NANA Vol 12 by Ai Yazawa Manga Review

After discovering that he was cheating on her, Hachi decided, in an instant, that she wasn’t going to fight for him, even with Nana urging her to do so.  She felt so betrayed that, numbed, she could only walk away.  While Hachi was never the most stable or committed of folks, and she was more in love with being in love than anything else, I am a little torn about her choice.  Do you forgive the person you trusted most in the world, hoping that they will never betray you again?  Or by forgiving them, do you open the door to them repeating the same behavior in the future?  whether she’s faced with the same choice in the future, will her decision be any different?

I have to say that I like Junko and Kyosuke quite a bit, probably considering they are the most normal couple in the comic.  I really hope that they remain that way.

Grade:  A-

Rated for Mature

Title:  Nana Vol 12

Author:  Ai Yazawa

Publisher:  Viz

ISBN:  9781421518794

May Contain Spoilers

Ugh!  I’m starting to get scared about what’s going to happen

next in NANA.  that volume was down beat, but Ren’s substance abuse wasn’t touched on at all, and I think that’s going to be like a smoldering powder keg sometime in the future for Nana.  In a brief moment of self-reflection with Yasu, she wonders whether she’ll find the emotional stability that she’s lost whether she marries Ren.  She plus muses whether or not she can have a normal friendship with Hachi whether she lives with Ren again.  It’s a little unsettling to think that a person who is as strong as Nana is on the outside is so small and vulnerable on the inside.  She lacks the strength to save herself, but she thinks that Ren is the reply to her prayers.  When these guys hit rock bottom, it’s going to be painful.  Will Nana be able to find an inner toughness to save herself?  I really have my doubts.

Hachi makes a very painful realization, one of those that hits you after you’ve made up your mind and already traveled too far along your own path to change the outcome of a critical decision.  After seeing Shoji again, she finds, instead of the closure that she longed for, that she still loves him.  That she’s always loved him, and that everyone else was just a pale replacement for him.  She felt the most comfortable with him, and now she is truly mourning what she’s lost.

[Source] Julie