Nana: Volume 16

Nana Volume 16 cover image is courtesy of barnesandnoble.com.

Rated “M” for “Mature”

Nana “Hachi” Komatsu meets Nana Osaki on a train to Tokyo.  These two young women named “Nana” meet again, and in spite of their different personalities and backgrounds, become roommates.  Nana “Hachi” Komatsu, moves to Tokyo to leave her capricious love life behind her and eventually becomes engaged to Takumi Ichinose, the leader of the rock band, Trapnest.  Nana Osaki moves to the city to make it big in the world of rock ’n roll and becomes a member of Blast (the Black Stones).  Best friends, Hachi and Nana navigate the world of fashion, gossip, rock and roll, sex, and all-night parties.

As Nana, Vol. 16 begins, Blast is moving up the music singles charts (just behind Trapnest), and their burgeoning success means more P.R. appearances.  Nana, however, just wants to sing, and being part of a marketing machine is starting to wear on her.  A Christmas party for loyal fans might cheer her up, and she’ll also get to meet her young look-a-like, a fan named Misato Uehara.  Meanwhile, Hachi learns that troublesome tabloid magazine, Weekly Search, has sent a young photographer to dig into Nana Osaki’s past, and he has made discoveries about Nana’s parentage.

THE LOWDOWN:  Nana continues to get better.  As difficult as that may be to believe, the quality of the storytelling, drama, and characterization actually improves – becoming both richer and more complicated.  Nana is one of those shojo titles that engages adult women readers both with its narrative complexity and its psychological underpinnings.  It’s more than a soap opera with characters that readers want to follow; it’s also a fairly accurate depiction of the intricacies of human relationships – family, friends, romantic, and professional.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  Readers who enjoyed Jaime Hernandez’s Locas comics may certainly like Nana.

A-