NANA – 19

Summary:
Hachi thinks that the next time she falls in love, she wants it to be with a man who is a little cold. It would be someone who wouldn’t mind her selfishness and someone who would give her a single rose after they fight. On this night, she’s unable to sleep while waiting for Nana to come back from going to see Ren. She suddenly realizes that she was looking at Ren during the concert so much that she forgot to look at her favorite Takumi. As her mind turns back to Nana, Hachi imagines Nana telling Ren off, saying that Blast will surpass Trapnest. Still, since Nana’s not back, Hachi thinks that it surely means all went well. At this time, Ren wakes up in bed and finds Nana no longer in his arms. Remember how she had said she didn’t want to start over with him, Ren despairs a little, but then walks into the bathroom and finds Nana in the tub plucking petals off a rose. Nana says that she’s doing this while the roses still have value because they wither so quickly. Along those lines, she tells Ren not to die.
Ren joins her in the tub and the two start talking about their old apartment that no one is using right now. He thinks that they should just leave it because he wants to live there with Nana when they turn old. Ren then reveals that when he was little, he spent time in that building teaching himself to play the guitar. He wasn’t born with the talent but rather developed it. This is the first time Nana’s heard this, and that’s because it’s the first time Ren has told anyone because he wanted everyone to think he was a genius. As Ren starts to wash Nana, she tells him that she can’t live with him like they used to, but she wants to meet him occasionally to hug and talk. It’s not until she grows old when she won’t have her stubbornness and vanity that she wishes to return to that apartment. Nana had started to cry, so Ren holds and kisses her.
Hachi remembers that she had a dream that night, but she doesn’t remember what was in it, only that it was warm and happy. When she wakes up the next day, Nana is back, sleeping on the floor beside her. Hachi tries to find out what happened while they’re brushing their teeth, but Nana doesn’t reveal anything. Rather, it’s later when they’re doing their makeup that Nana asks Hachi for a favor. She promises a reward for this favor and so Hachi asks for Takumi’s autograph. By saying that she’ll ask Ren to get it, Nana gives away that she and Ren are back to how they were. What Nana wants Hachi to do is to take phone calls from Ren since Nana herself doesn’t have a cell phone. However, Nana is still uncomfortable with all this since she originally had planned to end things with Ren. Seeing Nana blush like that gets Hachi very excited.
Talking with Junko and Kyousuke later, Hachi declares that she also wishes to find love. When those two mention the other males in the band, Hachi’s mind goes to Yasu, but she considers him to belong to Nana. After thinking about it, Hachi realizes that Yasu is kind to everyone and must think of Nana as a little sister or something more important than that. She ends up telling Junko and Kyousuke that she never thought of anything between her and Yasu. However, because of that conversation, she can’t help but feel her heart beating when she sees him at band practice later. She tells him about Nana and Ren getting back together and how that made her feel so much better. When he asks her if something is worrying her, Hachi reveals that Shouji cheated and broke up with her. In response, Yasu pats her head and calls Shouji and idiot. Hachi knows that in reality she was the one who broke up with Shouji, but she wanted some someone to be kind her to.
After a bit of thought about falling in love with Yasu, Hachi asks him if he has a girlfriend. Yasu tells her that, unfortunately, he hasn’t done very well with women. It’s at this point that Nobu and Shin arrive and tell Yasu that the mahjong tournament with Ren is going to happen. As the guys start looking at the Trapnest pamphlet that Hachi got at the concert, Hachi realizes that even Shin and Yasu are calling her “Hachi” now. Nana eventually comes in and immediately takes the cigarette out of Shin’s mouth. It seems that she’s decided there will be no smoking by anyone so that she can improve her breathing capacity and be a better singer. Nana even starts to exercise through sit-ups at night before bed.
At work the next day, Hachi is lying with her head on her desk feeling depressed about not having a boyfriend when suddenly her cell phone rings. She sees a message from Ren asking if he can come over on the 7th during the day before the mahjong tournament that night. Hachi responded an affirmative and threw in a “darling” for good measure, which Nana isn’t too thrilled about when she hears about it later during practice. Nobu ends up suggesting that they just have the mahjong tournament at Nana’s place and both girls agree. The next days in Hachi’s life are filled with thoughts about meeting Ren in person, causing her to neglect the duties of her job and getting her supervisor really pissed off.
When the day comes, Shin, Nobu, Nana, and Ren had already started playing mahjong before Hachi got back from work. They had been talking like they were old friends about Nana’s new no smoking rule when the doorbell rings, signifying Hachi’s return. But none of those four go to get the door. Rather, Hachi finds someone that completely surprises her welcoming her back: Takumi. In retrospect, Hachi says that her tears came out spontaneously because she had immediately understood that this event, which was like a dream, was the reward that Nana had prepared for her. She could feel the love more than if Nana had said “thank you” a million times – it made her so happy.

ED3:

ED: 「Starless Night」 by OLIVIA inspi’ REIRA (TRAPNEST)
Watch the ED! Mirror 1 Mirror 2
New ED!!! Actually, I don’t really like the song nearly as much as a little pain, but it’s not a bad ballad. The ED sequence is just panning around a single screen of the two Nanas standing on the stairs of their apartment building.

I think I’ve said this before, but watching these episodes after having read where the manga is currently gives me a new perspective on how the story is written. In Hachi’s opening monologue, her description of what she wants in her next love makes so much sense now since reminds me so much of Takumi (who incidentally Hachi meets for the first time this episode). But I’m getting ahead of myself, since there will be a lot more of him in next week’s episode. The story is shifting back to Hachi now that Ren and Nana are more or less together again.
It’s a shame Reira wasn’t in this episode and won’t be shown again for a while. Still, Hirano Aya made another appearance in today’s “Nana’s Room” segment. Maybe they know how popular she is and are milking it for what it’s worth lol.