Summary:
The night Hachi came back to their room and found Nana sleeping, she wondered about the tattoo of a red lotus on Nana’s arm. The next morning, she wakes up and finds that her alarm says that it’s already past 11AM. She thinks she’s late for work, but Nana points out that it’s only 7AM. The clock hadn’t moved from when Hachi had originally set it last night, so it’s probably broken. With nothing in the fridge, the two girls set out and find a bakery. They buy some bread and eat it by the river where Hachi asks Nana if she’s going to get a job. Nana responds by saying that she’s got something better than a job to look for.
Hachi goes to work at the Sabrina store and is paid a visit by Junko who tells her that Shouji spent the previous night drinking with Kyousuke. Junko notices how well Hachi and her boss Mizukoshi are getting along and later comments on Hachi’s love sickness. Junko is worried about Shouji, since he was grumbling all last night, but she also says that it can’t be helped since Shouji likes Hachi so much. She warns Hachi to treasure Shouji and their relationship more. Hachi spends the rest of the day thinking about what Junko said; those words even make her turn down an offer to dinner with Mizukoshi. On the way home, she decides to call Shouji, but gets his voicemail instead. She begins to think about how she can’t have everything she wants and what it is exactly that she wants.
At home, Nana has nailed together a table and some chairs and has also cooked dinner. While soaking in the bath, Hachi thinks that she’s having so much fun with Nana despite the fact that their personalities are so different. After she gets out, Hachi asks Nana if she’s going to become a pro guitarist. However Nana isn’t actually a guitarist, she’s a vocalist. Hachi is really impressed, but Nana tells her to save those words until she’s heard Nana’s singing. Over dinner, Hachi asks Nana about the tattoo and Nana says that it’s Ren’s flower. But the “Ren” Nana refers to is not what Hachi thinks it is.
The doorbell rings with a deep voice announcing that Nana’s luggage is here. The girls think it’s Yasu, but Nana opens the door and finds Nobu standing there. She’s really pissed off that he’s here: she kicks him in the head when he complains about her stew and even dumps beer on his head. Nobu wants to stay over, but she wants him to go home because she feels that Nobu has a future ahead of him in his parents business and doesn’t want him to throw that away. Nobu says that he’s happy playing his guitar with Nana singing, words which really seem to have an impact on Nana. She’s still angry when Yasu calls on the phone, but he suggests that she start a band with Nobu instead of singing solo. Yasu also mentions the song that Nobu wrote, and Nobu has her listen to that song on tape.
After listening to the tune, Nana gives Nobu his guitar and makes him play that song for her. She puts on her jacket and gets on the table, welcoming Hachi as Blast’s only fan present for their first Tokyo live. Nana says that this will be a night Hachi will never forget. With the lights off and Nobu playing the guitar, Nana starts singing. Hachi thinks retrospectively that she still hasn’t forgotten what happened on that night. Because the song had no lyrics, Nana made up some random English words to go with it. Hachi feels like she was put under a mysterious spell and became a prisoner of Nana’s voice. Nana had the table as a stage, the phone as her microphone, and the crescent moon as her spotlight. Hachi believes that even now the only person in the world capable of such magic is Nana.

Bleh, I was spoiled by last week’s 1024 resolution raw. This looked horrible in comparison. Having said that, this episode was done stylistically very well, from the kick to Nobu’s head (that made me actually laugh out loud) to the special ending. Well, special ending/OP, since it is the OP song. I’ve said this before, but I had hoped this series would have lots of good music. I had the “LOVE for NANA” albums in mind in terms of music variety and quantity. So I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m a bit disappointed that they haven’t introduced more music past the opening and ending theme songs. Maybe that’ll happen when Trapnest becomes a bigger part of the story (or so I hope).
And for those of you who haven’t heard, it was announced that Nana is tentatively scheduled for 50 episodes. That number was quite an eye-opener, but I guess it makes sense if they want to try to cover all the material. To look at it positively, there’s a lot of good story we can look forward to now.
Ooo, I think next week is introductions for both Shin and Sachiko (yes that’s right, she’s not just a figment of Nana’s imagination 🙂 ).

14 Comments

  1. 50 episodes? That’s plenty, I remember my last series with over 50 episodes was Full Metal Alchemist.
    Don’t really like such long series, but well, as for now, I like that stuff and will keep watching.

    *Chi*
  2. 50 episodes is a number that kind of scares me (in terms of series commitment). Usually something that high is saved for shounen actionish series, but that’s a different story.
    But like you said, Nana right now is enjoyable and so I’ll keep watching.

  3. I’ve yet to watch the anime version for NANA, and when I saw this entry, I thought “Ep. 09 and it’s only up to that part?”

    I’d say that even with 50 eps won’t be enough to cover the current manga plot, unless they rush things a bit on some point (so they’ll obviously make their own ending).

    Ise
  4. Yea, that’s why I think it’s “tentative.” They’re currently going at a rate of only a chapter an episode, so if we assume they’re get to around chapter 50 by that point, that’s only roughly 13 volumes worth of material (lol). By this time next year, I estimate the manga will be up to volume 19 or 20. So if they really wanted and the ratings held up (I think Nana gets decent ratings since it airs earlier than most anime), they could go on for quite a while.

  5. Omni, Nana takes two tankobon for year… because Yazawa sensei draws 10 chapters at year (she takes a pause on April and September issue of Cookie each year). So now we’ve got material for half of tankobon 16… I don’t think we can get tankobon 20 in time to May 2007 ^^

    If we think about scheduling now, we have got one chapter = one episode from episode 6.
    So… for episode 50 we’ll have story until chapter 44 only ^^;

  6. Well first of all, I was making some estimates. Second of all, yes Yazawa Ai puts out around two volumes a year, but she did do three last year (12, 13, and 14). It’s not entirely out of the realm of possibility, but yes it’s unlikely (and here I’m thinking of 19 volumes, not the higher 20). Third of all, if you want to be specific, then episode 50 will cover chapter 45: if you pretend episode one didn’t occur, and start counting from episode six = ch1, seven = ch2, eight = ch3, nine = ch4….fifty = ch45. But that’s assuming that there won’t be any more recaps or special episodes, which could very well happen.
    My original point still stands that the series has enough material to go on for quite a long time.

  7. somehow I more sympathise with Nana over Hachi… she’s so much more mature… also her style is more to my liking… I’m really liking the idea of long series since Para Kiss ended fastforwarding too much in the last epiosode

    ewok
  8. ok… so I voted for “less likely”, but NANA is definitely an exception. I would’ve been terribly disappointed if it had only 12 episodes. As long as they keep going like this, I really don’t mind the number of episodes (at least there’s a good story to watch).

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