After watching the anime and reading through all the reviews I am certain about one thing, people dont watch the entire anime before reviewing, like most of the reviews are applicable to only the first 4-5 episodes. I admit I was getting a bit bored of the stale narrative of taking down one Talented every episode in quite smart ways (even though the Talenteds themselves are quite dumb ofc). But what followed was just some amazing movie material. Talentless Nana perhaps has the most multidimensional character arcs that I have ever watched and all in all it felt very real. I could see smart and self aware people go through the charcater swings like Nana did.
*Spoilers ahead*
Like I mentioned the first 4-5 episodes, were a bit stale, but now I see it was just to set up Nana's character arc for the next episodes. In these episodes, Nana killed Talenteds and got away with it, despite a detective nipping at her heel. In every episode, she was in control. She gathered info, created a situation where she had already won, and then executed it to perfection, and detective Kyoya was always one step behind. She was winning and winning big. It was the story of a murderous psychopath, not much else.
Then came the necromancer arc and by god was it good. For the first time it was that Nana was the hunted and not the hunter. She had to grasp for straws just to make it out. With sheer luck, she was successful and that was just thrilling to follow. Soon after she was getting cornered from all sides, where she might get detected, with some more luck, she was able to make a fool of Kyoya, and actually kill more of her targets. At this point these are just adrenaline boosts, right? The two players in this cat and mouse game are playing the optimal moves, no ones making a mistake but luck favors our protagonist and thats what we want to see.
It seems now Nana is back in control. Episode 8-9 just showed how out of control she is in this whole situation, how much she doesnt know, how shes being manipulated and used. In these episodes, Nana is at her lowest point, she is just realising how out of depth she is with the investigations, her adversaries and with her own emotions. She was earlier convinced that she was doing the right thing and saving the world with her murders, but now she doubts herself.
From episode 10, Nana starts what I like to call her emotional rehabilitation. It is forced upon her how wrong she had been all this time about Talenteds, by the "overflowing trust and goodwill" of Michiru, and bit by bit, the scales were lifted from over her eyes. She was always suspicious of Michiru, that she must be hiding something. No one could be that nice right?, Nana thought. But eventually her feelings for Michiru combined with Michiru's actions themselves, helped Nana trust someone other than herself ... and make herself a new friend. Once people have ideas fixed in their heads, thoughts which shape the whole foundation of their lives and actions, its almost impossible to see them change. It was just touching to see the purity of Michiru change Nana who is so set in her ways. And in some ways hopeful.
Nana's character growth can only be described as a rollercoaster in the whole anime. She was thrust into a dramatic situation and she grew up with every episode. And these character growths werent even unwarranted, some might even say her growth was slow, but to me she felt real. She was portrayed exactly how a normal human might have felt in her shoes. She has been told all her life that Talenteds are the reason of the worlds problems. She is the hunter, and soon realizes how alone she is and how separate she is from reality. And then she finds something good in her life, something to make her happy and change her mind. And change her mind she does but at the greatest cost. Its just beautiful to see such strong character writing. |