Last year a friend told me about a manga called Nana and how much she enjoys reading it. So far I’ve read a couple of manga’s, but didn’t really stick to a specific series. Untill now—at the moment I’m obsessing over Nana. Probably because I can relate to the story. Luckily I don’t fall in love that easily as Nana K. , but I can be insecure and I used to hang around with punk people. Not that I was punk myself, but I like people with alternative/non-comformistic opinions. Also I’ve always enjoyed music and like many people secretly dreamt of becoming a singer, lol . Since my singing voice isn’t really good and hobby bands I sang in didn’t last long, I just stick to listening to music or watching shows like Idols .

Back to the manga. Nana is a story revolving around two girls who are both named Nana. Nana K. -a small town-girl- travels to Tokyo to start a new live together with her friends. Nana O. is a punk singer who wants to start her musical career in Tokyo, after her boyfriend Ren went there to join the band Trapnest. Both Nana’s meet on the train to Tokyo by coincidence and find out they have a few things in common, although they do look completely different. In Tokyo they lose sight of each other until both Nana’s go house hunting and arrive at the same place. They decide to live together in appartment 707 (Nana means 7 in Japanese) and the story continues from there on.

If you enjoy the manga I can also recommend the anime, it does a good job at following the storyline. You can download episode 1-43 with English subs at nana-nana.net
The manga is also available online, but personally I prefer reading the real volumes and this supports the publishers. Currently creator Ai Yazawa has put her NANA series on hold due to a sudden illness. Let’s hope she’ll be back to good health soon