Nana to Kaoru
Nana & Kaoru

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Personally, it was a 10/10, but I know that most people aren't going to enjoy it as much as I did, so I'm going to rest on an overall 8/10, but I won't budge further. >_>

A few years ago, there was one night where I didn't really feel like watching a new anime and was caught up on my current manga, so I was clicking on any random manga that showed up in front of me and skimming through it to see if there was any interest. Nana to Kaoru just happened to be one of those. The content is pretty adult, so it's ... not going to be widely accessible, so I'm betting that most people won't ever find it. If you do, PLEASE RE AD IT.

The art is honestly pretty horrible. The scenes pack impact, but that's partially due to the content in them. The facial art specifically is pretty bad, but if you can get past the dark lines and any of the other problems with the art, you will absolutely enjoy this manga.

There really isn't an overlying plot for this series. The events that happen aren't building towards anything major, and while I personally find that unappealing when I pick up a new series, this is a special case. Each separate event has importance, each separate event is tense, and they're the type of events that don't need an overlying plot. In the case of this manga, the overlying plot is the 'romance' genre itself.

'Breathers' are, in this case, simply just bondage sessions, and are what bring the two main characters together. As childhood friends, they grew up and separated over time, belonging to different cliques in school and expected to go separate ways throughout their life. Stress relief is one aspect of the breathers, but it shows that the simplest of desires can bring two completely different people together, whether it be a release of stress, lust, or just a shared secret. But the greatest part about "Nana to Kaoru" is that fact that it'll take it one step further.

As a romance, it's intended to bring the OTP together, and it does... kind of. With the content, it does give that 'illicit love' type of feeling and is really tense, which is great. But even deeper than that, it shows that the connection between them isn't physical as bondage would represent, but emotional. It shows the inner workings of what bondage can be, not just what we would normally just think it is.

If you're looking for something that'll make you take a step back and re-evaluate yourself, read this manga. It's not going to change you as a person, but it may help change the way you think about things.

I was always hesitant about starting Nana to Kaoru. Not because of its S&M premise, but because I already had doubts about MC first chapter in, and whether he'd be able to actually do anything. Alas, in the end, I picked it up, and now my journey is over. And, if I'm honest, somewhere in this manga is a great story about young people exploring their sexuality and dealing with who they are, with some really powerful scenes, but, despite all that, this isn't a good story by any stretch.

The main problem with it is that it runs in circles. Although this is more ... prevalent in characters department, it also exists in the general narrative. Until the very end, the story is always in the 'push and pull' mode, meaning that very little development actually occurs over its 160 chapters. Starting with around the midway point in manga, the story slows down considerably to the frustrating levels, and more and more random points are introduced into narrative for the sole purpose of creating drama. Much like some characters, these plot points overstay their welcome and never really go anywhere, making it appear as blatant filler more than anything else.

As the story follows Kaoru and Nana, there were far too many times when the story wasn't about the two of them for considerable stretches of time. It's not as though there was no need to develop side characters, but the problem was that not even the main characters were developed at that point. The story attempts to introduce classic 'coming of age' elements into its narrative, but then uses them only to induce cheap drama rather than to actually deal with them properly. The main point here is the possible separation after graduating high school. It's a classic storytelling device when you want to give a shove to the character development, but here it's only used as means of creating dramatic scenes until the very, very end.

The best part about this manga is no doubt art. It's detailed, albeit inconsistent at times, and it really breathes 'story' in and of itself. Facial expressions were for the most part on point, proportions were adequate, and some panels simply oozed life on their own. Still, it's muddled with ton, and I mean TON of pointless speech boxes and bubbles that add nothing except distract from fantastic art. There isn't really much else to say, as one of the reasons I was able to finish this story is the art in the first place, so kudos.

As for the characters, they are definitely the worst part of the whole thing, while they should be the best. Specifically, side characters are an utter bother in this manga, and their influence on main duo, Nana and Kaoru, is anything except good. Much like certain plot points, they're used whenever the writer wanted to introduce cheap drama to increase the stakes of story.

Specifically, the secondary love interest(?) for our main guy is absolute chore to read about whenever she appears. She destroyed the dynamic between the main duo, and while her character served the classic role of giving 'the push' to the main duo, she was never a cause for any actual, positive change between the two. She was there to offset the gigantic tits of Nana, and to provide a few, cheap dramatic moments in storytelling.

While there are other side characters, very few of them, if any, get more than a chapter of development, making them all feel like static images rather than the characters. With that said, the central focus, for the most part, is about our main duo, let's get on them.

Nana is perhaps the best part of this manga, no doubt (and not just because of her huge oppai). Out of everyone, she receives the most development, which actually pushes her character forward rather than have her run in circles. She's actually a strong character who knows what she wants, and, when push comes to shove, is decisive about it (unlike someone else that I'll talk about soon). While I wouldn't call her character spectacular, considering those by her side, she really stands out by leaps and bounds.

Now, let's talk about the character that put the final lid on my enjoyment of this manga: Kaoru. There's a very simple reason why Kaoru just can't carry the show: it's because I simply can't see him as a Dom in a relationship. He's the exact opposite of what a Dom should be; cowardly, indecisive, afraid, insecure... while I'm not saying that a character with those characteristics is bad, it doesn't work in a manga of this type. There are about 2 times in the entire manga where he acts like a proper Dom, and even that is offset shortly after with his regret over those actions.

He's far too hesitant for a character that's supposed to dominate someone as strong as Nana, and, until the very end, he doesn't change much, if at all. He, perhaps, exemplifies the greatest problem Nana to Kaoru has: it's a by-the-books vanilla love story with S&M gimmick that works against it. Strip away the 'breathers', and you've got yourself your basic love story, that's all. Kaoru is a standard rom-com protagonist, Nana is a standard main girl, there's a love rival, far too much drama because characters can't voice their thoughts... everything, really.

S&M here is used as a means of 'binding' two leads together, and that's really it. While it does play part in some pretty decent character moments, for the most part it's a gimmick. One specific 'breather' stretches out for like 4-5 chapters where nothing actually happens. It's just an excuse to see woman act like dogs, and that's really it.

The hesitations of Nana can be somewhat excused, seeing as she's a sub, but with Kaoru it's impossible to overlook them. His character keeps spinning in circles for whole 160 chapters; 'Nana is mine', 'I can't stay by her side', 'I want to stay by her side', 'I don't', 'How do I tell her I love with without telling her because it's embarrassing despite all the shit we've been doing together', 'I can't tell her because I'm unworthy'... it just keeps going in circles, never stopping.

Hell, even when not faced with Nana but with other characters, he can't voice out a simple 'NO'. And there's the problem; in every day life, he's just a hesitant coward, which often sips over into their S&M sessions, and I'm left there wondering 'oi, is this guy really a Dom? I don't think so...'.

Despite all this, overall, I enjoyed my time with Nana to Kaoru quite a lot. Again, if all pointless drama filler was cut off, if side characters weren't all annoying to boot, and if main guy just wasn't who he was, this would have been a great manga. Alas, it is what it is. A box with a pretty wrap, but also pretty much empty inside.

I don't want to go on a rant so I'll try to keep this short. I'll start this off by say, if you are hoping to read this series for the kinky factor and mostly just that than I think you'll like this a lot? Maybe? I'm not really into S&M so those segments didn't do much for me outside the first few sessions but obviously if you are into that stuff then by all means enjoy.

If you're a poor hopeless romantic idiot like me who is going into this expecting a well told romance story with a kinky factor and amazing character development ... and whatnot, then do yourself a favor and don't read this. I'm not going to spoil anything but I will say this series is the literal embodiment of nothing happens. The whole story revolves around male MC liking female MC and female MC somewhat liking male MC but mostly liking the S&M sessions and then they have some sort of conflict. They then proceeed to have a session to "clear up the air" and then repeat. Theres a lot of side plots that I personally was invested in or at least curious in and all of them aside from a few got dropped entirely with no resolution or just forgotten and the very few that did have resolutions, felt more like cliffhangers or had no proper resolution. The ending was a huge let down, both in this and the sequel manga.

If you want to read something similar that follows the same vibe as this story (a kinky "romance" comedy) but with an actual ending and actual development then I'd recommend reading a series called Sundome.