Munou na Nana – 04

「ヒーリング」 (Hiiringu)
“Healing”

Oh the joys of knowing when you’re right. Or, well, right enough to think I know what’s coming, because Munou na Nana certainly isn’t wasting time in getting to the subterfuge. We may be with a lack of death for a second week running, but something tells me this show won’t be holding off too long before the next student meets death by pink hair.

After going to good lengths to play up Kyouya as Nana’s arch nemesis last episode, it shouldn’t prove too surprising when we have the kid fulfill his role. Nailing the Holmes role as mentioned last time is often one of the main challenges for plots like this: the villain in Nana is destined to be revealed and faced off against, but getting to that point without excessive contrivances and audience frustration is often challenging. We can see this already with Kyouya’s internal doubts, as he still considers the girl suspicious as hell, yet is looking for a tangible answer to give support to that belief. Such thoughts are perfectly logical given the circumstances, but as with all thriller-type premises the debate is very much on a timer. Kyouya only has so long to work up the evidence needed to confront Nana before the process of just staying outside his grasp grows tiresome—no matter the amount of tasty murder shenanigans she may pull.

What may help prolong the inevitable though are the other cast, particularly Tsunekichi and that photographic future sense ability. While I think it’s a little too convenient for it to pop out the woodwork now (why this moment and not earlier?), there’s no denying Tsunekichi gives Nana her first real challenge, especially considering there’s no way she can deny it after getting a crash course in the finanlity of fate. I think it’s pretty obvious Tsunekichi is going to die sooner rather than later given what he knows, but the interesting thing is what Nana does before offing his head. With all the talk of Enemies of Humanity being amongst the class’ midst, who wants to wager Nana spins her outing into one of preemptive action that just so happened to save some lives? She’s now the leader after all, and what better way to confirm leader status than helping the group ward off a common enemy. Hey, it might even get Kyouya off her back to boot if she chooses to publicize the findings.

Not that the charade will hold water too long once others start dropping like flies of course (Tsunekichi in particular – his photographs are inevitable remember!), but breathing space is always something to be appreciated.

Preview