Nana (manga)

Nana (ナナ) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Ai Yazawa. It was serialized in Cookie magazine from July 2000 until June 2009 when it went on indefinite hiatus, with its chapters collected into 21 tankōbon volumes published by Shueisha. The series derives its title from the name of the two main characters, both of whom are called Nana. Nana Komatsu is a small town girl who goes to Tokyo to follow her boyfriend and college friends, with the hope of having her dream life. Nana Osaki was in a popular punk rock band in her hometown. She goes to Tokyo with the goal of making it big as a singer. The two Nanas meet on the train ride to the city. Later, they run into each other again when they happen to check out the same apartment, and the girls decide to become roommates. The series chronicles their friendship and their lives as each chases her dreams.

The manga was adapted into a live-action film in 2005, with a sequel released in 2006. An anime adaptation created by Madhouse aired on Nippon TV between April 5, 2006 and March 27, 2007. All Nana media has been licensed for English language release in North America by Viz Media. They serialized the manga in their Shojo Beat magazine until the August 2007 issue, while also publishing it in the tankōbon format. They released both films in 2008 and their English dub of the anime was broadcast on the Funimation Channel beginning in September 2009. Nana won the 2002 Shogakukan Manga Award for Shōjo manga and has sold over 43 million copies.

Plot

Nana Komatsu has a habit of falling in love at first sight all the time, and depending on other people to help her. When her friends, and then her boyfriend, leave for Tokyo, she decides to join them a year later after having saved enough money at the age of twenty.

Nana Osaki, the other Nana, is the punk-styled lead vocalist of a band called Black Stones (BLAST for short). She had lived with her boyfriend, bassist Ren Honjo since she was 16, but when Ren is offered a chance to debut in Tokyo as a replacement member of a popular band called Trapnest, Nana chooses to continue on with BLAST and to cultivate her own career instead of following Ren, as she has too much ambition to be relegated to a rockstar's girlfriend. She eventually leaves for Tokyo at the age of twenty to start her musical career.

The two Nanas meet on a train by chance, both on their way to Tokyo. After a string of coincidences, they come to share an apartment. Despite having contrasting personalities and ideals, the Nanas respect each other and become close friends. While BLAST begins to gain popularity at live gigs, the two Nanas face many other issues together, especially in the areas of friendship and romance. The story of Nana revolves heavily around the romance and relationships of the two characters as one seeks fame and recognition while the other seeks love and happiness.

Media

Manga

Written and illustrated by Ai Yazawa, Nana premiered in Cookie in 2000 where it ran until June 2009, when the series was put on hiatus due to Yazawa falling ill.^[2] Yazawa returned from the hospital in early April 2010, but has not specified when or if she will resume the manga.^[3] The individual chapters have been collected and published into 21 tankōbon volumes in Japan by Shueisha.

Nana is licensed for English-language release in North America by Viz Media. It was serialized in Viz's manga anthology Shojo Beat, premiering in the July 2005 debut issue and continuing until the August 2007 issue.^[4][5] They published all 21 collected volumes as of July 6, 2010.

Films

Two live-action film adaptations have been made for Nana. The first, Nana, was released on September 3, 2005. The film stars Mika Nakashima as the punk star Nana Osaki, Aoi Miyazaki as Hachi (Nana Komatsu), Ryuhei Matsuda as Ren Honjo, Tetsuji Tamayama as Takumi Ichinose, Hiroki Narimiya as Nobuo Terashima, and Matsuyama Kenichi as Shinichi Okazaki. 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, and staying in the top 10 for several weeks.^[6] A sequel, Nana 2, was announced right after the debuted. However, on August 4, 2006, Toho stated that shooting would begin mid-September and that the film was to be released on December 9, 2006. Aoi Miyazaki and Ryuhei Matsuda would not be reprising their respective roles as Nana Komatsu and Ren Honjo; as such, their roles were assigned to Yui Ichikawa and Nobuo Kyou, respectively. Some locations from the manga had been changed for the film, and there also were many plot differences. Additionally, the film's ending is not the actual end of the manga; "Nana" is an ongoing story.^[7]

Anime

Nana was adapted into an anime series, directed by Morio Asaka and animated by the studio Madhouse. The first and third openings and third ending songs are sung by Anna Tsuchiya for the band Black Stones, and Olivia sings the second opening and first and second endings for the band Trapnest as Reira Serizawa. The first DVD release was on July 7, 2006. The anime series was intended to be equal to the manga and it was adapted until the 12th tankoubon to avoid filler. According to Junko Koseki (editor of Nana in Shueisha) and Masao Maruyama (president of Madhouse) a second season is probably going to be aired once the manga series is finished.^[8]

The anime adaptation was also licensed for release in North America by Viz Media.^[9] Funimation got the broadcast rights to Viz Media's dub and it premiered on the Funimation Channel on September 19, 2009.^[10]

Albums inspired by Nana

Nana has inspired several studio albums, the most notable being Love for Nana. Several famous artists contributed to it, including English musician Glen Matlock of The Sex Pistols, Canadian singer-songwriter Skye Sweetnam, and various Japanese artists. Punk Knight from Nana and Nana's Song Is My Song were albums made up of mostly unknown artists.

Love for Nana

01. BEAT 7 ~The Theme of LOVE for NANA~ / Takamizawa Toshihiko of The Alfee

02. GIMME ALL OF YOUR LOVE !! / Tommy heavenly for BLACK STONES

03. Twinkle / Kimura Kaela for BLACK STONES

04. REVERSE / TETSU69 for TRAPNEST

05. stay away / abingdon boys school for BLACK STONES

06. I miss you? / Do As Infinity for BLACK STONES

07. バンビーノ (Bambino) / Tomoyasu Hotei featuring Miho Moribayashi for TRAPNEST

08. Sleepwalking / Glen Matlock & The Philistines featuring Holly Cook for BLACK STONES

09. Sugar Guitar / Skye Sweetnam for TRAPNEST

10. 黎明時代-レイメイジダイ- (reimei jidai) / Japaharinet for BLACK STONES

11. BLACK CROW / SEX MACHINEGUNS for BLACK STONES

12. Two Hearts / ZONE for TRAPNEST

13. Cherish / Otsuka Ai for TRAPNEST

Video games

A Nana video game for the PlayStation 2 platform was produced by Konami and released on March 17, 2005. A PlayStation Portable game, Nana: Everything Is Controlled By The Great Demon King!? (ナナ: すべては大魔王のお導き!?, Nana: Subete wa Daimaō no Omichibiki!?) was released on July 6, 2006. A Nintendo DS game, Nana: Live Staff Mass Recruiting! Beginners Welcome (ナナ: ライブスタッフ大募集! 初心者歓迎, Nana: Raibu Sutaffu Daiboshū! Shoshinsha Kangei) was released by Konami in June 2007.

Reception

Volumes 19 and 20 were the third and fifth highest selling (respectively) manga books of 2008.^[11] Volumes 1 and 2 were listed on YALSA's "2007 Great Graphic Novels for Teens" list.^[12] The first twelve volumes of the manga series have cumulatively sold over 22 million copies.^[13] As of 2008, it has sold over 43,600,000 collected volumes.^[14] In 2002, Nana won the Shogakukan Manga Award in the Shōjo category.^[15]

References

External links

• Official Nana website (in Japanese)
• Official Nana anime website (in Japanese)
• Nana at Viz Media
• NANA (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia