cerusee: a white redheaded girl in a classroom sitting by the window chewing on a pencil and looking bored (Default)
[personal profile] cerusee
Okay, I admit it. I am not Ai Yazawa's biggest fan. Fashion for fashion's sake doesn't interest me. Translucent irises in black-and-white art put me off. The bohemian lifestyles of the Tokyo youth are as likely to make me roll my eyes as to admire, and I do not feel the pull of the romances of Paradise Kiss.

And that is why I didn't rush out and buy Nana vol. 2 as soon as it hit the shelves. I dragged my heels, actually, even though everybody and her cousin has sung the series' praises. Nevertheless, there was something about the cover that appealed to me--the way the second Nana suddenly appeared to light the negative space of the first cover...so despite my growing sense that Yazawa might not be for me, I gave in and bought it.

And it was worth it. Vol. 1 is like an extended, two-part prequel to the main story of Nana, and I'm still not sure I like it. But the minute the two Nanas met in vol. 2, the story picked up for me, and the girls' respective romantic relationships are much more interesting to me in their second phases than I found them in their beginnings. If Nana was the story of two radically different girls not getting along, I could leave it. It's much more interesting than that, though, developing a beautiful and surprisingly plausible friendship between them. Just a hint of shoujo-ai, as [livejournal.com profile] herongale said--but really, it's mostly just a friendship, and it's more special for it. And maybe it's because I'm young, hard-up for money, and searching for an apartment and a roommate of my own right now--but I'm with each of the girls every step of the way in their quests to sort out their lives. Today, this is a story that speaks to me.

I will happily go along for the 9+ volume ride on this one.

on 2006-02-17 04:47 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] cryogenia.livejournal.com
Yes, Nana is LOVE *_* I admit, the first volume didn't really do it for me, either - if I hadn't just bought the first two as a 100en pack, I probably wouldn't have kept reading - but I really started to fall in love with them around volume 2. The romances come and go, but the relationship between Nana and Hati is here to stay - and that's the part that really works for me, to be honest.

*continues doing the Nana squee*

on 2006-02-17 05:12 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] cerusee.livejournal.com
Nana v. 1 was sufficiently blah for me that I wonder about the wisdom of that extended pre-meeting sequence. The big selling point of Nana for me was the female friendship, and that doesn't appear at all in the first book. I wonder how many readers won't make it past that?

on 2006-02-17 12:56 pm (UTC)
herongale: (fruits basket- sisters in a previous lif)
Posted by [personal profile] herongale
Although it doesn't feel so at the time, I think the pre-meeting issues are very important in establishing what Nana #1 was like before she met Nana #2. How normal, and therefore prosaic her life is... how everything seems mapped out for her by fate, and how predictable everything she does is.

Nana really is the Every Girl, and it's easy to devalue her. If life didn't give her the challenge of meeting Nana #2, and all that followed, it would be very easy for the world never to acknowledge her worth. But in seeing her as Nana #2 sees her: well, that changes everything. In the end, even though it's a story of friendship, the main character is the first Nana. Her growth and development are really the important points here. It's kind of a manga about what would happen if a regular girl met a larger-than-life Manga Heroine and became friends with her. How regular girls can never become the Mary Sues of their own story, but can find a dignity and worth all of their own.

It's really an ingenious storytelling strategy, as much of a "slice of life" as Planetes is. That's why I can forgive the Prequel staidness. Who Nana was before she met the other Nana is not the interesting part of the story, but it IS part of the story. And I think that everything that follows is given emotional weight precisely because that part was not left off.

on 2006-02-17 03:03 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] cerusee.livejournal.com
Problem is, the second Nana herself isn't anymore interesting to me than the first Nana until they meet. I'm equally disinterested in them in the first volume. I don't mean that I liked one girl and not the other, but that I felt like I had to force myself through the entire first book. Necessary backstory or no, reading it was almost a chore; I only took a chance (happily, rewarded) on the second volume at all because the series came so highly recommended. I don't know if there's another way the creator could have established the characters, or if many other people would have the same trouble with it that I did, only that this approach did not work very well for me.

on 2006-02-17 04:12 pm (UTC)
herongale: (Default)
Posted by [personal profile] herongale
Yeah, I get what you are saying. Those bits didn't bother me as much, because I enjoyed the funny dialogue... but I can see where they'd come off as highly irritating to a lot of people. I'm just glad that you did give the whole series a chance... and I want to hear your thoughts after you've read a few more volumes!

on 2006-02-17 04:51 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] cerusee.livejournal.com
It's gonna take awhile, since although I have access to the scanlations, I'm stick to reading the commercial release.

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