Nana

The Pros: Nana is an anime that explores the realistic struggles of two young women trying to accomplish their dreams in Tokyo. This is an anime that explores the natural development of character relationships and the lives of various different characters who became the way they were based on past hardships. All the characters of Nana each have their own different upbringings which shaped how they would become the person that were now and the series brilliantly explores how the hardships of society affect these people and their personalities. While there are brief signs of happiness given to these characters, one of life's hardships will come crashing in to make said characters realize that not everything within their lives will be happy. If a character makes a foolish choice for themselves, it affects the character's thoughts of how they are living and what they wanted to do with their lives. Case in point, Nana Osaki's strong-willed and prideful personality in being a successful punk singer for her band, the Black Stones and her increasingly possessive attitude in her friendship with Hachi (Nana Komatsu) are tested throughout the series. This makes her realize sides to her personality that she never thought she possessed. The series explores plenty of realistic themes in the struggles of the characters such as child abandonment, the sexual tension in relationships, public image from the paparazzi, and even birth control. This helps give Nana a realistic amount of detail and characterization to deal with, while throwing in some humor with occasional jumps into SD.

In terms of animation, Nana features detailed and vibrant artwork and character designs that help create a natural, everyday setting for the characters. The artwork shows plenty of scenery to take in with outside settings, especially when seeing landscapes or if one of the characters is out on the streets of Tokyo. The character designs are as detailed and colorful as the characters found in Ai Yazawa's previous work, Paradise Kiss.

A major highlight to the series is the music. The various opening and closing sequences feature powerful and intense rock music pieces that flow well with the mood of the series. The soundtrack for the series is one of the best that I've heard since listening to the music of .hack//SIGN. All the musical tracks match up perfectly to the specific events which take place throughout the series.

The Cons: My only issue with Nana would have to be its choice of ending. There were several developing plot elements brought up towards the end of the series that were left unresolved and the choice of ending lacked believability compared to all the events that led up to that point in the series making it feel bittersweet at best.

Facts on the Series:

-Based on Ai Yazawa's popular ongoing shoujo manga series. Both the anime and manga are now licensed in America by Viz Media with the manga published in Viz's Shojo Beat monthly manga publication.

-The popularity of the manga series helped led to the creation of two live-action movies based on the manga and promote the popularity of singers Olivia and Anna Tsuchiya.

(3 episodes watched)

Having enjoyed Paradise Kiss, I decided to take a look at Nana, another anime based on manga by Ai Yazawa. Nana seems to be all the rage in Japan, is widely regarded as Yazawa's best work to date, and has already spun off a live-action movie, PSP games, and a plethora of other merchandise. As for me, the characters immediately grabbed my attention as fun, interesting, believable persons (that occasionally go superdeformed, as in ParaKiss). So far, so good; more later...

...actually, after several more episodes I concluded that this show was a little too realistic for my taste, what with all the heartbreak it depicts and all. I'm sure drama fans will love it, but I'm a comedy guy and consequently have shelved Nana for the time being.