the Sex Pistols meets Japan, I present, Nana.
Ai Yazawa’s Nana is an unfinished manga with a 47 episode anime. It’s about two twenty-something girls both named Nana who are complete opposites of each other, but, nonetheless, are both self-sabotaging. the manga follows a series of dramatic events in their life in Tokyo, said life in Tokyo involves punk rock, men, job hunting, and paying rent.
notable stuff includes, of course, the music which is edgier than the usual anime J-rock. for the fashion (this is Ai Yazawa after all, see Paradise Kiss), the characters wear old-school British punk rock clothes. Vivienne Westwood, the queen of punk rock fashion, is featured throughout the show.
to mention some of the characters, there’s Ren Honjo, a straight up clone of Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols,
Yasu Takagi, a skinhead lawyer(?),
and Nobu Terashima, who, at first glance, I thought was an homage to Billy Idol but dresses more like Johnny Rotten and is quite the idealist.
Nana is poignant and doesn’t fail to be fashionable. the best time to watch this is in your early twenties. it’s like having ramen or Japanese curry at the end of a long day at your blue-collar job or your day job as a corporate grunt.
a fan of punk rock and anime? there’s no other anime to watch.
sorta metal 