Forum - View topicREVIEW: Nana DVD Box Set 2
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vashfanatic
 Posts: 3492 Location: Back stateside |
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Awesome!  It's a good song. This is a little low on my must-buy list (with limited income, I'm prioritizing ones that have been on it for a long time, like Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex), but it is on there. As much as I want to throttle the female leads for their consistently awful life-choices with men, it's a really compelling drama, as Carl emoting should let on.
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Nebs
 Posts: 385 Location: University of Illinois |
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For those who might not be familiar with NANA's reputation, the manga is usually the #2 selling series in Japan every year (behind only One Piece), & the anime was the highest rated late-night anime for years (Nodame Cantabile: Paris surpassed it about a year ago). It deserves the attention it gets too, because it's really, really good.
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Otaking09
 Posts: 637 |
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Man... how can you hate Koi Kaze!?!? It's storytelling at it's peak!!! Not only is it one of the most heartfelt romances, it's also one of the most thought out ones too! Sure the art is sup-par, and there needed to be more drawn-out secondary characters (at least to me...), but it was SOOOO beautiful!!! If Nana is anything "remotely" similar to this, I'll DEFINATELY have another canditate for My Top 10! Guaranteed! |
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vashfanatic
Posts: 3492 Location: Back stateside |
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Because it glorifies statutory rape into a romance. And let's leave it at that before this goes off-topic. Nana is much, much better (though I sometimes wonder whether the author realizes the unfortunate implications of having her sexually liberated women gravitate toward unhealthy or even abusive relationships). |
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JGonspy
Posts: 70 Location: Toronto |
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You may want to consider how the codependency Ren and Nana O. share is a little more complex than you seem to regard it. As for Hatchi, well, I have no idea if you've read the manga so I won't spoil anything, but things aren't quite as simple for her either. |
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rinmackie
 Posts: 1040 Location: in a van! down by the river! |
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Well, if they were in healthy, fulfilling relationships, the story would get very boring real quick. It's a reflection of real life; even "smart" women make bad choices. Plus, the consequences of these bad choices are slowly revealed and the characters grow and change as a result. It's what makes Nana such a good drama.
As for Koi Kaze, I haven't yet seen it but from what I've heard from the people who do like it, it doesn't "glorify" statutory rape. Yes, it's about a taboo and very inappropriate relationship but there is a sense in the story that it is definitely wrong. And I'm guessing it doesn't exactly have a happy ending. But hopefully Otaking will post again with some more insight. |
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Otaking09
Posts: 637 |
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Insight is served! Strange that vashfanatic claimed that glorified raping is here, and to that claim, I respond with confusion and disappointness... Somethimes vashfanatic says things that I completely agree with, and sometimes, very rarely, says groundless comments... The thing is that the protagonists are 100% aware that what they are doing is WRONG! There is NEVER a time when they are relaxed with the feelings they have for each other. Never... Another fact is that ther is no graphic content present either, so the "rape" that vashfanatic spoke of couldn't even exist, even "if" that was what the series was about! The series starts out with neither sibling aware that they are who they are. The brother pours his feelings out to her, and, unexpectantly, she accepts and comforts him. Now remember, they don't know that they are siblings! And also remember that they are 12 years apart! At the end of the first ep, the stage is set, and the notions are forever shifted... I "DO NOT" want to spoil this flawless masterpiece of a romance story here and now, so I just want to offer you these final points: 1. Read Theron Martin's reviews. He illustrates many of the points present much better than I ever can! 2. The series does have sex in it, but it is NOT explicit! 3. Watch, if possible, in the dubbed version! It's genius! In fact, go buy all three vol. right now @ RightStuf.com right now!!! $6 each is a steal! 4. Expect an imperfect ending... It's not horrible, but it ends in a way like Baccano! did, and if you seen that one you'll know what I'm talking about! (Ironic that it's the same staff that did Baccano!) Enjoy! |
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Dakaran
 Posts: 347 |
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I watched it a long time ago when I watched also Beck and I was on a tour of the music anime show like K-ON too. NANA deeply marked the music genre in animation for me. It stays true to itself and keeps going on with cool concert and tearing love scenes.
It's a definite must be for fans of shows and music. Friendship means something in this anime, it's grand and powerful! |
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merr
Posts: 475 |
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Is that really true? I mean, the songs do sound almost identical at certain points, but has VIZ actually come out and said that's the reason why they had to change the ending? |
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bravetailor
Posts: 817 |
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In an earlier NANA thread in here, someone mentioned that "A Little Pain" was also removed from European releases/airings of NANA, so it was implied that there was a licensing issue with the song. I tend to pick the more logical reasons of things, and I personally believe the rights issue excuse more.
You're definitely selling the author's intelligence short if you don't think she realizes the implications of what she's doing. And first and foremost, she is telling A STORY, not sending a message to her audience. Which brings me to another point. Many people mistakenly go into a shoujo work with the idea that it's supposed to represent a more "feminist" viewpoint compared to other manga and anime. This is absolutely, positively untrue. While I don't want to get into another discussion of gender issues, many female viewpoints in fiction--not just in Japan--aren't necessarily "feminist" in attitude and many shoujo comics reflect this. Many shoujo do, however, examine just why many women do the things they do that men would find absolutely baffling. After plunging into a series of shoujo lately and reading interviews by female authors/artists, I find that as a (straight) man there are some emotional elements in shoujo comics I may just not personally get. I don't know how many times I've picked up a shoujo to see a simpering, indecisive female lead always pick what I objectively think of as "the wrong guy" yet thousands of female manga viewers are buying these manga by the truckload so there's obviously something there I'm not getting. What I like about NANA is that it delineates why Hatchi in particular is the way she is. You may not agree with her decision making, but the author constantly keeps the reader/viewer informed as to why she does things on an EMOTIONAL level. To a regular person, she might seem shallow and naive and even unlikeable at times, but then I think, "Hey, there are a lot of women I know in real life who are like this too. Maybe there's something I'm not seeing." So there needs to be some nuance involved for an opposite gender person approaching a work not made for their sex. I don't know if you're a female, Vashfanatic, but generally that's what I'm finding of late. |
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Otaking09
Posts: 637 |
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Hey, um... I think he was talking about Koi Kaze. Not Nana... I agree with you though about how vasfanatic sometimes says comments that just don't make sense! Either he hasn't seen it all, doesn't "get it", or compares it to a like-minded series. And I also agree with you on the audience/viewpoints of shojo. |
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bravetailor
Posts: 817 |
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I was responding to Vashfanatic's quote about NANA and women's relationships with men, which I put in my post but unfortunately was too lazy to attribute to him. Sorry about that. 
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JGonspy
Posts: 70 Location: Toronto |
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You'll have to excuse cutting off most of your quote, but this is what I wanted to address specifically. While I agree with you that shoujo manga doesn't necessarily need to represent any sort of feminist perspective, in the case of NANA, I think it's rather evident that it is making a very powerful statement through her story. She does this not so much in the obvious method of female empowerment, but rather through a very sophisticated and precise commentary of young women in modern Japanese society. It has quite a bit to say about gender and the opportunities for women in their lives, but people seem to get so wrapped up in how entertaining it is that it's easy to miss. I don't think being male will limit you from understanding this series, or any other one really. It's just a mindset you need to shift, and when you do, it really opens up the series quite a bit. |
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chrisb
 Subscriber Posts: 620 Location: USA |
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That's life, the manga writer is going for realism so she's going to show what a lot of people (not just girls) end up doing. I'm a guy and I really don't think there's much to get, you just see it as people making a bad decision. And what makes these guys "the wrong guy?" People love eachother even with severe faults, a simpering indecisive female isn't something I see as the "perfect girl" but I have dated girls who were like that anyway and liked them. The brilliant thing with NANA is that the manga creator shows that these bad decisions have serious consequences. Another thing, why the hell did VIZ cover this box with 18+ and MATURE ONLY advisories all over the box, makes it look like a hentai title and hard to really leave on your shelf without getting looks. This box set is pretty tame in terms of sexuality also, I'd say a 16, Older Teen, or 17+ only warning is fine enough. |
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bravetailor
Posts: 817 |
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I wasn't talking about Hatchi with the quote you used, but I assumed that's who you THOUGHT I was talking about. The truth is, I actually DO get why Nana and Hatchi love the men they do, and I actually do think the men in NANA are actually pretty sympathetic, even Takumi. But in that quote I was talking about shoujo's tendency in general to have the lead heroine be attracted to a guy who's physically and emotionally abusive and obviously has "negative" designs on them. I apologize if people were confused by my abrupt shifts in scope, switching from the content in NANA itself and comparing it to the content in OTHER shoujo. I wanted to stress that I personally felt NANA stood apart from most shoujo in that it was much more sensitive to the emotional moods of the characters and expressed in better detail why they acted the way they did. I don't always get that in some shoujo. As guys, we can't imagine why a girl would be attracted to someone who shows contempt to her. But, there are a lot of psychological factors at work here, and as you said (which I said earlier) there are a lot of girls like that in real life.
JUst a note regarding your first paragraph here--while I agree with what you said, I'm not quite sure you can't say that for most shoujo as well. Your statement "She does this not so much in the obvious method of female empowerment, but rather through a very sophisticated and precise commentary of young women in modern Japanese society." can actually be applied to hundreds of shoujo. But I feel that NANA excels where lesser shoujo don't in that Yazawa has a much more probing knife whereas many other shoujo authors only scratch the surface and nothing more. Now, I never said being male limited me from enjoying NANA (as I stressed in several posts, NANA is my favourite R1 release of 2009), but I do think, sometimes, you can "miss" certain things in the shoujo GENRE being male. What I was saying about NANA is that it's different from most of the shoujo GENRE, which is what makes it cross-gender friendly. On average, I don't think many males always "get" why most shoujo heroines sometimes pick "the jerk" over "the nice guy." But where NANA stands out, to me, is that it shows why women are attracted to men who seem, at first, more trouble than they're worth. And I feel there's a truth to NANA that I don't always see in other soap manga/anime. And that's why as a male I can "get" NANA more than other, lesser shoujo because Yazawa is better at expressing the "whys" and "hows" or female attraction and emotion than most manga authors. |
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