notelog | Nana

22nd August 2006
1st priority (ep 6)

First let’s get a few things clear. Lively bubbly art-school Nana shall henceforth be called Baka-Nana, and tragic guitar-playing, singing Nana shall be called Sugoi-Nana. As you can tell, I love one, and not the other.

Baka-Nana isn’t all that painful, and some of her actions are fairly similar to many young naive attitudes, sometimes her behaviour grates on the inside of my skull like titanium fingernails. As for Sugoi-Nana, she’s just simply beautiful. There are already some great subtle things about her character and the reasons she is the way she is, plus I feel almost all of the visual flare has gone into her character – she is so beautiful. The care with which she’s drawn makes me think so much of Yukari/Caroline from Parakiss, which of-course isn’t surprising as this is yet another production based on the work of Ai Yazawa. One thing I’ve noticed already about Yazawa is that she loves rock’n’roll characters with piercings, but takes so much joy in making them well developed characters with real flaws and endearing-caring traits. I don’t want to equate Sugoi-Nana with Arashi from Parakiss, but there are one or two similarities which unify them, especially their apparent harsh exterior but truly caring nature.

Not everything about this series is outstanding though, at times the music isn’t terribly remarkable, but this is probably only highlighted by the fact that often it’s amazing. Also, aside from Sugoi-Nana, the other characters are fairly ordinary in design. I like where this is going though, and so far neither the comedy nor the sincerity feel out of place. I just wish Sugoi-Nana got more screen-time for the first six episodes, not only for her better character, but so I could soak in her wonderful character design more.

–

1st September 2006
1st priority (ep 10)

My god Sugoi-Nana (Osaki) is so beautiful; there are so many fantastic close-up and detail shots of her, I really am falling in love. Everything about her character is great, including her weaknesses of-course. As for Baka-Nana, she seems to get more abnoxious as the eps roll by, recognising her flipancy one moment, then discarding all semblance of good sense in the next. At this point I don’t think she deserves Shoji or any of her friends for that matter; they’re all so patient with her, and yet she’s always selfish and insincere. Even Sugoi-Nana has to take care of her in many senses. In this way, I’m slightly frustrated with the focus on Baka-Nana, that almost everything is viewed from her perspective. I really don’t like her character, and every one of the others would do better without her. Perhaps that’s the point of the series though, that she’ll eventually grow-up… the immediate future doesn’t look too optimistic for her, but here’s hoping that she’ll actually get punished for her frivolity and change her ways.

Did I mention that Sugoi-Nana is beautiful? I may have forgotten that – it’s very important you know…

–

1st September 2006
1st priority (ep 12)

While the focus remains on Baka-Nana, the brief and few moments wholely dedicated to Sugoi-Nana Osaki shine so bright, perhaps this is the point – if it is intentional, it’s quickly turning into a masterstroke of presentation. Included in this bracket was ep 11.5, a full recap episode. If there’s one thing that I don’t like the most about this series it’s the amount of recapping that’s done, and I get the feeling that by the end of the 50 eps, we might find that it all could have been said in 26.

In any case, many of the side-characters are also beginning to shine, and my two next favourite characters after Nana Osaki are now Junko and Yasu, both of them revealing more of their caring and wise natures.

Worth its own mention is Baka-Nana’s closing statement in ep 12 about love and pain – it couldn’t be more relevant to my life right now, and it struck me so hard I felt like that handful of lines had been written just for me.

Sugoi-Nana Osaki is beautiful even when she’s drunk.

–

20th September 2006
(acquiring) 1st priority (ep 16)

The gulf in my mind between Sugoi-Nana Osaki and Baka-Nana Hachi Komatsu Ahou continues to expand. In the wake of the innevitable meltdown between Hachi and Shouji, I pretty much cracked it with both of them; they really are stupid characters, selfish, ignorant, and lacking intelligence. Fair-enough we see them both get duly punished, but it’s painful to watch Baka-Nana destroy everything around her. She really has so many characteristics that I despise.

Sugoi-Nana Osaki continues to get more and more beautiful with every word she speaks, and in every frame in which she appears. Everything about her is amazing, her hidden emotions, her flaws, her hesitations and bravado, her intensity; she is one of the most fantastically developed characters I’ve ever seen in anime, and it’s such a pain that she’s been matched with such a vapid counterpart.

I keep telling myself that it’s all for a good reason, that it’s the point of the series to have these two women teach each-other things in life, and some of Baka-Nana’s narration certainly seems to point towards that kind of thing, but I’m worried about what the ultimate outcome will be. To be honest, a pairing between them would actually make me really happy, if Baka-Nana did a whole lot of growing up, and Sugoi-Nana also faced many of her fears which she hides behind bravado. Both of these things look likely to happen, but as for the pairing, well, who knows. Of-course I won’t mind at all if nothing ultimately eventuates between them romatically, but I do want Sugoi-Nana rewarded. For all I care, Hachi can get hit by a truck and we won’t ever have to hear from her again, with the focus shifting entirely to Nana Osaki; nothing would make me happier, but I do acknowledge that there is a very clear and logical sense to having these two characters together. It’s just taking a really long time and a lot of falling for Baka-Nana to get anywhere in her maturation, and truth be told, she’s hardly grown at all since the beginning of the series.

Sugoi-Nana Osaki forever…

–

(acquiring) 1st priority (ep 21)
20th November 2006

My goodness – it’s been two whole months since I watched Nana, but it seems the break has done me some good. As I was always aware, Nana Komatsu is frivolous intentionally, and she is duly punished for her actions. Watching her downward spiral is actually becoming encouraging in many senses, and her journey is perfectly complemented by Nana Osaki’s own experiences, triumphs and struggles. Ep 21 seemed as good a place as any to pause while I wait for more episodes, and that’s actually one thing I like a lot about this show – it doesn’t really use cliff-hangers that really necessitate watching the next ep.

Just when I think Nana Osaki can’t get any cooler, her character becomes astoundingly deeper, more complex, and even more endearing – as if I wasn’t ready to marry her already!

–

(acquiring) 1st priority (ep 28)
21st January 2007

I seem to have to leave this one for a long while and let a decent amount of episodes build up in availability before I’m willing to resume watching. The last few episodes leading to 28 have been quite exceptional, with more than a few characters exhibiting signs of great change, yet with events still building up to what seems like some kind of foreboding event. Nana Komatsu continues to send her emotional life in an emotional spiral towards the ground, yet she becomes more and more aware of her own naivety and selfishness. She’s really beginning to learn what’s truly of value to her, and how she truly feels about many things. Nana Osaki however is also undergoing great change, as she too is opening up to things she never knew she cared so much about, predominantly Hachi.

What I really do like about Hachi’s character now is that indeed though she does always get punished for her terrible behaviour, there is a desperation in the way that she lives, in the way that she so yearns to find her place in life and gain the respect and affection of her peers that opens all of the other characters up to a vulnerability that they try to hide from. The representation of that yearning has been created perfectly through Hachi’s character, and the other characters’ responses are also perfectly true to life. Hachi is having more influence on the group than she or perhaps even they are fully aware of, and it’s a good thing. The problem of-course is that both Komatsu and Osaki keep running from the real issues that they face in one-another, and consequently miss anchoring one-another into the true life that they both want.

Though the premise of Nana centring around famous bands is of-course slightly fantastical and the most liberally fictional element, it’s works absolutely superbly as the setting for these emotional engagements, and the characters are very truthfully crafted and portrayed, their actions, responses and reactions all very real and true to life.

Nana Komatsu’s retrospective comments in the narration however seem to grow more and more sombre as the episodes roll by, seeming to hint at a very dark ultimate conclusion to these events; her latest comment at the end of ep 28 was particularly mournful, and the attitude of the Nana narrating at whatever point in the future that she’s thinking back from, seems to have learnt many a bitter lesson and indeed hints at some unknown frightening turn of events. I don’t know if I’ll be able to watch any more episodes until the series is complete – with availability at 33 of 50 episodes, it could very well be quite a long time before I delve into this one again.

–

(back to anime notelog)