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This Week in Anime - Is Talentless Nana Worth Watching?


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Takkun4343



Joined: 19 Jul 2007
Posts: 1493
Location: Englewood, Ohio
PostPosted: Thu Dec 17, 2020 4:53 pm Reply with quote
While you guys do make a good argument for watching this show, I'm still gonna sit this one out. Making your decoy protagonist out as the only halfway-decent person on the island of full of jerks and having him get killed off spoiler[at first glance] by the token nice girl who's, surprise surprise, actually a deceitful bitch is not a good look, even if said protagonist is a "potato". And no amount of snarky immortal bois or jarringly super-innocent fangirls introduced later on will do much to change my thoughts on that first impression (which I admittedly only got from reading up on it like the self-spoiler I am. Confused)

You had your shot, Talentless Nana, but as far as "the cast is mostly horrible people" shows this season go, my heart belongs to Akudama Drive.
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ThatGuyWhoLikesThings



Joined: 04 Jul 2013
Posts: 1000
PostPosted: Thu Dec 17, 2020 5:19 pm Reply with quote
Takkun4343 wrote:
While you guys do make a good argument for watching this show, I'm still gonna sit this one out. Making your decoy protagonist out as the only halfway-decent person on the island of full of jerks and having him get killed off spoiler[at first glance] by the token nice girl who's, surprise surprise, actually a deceitful bitch is not a good look, even if said protagonist is a "potato". And no amount of snarky immortal bois or jarringly super-innocent fangirls introduced later on will do much to change my thoughts on that first impression (which I admittedly only got from reading up on it like the self-spoiler I am. Confused)

You had your shot, Talentless Nana, but as far as "the cast is mostly horrible people" shows this season go, my heart belongs to Akudama Drive.


Iunno, I'd say these two are exaggerating that the island is full of awful people. Of everyone we've been introduced, only two of them are particularly bad kids. And a couple of them are jerks in the typical teenager way, but most of the ones we've met are pretty chill.
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FilthyCasual



Joined: 01 Jun 2015
Posts: 2165
PostPosted: Thu Dec 17, 2020 5:55 pm Reply with quote
I'm frankly shocked you didn't open with a faux-sympathetic segment about Nanao before gleefully cracking a mashed potato joke. If I was a gambler I'd be broke.

As for the show, there's only four important characters, but they carry it well. Nana in particular's a joy to watch, and the plot twists never let up long enough for you to think too hard about the specifics of things.
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murgleis1



Joined: 08 Aug 2020
Posts: 44
PostPosted: Thu Dec 17, 2020 6:56 pm Reply with quote
Lol, they have the show completely wrong. It'll be fun to see their reactions based on some future developments that haven't occurred yet.
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Cryten



Joined: 19 Jan 2019
Posts: 978
PostPosted: Thu Dec 17, 2020 7:21 pm Reply with quote
Personally I dropped the show after the blackmailing dude. The show enjoyed the spite in killing too much for me. While the background world is compelling and intrigue lives up to clever writing I have no faith that show isnt gonna be entirely about the pleasure of cleverly killing. I think any idea that Nana will reconsider her killings will be wiped away by the narrative imperative that the story continues. And the only way the narrative can continue is to have her continually engage in spite killing no matter how good or bad the person she targets.

Still thats the feeling I get. I have no problem with people enjoying the cleverness or watching Nana get pressured. But I dont think the show trying to justify some killings can continue to play out. Especially when she enjoyed killing quite normal socially pressured kids and has at least 4 more in her targets.
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Yuvelir



Joined: 06 Jan 2015
Posts: 1529
PostPosted: Thu Dec 17, 2020 8:07 pm Reply with quote
Forget sus, those potential kill counts are pure bogus. Either that or a branded "enemy of humanity" is the one producing the data.

Quote:
And again, there's a bizarre karmic justice at work as Nana works through her victims. The time-travelling Esper is a major control freak who'd definitely abuse his powers if it meant satisfying his obsession with cleanliness. Tsunekichi the diviner is a pervert who tries to milk his blackmail over Nana for all its worth, until the bitter end. Yuka controls the reanimated corpse of a boy she had a crush on who never reciprocated her feelings (and who she killed in the first place). The gyaru Nana offs were both catty bullies who'd sell each other out for a single corn chip as soon as they'd share makeup. This isn't quite Moriarty the Patriot, but these are all characters with serious issues who already show severe sociopathic tendencies at their tender age.

I disagree. Sure, Tsunekichi was human scum (I guess his powers are to blame for his personality and outlook, but that's all the "advantage" they give him. We have plenty of guys like him without any superpowers) and Yuka reaaaally was not ready to be left out in the world, but the rest of them are basically just teenagers. Even comically nascissist Seiya is mostly "normal" (the time traveler was basically a down-to-earth version of him). These kids are only sociapaths insofar as their very normal teenager issues are left unaddressed. Which they are. Because they've been branded as fodder to grind into dust.
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Florete



Joined: 21 Jan 2018
Posts: 363
PostPosted: Thu Dec 17, 2020 8:10 pm Reply with quote
Takkun4343 wrote:
Making your decoy protagonist out as the only halfway-decent person on the island of full of jerks and having him get killed off spoiler[at first glance] by the token nice girl who's, surprise surprise, actually a deceitful bitch is not a good look, even if said protagonist is a "potato".

That's a great look to me. The only reason I even watched the show at all.
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ThatGuyWhoLikesThings



Joined: 04 Jul 2013
Posts: 1000
PostPosted: Thu Dec 17, 2020 8:49 pm Reply with quote
Cryten wrote:
I think any idea that Nana will reconsider her killings will be wiped away by the narrative imperative that the story continues. And the only way the narrative can continue is to have her continually engage in spite killing no matter how good or bad the person she targets.


spoiler[You'd be surprised.]
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Cryten



Joined: 19 Jan 2019
Posts: 978
PostPosted: Thu Dec 17, 2020 8:51 pm Reply with quote
ThatGuyWhoLikesThings wrote:
Cryten wrote:
I think any idea that Nana will reconsider her killings will be wiped away by the narrative imperative that the story continues. And the only way the narrative can continue is to have her continually engage in spite killing no matter how good or bad the person she targets.


spoiler[You'd be surprised.]


Im always pleased to have my expectations exceeded. But you probably shouldnt of posted that. Though I still have my doubts. The central premise of a series is very hard to move. Even when some circumstances change the author usually has to satisfy fans of his styles work with more of the same material.
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ThatGuyWhoLikesThings



Joined: 04 Jul 2013
Posts: 1000
PostPosted: Thu Dec 17, 2020 9:03 pm Reply with quote
Cryten wrote:
ThatGuyWhoLikesThings wrote:
Cryten wrote:
I think any idea that Nana will reconsider her killings will be wiped away by the narrative imperative that the story continues. And the only way the narrative can continue is to have her continually engage in spite killing no matter how good or bad the person she targets.


spoiler[You'd be surprised.]


Im always pleased to have my expectations exceeded. But you probably shouldnt of posted that. Though I still have my doubts. The central premise of a series is very hard to move. Even when some circumstances change the author usually has to satisfy fans of his styles work with more of the same material.


Well, tbf, I left it in spoiler tags for a reason. Your response basically gives away what I said so i'd suggest putting your post in tags as well.

spoiler[And fwiw, after the gyarus, Nana hasn't killed anyone else after that point, even where the manga is at currently. Those were her last kills. She has considered it on a couple of occasions, but she hasn't followed through, even when other students would antagonize her]


Last edited by ThatGuyWhoLikesThings on Thu Dec 17, 2020 9:05 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Yuvelir



Joined: 06 Jan 2015
Posts: 1529
PostPosted: Thu Dec 17, 2020 9:03 pm Reply with quote
Cryten wrote:
Im always pleased to have my expectations exceeded. But you probably shouldnt of posted that. Though I still have my doubts. The central premise of a series is very hard to move. Even when some circumstances change the author usually has to satisfy fans of his styles work with more of the same material.

"Heartlessly killing everyone one by one until there's nobody left" absolutely is not how this anime is going right now.
And that would not only be boring, it would defeat the point of introducing larger mysteries around the island and the organization's nature. There's no paradigm shift here, just the natural progression of a story.
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andramus



Joined: 19 Apr 2020
Posts: 162
PostPosted: Thu Dec 17, 2020 9:35 pm Reply with quote
I know TWIA is mostly meant to be a humorous, somewhat tongue-in-cheek take on an anime but one issue I've had with some of the commentary surrounding this series is that the characters Nana killed deserved to die. Or that the commenters took pleasure in those character's deaths. For the crime of being a potato? Yuka and Tsunekichi were the only two characters whose deaths I could see some justification for and even so I didn't revel in them.

Despite some degree of absurdity in it's premise and execution Talentless Nana isn't comedic enough that I can shrug character deaths off like they were slapstick.

Post Script
Since I started watching seasonal anime a few years ago and have seen more than a few generic isekai series I've become familiar with potato protagonists. Subaru Natsuki is definitely not one. He has some of the generic isekai protagonist traits such as being a NEET and Otaku but he also has personality and characterisation.
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ThatGuyWhoLikesThings



Joined: 04 Jul 2013
Posts: 1000
PostPosted: Thu Dec 17, 2020 9:51 pm Reply with quote
andramus wrote:
Post Script
Since I started watching seasonal anime a few years ago and have seen more than a few generic isekai series I've become familiar with potato protagonists. Subaru Natsuki is definitely not one. He has some of the generic isekai protagonist traits such as being a NEET and Otaku but he also has personality and characterisation.


Yeah, I didn't mention this because it was tangential (and honestly even that's stretching it), but I don't know how anyone who watches Re:Zero can claim Subaru is an easily replaceable "potato" protagonist, because that couldn't be further from the truth. If you truly believe that, and I hate having to use this justification in most cases but, you just didn't understand the show. He's very intricately characterized, moreso than a lot of anime protagonists in general, not just isekai.
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Kitsu Kyouno



Joined: 22 Dec 2018
Posts: 170
PostPosted: Fri Dec 18, 2020 12:07 am Reply with quote
It is worth point that Munou na Nana also has some criticism of the setting of My Hero Academia about their idealized heroes "who attains superpowers without any efforts will always become arrogant" are topics that MHA always avoids because that Villains are portrayed like guys in it seem to be missing few screws. Remember these quote of All might? "never ever go for this. Only villains do that". You don't have to be crazy to do evil things, the powers are time bomb.

Also, Nana it's a good example of a character without superpowers, but defeat to enemies more strong through the use of intelligence and manipulation alone. She manages to beat the others without inventing magic solutions in the act or gifting her with powers.
Well the luck has also had an influence, but luck factor is something more feasible than for example spoiler[the 7 quirks of Deku] or spoiler[the 8 dragons of Touma] oh yeah typical to pretend to be a "ordinary character", but with a hidden potential, however this destroy the premise and conflict of the character, exactly as the anime shows in Ep.1 in where Nanao actually have a power.
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Hiroki not Takuya



Joined: 17 Apr 2012
Posts: 2501
PostPosted: Fri Dec 18, 2020 1:46 am Reply with quote
Denys Lalande wrote:
Eh -- it's all ground the TV show _Babylon 5_ covered *twenty years ago*.

Why did Psi Corps exist? Because "in any battle between Homo sapiens, and Homo superior, on an otherwise-level playing field Homo superior wins every time" -- and that battle can only end with the winning side enslaving, or *exterminating*, the losing side. "Peaceful co-existence" is a load of bunk; History tells us this....
Yea!! Another Babylon5 fan! Anime also tells us the same message, as in my fav show of a few seasons back From the New World. Anyone who honestly knows human nature knows having an overwhelming advantage makes it hard not to use it for fun and profit, usually to everyone else's detriment...
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