Z3R0

So, going firstly with gokinjo monogatari - as the characters are the youngest, being in second year of secondary/trade/highschool (whatever you call those in English), making them around 16-17 years old?

The entire series is of course a prequel to paradise kiss, covering our main character - Mikako Kouda/Sakurada - and her dream of becoming a fashion designer. That's also something each series handles differently - dreams and their verification with reality.

In gokinjo things go quite smoothly, which I think is great and also why it's one of my favourite series, my heart isn't being broken every other chapter, rather it grows fonder. Almost all characters have their minds set on one goal, and they are working hard to achieve it. Mikako, as we know already if you've watched paradise kiss first like I did lol, has managed to become a successful designer. She's almost entirely set up for success when you think about it, her biggest struggles being her divorced parents and her indecisive boyfriend. She comes from a wealthy family and has a mother who lets her do just about anything that makes her happy.

She's still relatable to the audience her age, though, as she often doubts herself and struggles greatly with honesty and feelings of jealousy or being left behind by those she loves. She's not perfect by any means, even forgetting for a bit about her mother's and boyfriend's existence when offered a scholarship abroad. I

I think it's a great, sweet coming of age story that focuses more on the personal growth within the characters rather than having them battle between what they wish for and what the world will allow.

Paradise Kiss has characters that are a year older - in third year of their education and are, I believe, about to graduate. Their issues are more pressing because of that - the main character - Yukari - isn't even sure what she wants from life and is forced into making choices she's not ready for. The other characters also have their dreams and work hard towards them, but the world isn't as patient or gentle on them as it is on Gokinjo characters. They have true deadlines approaching, ones that will decide a lot for them. The whole story line takes place in a very chaotic and stormy place in many young people's lives, right in-between still being a child in education and becoming an adult in the real world.

The verification is bitter sweet in this series. Not everything goes according to their plans and most of them realise they can't make a living out of fashion, even if it's something they're passionate about - like Miwako, who realises she lacks the creativity and drive her sister has and decides to go a simpler route of being a seamstress rather than a designer. Yukari also has to face the fact that she won't always be friends - or lovers - with people that she spent valued time with, no matter how much she wants to. The world reminds her later of their existence and just how much they have driven apart.

Paradise kiss I think is a really valuable piece when it comes to coming of age stories, as it makes the characters not only figure themselves out but also have characters that are so sure what and who they are face the world that simply doesn't agree.

Now, I have to confess, I didn't finish Nana. It's probably partially because I was convinced by the little bits I saw of it online that it was a story about two girls and their lives in Tokyo, where one of them starts a band, and I was left thoroughly disappointed when not only did I find that the other nana than I wanted was the main character, but also it had more romance and coming of age elements than anything to do with the band - which isn't bad at all!!! I was just thirteen and bored out of my mind in quarantine, so that anime didn't really do it for me at the time. I also remember not being impressed at all by the art style and animation, which I'm probably remembering wrong after five years too.

I can say however, with my knowledge of it even though it's a little limited, that the topics in Nana are far more mature than the ones in the previously covered series. The characters - most of them anyway - are freshly in their twenties, making them still very young and naive, but the weight of responsibility on their shoulders is much greater than the characters of para kiss or gokinjo, because they are adults, who are the only people responsible for their actions.

To me Nana is a series about the crushing verification of what you thought to be true with actual facts of the world, which is cruel and unforgiving. It's a valuable show because of the topics it handles, which are everyday but rough situations, being handled by characters many young adults can relate to - irresponsible, selfish, confused and lost and human in the most raw ways. This show focuses on what it takes to find yourself and keep on chasing whatever dreams you have, even when the world doesn't want you to.

What I value most, I think, in each and every one of these series is that noone is truly perfect. There isn't a character you can confidently stand with without asking them "honestly, what the fuck" at least once, and that's what makes them so beautifully human.

Should you actually watch these one after the other? Honestly, nah. They correlate nicely with the different age groups each covers and I think just the timeline (ageline?) of the characters shows nicely how quickly life becomes more serious and how many more challenges you will face as you grow, and obviously gokinjo and para kiss are one universe, but genuinely I don't think the knowledge of other ai yazawa series is needed to appreciate and relate to the one you're currently enjoying.