Nana

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"Hey Nana, do you remember...?"

Nana "Hachi" Komatsu is a 20-year-old Genki Girl from the countryside with a bad habit of falling in love at first sight (with any man who glances in her direction). Nana Osaki is a 20-year-old punk rocker from a different small city, who's coming off a bad breakup with her boyfriend (and former bass player of her band). When "Hachi" decides to follow her boyfriend to Tokyo, and the other Nana heads there to start her music career, the two young women meet by chance on a snowbound train. They rent an apartment together several days later. Surprisingly realistic drama and an oddly romantic friendship ensues.

The manga Nana is technically Shoujo, but according to The Other Wiki, it's often been confused for Josei, and according to that same wiki, by 2005, it was the fourth best selling Shoujo manga. The first live action movie was the #2 film in Japan in 2005, behind only the latest film from Studio Ghibli. The anime ran for 47 episodes, and is licensed for distribution in North America.

Not to be confused with Shichinin no Nana.

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Provides examples of:

• Am I Just a Toy to You?: Hachi and Reira both ask this. Of the same guy, no less.
• Babies Ever After: Or rather, a Deconstruction of it.
• Bait and Switch Lesbians: The hinted infatuation between the two Nanas is practically thrown overboard as the series progresses.
• Bastard Boyfriend: Takumi to Hachi
• Bathtub Bonding
• The Beautiful Elite: Oh so many...
• Beta Couple: Junko and Kyosuke
• Bittersweet Ending: At least for the anime; the manga hasn't ended yet.
• Blunt Metaphors Trauma: Shin, particularly in early chapters. Though, there's a reason for this. He didn't live in Japan until his teens and was apparently brought up by a bilingual flight attendant.
• Camp Straight: Nana originally thought Shin was gay, but it turns out he was always part of Camp Straight.
• The Casanova: Takumi
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Yuri isn't exactly amused by Mrs. Takumi Ichinose staying at the same dorm as Nobu and makes her feelings very clear.
  • Nana O. has some of this with regard to Hachi early in the series.
• Conspicuous CG
• Country Mouse: Hachi comes from a small town. So does the other Nana, but she is not as "mousy" about it.
• Dead Guy, Junior: Little Ren.
• Death by Irony: Ren. You'd think death by overdose (since he's a total druggie by the later chapters), but it is in fact a car crash that does him in.
• Debut Queue: The manga begins with A Day in the Limelight origin stories for both Nana and Hachi.
• Distant Finale: six years later, at the least.
• Dysfunction Junction: Everybody. The series covers almost all examples on this trope.
• Elegant Gothic Lolita: Misato.
• Empathic Environment: There is rain and snow for fear and despair, sad clouded days, melancholic sun... almost everything to represent the characters feelings at the moment.
• Even the Girls Want Her: Nana O's fans are mostly girls, and they go all lovestruck all over her. Poor Misato.
  • Even the Guys Want Him: Shin
• Expy: Ren is one to Sid Vicious - whom he cites as an influence for himself. And Nana's appearance-- at least in the Movie version-- was stated by her actress to be based off of J-Rocker Shiina Ringo.
  • Ren also looks quite similar to Takeshi from the author's previous work, Gokinjo Monogatari, save for Takeshi's red hair and eyebrow piercing. He also happens to play guitar in a band.
  • Takumi looks exactly like an older version of Tomoki from Kagen no Tsuki (from the same author) who also cheated on his girlfriend.
    • Most of the characters' designs seem to be either borrowed or updated versions of ones from Yazawa's older works. Takumi's design is particularly prevalent, though, having not only Tomoki but also Yuusuke from Gokinjo Monogatari and to a lesser degree, Akira (with his hair down) from Tenshi Nanka Ja Nai.
• Face Fault
• Fake Band: Two of them.
• The Fashionista: Both Nanas, although their tastes couldn't be more different.
• Genki Girl: Hachi.
• Gratuitous English: The grammar is good, but the pronunciation varies: In The Movie, Mika Nakashima (Nana) has a very thick accent. The anime series used one bilingual singer and one who isn't fluent in English but has a good accent. On the other hand, bad English would be in-character.
• Horrible Hollywood
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Considering most of the male cast is near six feet or above... But mostly present in Shouji/Sachiko.
• Humble Goal: Misato states that her purpose in life is being a blast groupie.
• I'm A Man! I Can't Help It!: Takumi's excuse for his constant philandering
• Instant Bandages
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: A tragic double case of this.
• Identical Stranger: Shin's 'guardian' Ryoko looks a fair bit like Reira at first glance, and one of Takumi's many liaisons involves an actress with a passing resemblance to her as well. Hachi herself points this out to him once while watching a popular drama she's on-- of course, completely oblivious to the fact that they'd just slept with each other. He understandably gets squicked and flat out denies it.
• Jerkass: Takumi. He tends to flip between this and Jerk with a Heart of Gold. But mostly when it comes to Hachi's pregnancy. ... Most of the time, anyway.
• Karma Houdini: Takumi never gets the smack-down he so much deserves.
• Kiss of Life (In the case of Nana's panic attacks -- once from Ren and another later from Hachi.)
• Lady in Red: In the manga, Shin and Reira have a joint birthday party, bringing together all of the major players, and Hachiko finally sees Nobu with sensual porn-star Yuri and begins to speculate on their relationship.

Hachi: I wonder... who that girl was. You don't see anyone around here wearing a red dress anymore.

• Looking for Love In All the Wrong Places: The big source of drama for.. well, almost everyone in the series.
• Love Hurts: The result.
• Meaningful Funeral: Averted. there are scenes with Ren in his coffin, scenes before the funeral and after the funeral but not really one single scene from the funeral itself.
• Meaningful Name: Nana K. (Hachi) has a superstitious obsession with the number seven, believing that it brings bad luck. Two sevens in one place are particularly unlucky. "Nana" is the Japanese word for "seven" and she lives with another girl named Nana.
  • Also, their apartment number is 707.
• The Messiah: Hachi can melt the hearts of even the toughest people.
• The Mistress: Hachi, surprisingly, during her high school years.
• Never Got to Say Goodbye: Nana to Ren
• No Fourth Wall: An entire scene in episode 15 makes heavy references to the production of the show, and has minor cast members discussing when they get time off (during sweeps)... and worrying about the show being canceled if "Hachi" were to kill herself.
  • The manga is possibly even worse (or better, depending on your point of view) in this respect. The Nana's regularly ask the author to hurry up boring scenes, and at one point castigate her for overusing number seven-related symbolism.
• Noodle People: Almost everyone. More noticeable in the manga.
• Odd Couple
• One Steve Limit: The aversion of this is the idea from where it all kicks off.
• Operation: Jealousy: It's heavily implied that this is why Reira started going out with Yasu in high school.
• Opposites Attract
• Perky Goth
• Red String of Fate
• Romantic Two-Girl Friendship
• Smoking Is Cool: Everybody except Hachi and Reira.
  • And Nobu.
• Smug Snake: Takumi.
• Secret Relationship: Takumi/Hachi and Shin/Reira
• Series Hiatus: The mangaka got ill and the manga stopped being published in 2009. There were rumors that it would return in September 2010 but nothing happened. It's still on hiatus.
• Seven Is Nana: The whole premise.
• Sex Changes Everything: For pretty much everyone
• Ship Sinking: Well... Ren is dead.
• Snow Means Death
• Special Edition Title
• Sprouting Ears: Nana K is often shown with dog ears and the dog comparison is discussed among the characters. It's part of the origin behind her nickname Hachi.
• Stepford Smiler: Almost the entire cast, though particularly Hachi, Reira, Shin, Yasu and Misato.
• Stockholm Syndrome: All but outright stated-- once by Hachi, in relation to being Takumi's wife and once by Takumi himself, while referring to his relationship with Reira.
• Team Mom: Hachi, who is usually the childish one in most of her relationships, is actually quite motherly towards the members of Blast (with the exception of Yasu, who is this type of character himself), even before she finds out she's pregnant. Afterwards, it only increases especially in regard to her taking care of Nana after Ren's death in the current story arc. Shin even starts refering to her as his mother.
• Theme Tune Cameo
• Those Two Guys: In-universe, Takumi mentions that most people only know him and Naoki as "The long haired guy and the blond guy"
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Nana Osaki is the tomboy, Nana Komatsu is the girly-girl.
• Took a Level In Badass: Yasu dealing with the paparazzi and the media circus around Nana O and Ren's relationship in episode 39 of the anime. Twice.
  • "Instead of looking in other people's gardens, make sure your own flowers bloom". --Badass Walk--
• Unlimited Wardrobe: Pretty much everybody, but especially Hachi.
  • Justified, since the author originally went to school for fashion design before becoming a mangaka.
• Unlucky Childhood Friend: Reira, who unfortunately suffers from a lot of UST because of it.
• Wham! Episode: Episode 30, where Hachi finds out she's pregnant. And then it doesn't let up for a good half-dozen episodes.
• Who's Your Daddy?: Hachi's pregnancy in the current storyline-- nobody's sure if Little Ren is (biologically) Takumi's or Nobu's, and some fans aren't even sure if his mother is really Hachi. Given the unclear age difference between him and Satsuki, he might even be Reira's.
• Yoko Oh No