I’ll preface by saying Munou na Nana is one of the only manga I actively enjoy reading these days. So when I found out that it was getting an anime adaptation I had pretty high expectations for the series. I believe those expectations were met and came away with this in my top four shows of the season.
What makes this series so special for me is that Nana is a morally grey character. A lot of times we tend to see the world as right and wrong, black and white, etc., when in reality it’s usually grey. Everyone is evil from someone’s point of view, and this anime and manga really test your ability to accept other perspectives. If you judge Nana from the perspective of her classmates, you will find her to be an evil character. If you put yourself in her shoes, you see that things are not quite that simple.
On top of the moral ambiguity, the arc that the anime covers is really a battle of wits. It’s Nana vs Kyoya as she races to complete her task of eliminating the students, while he gradually closes in on her. I think the tension between the two throughout the season is amazing. The internal monologues that detail the characters’ strategies that allow you to gain an insight and understand their actions really well. There’s no leaps in logic because everything is explained to you piece by piece. I’ve never seen it, but I’ve been told there’s a lot of similarities between Nana and Death Note in this regard, so if you liked that, you’d probably like this.
Art and animation are solid enough. This isn’t a battle shonen, so I don’t expect super fluid animation, but when needed it’s more than adequate. I thought the OP performed by Tomita MIyu was one of the best of the season and the ED is my pick for ED of the season. I thought the OST in general was well put together.
In the end, the mental and tactical warfare between Nana and Kyoya provided 12 weeks of consistent entertainment. On more than one occasional you’ll be forced to reconsider whose side you’re on and what’s right and wrong. adapdation wise, I have no issues with the anime, so based on my love of the manga, Munou na Nana gets 10 watches out of 10.
