Posts Tagged ‘nana’

Funimation announced this morning via a press release that their Funimation Channel has officially become available nationwide via Comcast. Launching in September of 2005, he channel was one of the first on demand anime channels available (following behind ADV’s The Anime Network chronologically) and has spent the last few years developing a very loyal fan base due to the wide availability of both free and on demand programming options.

The one complaint that was heard constantly however was its lack of availability in various parts of the country (including mine!). Fans who have Comcast as their cable subscriber (which I no longer do since moving to Oregon, oh the irony) can find the Funimation channel in the ‘Cutting Edge’ folder for free programming while ‘Movies & Events’ will offer sneak peeks.

This comes hot on the heels of Funimation signing a new deal with Viz Media which will allow them to begin premiering some new live action titles over the summer such as ‘Nana’ and ‘Honey and Clover’ while still debuting their own titles such as the upcoming ‘Heroic Age‘ and ‘Murder Princess’.

Full Press release below the cut

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NOTE: This review is a continuation of my reviews of this series. If you have not seen any of the volumes or my previous reviews, you risk spoilers by continuing.
 
Intro
 
       Another volume down, only one left before I can forget I ever watched this series.
       
The Story
 
        Four more episodes are on this volume with the first episode having Nana’s parents returning from America. As you can imagine, this causes big problems since her parents are not expecting to see six clones of their daughter at home. Luckily they’re only home for one day so it’s one day of hiding all the extras. If that weren’t bad enough though, her parents want to send her to school in America.
       
        Next up, Nana is stressing due to her exams getting harder and so she goes in search of a very special and specific good luck charm that everyone says will improve test scores just by having one but unfortunately she misses out on getting one so she tries different good luck charms instead including banana peels, clovers, deep fried bread and anything else she can think of to the point of obsession. Unfortunately for her, her attempts at retrieving good luck charms keep getting thwarted by an unknown person who is also after the same good luck charms.
 
        With entrance exams just around the corner, Nana starts panicking when she realizes that the pencil that her love, Yuichi, gave her is missing. No one knows where it went but it suddenly becomes obvious that there is an eighth Nana that was previously unknown. This eighth Nana makes things even worse by causing all sorts of problems including being mean to her friends and failing her tests in class.
 
        The final episode of the volume mostly takes us back into our main plot as Nana is offered the chance to get into her top choice high school without even having to take the entrance exam but unfortunately the early acceptance is also being offered to her love, Yuichi, and only one of them will be accepted for it creating a showdown between the two of them. Everyone tries to help Nana prepare for her interview including the eighth Nana who is convinced that she is the only useful Nana of the entire bunch.
 
The Good And The Bad
 
        I’ve never been a fan of this series. At all. Ever. I will admit that there have been some shining moments here and there but for the most part this series continues to find new and more inventive ways of destroying brain cells and this volume is no exception. I think the biggest issue I have with this series is that there’s no suspension of disbelief. It’s aimed at young girls taking exams and is supposed to be a bit more of a slice of life anime with a bit of fantasy thrown in but even still, there are some scenes where the character reactions are so terribly unbelievable that it’s insane.        
 
        A great example of this is in the first episode of this volume when the Nanas are taking Nana’s parents around town in a whirlwind tour directing the car to go through hedges and temples and even going so far as to make the car fly… and neither one of her parents says anything about it, they barely blink!
               
        The pacing on this volume is also something that was slightly odd to me since it had no real set pace and seemed to jump back and forth many times with one episode going by very smoothly and quickly, other episodes feeling like they were taking hours to complete and yet another episode that had a smooth and fluid first half but a terribly drawn out second half.
 
Music
 
        This volume did have some good background music that I don’t remember hearing in previous episodes which I thought was a very nice improvement. In the third episode of the volume you should listen for a soft flute song being played in the background while Nana is sitting at her desk. Very nice and something that I would listen to even if it were played out of context.
 
Dub vs. Sub
 
        This volume made me want to turn the sound off on my TV so many times. Veronica Taylor is an incredibly talented voice actress and I’m actually a fan of hers but listening to her do seven different versions of the same annoying character at once is absolutely torture and in the Japanese it’s even worse since it’s seven different voice actresses doing the parts!
 
        The writing is bad enough but adding these on top of it makes it even worse.
       
Extras
 
        None.
 
Overall
 
        This series continues to be a mind numbing bore and I can’t wait to be over. There’s only one volume left that I haven’t reviewed yet and to say that I’m looking forward to seeing it would be an understatement because I know that once I’m done with it I’ll never have to watch this series again.
 
Final Grade: 69% – D
 
 
 

NOTE: This review is a continuation of my reviews of this series. If you have not seen any of the volumes or my previous reviews, you risk spoilers by continuing.
 
Intro
 
Patiently I’ve stuck with this series from the beginning because as a reviewer, I didn’t have a choice. I was expecting nothing different when I put this volume into my DVD player last night interestingly enough, I found myself ever so slightly entertained.
 
The Story
 
Another four episodes are shown on this volume and even more importantly, enough character development to fill the Tokyo Dome! In the first episode, the focus is on the trio as they are all having a crisis as one of them has decided not to go to high school and instead study to become a Maiko (an apprentice Geisha) in order to fulfill a promise she made as a child. Now, the only reason why I’m mentioning this episode is because in this episode we see some incredible character development on the trio and we learn more about them which was something great to see because this entire time, all they’ve done is act like complete… um, not nice people but now we get to see a new side to them and even more so later in the volume.
 
The main focus on this volume though would be the continuing “romance” between Nana and Yuichi. It’s in this volume where very small steps in this department are taken (and it’s about bloody time!). Since the second semester has now started, Nana and Yuichi are actually working together now that the class has been split up into groups according to the school that each student is trying to apply to which is intended to create a friendly rivalry between them all and push them to work harder. I personally wasn’t sold on the idea when I heard it explained either but whatever, this is anime.
 
Throughout the volume however, Nana gets repeated chances to get closer to Yuichi but before she can finally muster up anything that even vaguely resembles courage and tell him how she feels about him, she learns the horrible truth… the only reason why Yuichi is trying out for his high school of choice is because he wants to be in the same school as the girl he likes. Heartbroken, Nana spends an entire episode trying to recover and then in the final episode, she finally gets to tell him how she feels… only in a very round about, very hypothetical way while wearing a fish costume. I’ll let you watch the volume yourself to figure out how that one comes about.
 
The Good And The Bad
 
I have to admit that while this volume was still no where near good or even really entertaining, I still had a good time with it and even didn’t feel the need to throw things at the TV more than a couple of times while watching the volume. While Nana was still very annoying and incredibly whiney (is it wrong that I almost laughed when she got her heart broken?), it was good to see the anime throw a little realism into the mix and have the main character learn some tough truths about life, most importantly… you can’t obtain what you don’t go after.
 
The biggest draw of the volume for me however was definitely all the character development of the trio! While I’ve spent this entire time absolutely despising them, I loved how in this volume we got to see a completely new side to them and the ironic twist of them suddenly cheering for Nana and pushing her forward to succeed (again, you can watch the volume yourself if you want to know why that happens, I’m not giving away spoilers!). It was great to see that these three characters that have had the depth of a fish bucket up until now reveal that they actually have another side to them.
 
Music
 
There was also lots of great music in this volume that I liked. Instead of just the usual piano background music, this one included a lot of great jazz numbers that really helped things along, especially in the Xmas episode.
 
Dub vs. Sub
 
The dub track on this volume still drives me absolutely nuts, especially when Veronica Taylor voices all seven Nana’s at once. For gods sake give your viewers a break! So with this volume I am going to wholeheartedly recommended the sub track. Give your ears a break, they’ll thank you later.
 
Extras
 
Absolutely none.
 
Overall
 
With four volumes down, this series has suddenly taken a very small step forward in the entertainment department. While this volume didn’t really do much to help out the main plot, it had lots of great character development that I enjoyed watching. I’m not going to give this a recommendation but I am going to say that for once, I am actually kind of curious to watch the next volume and see where this one is going.
 
 
Final Grade: 71% – C-
 
 

NOTE: This review is a continuation of my reviews of this series. If you have not seen any of the volumes or my previous reviews, you risk spoilers by continuing.
 
Intro
 
Once again I jump into the pits of this anime in order to submit a review for the otakus out there who really need to know how bad this anime is.
 
The Story
 
Volume three of this series deals with the final summer vacation of jr. high for Nana as she prepares for the second semester of her last year at jr. high at which point she will be dealing with entrance exams so that she can at long last get into the same school as Yuichi since as we all know, getting into the same school as him is the perfect solution to getting a guy to go out with you, and here I thought the easiest solution was to just freaking ask him!
 
But I digress.. Five episodes are shown on this volume and as I mentioned, all of them have to do with summer vacation which Nana is not getting to enjoy because she’s too busy studying and complaining, plus she has summer school.
 
In the first noteworthy episode, Nana finally has a real conversation with Yuichi and he invites her to the summer festival and while at first she doesn’t actually accept because she’s too nervous to even speak, the others finally do pressure her to go to the festival and they all try to find him so that they can have a date with him. I will admit that there was one amusing scene in this episode with the principal and vice principal going to the festival and getting drunk on saki.
 
In another noteworthy episode that was also slightly amusing, the fast track group heads to the coast for a summer study retreat and the trio of terror (or the botox triplets as I like to call them) are invited along as well by the principal and vice principal. This episode had a couple of amusing moments as well with Nana trying to learn how to concentrate after everyone is challenged to enter a ‘haunted temple’ and complete a worksheet. I gotta say that the principal and vice principal have a really twisted sense of humor.
 
The final two episodes of the volume are the ones that really got on my nerves though as Yuichi is sent off to San Francisco to take part in a student exchange program where he will get to put all the English he has been learning to practical use. Unfortunately on the way there his plane gets caught in a terrible storm and everyone on the plane is passed out from food poisoning (gee, where have we seen this plot before?? *rolls eyes*) so it’s up to Nana and the Nana Rangers to save the day even though none of them know jack about flying a commercial airliner except for the video game that they played at home in which none of them were ever able to even beat the first level.
 
But as you can imagine, success is in the cards as now all of them are caught in San Francisco where Nana’s mother is working.
 
The Good And The Bad
 
Have I mentioned how much this series grates on my nerves and how much I dread having to watch each volume so that I can review it? Well, if I haven’t… I do! This series is just so below average and while I have seen other series that are much much worse, this one easily is near the top of that list. Luckily this volume did have a couple of amusing episodes which helped me get through this volume in one sitting instead of the usual two or three that I’ve had to do for previous volumes.
 
The animation is still looking very crisp and clear but the storylines continue to be unoriginal and absolutely taxing on my mind. Does anyone really believe that if seven girls in costumes were to help a commercial airliner land in San Francisco that the press wouldn’t be all over it??? Well, apparently the creators of this series do.
 
The biggest complaint I have about this series though is the characters are just so weak! There is only so many times that I can listen to Nana complain about how badly she wants to date Yuichi and yet every chance she gets to even talk to him she shuts up completely because she’s so shy. Girl get over it!!!
 
Music
 
Once again the music in this series is again very weak and annoying. The opening theme song sounds like adult propaganda using anime as a weak effort to get kids to study more and the closing theme is just boring. The only highlight in this section is that the series is continuing to use Scott Joplin’s ‘Maple Leaf Rag’ as background music.
 
Dub vs. Sub
 
Veronica Taylor continues to do a good job playing seven different versions of the same character but other than that, the dub for this series continues to be fairly weak with every other character sounding like they have throat infections or are talking out of their nose.
 
Extras
 
None on this volume.
 
Overall
 
As usual, I’m less than impressed with this volume and will not be giving it more than two stars. It’s got it’s good points but the number of good points about this series is grossly outnumbered by the bad points. Do yourself a favor and just skip this series all together. Life is too short to watch bad anime.
 
 
Final Grade: 65% – D
 
 

NOTE: This review is a continuation of my reviews of this series. If you have not seen any of the volumes or my previous reviews, you risk spoilers by continuing.
 
Intro
 
Those of you who read my review of volume one of this series know that I couldn’t stand it and really felt it to be a huge waste of my time to watch it…. However, I really don’t feel it’s right for me to review only one volume of a series and then ditch it because it didn’t tickle my fancy. So, for that reason, here is my review of the second volume of this just horrible series.
 
The Story
 
As you learned before, this is a series all about a girl named Nana who after a horrible accident, suddenly has 6 clones of herself each of which represent one aspect of her personality.
 
Well, things since volume one haven’t gotten any better. She’s still in the Fast Track class that she worked so hard to get into in order to be close to the guy she has a crush on but won’t say anything to (Rant #1: Why can’t women just say what they’re feeling instead of making the guys feel like dorks after we realize the fact?) but now things are getting tougher and the administrators that are teaching the class are getting stricter and stricter with final exams approaching quickly!
 
Nana spends five episodes in this volume doing basically nothing but studying and complaining about how hard things are and how much she just wants to get into the same high school as her crush so that he’ll ask her out.
 
The Good And The Bad
 
To be honest, this show is bad. Really bad. Terribly bad. I actually had this volume in my possession a full two weeks (at least, I may be off by a few days) before I could finally muster up whatever I needed inside of me to put it into my player and watch it and even then it took me three nights to finally get through this volume.
 
The writing is just plain stupid and the characters are annoying in such a grating way. Even the “villains” are lame! The only real villains in this show are the administrators (who are too goofy looking to be considered threatening in any way) and the three girls who decide that their favorite sport is to throw really lame insults at Nana on a daily basis (their idea of a good insult is to call her “Nana Boo Boo”… come on! I was calling people that in first grade!) and one of them has fish lips (her lips are in a constant state of pucker) and so it’s hard to tell if she’s just waiting for someone to kiss her or if she’s has way too much Botox injected into her lips.
 
To be fair though, I do have to admit that there was one redeeming quality on this disc that kept me from being absolutely bored with this volume and that would be the introduction of a very cool new background character named Mutsumi who is a radio DJ. He is introduced as the host of a late night radio show that caters to students who are studying and need a small distraction from keeping their heads from exploding. While his part isn’t very big, he has a very cool voice in both the dub and sub tracks (This isn’t confirmed but I think he may be a real DJ over in Japan) and while he only had a real part in the second episode of this volume, he does make appearances in the rest of the episodes as well with a short little message at the beginning and then a small voice over appearance at the end giving out the message or morale of the day that we should be taking away from the episode. It’s a very cool part and I can only hope that it gets much bigger because character wise, Mutsumi is the only thing this series has going for it.
 
Music
 
The music in this series wasn’t all bad. The opening and closing themes are just bloody terrible and I can only hope that they are changed ASAP but on the plus side of things, they did choose some very cool background music in the form of Scott Joplin’s Maple Leaf Rag. I love Scott Joplin so this was a very welcome addition into the series!
 
Dub vs. Sub
 
I’ll be honest, both tracks sucked pretty bad but the English dub version won me over early simply because to hear the seven different actresses doing Nana in the Japanese version makes them sound like tiny little trolls or gremlins and makes me want to retch.
 
The only good performance that I can think of would be by Sebastien Arcellus whom I’ve never heard of until now but he does a great job as Mutsumi! So Sebastien, if you’re reading this… send me an Email and let me know what else you’ve been in so that I can direct people to your works!
 
Extras
 
None.
 
Overall
 
Overall, this series is terrible and besides some occasionally good music and one cool character, this series is a complete flop with me. Skip it. Don’t waste your time on it. Don’t even give it a second look. Maybe if we ignore it long enough, it’ll just go away on it’s own quietly.
 
 

The Intro
 
How would you react if one day out of nowhere, a freak accident created six clones of yourself, each one representing one aspect of your personality to the extreme? Luckily, none of us will ever have to answer that question but in this anime, that question is not only asked… it is answered.
 
The Story
 
In this anime, our star is a young girl named Nana. She is a very average girl in the ninth grade at her jr. high. She gets average grades, has a best friend, gets teased by other girls and has a crush on a boy at her school but she is much too shy to actually do anything about it.
 
The only thing that is slightly peculiar about her life is that her grandfather is an inventor who creates tons of things that will never ever be useful and one such invention goes haywire and creates six copies of Nana!
 
Five episodes are shown to us on this volume all of them revolving around two things: Nana and how she learns to cope with having six copies of herself, each one of them an extreme aspect of her personality. There’s the angry Nana, the brainy Nana, the lazy Nana, the sensitive crybaby Nana, the flirty feminine Nana and finally the weird Nana… all of which suddenly develop the same crush as the original Nana has on the boy, Yuichi.
 
The second thing that the show constantly revolves around is the plot line where Nana is desperate to do well on her tests because in one year, she will be moving onto high school and she desperately wants to go to the same high school as Yuichi so that they won’t be separated and she can finally tell him how she feels about him though the thought occurs to me…… why not tell him now ya dork?!?
 
The Good and the Bad
 
OK, flat out… this series is bad. I mean, really bad. I haven’t seen a series this poorly executed in months! The characters are under developed (but to be fair, when you have seven versions of one character, how developed can they get?) and the plots are all very weak. It was barely all I could do to force myself to move from one episode to the next because I hated to think what stupid idea they were going to pull out next to force this snail like pace along.
 
The animation is cute though and so I have to give it that much credit.
 
Dub vs. Sub
 
I listened to both the dub and sub track on this volume and neither one of them really struck me as anything special. I think the only thing that could be really mentioned as noteworthy is that Veronica Taylor had her work cut out for her in this series and she did a fantastic job with the script that was given to her.
 
In the original Japanese version of this series, each version of Nana was played by a different voice actress but in the American dub, instead of hiring seven different actors, Veronica Taylor had the job of playing each one which I can imagine was quite the difficult feat but she pulls it off very well and I have to give her major credit it for that.
 
Music
 
I really enjoyed the background music used in this volume though. It was really unobtrusive and made a lot of the scenes much more bearable but the opening and closing themes I really couldn’t stand. The opening theme in particular is bad. Titled “Success, Success”, it’s lyrics are basically just a big pep talk about how it’s important for Nana to skip everything that’s fun in life (movies, comics, festivals, etc., etc.) and spend all of her time studying so that she can be with Yuichi. Definitely one of my least favorite anime songs that I’ve heard.
 
Extras
 
There are no extras on this volume.
 
Overall
 
This series is bad. Really bad and I have no problems giving it only two stars. Young kids may enjoy it and it is appropriate for them since there is nothing objectionable in it but I would warn just about anyone else to stay far away from this series. It’s times like these that I hate being an anime reviewer because now I know that I still have 2 more volumes of this to watch. Bleh!
 
This show bombed in Japan and to me, it’s obvious why.