NANA

EP 45.

♡spanish traducing;

Nana & Hachi & Reira + doors

I’m not exactly sure what made me want to examine these three moments of the three NANA girls, sitting on the floor in front of a door in despair, but I was struck with just how much these moments really illustrate these girl’s struggles throughout the manga.

First we have Nana, leaning against the door, just completely devestated and empty after finding Hachi and Takumi embracing. Unlike Hachi and Reira, who’s doors are locked, Nana is blocking and preventing anyone entering from entering her door. She is, in many ways, her own worst enemy and it is her that isn’t letting anyone in.

Before this moment, Nana was at the happiest she ever really was in the manga (outside of briefly seeing Nana and Ren happily living at his place in the prologue). She was back together with Ren, and while she was battling disappointment in herself for getting back with him - she didn’t feel at all dependent on him and was content when he was off on tour and she was steadily working on her own dream. Nana also had her very first friend who was a girl, a girl that she absolutely adored and trusted and was opening up to in a way I don’t think she ever did with any of her guy friends.

Just a few scenes before this one, Nana was honestly telling Hachi why she wasn’t going to the Trapnest concert with everyone else.

Nana doesn’t really ever get this casually honest, particularly with Hachi, after witnessing Hachi with Takumi (a member of Trapnest, the band that stole Ren and now Hachi in Nana’s mind).  Nana does have emotional discussions after this moment, but from this moment is a turning point for her and the part of her that was getting to be more emotionally open with Hachi was shut and locked.

Meanwhile, Hachi’s door is locked. More over, she’s locked out of her own bedroom. Unlike Nana, Hachi continues to make the best of most any situation she finds herself in (usually after a good long cry in absolute despair). However, it is from this moment onward that Hachi’s choices become very limited - very often by the same man that locked out of her bedroom.  Bedrooms are personal spaces and no one should be locked out of their own room, just like people should be given the right to tell friends and family that they are pregnant on their own terms.

Hachi is continually denied autonomy after Takumi re-enters her life. He keeps her cooped up with limited contact with anyone else outside of her family and Junko after she initially goes to live with him. He also chooses not to inform her about a number of significant things, like why they can suddenly get married when before they couldn’t for the sake of Ren and Nana.

Now, for Reira, much like Hachi she is isolated… by the very same man. However, this is much more overt in manga/anime than Hachi’s situation which is more subtle, as she is described like a caged bird or a princess locked in a tower. What’s less overt is really how limited Reira’s contact with other people outside of Shin and the members of Trapnest (including Mari).

Because Reira really is only really seen talking with the band members of Trapnest Mari, and Shin on any regular basis - and her relationship with Shin is kept very much on the down low and only Ren, Takumi, and Hachi really know about their relationship at all. She only talks with Yasu, Nana, and Hachi a handful of times (outside flashbacks to the past, with her and Yasu). Five people that Reira ever really talks to is… a very small amount. Especially given that Reira is meant to be a celebrity. She’s famous. Yet she’s so isolated.

“Trapnest means ‘The Trapped Den’ Once we enter it, we can’t get out by our own means I thought that that name could only come from a man who love having power over other.” Nana once said. And it’s true, in particular for Reira, but for Ren as well. All they have is Trapnest, with very limited access outside of it.

It even (nearly, depending on your interpretation) ends their only relationships outside of the band. Reira with Yasu and Shin, and Ren with Nana and the rest of Blast.

In that moment that Reira falls to her knees in despair - declaring “I can’t sing,” that she can’t do the very thing that she feels valuable for, that ties her to Trapnest, because Reira cannot really do anything outside of Trapnest.

Unlike Nana and Hachi, whose moments on the floor are a turning point of their most pervasive struggles in the rest of the series, Reira’s takes place near the end of the (available) chapters. During the rising action of what I think is the climax of this series - or causing it depending on your outlook. And soon after, Reira does the only thing she can think to help Ren and she runs away, for the good of Ren but Trapnest as well.

There is another moment in Reira falls to the floor in front of a door, which is right when she is building her first relationship outside of Trapnest with Shin, around the time where their relationship starts to shift out of her just paying a fifteen year old for sex and companionship, but becoming actually emotionally attached.

Unlike Nana, while Reira’s back is against the door it isn’t that she is trying to keep anyone out… it’s that no one has tried to come in. And this is a turning point for her.

I have created a little quiz for you Nana fans! It will take you just a few minutes, 7 easy questions to discover what Nana song you're related the most! ♥ I hope you enjoy it and if you want reblog this post and share your results with the other fans! ;)