Nana (ナナ?) is a Japanese shoujo manga series written and illustrated by Ai Yazawa, serialised in Cookie published by Shueisha. There is an anime adaptation, as well as two live-action films. The first twelve volumes of the manga series have cumulatively sold over 22 million copies. As in 2005, it has sold over 34,500,000 making it the fourth best selling shōjo manga worldwide. The manga derives its title from the name of the two main characters, both of whom are called Nana. What sets them apart, however, is the stark difference between their lives. One Nana comes from a small town, following along with her friends and boyfriend to Tokyo with the hope of having the dream life that she wishes for. The other Nana, on the other side, comes to Tokyo with the goal of making it big with her band, Black Stones. The two Nanas are brought together in what has become a major success for Ai Yazawa and the shōjo genre.
In June 2009, the series was put on hiatus as Yazawa became ill and unable to work. It is unknown when it will return, but the hiatus is expected to last several months.
Plot synopsis
Nana Osaki is a punk singer who wants to debut with her band Black Stones (BLAST for short).
Nana was the lead vocalist in their old band with her boyfriend, Ren, and they lived together as lovers since she was 16. When Ren was offered a chance to debut in Tokyo as a replacement member of the popular band Trapnest (Toranesu in Japanese), Nana chose to cultivate her own band after Ren left her and Black Stones for Trapnest. Having too much pride to simply follow Ren to Tokyo and happily be a rockstar's girlfriend, she stayed behind. She leaves for Tokyo at the age of twenty, and to start her musical career.
Nana Komatsu, the other Nana, is called with the nickname Hachi (after Hachikō) as she has weak mental characteristics that resemble a puppy. With a habit of falling in love at first sight all the time, Hachi has always depended on other people to help her. When her friends and then boyfriend leave for Tokyo, she decides to join them a year later after having saved enough money at the age of twenty.
Nana and Hachi meet in a train by chance, both on their way to Tokyo. After a string of coincidences, they come to live together in an apartment numbered 707. Despite having contrasting characters and ideals, the Nanas like and respect each other.
While the Black Stones begin to gain popularity at live gigs, other issues need resolving, especially in the areas of romance. The story of Nana revolves heavily on the romance and relationships of the two characters as one seeks fame and recognition while the other seeks love and happiness.
Sharing the same name, they support each other through each of their love lives and careers.
Characters
Nana Osaki (大崎 ナナ)
One of the titular characters of the series, Osaki Nana may look like a tough punk rocker, but she has a kind heart and is a devoted friend. Abandoned by her parents and raised by her grandmother, Nana was expelled from high school after she was falsely accused of prostitution. Despite these hardships, Nana "polishes the shards of her dreams" and is determined to be successful as the lead vocalist of Blast. She is now engaged to her first love, Ren, although she also has lingering, ambiguous feelings for Yasu. Nana's favourite things never change. Her favorite designer is Vivienne Westwood, and her favorite band is the Sex Pistols. She smokes Seven Stars and likes coffee with milk and strawberry cake. She also has the ability to cook, but prepares all her food with too much salt which only Ren seems to enjoy.
Nana Komatsu (小松 奈々)
Name: Nana Komatsu
Occupation: Misc, housewife
Gender: Female
Born: November 30, 1980
Height: 158 cm
Weight: 46 kg
Family: Mother (Natsuko), Father, Older sister Nao, younger sister Nami
Komatsu came to Tokyo, looking to find her dream. Unlike Osaki, Komatsu came from a large and happy household, though her childish outlook prevented her from living on her own initially. She's the middle child of three sisters.
Her chance encounter with Osaki began a friendship which changes Komatsu's life forever. She is introduced to Osaki's band, Black Stones, and their members. She later even helps "Blast" to find their bassist, by drawing a poster to advertise the vacancy. Much to her surprise, she also discovers that the members of Blast were friends with the members of Trapnest, a popular rock band of which she's a very big fan.
Ren Honjo (本城蓮)
Blast's former bassist, Ren is actually Trapnest's guitarist. He is very popular and his music is well-received by fans. He and Nana Osaki were once in a relationship. Ren is a big fan of the Sex Pistols; he participated in a tribute album to them, and wears a "Sid Vicious" padlock around his neck that he received from Nana. Nana had an image of a lotus tattooed on her upper arm in honor of him ("Ren" is a Japanese name for lotus). The brand of the cigarettes he originally smoked was the 'Seven Stars'.
Takumi Ichinose (一ノ瀬巧)
he leader and bassist of Trapnest. He is quite handsome and has a reputation of being a playboy. Despite his raw sexual charisma, Takumi can also be a cold and controlling workaholic. His favorite brand of cigarettes is Gitanes.
FILM
Nana has been made into a film which was released on September 3, 2005. The film stars Mika Nakashima as the punk star Nana Osaki, and Aoi Miyazaki as Hachi (Nana Komatsu). The DVD edition was released on March 3, 2006. The film did quite well at the Japanese box office, grossing more than 4 billion yen, staying in the top 10 for several weeks.
Main cast
Nana Osaki: Mika Nakashima
Nana Komatsu (Hachi): Aoi Miyazaki
Theme songs
In addition to creating a Nana craze throughout Asia, the film also helped launch Mika Nakashima to the peak of her career as she released the single "Glamorous Sky" under the name Nana starring Mika Nakashima. The single created topicality with its special collaboration between Nakashima, Hyde (who wrote the song), and Nana author Yazawa Ai (who wrote the lyrics). The single became Nakashima's first number one single on the Oricon Charts.
The film also helped promote another artist, Yuna Ito, who starred in the film as Trapnest vocal Reira, released her debut single "Endless Story," the insert song of the film, under the name Reira starring Yuna Ito. The single ranked second on the Oricon charts, next to Nakashima's "Glamorous Sky," and made Yuna Ito one of the most successful debuting artists of 2005.
My review:
One of the things I like to see the most in anime is how they portray relationships. I’m a sucker for romance, but I hate the cheesy stuff you usually see in typical shoujo anime. Sometimes you’ll find an anime with realistic characters, with the typical flaws of human nature, and usually people love them. We can identify with them. Like in Evangelion many people who have dealt with depression could identify with Shinji (in some levels…).
I watch Anime NANA and Read NANA manga basically because of the recommendation from my lovely sister..
she told me that this is one of anime that she love.. and because as long I know, she have a good taste of Anime.. and because she looks really admire Nana Osaki (one of main character in NANA). so I try to look forward some times to watching this anime and reading the manga (it's really sad to know that Nana manga havent been finished yet.. :( )
Recently, I finally sat down and watched “Paradise Kiss”. It’s a short (12 episodes) anime that, to make it short, is about relationships and growing up. I was impressed by its maturity. The art style took a while to get used to, but afterwards I loved it. After watching it, I decided to watch “Nana”, which is by the same author and deals with similar issues.
Synopsis:
“On board the train to Tokyo to meet her boyfriend Shoji, Nana Komatsu ("Hachi") happened to sit beside Nana Osaki who was traveling to Tokyo to fulfill her dreams of becoming a musician. The vocalist for her punk band "Blast", Nana aims for a major debut for "Blast" in Tokyo where her boyfriend, Ren, is the guitarist for a popular band "Trapnest". Sharing the same name "Nana", both girls quickly form a bond of friendship. Their paths cross again when they encounter each other while searching for accommodation in Tokyo. Eventually they decide to live together in the same unit and this further strengthens their bond as the two "Nana(s)" go through their love lives and career.”
Story (10/10)
I almost have no words to express how it made me feel. It’s amazing. Incredibly realistic and moving. I started watching it without knowing a thing about it (not even synopsis), though the title “Nana” sounded familiar as something popular among anime fans. 
The anime was broadcasted in 2006, lasting 47 episodes, but the manga first came out in Japan in 2000 and is still ongoing.
The concept itself isn’t anything too extraordinary. People living together, people falling in and out of love, people trying to make it in showbiz and other stuff. You could say it blends many overused ideas, then twists them around and reinvents them, transforming itself into a completely original and brilliant idea. And it contains romance, drama and comedy, but the transition between them is really well done, so it doesn’t feel weird.
What really makes “Nana” shine is the incredible character development. The evolution of each character’s personality and relationships with other characters. The things we watch them go through seem so real, like we’d probably make the same mistakes and choices as they did. 
No one is perfect – that’s a fact. We often think to ourselves “If I was [him], I wouldn’t have made that choice”, but the truth is we are lying to ourselves. We are insecure, emotional beings, that often ignore rational thought and make reckless decisions. “Nana” is so realistic that it’ll blow your mind away.
This is a long series, but it’s not hard to watch. In the first episodes, the action often switches between the actual time and many flashbacks, but they really are important to understand a character’s background. At some point you might get the feeling that they’re repeating the flashbacks, but don’t worry. This isn’t a filler-filled series.
In the end I felt that the story was really well told. But they leave you in a sort of cliffhanger… because the manga isn’t finished yet. But they made it more than obvious that at some point there’ll be a second season of Nana, so don’t worry. In fact, I loved watching this and the way it ended wasn’t too frustrating because I’d just experienced an awesome series.
Visuals (8/10)
The way the characters look might be a little hard to get used to (at least imo), but I really like the art style. I don’t think there’s anything too impressive or revolutionary about the visuals here… which is a good thing. I think the plot alone would be enough to hold the audience and maybe if they’d done something too extravagant visually (*cough* Air *cough*) the viewer would get sidetracked from the story itself. I think the animation was very fitting for the anime.
The animation studio is Madhouse, which was also responsible for “Beck”, “CardCaptor Sakura”, “Paradise Kiss”, “Death Note” and a bunch of others.
Audio (9/10)
I watched the episodes with the original Japanese voice actors and English subtitles. As for the actors, I think they were perfect for their roles. KAORI gave her voice to Nana “Hachi”, which suited the character perfectly with the childish and girlish tone (but thankfully not an annoying high-pitched voice). For the tough rock singer Nana Osaki we have Romi Paku, who also voiced Edward Elric in Full Metal Alchemist. They knew that “Nana” would be an instant success, so they gave it a cast of famous actors and spared no expense.
At first this seems like an anime about music, but it doesn’t play that much of a part here. I mean, we hear lots of songs, but the story isn’t focused on showing us the making of the songs in detail. Compared to “Gravitation” or “Full Moon wo Sagashite”, music wasn’t as important here.
I loved the songs. The fictional bands’ songs are used as openings and endings. OLIVIA is the singing voice of Reira, and we hear many songs from her. My favourite was “A little pain”. It was the first Ending, and since each episode ended on a relatively sad tone, the song fit perfectly. When I heard the first words of the lyrics (“Travel to the moon…”) it almost made me want to cry.
Characters (10/10)
As I’ve mentioned, the characters are the best thing about the anime. We get the chance to know a bit about each character’s history, motivations, thoughts and desires. They are so realistic that we just can’t help but being sucked in by them.
As the anime progresses, the characters gradually grow. This is a very “slice of life” genre of anime, so we watch them growing up. I love how they all interact and deal with their decisions. I love how they aren’t perfect… but as flawed as humans should be.
Overall (10/10)
I loved this anime and it will definitely become one of my favorite series of all time. I feel like watching it again and again, but since it is 47 episodes long and makes me very emotional, maybe it’ll have to wait until I have more time.
I don’t feel like reading the manga for the sole reason that it is too damn long. If it weren’t for that, I would have already ordered all the volumes. But I gained new respect for the mangaka Ai Yazawa.
There are 2 live-action movies for “Nana”. I haven’t watched them yet, but will soon. I’m curious as to how they squeezed all that plot into 2 movies (I’d say they have enough material to make a whole 11 episode drama or maybe something even longer).
All in all, NANA is one of the best series I have ever watched and absolutely the best in its genre, I am planning to watch it again right after the news of it getting a second season^^ It is a must-see anime, definitely recommended...
Official websites
Nana Online
The Manga website
The Anime website
The Tribute Album website
English
Shojo Beat
Unofficial websites
NANA (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
NANA (manga) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
Nana-Nana.net, a Movie Fansite
NANA Fansite
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