Nana

Departing from their respective hometowns, two young women with identical names are brought together in their pursuit of new beginnings. With their hearts set on going to Tokyo, Nana Komatsu dreams about blissful love, while Nana Osaki aims for a successful music career.

The former has a cheerful and friendly nature, but her naivety has steered her romantic life astray until she meets her dependable boyfriend—Shouji Endo. Without letting herself be dismayed by Shouji's decision to study in Tokyo, Nana works hard to earn enough money and follow him there. Meanwhile, her namesake is a solitary punk vocalist whose impassioned romance with her band's bassist, Ren Honjou, comes to a sudden end. Though heartbroken, Nana bravely looks forward and travels to the capital with the ambition of becoming a recognized artist.

Shortly after they arrive in Tokyo, the girls cross paths again due to an unexpected coincidence that ultimately leads them to live under the same roof. As they grow closer, the two strive to support one another amid their struggles to forge a future for themselves.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

After the release of the first episode on April 5, 2006, Nana's highest TV rating was 6.3% in the Kanto region, making it the first late-night anime to reach the top 10 of the weekly audience ranking.

In Japan, VAP published 17 DVDs of the series between July 7, 2006 and November 21, 2007. In North America, four DVD box sets were released by Viz Media from September 2009 to April 2010. The company also released an English dub version, which premiered on the Funimation Channel on September 19, 2009. Sentai Filmworks licensed the series in 2021 after Viz Media lost its rights.

Nana inspired a couple of tribute albums, the most notable of them being "Love for Nana - Only 1 Tribute," which was released by EMI Music Japan on March 16, 2005.

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Nana
Summary:	Nana Recaps

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Osaki, Nana

Main

Park, Romi
Japanese

Komatsu, Nana

Main

Kawana, Midori
Japanese

Okazaki, Shinichi

Supporting

Ishida, Akira
Japanese

Takagi, Yasushi

Supporting

Kawahara, Yoshihisa
Japanese

Terashima, Nobuo

Supporting

Seki, Tomokazu
Japanese

Honjou, Ren

Supporting

Kiuchi, Hidenobu
Japanese

Ichinose, Takumi

Supporting

Morikawa, Toshiyuki
Japanese

Serizawa, Layla

Supporting

Hirano, Aya
Japanese

Shinoda, Miu

Supporting

Chiba, Saeko
Japanese

Saotome, Junko

Supporting

Honda, Takako
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Maruyama, Masao

Producer

Tamura, Manabu

Producer

Nakatani, Toshio

Producer

Kobayashi, Mikiko

Assistant Producer

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Opening Theme

	1: "Rose" by Anna inspi' Nana ~Black Stones~ (eps 1-21)
	2: "Wish" by Olivia inspi' Reira ~Trapnest~ (eps 22-36)
	3: "Lucy" by Tsuchiya, Anna inspi' Nana ~Black Stones~ (eps 37-47)

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Ending Theme

	1: "A Little Pain" by Olivia inspi' Reira ~Trapnest~ (eps 01-08, 10-18, 41 (for TV broadcast))
	2: "Rose" by Anna inspi' Nana ~Black Stones~ (eps 9 (for TV broadcast and DVD))
	3: "Starless Night" by Olivia inspi' Reira ~Trapnest~ (eps 19-29, 42 (for TV broadcast), DVD: eps 01-08, 10-29, 41-42)
	4: "Kuroi Namida" by Anna inspi' Nana ~Black Stones~ (eps 30-40, 47 (for TV broadcast and DVD))
	5: "Winter Sleep" by Olivia inspi' Reira ~Trapnest~ (eps 43-44 (for TV broadcast and DVD))
	6: "Stand By Me" by Tsuchiya, Anna inspi' Nana ~Black Stones~ (eps 45-46 (for TV broadcast and DVD))

Reviews

Jan 24, 2010

Licorice

Recommended

"Say, Nana... Do you remember the first time we met?"

These words are the introduction of the beautiful world of "Nana". Ai Yazawa is probably the most convincing shoujo manga writer ever. With colourful, realistic characters, breathtaking events and just a pinch of music she creates a world in witch every girl can forget about reality and fall into the embrace of romantic fantasies.

One of the best things about "Nana" are the characters - we can actually see the reflection of ourselves in some of them and believe, that someone like that can really exist. This is proof that you can make a good anime ...

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Mar 18, 2024

12_AD

Mixed Feelings

A girl I liked at the time made me watch this show, right after I finished she ended up ghosting me and later getting a boyfriend. The show does always remind me of it whenever I see anything related to it.

Overall the anime was fine, not my cup of tea, but I can see why people like it. The anime was older so the art style is different than most modern animes, still pretty enjoyable. 5/10 for me since I’m pretty neutral on it. I would 100% recommend this to anyone who likes older animes.

Note: I’ve moved on and I am completely fine lol

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Feb 25, 2019

starfarts

Not Recommended

Nana has tremendous characters, tremendous art, and a soundtrack that's top tier in every way. If only I'd known how this series ended before I sat through all 47 episodes I never would have bothered in the beginning.

It started as a dramatic comedy (different, in my eyes, from a comedy-dramas in that comedy is the primary genre and the drama evolves from there) with attention-catching art and super snazzy music. Nana and Nana were extremely dynamic women with bright futures and mysterious pasts; supporting characters introduced along the way added charm and allowed the Nanas to bounce their personalities around with fresh perspective.

Then, before it ... really took off, the series tanked hard into drama that no amount of funny expressions or good music could prop up. I realize now that this series is designed for young women and girls, and while I'm neither of those I'm still able to empathize and extrapolate. Some lessons conveyed in the show are actually very important for young people to be taught. But then, as I got into the 30-40 episode range I thought to myself "wait, what IS the main thesis here?"

Well, it's that if you're a pretty young girl it's totally fine to sleep with an endless line of guys and things will just work out for you. Friends just happen by accident, good situations just take a number and pop up when it's their turn, and your fortune/fate will basically be determined by people who happily overlook your slutty personality by virtue of you being naive and pretty. Everyone enables the protagonist to such a degree it really started to make me angry for the last five or six episodes. Sure, there's a harsh angle of schadenfreude after all, but not only will it probably be missed by the target audience, it's not enough to make up for the morals passed through the previous episodes. Eventually everything just got depressing--and I mean SUPER depressing--and all elements of comedy were tossed aside in favor of tears. One or two attempts were made in the 40-45 range, but they were halfhearted at best and barely took attention away from the sad pit that the show had dug itself into.

I've read a synopsis of the manga, and thankfully this series was put out before those things happened or I would have just tossed my computer out the nearest window. I absolutely do not understand why situations are made so depressing just for the sake of more drama. Who actually derives entertainment or enjoyment out of these scenarios? Is everyone that batshit insane in the world?

So yeah, I'm not the target audience. Obviously. But the potential for something really special was here, and I'll remember these characters for years. I'll also remember how thoroughly trashed they were through pointless melodrama. What a disappointment.

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