Nana

Started watching the anime Nana.

Nana is walking with a man on a street in Tokyo when his colleague appears and jokes about him seeing young women even though he is married. The man laughs back and agrees to treat him a lunch to keep it secret from his wife. Left together, Nana asks why he didn’t make any excuse, to which the man explains that trying to do would only have been suspicious. By keeping silent he affirmed it was just a joke.

Boy answers phone “Nana? Nana is that you?” starting to talk immediately. Friend sitting nearby wonders what if it had been somebody else calling, to which another answers “at least it proves he is not cheating her with anyone.”

Shin is an intriguing character. He is the 15 years old boyish basist who starts becoming wild. He gets piercings, starts smoking, dyes his hair blue. Having run away from home, he doesn’t have an apartment but instead sleeps at the places of many women. Nana (Hachi) finds him sleeping next to her and asks if something happened, to which Shin sleepily answers “no, because Nana doesn’t pay me anything.”

Watching more Nana. A member of the Trapnest band has only second-hand knowledge of Nana (Hachiko), and describes her to Yasu as an incredibly dangerous woman who is able to control Takumi as she pleases. “One day she demands you to appear instantly, another day she refuses to answer your calls.” Funny because it’s all true from that perspective. The disbeliefed Yasu says he’s got it wrong, but the band member says it can’t be over yet, and indeed Takumi has just made a huge move that Yasu does not know about.

Takumi is badass: Nana tells him Hachiko is seeing Nobu, to which he answers that he knows (he didn’t) and continues “He is the one who fooled around with someone else’s woman”. When I started watching this series I thought it would be cool if there was progress in the story with the married man, but I guess Takumi is the most interesting love interest among the remaining candidates as the story has come this far.

“Please make an excuse. Even if it’s I lie. Because I’ll believe it all.” - Nobu to Nana who is to shaken to say anything more than “Sorry”, which almost sounds like she is agreeing with Nobu asking if she was still seeing Takumi (she wasn’t). In the end Nana says nothing more and Nobu leaves.

Nana (the punk) becomes shaken when Takumi and Hachiko get it on in the next room, and she accidentally breaks a glass. It’s one of the pair of glasses she bought with Hachiko when they became roommates. The symbolism overcoming her, she drops the other glass too and leaves, not remembering any of what happened later the night. Later, after Takumi has left, Hachiko returns to the kitchen and finds the two broken glasses and cries. Next morning, Nana goes to the shop and buys just one glass of the same model, not remembering she broke the other one too.

Takumi to Ren: “You are the man who abandoned his woman and friends, even sold your soul for a taste of success. Although… I was the one who bought it.”

Watching more Nana. I don’t really watch shows that have pregnancy drama, but I thought it was quite interesting that Nana as this ambiguous relationship with two men, not knowing which is the father. A guy might know whether he wants to “take responsibility” or not, but what if there’s a risk it’s not your kid? What if it could risk your career to start a family? I guess the issues from the female perspective are even bigger, but it’s a bit easier to relate to the male POV for me.

Finished watching Nana. Pretty great, probably the most “real” romance drama anime out there. I think the ending could have been a bit more conclusive, at least showing every character in the time skip, even with just stills.