"Friendship is the most necessary thing for life, since no one wants to live without friends even if he had all other goods." -Aristotle
In my opinion, Nana is not about romance. It's about friendship. However, it paints a darker and more realistic picture of friendship, and how things like perceptions of success and heroism infiltrate the fortress of friendship and tear it down.
As I go through life, I find it more and more dull, and I can't help but think this is due to a lack of close friends. Sure, I got peers in college I can talk to, but I wouldn't consider them
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close. I can't help but feel over-zealous parents with overly high expectations of seeing their son become the next nobel prize winner or becoming a rich doctor has ruined any success of true friendship budding. Thanks to these high expectations, most of my peers from high school are now scattered in different colleges, and most were not that close to begin with.
This is why I find Nana so fascinating, in that it shows how human relationships in modern day times are so fragile and filled with pretense. It is overwhelmingly difficult for two humans to accept each other for their most basic flaws.
I will mainly talk about the two Nana's in this review, and how their relationship was flawed from the start. In this sense, this review is more analytical, but I would not really say there are spoilers since the show is mainly theme driven and not plot driven.
Right at the get-go Nana Osaki is a hero in Nana Komatsu's eyes. Nana Komatsu, on the other hand, is just a naive, love-struck dependent country girl to Nana Osaki's eyes. Osaki even names the other Nana Hachi with the dual purpose of easily distinguishing between the two in conversation, and deeper meaning of having a hidden possessive personality, because Hachi references a popular dog, and dogs symbolize ownership over a living creature.
Nana Osaki is one of the most fascinating characters I've seen in an anime. She has hints of BPD, as referenced in being possessive of Hachi, as well as antisocial tendencies, as shown with her withdrawn social life in highschool. Mental disorders aside, there is much more to a character, and this involves relationships with other people.
Nana and Hachi can hold a conversation with ease, and hardly get on each other's nerves. There were plenty of times in the show I thought Nana would be mad at Hachi, but never did this happen. When it is just Nana and Hachi in the picture, the two are inseparable. Obligations to jobs and other people are where disagreements begin to arise. The two friends have to choose between their boyfriends and each other in both sharing living space and spending free time, and it's fascinating to see how a friend can become almost like a lover, even stronger in some sense, as to pull apart a romantic relationship.
However, I do not think Nana Osaki is being completely genuine about her true self. She does not talk much to Hachi about her life, and seems to carry an aura of independence and self-reassurance. Deep down, however, she is conflicted and insecure, which I believe is true for almost everyone. Because of her band, Nana Osaki acts like she does not need Hachi, and this is the fundamental flaw in their friendship. Im sure Hachi would be fully accepting of any flaws Nana reveals about herself, but she is just too proud and determined to find success for her band to commit to a friendship that deep.
Nana's relationship with her boyfriend Ren, is also interesting. Ren wears a persona of Sid from "Sid and Nancy", and seems to treat Nana with the same kind of possessiveness as Nana treats Hachi. The punk rock motif they flaunt about is also in reference to political-reactionary sub culture of youth groups who are fed up with economic stagnation. There is an article titled "Friendship and Postmodern Utopianism", and although I am not well-versed in the philosophical terminology and do not completely understand the article, I can't help but feel political unrest arises out of a culture that de-values friendship. It seems to suggest that friendship and utopianism values have an inverse relationship, as one goes up, the other goes down. I believe politics is the intermediate that people turn to in order to satiate friendship values while keeping utopian life-style, but this seems to be a very thin line that is unstable.
There are flaws to the show, the major being that it is incomplete. There are scenes in the manga that did not make it in the show, and even the manga is not fully finished. I still believe it to be worth watching though. Hachi's character can also feel very annoying, and she can be pretty whiny sometimes. But I believe her crying is genuine in that she truly feels sorry for Nana Osaki, and is crying out of shame for the feeling of betraying her friendship. Otherwise, her whining is just played for comedic effect, and most of the comedy is hit-or-miss. I would have removed some of the comedy, but it's not a deal breaker.
I have to lastly mention the retrospective approach to storytelling the anime employs at the end of each episode, as if the events in the anime are just memories they are both reminiscing over. I'm not sure if this is used in the manga, so if someone could tell me that would be cool. In any case, what the anime does at the end of each episode is highly cathartic and melancholic, and gives off a feeling of nostalgia.
I really enjoyed Nana, and hope for it to be complete one day. If it was complete, there would be no doubts that I would give it a 10, and may be my favorite anime of all time.
Dec 17, 2017
"Friendship is the most necessary thing for life, since no one wants to live without friends even if he had all other goods." -Aristotle
In my opinion, Nana is not about romance. It's about friendship. However, it paints a darker and more realistic picture of friendship, and how things like perceptions of success and heroism infiltrate the fortress of friendship and tear it down. As I go through life, I find it more and more dull, and I can't help but think this is due to a lack of close friends. Sure, I got peers in college I can talk to, but I wouldn't consider them ... 
Feb 18, 2017
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The Circus in Midori is made of a motley band of misfits, and Midori herself is tricked into joining them. Midori is seemingly normal, and juxtaposing her against the circus crew feels ... |
