Yazawa Ai - Nana, vol. 04-05 (Eng. trans.) (reread)

[oyceter]

And now I hit the extent of my Nana-reading. Everything else from now on will be new! How exciting!

Spoilers for both vols.

Oh, Cute Nana. You poor thing.

What impressed me most with the series when I first read it was how the Shoji-Sachiko storyline was handled. I really like Sachiko, even as I know she's not doing a good thing. But her fitful attempts to stop, her pleas for friendship, all those ring so true. And while Shoji cheating still makes me want to whack him over the head with a big stick, I also sort of understand it. I don't think Cute Nana is to blame, because ... she is not to blame. But I can see why Shoji does it, even as I want to whack him.

And oh, I heart Punk Nana so much for sticking up for Cute Nana, and my heart always breaks at Cute Nana's plaintive "Iranai no..." ("I don't need/want him...").

Also, Junko's reaction reads as so real for me as well; she just can't help berating Nana even when she feels she should be comforting her, just because... well, Nana is Nana.

And then, Ren! And Ren and Nana finally meeting again, and that desperate hug. I especially like that Nana is still conflicted about the entire thing; she wants to free of things like this, but she also can't let him go. I particularly like the acknowledgement of her pride and her stubbornness, and her question at the end of being able to live with him after she's retired and maybe not so proud anymore.

I love that Cute Nana tries to help out as soon as she finds out, and that Punk Nana returns the favor by getting Takumi to visit -- I love Cute Nana opening the door and tearing up. And then, oh, Cute Nana gets involved with Takumi, which can really lead to no good at all. I like that he is introduced as rather skeezy, and Nana's hesitation in the end, her trying to get away from memories of Shoji, her questioning of her own sexuality and doubting herself all feels so real.

The first time I read these volumes, I could have sworn up and down that Yazawa was going to slash Nana and Nana togther; now I'm not so sure, not because I don't think it's there, but because I don't know if Yazawa will go there because yuri isn't as popular as BL. But Cute Nana compares Punk Nana to a perfect boyfriend so much, and there's the kiss, and there's all of Cute Nana's friends remarking on how devoted she is to Punk Nana as well! I did like the visit of the fangirl and Cute Nana wondering about Punk Nana's orientation though.

That said, I think my favorite moments in these two volumes are small ones: Cute Nana returning to her hometown and seeing all the places she used to hang out at with Shoji and Junko and Kyosuke, because oh, I remember feeling like that after heartbreaks. And Punk Nana curled up on Cute Nana's bedroom floor, suddenly and uncharacteristically unsure of what to do.

Comments

[hysteriachan.livejournal.com]

Ohh, NANA. *^^* So good!

Have you watched the anime at all? It's a very solid adaptation, IMO (unlike the ParaKiss anime).

[oyceter]

I haven't seen the anime yet, though I've seen the first live-action movie (was totally weirded out by seeing manga characters as real actors). I think I will catch up on the anime once I've caught up on the manga; I want to read it first and then watch.

[hysteriachan.livejournal.com]

It's creepy how much Nana O.'s actress looks like the character. *_* I just downloaded a raw of the second movie, and I'm looking forward to watching it. ^^ It sounds like Shin's subplot got butchered, but the new actor playing him is adorable.

[oyceter]

That was creepy! Also, she was so skinny!

I loved how much the movie sets looked like the manga, but I wish the music were better.

[umadoshi.livejournal.com]

SO skinny. *_* Which is admittedly helpful in making her look like an Ai Yazawa character, but meep.

[mystickeeper.livejournal.com]

Wah, I totally thought she was going to have the two Nanas get together, too! It seems like a lot of issues would get solved that way, anyway!

[oyceter]

I know! Ah well, we will see how the rest of it goes. I am rather scared by the melancholy tone of Cute Nana's narration; I wonder when that's set?

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

Yay for Nana. I just picked up volume 6 today. I know there are quite a few chapters available but I prefer to read my manga in bed, so I usually don't look ahead. But with Nana I got the same feeling about the Nanas as well. Since you read them in the original Japanese, I was wondering, what do the text messages look like? I don't text much, but when I do I always spell everything out so the weird "where R U?" type messages seem really strange to me.

[oyceter]

Huh, I just flipped through a little, and the text messages in the original seem to be in pretty normal Japanese. There are some shortcuts, like "~~~" to indicate that a sound is drawn out (ex. "yasu~~~!" for "yasuuuuu!"), and the smileys and whatnot are still there, but it doesn't look like netspeak (at least, not that I can tell).

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

Thanks! And netspeak was the term I was looking for but couldn't remember for the life of me.