Nana 11
Posted: September 5, 2008 Filed under: Nana 3 Comments »There are only so many ways and times I can say I like something, which is sorta why it’s been quiet around here lately. The latest batch of books I read were Nana, Skip Beat, and After School Nightmare, all of which are my favorites, now and forever. I’ve been putting off writing about them because I just don’t know what to say that I haven’t already. But I always figure something out once I get going, so here we go.
This volume was mostly about the bands, Trapnest and Blast/Black Stones (it’s sort of unclear what the name of Nana’s band is at this point, I can’t remember if the label changed the band’s name, or if the original name of the band is just left over in all the artwork… I remember something about a change from Black Stones to Blast for copyright reasons, but both names are used pretty freely in this volume). Hachi’s story gets put on the back burner, but sadly she and Nana are still passing like two ships in the night. Both want to see each other very badly, but can’t think of a reason to be friends anymore. It literally breaks my heart to read these parts.
Blast is in a remote location recording their album, and the publicity from the Ren/Nana thing seems to only have helped them. Everyone is predicting big things, and the four members of the band are kept extremely busy, with no room for social calling, both at the retreat and when they get back. There’s lots of interaction between the Blast characters as a result, but most of them seem to be keeping secrets from all the others. Nobu starts hanging out with a fellow dorm-mate who he swears isn’t really a romantic interest, Nana is wondering if there’s something between she and Yasu, which is kind of weird and out of left field, Yasu is trying to get Ren and Nana back together (I… guess I didn’t realize they had “broken up?” when did they? DID they, or were they just trying to keep apart because of the publicity?), Shin has the whole… Layla thing… yeah, it’s a mess, as always. There’s a few good Ren/Nana scenes towards the end that are to die for.
Actually, there’s a little bit of Hachi mixed into things here. We actually see her old, first boyfriend for the first time in a long time, and he talks things over with Jun and her boyfriend. Hachi shows up at Jackson’s, the old bar, and it winds up being a pretty funny and touching scene. Even someone like Nana’s old boyfriend, who wasn’t given much story time and hasn’t appeared in forever, you just can’t help but feel for him. Ai Yazawa is really the best at characters and portraying, quite literally, the most realistic and raw emotional scenes you will ever read. There is just no other girl’s comic like this one.
There’s a cliffhanger for the next volume. I really, REALLY hope that Hachi doesn’t wind up flaking out on me. I don’t think I could take it.
[...] Phil Guie checks out vol. 1 of Knights at PopCultureShock’s Manga Recon blog. Connie reads vol. 11 of Nana and vol. 17 of Tenjho Tenge at Slightly Biased Manga. Oyceter enjoys vol. 1 of Sugar Princess: [...]
I understand why you can only say so much. I could probably gush about all I love about Nana, but then I’d realize I’d be repeating myself again and again, and that most of the things I say is really more rambling then anything. Anyway…. I have to say the direction she is going so far since vol 8 is getting very interesting. Ai Yazawa hasn’t let me down yet and I doubt she ever will. Hachi, Nana, and all the rest shows signs of both regression and progression.
I have to agree with the emotional intensity. Nana remains, to this day, the only one who has ever made me cry, especially with Nana and Hachi’s relationship, because it reminds me so much of my broken friendship with my best friend, in which we so naturally grew apart it was devastating. The way Ai Yazawa represents it is so spot-on I can’t help crying. The two really ARE the core of this manga.
I love this manga’s inter connectivity and exploration of relationships. A web of relationships that holds different meanings to different people, and that can never be erase. I LOVE that she doesn’t drop characters when their arc is done. Worked out swimmingly when Shoji came back, because you also get to see Hachi’s feelings for him from back then, but with a more mature perspective, and you really FEEL for the guy. it’s such a bittersweet moment.
By the way, Yasu and Nana’s always been hinted at, because he’s so important to her. She runs to him when she’s in trouble, less so then Ren (Ren only when she’s hiding). And I think Ren and Nana is just… broken right now. Publicity, different careers, different issues… Not broken up, per say, but just a lot of issues. A hidden toxic obsessive love like theirs is really going to crash soon anyway. But they’re both so weak it’s going to hurt.
@_@ Alright, I’m finished rambling. Anyway, one last thing, Black Stones is their official name, from Yasu’s (or Ren’s, don’t remember) cigarettes, and the abreviation is BLAST (Get it? BLAck STones). Both are right.
YES. I did not get the BLAck STones thing before. Wow, that’s sort of a forehead slapper. What was the copyright thing that I’m remembering, then? Was there something different about the name of the band in the English edition, or did I just hallucinate that?
Great points, too. I can agree with everything you said, basically. It’s such a great series. I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop on the Ren/Nana thing, for the moment. As good as it seems to be going right now, I feel like everything’s resting on a thread that’s about to snap. I suppose that’s the way things go in this series, though.