It's been some time since I've felt so happy and sad cause of an anime and tbh I kinda wonder if it has ever been this deep .
First of all I should warn you that the manga is still incomplete because of the authors illness and will probably will be incomplete as she hasn't been writing (or drawing) even after 8 years since the incident .
With that explanation let's get to the anime :
Since you can read the synopsis I will skip the brief explanation and get to the point which is that it has a really engaging and entertaining story . The relationship between characters is worked on and thought of very deeply by the author and takes one to the depth of their world , The feelings characters get is felt greatly by the watchers hence the utmost sadness and happiness fills their heart . It is pretty rare to see this kind of story nowadays . Although I must say some scenes and decisions were sometimes a bit too harsh esp. later in the show but never hurt the awesome experience of watching this masterpiece .
I must say that the weakest part of NANA is it's art . Extremely blurry scenes and weak lighting make up a somewhat average art but the character's art and almost everything else other than those two are almost flawless and somewhat compensate the shortcomings esp. some chibi forms and singing scenes .
The OST and sounding of NANA is one of the best I've seen so far , it matches the mood swings of the episodes and by far surpasses the standards of a normal anime not to mention the variety of the songs used in the openings and endings .
The characters in the anime are well developed and it doesn't have any shallow and useless characters . They feel real and are easy to feel empathized toward which is admiring .
The feeling of enjoyment is a bit controversial in NANA as it isn't defined by a happy ending or any specific scene but by the overall show . I think it is one of the most enjoyable anime out there but don't get me wrong that doesn't necessarily mean you will feel anything specific after completing it or that you'll drown in feelings of enjoyment and satisfaction but quite the opposite ( at least in my case ) It makes you question very basic human nature and feeling which is again praiseworthy imo .
If you are tired of all the superficial anime and want something deep and even depressing to some extent and have a thing for shoujo material then this is for you .
I'll be decreasing my overall scoring system so that NANA's 10 score would stand out a bit .
