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berry_9029's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
xeve's review
challenging
dark
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
cloudy_weather's review
5.0
I read this series over the course of the past months, so coincidentally experienced the same seasons in real life as depicted in the manga.
Why did it take so long to finish reading it? It is because Nana was a way of letting me relax when I had a rough day or felt upset at my failures in general. I made it a habit to read it when I felt upset, tired or miserable in general.
Experiencing the struggles of both Nana's regarding love, friends and work resonated with me and I kept coming back for more. Like different pieces of chocolate out of a valentines sweets box, every chapter had its own "taste" - and the last one was the most bittersweet one.
Seeing Yasu cry almost made me cry too, and I have not experienced the collective helplessness of the friend group executed in such a tragic way in another kind of story for a long time.
Why did it take so long to finish reading it? It is because Nana was a way of letting me relax when I had a rough day or felt upset at my failures in general. I made it a habit to read it when I felt upset, tired or miserable in general.
Experiencing the struggles of both Nana's regarding love, friends and work resonated with me and I kept coming back for more. Like different pieces of chocolate out of a valentines sweets box, every chapter had its own "taste" - and the last one was the most bittersweet one.
Seeing Yasu cry almost made me cry too, and I have not experienced the collective helplessness of the friend group executed in such a tragic way in another kind of story for a long time.
giulsd's review
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
_cuteal1en's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
nawal_reads's review
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
i like you ai yazawa 🫶🏾 i’ll pray for your well being
kimmybartle's review
5.0
I am in absolute and complete agony. The first time I read this volume, I was a teenager and still in my mother's home, blissfully unaware of what was to come. Which is kind of what reading NANA feels like. I couldn't believe what I was witnessing when I got to this point. Wasn't a shojo supposed to end with a HEA? Of course... Grief hadn't touched my heart yet.
I nearly dropped my cup of tea to the floor while I wept. I thought Ai Yazawa was cruel to leave the manga at this climax point without as much as an update. I thought the world was far more cruel once I found out she had become ill. I understood why she would be hesitant to give her story, her work, to someone else to finish. Still, I couldn't shake off how it didn't make sense to end it there.
It does make sense.
I'm much older now. Nana says her world stopped that night. Rereading the last chapters of NANA in the present day, I look at it differently. Life doesn't stop for anybody... until it does. Does a heart ever stop yearning for the people who got yanked away from you so fast? So quickly? When it's so final.
I didn't read Vol. 21 as if I was on the outside looking in this time. I was in it. The snow felt wet under my feet. The dull white noise of a crowded airport buzzed against my ears. The annoyance at the normalcy. How dare the world turn and keep going when yours is standing still, paused forever so you don't grow any older. Any different. So you don't have any more stories you can't share with them anymore. My hands were shaky. The aching emptiness that makes a heart feel twice as heavy thundered as I turned the pages. I was seeing my life unfold, and a wave of understanding rushed. I'm still shaky.
Ai Yazawa excels at real-life emotion; she is poignant, a storyteller who draws you in with all that she has. I loved seeing the difference in how every one of my beloved characters processed their emotions—it's validating, it's real. The simplest of slight changes to their drawn expressions, the pauses. They said everything.
I always wanted to go see the town that everyone I love grew up in. But I didn't want to see it like this.
The death of Ren is the death of NANA, the manga. It shouldn't, but in a way, how could it not be?
By now, I know grief changes with time. It's not going to feel the same forever, but it's a tricky thing. The relief that you don't hurt as much, the sheer horror at realizing you're starting to forget. I wish Ai Yazawa had taken us there, with them, through the inevitable passage of time. I don't know now if I could. If I could stomach it. Lord knows I also fall to my knees when I get hit in the face with the years passing by. You assume the clock hands are frozen because you feel frozen.
But we can't give up for the sake of our loved ones who remain.
Someone said that to me on the plane back to my own home when I fell apart next to a stranger. How true that is.
NANA is the most special manga I have read. The talent and raw emotion poured into these pages is something else. It's a gift I will never take for granted. The characters breathe and fail and get up again and speak and scream, and I can't let them go. Not just yet. A part of me is always wishing for a resolution. Maybe Hachi was an omen for what we readers would become—always hoping for Nana to come home. I am always hoping. A nudge, a whisper that says it's okay. They are okay. An update from the author says that Nana and Hachi reunited, finding how life can still be beautiful. But I might finally be able to accept, almost thirteen years later, that we might not see it. I am starting to be okay with it. In real life, you don't always get closure.
Still...
What a gift to have a story that touches you like this. What a gift to be able to intertwine your life experiences with a piece. It's been a journey I will gladly go on and revisit when I miss my old friends. Thank you, Ai Yazawa, for sharing your heart and your talent with us.
"I'll always be waiting... in ten years... twenty years... fifty years."
I nearly dropped my cup of tea to the floor while I wept. I thought Ai Yazawa was cruel to leave the manga at this climax point without as much as an update. I thought the world was far more cruel once I found out she had become ill. I understood why she would be hesitant to give her story, her work, to someone else to finish. Still, I couldn't shake off how it didn't make sense to end it there.
It does make sense.
I'm much older now. Nana says her world stopped that night. Rereading the last chapters of NANA in the present day, I look at it differently. Life doesn't stop for anybody... until it does. Does a heart ever stop yearning for the people who got yanked away from you so fast? So quickly? When it's so final.
I didn't read Vol. 21 as if I was on the outside looking in this time. I was in it. The snow felt wet under my feet. The dull white noise of a crowded airport buzzed against my ears. The annoyance at the normalcy. How dare the world turn and keep going when yours is standing still, paused forever so you don't grow any older. Any different. So you don't have any more stories you can't share with them anymore. My hands were shaky. The aching emptiness that makes a heart feel twice as heavy thundered as I turned the pages. I was seeing my life unfold, and a wave of understanding rushed. I'm still shaky.
Ai Yazawa excels at real-life emotion; she is poignant, a storyteller who draws you in with all that she has. I loved seeing the difference in how every one of my beloved characters processed their emotions—it's validating, it's real. The simplest of slight changes to their drawn expressions, the pauses. They said everything.
I always wanted to go see the town that everyone I love grew up in. But I didn't want to see it like this.
The death of Ren is the death of NANA, the manga. It shouldn't, but in a way, how could it not be?
By now, I know grief changes with time. It's not going to feel the same forever, but it's a tricky thing. The relief that you don't hurt as much, the sheer horror at realizing you're starting to forget. I wish Ai Yazawa had taken us there, with them, through the inevitable passage of time. I don't know now if I could. If I could stomach it. Lord knows I also fall to my knees when I get hit in the face with the years passing by. You assume the clock hands are frozen because you feel frozen.
But we can't give up for the sake of our loved ones who remain.
Someone said that to me on the plane back to my own home when I fell apart next to a stranger. How true that is.
NANA is the most special manga I have read. The talent and raw emotion poured into these pages is something else. It's a gift I will never take for granted. The characters breathe and fail and get up again and speak and scream, and I can't let them go. Not just yet. A part of me is always wishing for a resolution. Maybe Hachi was an omen for what we readers would become—always hoping for Nana to come home. I am always hoping. A nudge, a whisper that says it's okay. They are okay. An update from the author says that Nana and Hachi reunited, finding how life can still be beautiful. But I might finally be able to accept, almost thirteen years later, that we might not see it. I am starting to be okay with it. In real life, you don't always get closure.
Still...
What a gift to have a story that touches you like this. What a gift to be able to intertwine your life experiences with a piece. It's been a journey I will gladly go on and revisit when I miss my old friends. Thank you, Ai Yazawa, for sharing your heart and your talent with us.
"I'll always be waiting... in ten years... twenty years... fifty years."