Embracing the melancholic beauty of Nana: A Tale of Two Fates

"Hey Hachi, no matter how much or how often people hurt each other, loving someone is never a waste. That love letter you left for me back then, I still cherish it."

– Nana Osaki

Hello, I'm Sophia, and for my debut on Let's Blog, I've chosen to talk about one of my favourite manga series that has stirred a whirlwind of emotions within me. I've decided to share my thoughts on Nana because, in my opinion, it remains relatively undiscovered, and I'd like to introduce it to those who read this article.

The story and its protagonists

Nana introduces us to a tale as unpredictable as life's currents. Two women, both named Nana, find themselves sitting side by side on a train bound for Tokyo. One carries a pack of cigarettes and a guitar, while the other clutches her very first piece of luggage, already requesting her parents to send her belongings once she finds a permanent place. The common thread binding these two women is their shared desire to break free from the safety of their past and step into a future filled with hope and expectations. Destiny's gears are set in motion, uniting them once again in the bustling metropolis when, individually, they decide to cross the threshold of a potential place to live. These two women, brought together by serendipity, choose to share the living costs of an apartment—Apartment number 707 on the seventh floor, which unfortunately lacks an elevator. This marks the beginning of a story filled with friendship, sisterhood, and love, a story in which they are as different in their attitudes as they are similar in the intensity of their feelings for their respective partners.

My review

Over the years, the Nana series has been celebrated and, sadly, known for its lack of a worthy epilogue. Nevertheless, it remains one of those stories that are difficult to forget. Not so much for its narrative, but for the profound emotions it elicits in its readers—whether for better or worse. In Nana, you will find an author, Ai Yazawa, who masterfully wields language, both in introspection and dialogues. In this work, readers are immersed in situations, gaining a clear understanding of how the characters interpret them. Within the same scenes, you'll encounter both public dialogues and internal turmoil. This storytelling choice serves as a double-edged sword, offering readers a deeper insight into Yazawa's characters, including their exposed and conflicting flaws. To augment these vivid scenes packed with intricate details, one, or more than one, narrative voice with a nostalgic undertone has been introduced. This voice-over arouses curiosity, enticing readers to uncover the fate of these two women, united by chance but perhaps separated by unforeseen events.

In a world where backgrounds are often hazy, and character outlines can be a bit slender, the true focus of Nana lies in its meticulous attention to facial expressions and subtle details—the hairpins, the skirt hems, the studs. However, Nana shines brightly in its character development, allocating each character a distinctive space within the narrative and an individuality capable of steering the plot. While this may resemble a work of fiction, this harmonization is essential for readers to grasp the duality of the worlds in which the two main protagonists live, or rather, survive.

Nana has the unique advantage of appealing to a wide range of tastes due to the diversity of its characters. These characters evolve over time, and each follows a trajectory that allows us to compare the same individuals at the beginning and end of the story. While love serves as the central pillar of the narrative, Nana encompasses so much more: friendship, redemption, desire, competition, disappointment, jealousy, and possession.

For those who appreciate realism, Nana is a treasure trove of genuine emotions. The hidden meaning of this series, if you seek to find one, lies in the melancholy randomness of life. It encapsulates the paradox of coincidental encounters that lead to bonds and entrusts them to an unpredictable future. While the ending may not be textbook, it remains true to the only certainty we know as human beings.

Conclusion

For all these reasons, I wholeheartedly recommend reading Nana. Moreover, I suggest revisiting it with a fresh perspective to anyone who may have been disappointed by the lack of a conclusive ending. Nana is the only work by Ai Yazawa that can afford the luxury of leaving us with the sentiment that it's "a blank canvas where nothing has yet been drawn."

If you are interested

                                     read Nana here: https://nana-manga.com/nana-chapter-0/

start watching Nana here: https://www.animeworld.so/play/nana-ita.zSn54/mTC9fy

Today's Blogger

 

Hello there! I'm Sophia Corsini from third year of liceo scientifico, and my distinct feature is my red hair. I find joy in playing the piano, a skill I've honed over the years. When I'm not immersed in the world of music, you can often find me flipping through manga pages, engrossed in captivating stories.