - I like bishonen reverse harem. And as long as the girl is a flat character, there's a chance she's not totally annoying.

The story (if you can call it such) takes place in a boarding school for artists. There are pupils who want to become "idols" and ones who want to become composers, there's a mad principal and falling in love is against the rules. Naturally the story is full of music, songs - and innuendos. And besides it being an otome game adaption, there's also lots of possibilities for yaoi couples (though there's not even hints at such).
I really like the drawing style. Nanami, the main girl, has yellow eyes though, which I found rather strange and distracting. She also has an annoyingly high voice and is rather clumsy, and an airhead... the usual. But of course everyone wants to pair up with her. The usual. But there's a mysterious cat, too, so that's a bonus point. I also like the voices of some of the voice actors, especially when singing.
You don't watch these for the plot, you watch them for the dream that maybe someday, someone like these guys will turn up in your life and love you. Don't you?

Still. Like with Starry☆Sky I kind of wish this one would have gotten a bit more time and depth. It would have been a great opportunity to get more into the single characters and their friendship. And what's up with that cat? Even on the basis of an otome game, it could have been much more than just these 13 episodes.
Good news is that I heard there's gonna be a second season - so let's hope they'll take the chance and build this up to a good story.

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Koukaku No Regios

Chrome Shelled Regios (its English name) is an anime adoption of a teen book series.

Sometime in the future Earth is polluted and humans are living in mobile cities, called regios. Outside of those they can't breathe and there's giant "filth monsters" roaming about.
Layfon Alseif had to leave his hometown - where he was a member of a group of special warriors - and tries to start a new, peaceful life in an academy city. Layfon seems like an average nice guy (and most girls fancy him), but turns into a total badass when fighting. His superior fighting abilities are soon discovered and he's coaxed to join the martial arts students and the 17th platoon.

This is a quite good shonen anime. It's not too long (24 episodes), the characters are all likable (even most females) and the plot is suspenseful. I also like how women are treated absolutely equal to men.
Sometimes it gets a bit gory (but not very often) and there's these flashbacks in bad English that apparently explain the back story - but I didn't get it. I also would have liked to get to know some characters better, like Harley. Maybe there'll be another season?

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