For all of her ditziness, at 20 Hachi has done a hell of a lot more with her life than I have.
If you haven’t piloted a robot by 14, I suppose, you’re not cut out for adventurous living …

Spoilers

Hachi spends the night with Takumi. She prays desperately that it won’t be a one night stand, but she does not tell anyone about it. Likewise, Takumi tells no one about her.

It’s becoming increasingly distressing that all of the voice overs from Hachi at the episodes’ ends imply that her life has gone on to suck greatly, and that Nana has been her only shining light. This attitude didn’t quite permeate the entire episode, but it was quite strange to imagine that she was having bad thoughts about herself even as she was having sex with Takumi.
The low self esteem of Hachi, hidden by her usually frenetic nature, is another thing of the show that I would term “heartbreaking”.
Depressing shoujo, my friends. Depressing.

The surprise of the episode was Shouji’s appearance. I’m not quite sure how these things go: would it be a salve to Hachi that Shouji is serious about Sachiko – perhaps more so than he ever was about her – or is it just a slap in the face? Of course, if Junko and Kyosuke never tell her, there’s no way that she will know. I think that is the way it should stay.

Finally, on the Hirano Aya front: she moves her head too much and it freaks the heck out of me!

Hachi, why must you make bad decisions? Why must you fill the emptiness in your life with consumerism and celebrity dreams? Because they are within your grasp, and you are a victim of the disease befalling modern society.

Poor girl.

Hachi reacts with jealousy and disappointment when she realises that Yasu once dated Reira. She goes out to get liquor with Nobu and bonds, then she drinks too much, then she realises that Shin is a gigolo, then she gets fired. This emptiness that is inside her, she realises how she can fill it, and most serendipitously: Takumi is the answer.

I am now willing to freely admit that I get annoyed each time that Hachi thinks that she has feelings for one of the members of BLAST or Trapnest. It just seems strange, like she’s some sort of limpet. She thinks that love will fill the emptiness, but it’s not love if she has to force it.

Can we really be surprised that with this shoddy attitude to life, she was fired from her publishing firm? I was actually a bit surprised that Sakagami had won, but I can’t blame her: much as I like Hachi as a person, if she was working under me I would kick her out.
Hachi doesn’t really operate on logical lines, asking Nobu if he has a girlfriend only moments after discovering that he has imagined several virtual girlfriends to give himself the illusion of love within reach. The narration reveals that it’s clear that she has registered what he’s said, but what her mouth says doesn’t back that up.

As of yet I have no stance on Hachi getting with Takumi. I liked the idea when it was innocent, but as a void filler I’m not too keen on it. Let’s see if Hachi will crash and burn; what we’ve already learned is that the lives of Shouji, Jun-chan and Kyosuke are forfeit. Hooray for bands!

Nana works because many of its revelations are not particularly surprising to the audience but they are to the characters, and that’s what matters: reaction. Well, reaction in something that’s not shounen, where it is nothing but a way to cover the lack of material on offer.

Episode end spoiler

Nana realises that her plans to finish it with Ren went entirely awry; they’re still together, more so than they have been for a couple of years. Nana decides that Hachi has done well and promises to pay her back in kind.
Due to a conversation with Junko, Hachi starts to think that maybe she likes Yasu. This leads to a fair bit of awkwardness and the realisation that not all of BLAST,

With the realisation that she didn’t spend any of her time looking at Takumi at the concert, so worried was she about Ren, it comes as little surprise that Hachi wants his autograph or something to make up for it.
The viewer can tell a few seconds in advance that what is supposed to be Yasu opening the door for Hachi is actually Takumi himself. You can tell because of his textured clothing, which I would normally hate but is pulled off well here.
“I made her cry,” says Takumi. “What do you want me to do now?”
It doesn’t really need to be said anymore, but Nana really is kind. To go above and beyond the call of friendship like that is just pure nicety. While I said up there that the revelations aren’t really that surprising, I lied: I wasn’t expecting Takumi to turn up at the apartment; in the previous episode he seemed to have a healthy distaste for the intellects of his band members. It’s nice to be proved incorrect sometimes.

So let’s throw all imaginations of Yasu love out of the window for superficial relationships with musicians we’ve never met! Yasu was never a good option for Hachi, though, because it was just a feeling brought about by the imagination that “I’ve got someone there; I’ve got to go for them.” I understand that feeling, and can’t blame someone as impulsive and romantic as Hachi for feeling that way, but I don’t buy the “reality” of the emotion. Nor does Hachi, and I’ll bet that she had forgotten the idea just as soon as Takumi walked through the door.

This was a good episode, and there were parts that I really liked. Chief among them was the recollection of Nana’s past, which goes to show that you can have a period in your life that you will always remember in a certain way, regardless of the reality of the situation: Nana’s time with Ren was always in the snow. It’s an emotional landscape rather than an actual landscape, and it works all the better for it and is worth comment.
Of course, and to use the first of many secret cliches that you will discover upon further reading, every rose has its thorns. In the case of this episode, there was one disturbingly bad cut: in one of the kitchen scenes, Hachi’s dialogue was cut off before she could finish saying “nai”. It’s not something that I see often, that level of sound engineering, so it’s worthy of note.

Overall, another fine episode of Nana. When you’re watching Nana, it’s like there’s nothing else in the world.

The continued complaints! Hirano Aya is somehow the true heroine of Nana now, popping up in the Nana’s Room section to hang around with Shizue Nana. Normally it’s not in my nature to be bitter about these sorts of things, but all I can think is “Yes, flavour of the month … make hay while the sun shines … have your moment in the spot light, your day in the sun, your fifteen minutes of fame, your drawn out cliche. I’ll be waiting.”
I like her, but … there’s just something about her. I was going to call it something, but I can’t come up with anything entertaining enough. I’ll call it “sour grapes”, on my side.

The good thing about getting another dose of Nana is that you remember how much you love it. I’ll admit that it’s not a series I think about when I’m not watching it or writing about it, but if I had the time to think about every series I was watching all the time, my head would probably explode from data overload.

In these two episodes we get more great Nana stuff. While Hachi is the more open character, Nana is the one who has the more interesting back story. Hachi is a good narrative tool for blasting thedoor to that world wide open.

Spoilers

Hachi finds out that Nana does not remember her parents and has not had a family since she was 15. Nana assures Hachi that she will answer any question, so Hachi asks the most obvious question of them all …
… then, at the Trapnest concert, more than one person is sent into emotional turmoil.

When Nana met Hachi’s family, it was exactly the sort of scene that a more stereotypical character would have reacted to with disgusted snobbery. Hachi acted with the right sort of embarrassment, but Nana proved once again that a woman can wear black and be a little tough without being a super bitch. Looking at Hachi’s family, one can see that they really are “a little bit country”: Natsuko is a traditional bold and brassy mother figure; Nao is growing to become more like Natsuko every time Hachi visits; and Hachi’s father likes to drink when he gets home from work. The only “stand out” member is Nami, notable for her ganguro appearance. It actually looks really bad, but that’s entirely the point of the ganguro look. Nami does not belong in this family, and she is the trouble maker, but that’s not to say that they don’t love her.

So Nana never experienced any of this. She’s not judgemental, though, and when she realises the motives of Hachi’s actions she’s actually touched rather than angered. Through several flashbacks we see that she was always distant from the other members of BLAST (back when it was called Bluto, which is indeed an homage to Popeye) and she couldn’t have fun just for the sake of others. It was strange, but sensical, to realise that Yasu has always been the leader of BLAST; I had it in my mind that Ren was the leader. That assumption makes little sense when I put my mind to it.

In the second of these episodes, a brief glimpse is offered of the backside of Trapnest: it’s funny to note that the leader, Takumi, doesn’t appreciate the foolishness of his band members and wants them to refrain entirely from speaking on stage. They must preserve their image! Yet Takumi is not the important thing, nor is Hirano Aya’s Reira.

No; the important party, you will find, is Ren. The quality of Nana is spoken for because we can see scenes of Ren’s reactions to events without having them related to us through the girls. Lots of series take one focus but, when necessary, Nana has not been afraid to shift to vital, interesting things happening behind the scenes. If we had not seen that Ren was going through a dilemma, I doubt that anyone would have cared. It’s simple, but essential; I would definitely have missed it were it not there.

Where are Nana and Ren going? I don’t know, but I want to. That, in addition to all of the others, is the vital ingredient for Nana‘s success.

Extra secret rant after images

I need to mention this somewhere, before the thought evaporates for all time: Reira is voiced by Hirano Aya. I am really not sure if I like Hirano Aya at all outside of her role as Suzumiya Haruhi. I think her singing voice sounds too weird, that it sold on the strength of it being a case of “Suzumiya sings!”. She has a “strange” voice, and I’m not saying that as one who loves moe. If anyone accuses me of that, I will slap them.
Interestingly enough, the next episode preview provides a “third” voice for Hirano Aya: her promo voice, which, I suppose, is ostensibly her “real” voice. In promo mode, Hirano Aya takes on the high, sickly sweet tone reserved for your lower class of idol and even goes so far as to say something as nonsensical as “pyon!”
So I don’t know what I think of her. Did KyoAni make her, or will she survive beyond the one show that wreaked havoc on the world?

Hachi needs to stop overthinking things! That way, we can have happy smiley dramatic Ren Nana reunions!

Also I think I’m in love with Shizue Nana.

End spoiler

Hachi calls Misato to apologise for her behaviour and learns from the call that Ren was once a member of BLAST. Naturally Hachi freaks out and starts formulating plans to formulate the most romantic scheme in the world.

Ren/Stage + Nana/Front Row = Eyes Meet
Eyes Meet = Tears of Joy
Tears of Joy = Love of the Century

There’s also a slightly less noble equation in play.

Hachi orchestrating love of the century = collateral sexing from Trapnest’s Takumi.

See, Hachi knows how to think for herself.

I really appreciated Hachi doing all of the inappropriate things at work. I understand how she feels, yet the twist that her supervisor now sympathises with her slacking is funny to a high degree. If people at my office acted like Hachi, we wouldn’t have internet access. Actually, we don’t, and it’s been like that for two years. Damn you, Hachi! Spoiling the internet for the honest people in the audience!

With her reaction to the Ren situation, she took it too far. I like Hachi more than many people, but even I can’t stomach her eternal fantasizing. I understand that she’s the focus of the show, relating most of the Nana story to us through her own perspective, but maybe if we got a little bit more of the other people it would have worked for the better. When we did get some of the other people, we got some of the other people: Ren on Yasu’s doorstep, people!

Ren’s feelings remain true! Commence the love love reunion!

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