Nana

Departing from their respective hometowns, two young women with identical names are brought together in their pursuit of new beginnings. With their hearts set on going to Tokyo, Nana Komatsu dreams about blissful love, while Nana Osaki aims for a successful music career.

The former has a cheerful and friendly nature, but her naivety has steered her romantic life astray until she meets her dependable boyfriend—Shouji Endo. Without letting herself be dismayed by Shouji's decision to study in Tokyo, Nana works hard to earn enough money and follow him there. Meanwhile, her namesake is a solitary punk vocalist whose impassioned romance with her band's bassist, Ren Honjou, comes to a sudden end. Though heartbroken, Nana bravely looks forward and travels to the capital with the ambition of becoming a recognized artist.

Shortly after they arrive in Tokyo, the girls cross paths again due to an unexpected coincidence that ultimately leads them to live under the same roof. As they grow closer, the two strive to support one another amid their struggles to forge a future for themselves.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Osaki, Nana Main

Park, Romi Japanese

Komatsu, Nana Main

Kawana, Midori Japanese

Okazaki, Shinichi Supporting

Ishida, Akira Japanese

Takagi, Yasushi Supporting

Kawahara, Yoshihisa Japanese

Terashima, Nobuo Supporting

Seki, Tomokazu Japanese

Honjou, Ren Supporting

Kiuchi, Hidenobu Japanese

Ichinose, Takumi Supporting

Morikawa, Toshiyuki Japanese

Serizawa, Layla Supporting

Hirano, Aya Japanese

Shinoda, Miu Supporting

Chiba, Saeko Japanese

Saotome, Junko Supporting

Honda, Takako Japanese

Maruyama, Masao Producer

Tamura, Manabu Producer

Nakatani, Toshio Producer

Nakamoto, Kenji Producer

Reviews

Jan 24, 2010

Licorice

Recommended

"Say, Nana... Do you remember the first time we met?"

These words are the introduction of the beautiful world of "Nana". Ai Yazawa is probably the most convincing shoujo manga writer ever. With colourful, realistic characters, breathtaking events and just a pinch of music she creates a world in witch every girl can forget about reality and fall into the embrace of romantic fantasies.

One of the best things about "Nana" are the characters - we can actually see the reflection of ourselves in some of them and believe, that someone like that can really exist. This is proof that you can make a good anime ... without the conventional tsundere, moe or annoying childhood friend.
One thing I didn't like though is Hachi's personality. Her behaviour at times is despicable. Mainly because she has no ideals or dreams (except getting married witch is pretty boring compared to the rest of the characters).

The story is also one of Nana's strong points. Ai Yazawa worked really hard on it, and did her best to create a realistic world so that the reader can almost become part of it and experience it emotionaly.
Even though the plot is a typical shoujo tearjerker (with a bit of music) it has that magical something that makes you cheer unconsciously for some characters and experience emotionally some events almost as strongly as the characters themselves. Another good thing about the story is that it exposes the hard, cruel reality, which has no happy endings and pure loves. Yazawa-sensei gives her characters a big imagination (especially Hachi) But the world they live in is just like ours.

As for the art, it wasn't that impressive. It annoys me how all the characters are so thin and tall. Other that that I think the art matched the story pretty well. There were lots of details regarding shadows and highlights. That's in order to underline the mood of certain moments, mainly in room 707.

Nana has one of the best soundtracks I've ever heard. The openings and endings were songs by the 2 fictional bands in the show, witch was a brilliant idea imo. Olivia Lufkin and Anna Tsuchiya fit the characters perfectly. Nothing much to add here: the music in Nana is brilliant. Period.

Overall, Nana is a must-see position for shoujo-fans. It tells us a lot about life, it's hardships and also teaches us an important lesson about the mistakes, that we shouldn't make.

This is my first review, so please don't be hard on me ;)

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Mar 18, 2024

12_AD

Mixed Feelings

Funny

A girl I liked at the time made me watch this show, right after I finished she ended up ghosting me and later getting a boyfriend. The show does always remind me of it whenever I see anything related to it.

Overall the anime was fine, not my cup of tea, but I can see why people like it. The anime was older so the art style is different than most modern animes, still pretty enjoyable. 5/10 for me since I’m pretty neutral on it. I would 100% recommend this to anyone who likes older animes.

Note: I’ve moved on and I am completely fine lol

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Feb 25, 2019

starfarts

Not Recommended

Nana has tremendous characters, tremendous art, and a soundtrack that's top tier in every way. If only I'd known how this series ended before I sat through all 47 episodes I never would have bothered in the beginning.

It started as a dramatic comedy (different, in my eyes, from a comedy-dramas in that comedy is the primary genre and the drama evolves from there) with attention-catching art and super snazzy music. Nana and Nana were extremely dynamic women with bright futures and mysterious pasts; supporting characters introduced along the way added charm and allowed the Nanas to bounce their personalities around with fresh perspective.

Then, before it ... really took off, the series tanked hard into drama that no amount of funny expressions or good music could prop up. I realize now that this series is designed for young women and girls, and while I'm neither of those I'm still able to empathize and extrapolate. Some lessons conveyed in the show are actually very important for young people to be taught. But then, as I got into the 30-40 episode range I thought to myself "wait, what IS the main thesis here?"

Well, it's that if you're a pretty young girl it's totally fine to sleep with an endless line of guys and things will just work out for you. Friends just happen by accident, good situations just take a number and pop up when it's their turn, and your fortune/fate will basically be determined by people who happily overlook your slutty personality by virtue of you being naive and pretty. Everyone enables the protagonist to such a degree it really started to make me angry for the last five or six episodes. Sure, there's a harsh angle of schadenfreude after all, but not only will it probably be missed by the target audience, it's not enough to make up for the morals passed through the previous episodes. Eventually everything just got depressing--and I mean SUPER depressing--and all elements of comedy were tossed aside in favor of tears. One or two attempts were made in the 40-45 range, but they were halfhearted at best and barely took attention away from the sad pit that the show had dug itself into.

I've read a synopsis of the manga, and thankfully this series was put out before those things happened or I would have just tossed my computer out the nearest window. I absolutely do not understand why situations are made so depressing just for the sake of more drama. Who actually derives entertainment or enjoyment out of these scenarios? Is everyone that batshit insane in the world?

So yeah, I'm not the target audience. Obviously. But the potential for something really special was here, and I'll remember these characters for years. I'll also remember how thoroughly trashed they were through pointless melodrama. What a disappointment.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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