Ranked #37

NANA (Manga)

NANA is a great romantic/dramatic manga. NANA also have some funny moments. The manga is about two girls with the same name, Nana, and they meet by fate and eventually become best friends. Even though they are best friends, their life take a twist and they are separated by fame, husband, boyfriend, and work. This manga shows the world of the entertainment industry and it focus it on bands and music and a bit of adult movie but that its later on the manga.
NANA starts out as people trying to pursue their dreams. What's more important for an singer/band/model: Follow their dreams or their loved one?
The decision is very hard on the characters; and each character walks a different path. Its about friends and love being separated by their choices.

The character in this manga is awesome. Everyone with a different style and background. Everyone with problems with love, passion, work and romance. And because its about the intertainment industry, it has a little bit about everything. I dont want to write it out because I think I will ruin/spoil the manga.

Oh yeah, I think this was my first shoujo a friend of my recommended it to me and I loved it. Somehow I skipped the first volume and started reading the second volume and I still got the story =P.
I really love this manga and the way it starts every chapter, with words like, "Do you remember Nana, the day . . . if it was not because you stayed by my side . . ."
I really recommend this manga. read more

Overall I think NANA’s main selling point is “realism” and that it’s a pretty realistic look at the Japanese music industry, though dramatized, of course. The characters feel like real people and the relationships, which are really an extension of the characters, almost never go in foreseeable directions. Some intriguing backstory has come to light and I'm in suspense on several fronts -- I really want to know whether things will turn out okay for these characters.

But at the end of the day, I think Ai Yazawa's Paradise Kiss is better, because it is tighter. Nana is full of drama and suspense and heartbreak and really messed up characters, but it tends to drag, especially in the later volumes. read more