Nana 14

[telophase]

OK, now THAT'S pretty damn ominous.



So, let's see...

1) Ren's penchant for erotic asphyxiation
2) Ren's increasing drug use
3) Ren's confession to Reira* that sometimes he wants to kill Nana so that she can be his alone
4) And then punctuating the chapters with sketches of Ren's room featuring Sid and Nancy posters?

NOT A GOOD SIGN. And the wistful narration that periodically occurs is, perhaps, even more poignant.

My question now is: is Ai Yazawa leading us down to an inexorable doom, or is she planning on taking a left turn into somewhere else?


(Looking up the Sid & Nancy movie on Wikipedia - I'd read Nancy Spungen's biography by her mother back in college, but never seen the movie - I now realize the chain-and-padlock Ren wears is an homage to Sid Vicious. So is Yazawa fictionalizing it or using it as a character thing - and how much like Sid Vicious does Ren really want to be?)

* Or however you choose to romanize her name.

Comments

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

Hey I didn't realize you were reading this. I am having trouble with some of the skippines but maybe that is just because I am reading the scans with all 11 pages every other month or something. Maybe it would make more sense all together? (I own many of the books too.)

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I'm just reading the English releases as they come out. I tend to confuse all the secondary and tertiary characters together, and especially in this volume there were a lot of flashbacks that didn't seem to be adequately marked, so it always took me a page or two to realize it was a flashback. XD

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

OKay glad to know it wasn't just me. I will have to reread the series from the beginning some day and see if it makes a little more sense.

[harukami]

MY GENERAL VIEW OF NANA (especially from... I forget what volume, 11 or 12, where Nana K is flashing back from the future) IS THAT IT IS ALL GOING TO END IN TEARS.

and yet I cannot stop reading.


Re the padlock, they refer to that really early in the manga series, actually -- if she's fictionalizing it, she's also directly referring to it too. I forget the exact context, but Nana K has seen Syd & Nancy (IIRC Nana O complains about her just being into it because it was a popular thing) and I recall the padlock coming up then. So it could be 'retelling' the story, but I think it's a character thing TO MAKE US ALL VERY UNEASY uh.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

It's been a while since I read the early volumes, and they're packed away in boxes at the moment. XD After I posted this, I went to the Sid Vicious Wikipedia page and ... wow, Ren's character design is based so much on Sid Vicious. O.o

[harukami]

Yeah, I hear you THERE'S A LOT OUT. S-sob I'm reading that right now too. NOT SAFE, NOT SAFE.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I bounced off of this one when it first came out in the US (I think I sensed too many bad choices) but have been wondering if I should try it again. Not that I need more manga to read.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I have no idea why I'm sucked in. But I am.

(And I forgot to add above that when TAKUMI looks like a great boyfriend compared to Ren, then SOMETHING IS WRONG. Not that you'd have a clue what that was about. :D)

I think the interesting and possibly most appealing thing is that Yazawa knows her characters make bad choices, and then forces them to see through the consequences of those choices, and also keeps from creating pat solutions - the effects of these bad choices stick around and will always be there. Nana K. makes what possibly may be a hugely wrong choice for her, but part of her growing-up process is trying to think of what is best for people other than herself (without knowing if she's making the correct decision there), and then sticking to that choice, even when she realizes that achieving everything she always thought she wanted cuts her off in some ways from everything that made her truly happy.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Takumi?

[telophase.livejournal.com]

If you only read the first volume or so, then you haven't met him. Ren's bandmate, the guitarist for Trapnest.

[shei.livejournal.com]

I should catch up with NANA at some point. I haven't read it since August

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I stopped reading it for a long time, then bought a volume and read it, and ended up buying the next three that were out. XD And now I grab every volume once it's released.

[umadoshi.livejournal.com]

I love NANA madly, but the characters are such a mess. It's really heartbreaking.

[celestriad.livejournal.com]

ah, nana. it's a good series, even if all the characters have such messed-up lives. well, then again, i'm sure it's the depth that gives them that's part of what makes it so good...

Nana 15

[amberley.livejournal.com]

Nana 15 just came out, if you're looking for a use for your Amazon gift certificates. (Unless you just haven't gotten to it yet.)

It all ending in tears sounds very plausible to me.

[marith.livejournal.com]

It is definitely all going to end in tears. I'm just waiting to see what kind of lachrymosity is in store, and desperately hoping for a happier epilogue.

(Last week diony and I watched the first Nana movie, and I was impressed at how well they captured the look of some of the characters. (and the manga clothes!) Except for Nobu, everyone was spot on. Hachi was particularly brilliant - she ended up charming me, even at points in the manga where I had mostly wanted to smack her.)