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Summary:
Komatsu Nana was born in an average-sized town and is the middle child of three. She’ll be graduating soon from high school. At this particular time, she’s in a car with her lover. He reveals that he’s being transferred to Tokyo, so he’s breaking up with her. Her friend Junko later comforts her, but also compares Nana to a kogal since her lover was an older man. With graduation time upon her, Nana realizes that her high school years started and ended with love. She’s fallen in love numerous times with various guys, but none of them worked out. At one point, Nana went on a diet because she felt that she wasn’t attractive enough. After watching a movie alone one day, she felt sick and was helped by a stranger named Asano Takashi (Nana admits that it may be a fake name). She had fallen for him immediately and told her about the family restaurant that she worked at. Two weeks later, he showed up outside and their relationship began. Nana noticed that he had a wedding ring, but she didn’t mind because she really loved him. However, Nana knew nothing about him, and their relationship was limited to a few trips a month to a love hotel. When they broke up, Nana felt that it was a blessing and was ready to move on.
In the spring, Nana joined an art school with her friend Junko. It’s apparent to Junko that Nana is here to find another boyfriend. Nana becomes immediately attracted to one of Junko’s old classmates from middle school, a guy named Endou Shouji. Junko makes her realize that she’s got treat guys as normal people. Nana decides that she’ll become friends with Shouji instead of trying to make him her boyfriend. Luck has it that Shouji and their classmate Kyousuke come over to Junko’s place that night for some partying. Nana uses this chance to try becoming friends. However, she gets drunk and ends up telling everyone about all of her loves. It’s when she gets to the part about Asano that she remembers that she didn’t even know his real name. Nana starts crying because she realizes that he didn’t love her. After Junko comforts her and puts her to bed, Junko tells Shouji about how Nana is attracted to him and urges him to do his best.
The next morning, Nana wakes up with a hangover. She accidentally walks in on Junko and Kyousuke kissing – the two had really gotten along after spending the night talking. And through Kyousuke, Nana realizes that she had blabbed everything about her love life the previous night. Junko tells Nana of how she had stopped talking and cried when she got to the part about Asano, meaning that Nana still hasn’t gotten over him yet. She tries to suggest that Nana go after Shouji, but Nana has taken to heart their earlier talk of having male friends. During class, Shouji tries to invite Nana out to a movie. She refuses him because she likes watching them alone. Nana remembers how she had told the same thing to Asano, and in a daze, she accidentally cuts her finger. The pain inside of her returns, and she feels that her body is rotting on the inside. Nana comes to the decision that she’s going to go clubbing and pick up lots of guys. She’s going to keep trying until she finds love – she’s going to bury her miserable self in the darkness.
The episode itself reveals what really drives Komatsu Nana: finding a boyfriend. It’s hard for me to feel very sympathetic for her because she’s really bringing a lot of this pain onto herself (dating a married guy). The becoming-friends-with-Shouji decision is a step in the right direction, but the end of the episode isn’t. For talking about burying herself in darkness, Nana seems just a bit too happy. I still love the way the episode ends though, especially because of that ending song (which I’ve had on repeat for days).
Surprisingly, they backtracked to the prologue story of volume one, which is actually a bit confusing to me. The only explanation I could think of is that maybe they did the volume two stuff first so that they could introduce both Nanas and hook people in with the first episode. Anyway, I’m rather pleased that they are covering the first volume’s material. It’s pretty important in coming to understand both of the Nanas – their characters, motivations, etc.
I think the fact that they’re doing the prologue cements the idea that Nana is going to be 26 episodes, since the pace they’re moving at matches that of a longer series. They’ll probably devote the next episode to finishing Komatsu Nana’s introduction and then use episode four (and maybe five) for Oosaki Nana’s. Hrm, that’s actually going to be a lot of episodes before they return to the end of episode one. It’s something to look forward to…
the artwork is kinda wierd…but good plot
The artwork does take some getting used to. It’s a bit easier if you’ve read the manga or are familiar with Yazawa Ai’s works.
it’s the eyes isnt’ it ? Looks so weird to me.
lol. If you watch more of this, you guys will fall in love with these drawings, too.
Artwork doesn’t really bother me much. At first, it kinda did, but after sitting trough 1 episode, I was fine.
That was the problem I had with Paradise Kiss, looked awkward.
constant deja vu of ParaKiss ^__^
it’s plots like these that make me want to understand Japanese so I could see the episode before the Fansubs finish translating them. This is definitely one of my all time favourite shows, alongside Honey and Clover.
have you guys been reading the manga? is that what you’re comparing the artwork too? it’s pretty close to the manga, except hachi looks a little different…i think it’s the hair color. 🙂
nana~~~~my love!~ and op is a good song~
this anime gives me a good feeling everytime that i watch it:)
it’s might be just me…but doesn’t nana(rock star) from the anime version looks like her live action counter part…and the one with curly hair(junko,i think) also looks almost the same with her live action counter part…
Kay:
that’s because everything is based off the manga.
Your comment reminds me of how Mika Nakashima cut her beautiful long hair just to play the part of Nana for the movie.
where do u d/l the epidsodes with eng subs?
4th episode will be in Tokyo I think. Because of his title (Nana no koi, Nana no yume).
First Nana is our future Hachi-ko, because her name is written by kanji.
Btw, on official website they’ll talk about Ginpei’s seijyuu… and Ginpei only appears in tankobon *10*.
I hope I can get this episode soon… I’m really in love with Hachi ^_-
I personally love the art style and everything this show is portraying. I’m going to certainly stick with this.
The artwork is strange but compelling …. especially when it drops into hypercartoon right after a realistic closeup. I guess I should categorize this as in the Honey&Clover vein but more focused on one girl Nana…. who isn’t really sympathetic since she *puts* herself in all these ridiculous situations… not very bright but fortunately surrounded friends with a clue.