From the back cover:
Nana K.’s perfect Tokyo life is crumbling around her. She can’t keep a job, she can’t keep any money, and now it looks like she can’t even keep her boyfriend! But luckily, a tasty nugget of gossip about Nana O.’s past love life helps Nana K. keep her mind off her own troubles. If she can play the role of cupid for her best friend, can Nana K. get closer to her own happy ending?

Review:
Again, I am impressed.

The break-up scene between Nana K. and Shoji in the first chapter is both brutal and amazing. I love everything about it, and that includes the art. Yazawa uses those blurry images of real places again to great effect, as making the surroundings feel more real seems to confer the same benefit upon the events themselves.

The rest of the volume is very good, too. Nana K.’s near-obsession with Nana O. continues to grow—fueled by the feeling that she’s losing those she loves, she reacts poorly to Nana O. spending time with a groupie. Later, she finds solace from her cares in planning for Nana O.’s reunion with her ex-boyfriend, Ren.

Although I’m keen to see the reunion between Nana O. and Ren, I find I’m actually more interested in the obsession angle and how that’s going to develop. The foreshadowy narration continues to make me wonder whether something ominous is going to happen. Consider:

If only I’d been more mature back then and realized what your weaknesses were. Would things have been different now?

It’s hard to imagine now that I ever found Nana K. dispensable. I just had no idea she was going to turn out to have as much to offer as she does.

From the back cover:
Things are slowly coming together for Nana Osaki. The guitarist and drummer from her old band have joined her in Tokyo and she’s finally found a ripping new bass player to replace Ren Honjo. The Black Stones are back and they’re ready to kick some ass.

Nana Komatsu, however, can’t shake her old nemesis, the Demon Lord. She’s stuck in a dead-end job and there’s trouble brewing with her boyfriend, Shoji. He’s been working late and hasn’t exactly been the most attentive lover. Poor Nana. Life in Tokyo is turning out to be a total bummer.

Review:
Okay, now I get why everyone is so crazy for this series. It’s really hooked me for good with this volume—let me count the ways!

1. Realism. It may sound silly to say that a manga achieves this, but NANA does it probably the best I’ve seen. The relationships feel real, particularly between Nana K. and Shoji, and so do the challenges faced—job woes, learning to conserve funds, etc. Even the impromptu concert from the last volume has repercussions in the form of complaining neighbors. Come to think of it, this is probably why so many class this series as josei.

2. Nana Komatsu has finally won me over. Sure, she can still be kind of ditzy, but I really like how much she gets into helping Nana O. find bandmates. Last volume, she mentioned that her life was still missing something, and here she implies that Nana O. supplied it—a dream. Nana K. still doesn’t know what she wants to do with herself, so she’s devoting her energies to helping Nana O.’s dream come true and doesn’t notice that Shoji’s feeling neglected.

3. The narration. Is this new with this volume? I didn’t notice it before. In any case, I am a big fan of devices like this. An older (and seemingly wiser) Nana K. looks back fondly upon this time in her life and hints, too, that she might still be living in that apartment, but that Nana O. no longer is. So now I’m left wondering what happened to her—did she make it big? Did something else happen? Suggestions that the author does have a goal in mind will always be something I appreciate.

About the only complaint I could make is that the slang is still pervasive. It makes me sigh to read a line like “Don’t your ‘rents hook you up, dude?” in something so otherwise excellent.

From the back cover:
Moving to Tokyo, Nana Komatsu is hoping to reinvent herself as someone whose fortunes rise and fall independent of the vagaries of romance. Arriving in the city at the same time, Nana Osaki has plans to score big in the world of rock’n’roll. Even though they come from different backgrounds, these two young women quickly become best friends. What follows is a thundering blast of sex, music, fashion, gossip, and all-night parties.

Anxious to get into a Tokyo groove, both women are on the prowl for a funky and cheap place to live. But inexpensive apartments in Japan’s capital city are hard to find. Thank goodness each Nana has a clique of cool friends willing to help out. Too bad these friends are a little wiggy!

Review:
Again with the sex, music, fashion, gossip, and all-night parties! At least the first three were decently represented this time.

This series is so interesting—sometimes it feels like nothing has really happened because it flows along without dwelling for ages on a topic, but when you look back you see much has occurred. The girls find and decide to share an apartment, Nana K. gets a job at a cool vintage shop, Nana O. demonstrates some unexpected skills, Nana K. reflects that something is still missing from her life, Nana O. stages an impromptu concert on the kitchen table…

My one big complaint is the number of times the series breaks the fourth wall. It happens a lot, mostly in little side comments, but once in an important scene where Nana K. is trying to explain to Shoji why it’s so important that she live on her own. I find that sort of thing disruptive rather than amusing, and I hope it gets phased out soon. The translation’s also slang heavy (“For reals?”).

On the other hand, I absolutely love how Yazawa uses slightly-blurred images of real buildings, sidewalks, or shops as backdrops for her characters. This might not be a new idea, but it still looks really cool.

I’m definitely starting to get into this series now. I was a little worried after the first volume, since it had a boring patch, but my fears have been allayed.

From the back cover:
Nana Komatsu is a young woman who’s endured an unending string of boyfriend problems. Moving to Tokyo, she’s hoping to take control of her life and put all those messy misadventures behind her. She’s looking for love and she’s hoping to find it in the big city.

Nana Osaki, on the other hand, is cool, confident, and focused. She swaggers into town and proceeds to kick down the doors to Tokyo’s underground punk scene. She’s got a dream and won’t give up until she becomes Japan’s No. 1 rock’n’roll superstar.

This is the story of two 20-year-old women who share the same name. Even though they come from completely different backgrounds, they somehow meet and become best friends. The world of NANA is a world exploding with sex, music, fashion, gossip, and all-night parties.

Review:
The last line of that blurb is so unappealing. It’s also wrong. There was a smattering of sex, some music, a little bit of fashion, no gossip that I was able to discern, and the only thing close to an all-night party was a quartet of friends talking and drinking beer. Ooh, wild and crazy!

This volume serves as a prologue to the main serialization of NANA, which begins in volume two. There’s a long chapter for each of the Nanas, covering the last two years or so of their lives. I’m pretty sure I’m not in the minority when I say that, while directionless Nana Komatsu is okay, I much prefer the driven Nana Osaki. Nana K. could be excised from the series entirely and I’d still keep reading it, but the same isn’t true of Nana O.

There are some good things about Nana K.’s story. Her eventual boyfriend, Shoji, is much more like a regular guy than the typical shoujo love interest. He admits he’s capable of sleeping with a girl he doesn’t love, is hesitant to confess his feelings, and has an unromantic approach to consummating the relationship. Perhaps my main problem with this chapter is that I saw the beginning of the NANA anime, and revisiting it again is a tad boring.

Nana O.’s story is really great, though. The chapter tells the story of how her boyfriend, Ren, decides to join another band in Tokyo with a chance of making it big. Those around her assume she’ll be going with him, but she says that, if she did, she’d just sit around the house, making miso soup and watching Ren become successful in a group with a better girl vocalist (than she is). She has too much pride for that, so allows him to go on alone and stays where she is to improve her skills. I gotta love a character who’s serious enough about her goals that she’ll not let love distract her.

Each chapter ends with a Nana on the verge of coming to Tokyo. I’m really looking forward to seeing Nana O. meet up with Ren again someday. I haven’t any particular anticipation regarding the other Nana, though.