Did my first read without lookups, will read a second time later with lookups and might have some questions then!
Chapter 1 story comments
I love how the covers of volume 1 and volume 2 together already tell a story.
Super happy to be re-reading this in Japanese. I always imagined that the narrator voice was 奈々’s, but now seeing on page 3 ねえ ナナ, there is no doubt. Also fun seeing writing to her mom and dad お父さま and お母さま p.14, or when she says はい to 章司 p.39. The small details that are lost in translation!
I’m also super happy that 奈々 and ナナ are meeting right away and to see how good their chemistry is (not at all surprised to see 奈々 only talk about herself for 5 hours haha, or to see ナナ disappear when the train arrives).
p.12 made me laugh too, that 奈々 just couldn’t wait and quit her job on the stop and went home to pack her things. Also notice the poster over her bed.
Good for 章司 that he got accepted at 美大. Still not liking him too much though, just freshly reunited with 奈々 and she is already crying.
Anyway, loved the scene in the train with both Nanas, and happy too that it seems like we won’t have to be waiting too long either for them to meet a second time!
Finished this week’s section! Things are in motion!!
Random assorted thoughts below:
ゆーか
I know there was a lot of this type of thing in the first volume, and maybe my brain just glossed over it – but this chapter I feel like “ゆーか” was used a lot and I was like “??? What does this mean?? Why doesn’t my dictionary have any definition for this?”
Then all of a sudden it clicked that it’s いうか! I felt so triumphant lmao.
Reading the way these characters speak, I keep thinking of this meme and how reading this series means I’m going to end up sounding like a 2000’s teenager
The scene with the two Nana’s meeting on the train is so beautiful and memorable! I love how their dynamic is shaped right off the bat. I also think it’s so interesting that they come from two very different worlds, and yet they both immediately accept each other without judgment. Like, Nana K. thinks to herself about how cool Nana’s jewelry and makeup is, etc. but isn’t judging her negatively. Similarly, Nana O. is immediately very warm and kind to this goofy young woman who (literally) just fell into her lap. It’s all so endearing!
In the anime, the shot of when the two Nana’s part after getting on the train is really burned into my memory as giving me chills.
Shoji
I thought Shoji seemed somewhat redeemably cute when he was texting Nana K. about his entrance exams (side note: super fun niche vocab word unlocked: １浪), and then offering to pick her up at the train station. But then he was pestering her about looking for a job and an apartment after she had been there for less than 24 hours…? RUDE.
Apt 707
The amazing apartment costs ¥75,000 I adjusted for inflation and that’s ¥83,831.76 today, or $595.77 USD. So they are basically paying $300 each. What I wouldn’t give…!
I was trying to poke around and see if there is ever any sense given of where the apartment is located, and it seems like there isn’t, save for the fact that it’s likely situated on the Tama River. I am enjoying a stroll, via Google Maps, through the area.
Assorted new vocab
These were my lookups for this chapter – I am just posting them here so I can remember to go back, grab the page numbers, and add to the spreadsheet!
Don’t know who it is but a kind soul has already done the work, big thanks to them
(I added a few words myself and didn’t double check your list so you can always check, but it’s nice that’s there’s plenty already!)
Replies
Interesting decision! But I also get it, if you don’t know where you’re going, it’s a bit confusing to start the sorry with one Nana and then jump to the second Nana without much context. Still don’t want to watch the anime but I like to learn about those details!
Oh wait, noo, now I almost want to watch it
I thought he was being cute too, except for the part "やさしーなオレ "
Agreed! I’m used to some of the slang by now but some things still trip me up. For example p.21 年季入ってる, couldn’t figure out what it meant as neither Yomichan nor Jisho gave a result. Turns out there are results for 年季が入ってる, wouldn’t have thought about adding が when looking up, big thanks to the person who wrote it in the vocab sheet!
Nana’s phone says “1 unread メール” and “1 unread メッセージ”. Pretty sure メール is SMS / text, so what is a メッセージ?
Also I wonder if that scene makes sense to “young” people. Barely remembered myself that back in the days, you would get something like “you have 1 new message” and then you need to open it to see who it’s from. And Nana smoking in the train too, oof! I imagine that it would be hard now for 矢沢あい is she were to come back to Nana, do you still write as if it’s 2001(ish), can you remember it all, or do you update it to now?? That would be hard to do I think, like in the manga they get fan letters and gifts, but nowadays people probably mostly get followers and subscribers?
I first read this as an abbreviation of 間抜け – though I don’t necessarily know if that’s right and I think that’s kind of just me making that up. I do think it would make sense in context with Shoji saying something like “you really are as dumb as usual.” I also found a definition for an onomatopoeia version 抜け抜け that has a negative, but not quite the same, connotation.
Okay wait looking at this more closely it seems like a possible definition of 抜ける is “to be absentminded; to be careless; to be inattentive; to be foolish.” So I am thinking that Shoji is saying basically “you are as airheaded as ever.”
I guess I was onto something lol
Is this 強烈? I’m having some slight trouble figuring out the full meaning of the discussion. I feel like Nana K. is saying “why are you bringing up that old story” and Jun is saying “I was young and your adulterous affair made an unexpectedly strong impression” – idk if that is a stretch!
強烈 makes sense! So the way I understand the conversation is that 奈々 is talking how she feels like it would be weird to live with 章司, she feels ashamed to be naked and bathing with him, where he can see her in full light and it’s a very cramped space. He will see all her flaws. So 淳子 says, why do you have a problem with that, you did it with 浅野さん at the love hotels, and then 奈々 asks her why would 淳子 even remember that detail that 奈々told her back then! And 淳子 said that it made a strong impression on her, as they were young and her friend was seeing a married man
That felt a bit easier to read than the first volume to me. Still had to look up a lot of words but I didn’t have to re-read every page twice like for that ナナ section last book…
ナナＸ奈々
It’s always the same pattern: his objections are reasonable (balking at 奈々 going full tradwife day 1 is not absurd I think) but he just can’t figure out a way to just have an adult discussion, instead he’s immediately demeaning. I kinda hope they break up soon, they both need more mature relationships I think, they’re holding each other back.
Maybe I’m jumping the gun but they’re basically roommates at the end of the chapter, no?
It’s clearly a real picture on page 55, so the building has to exist somewhere! Or at least did 25 years ago…
I’m surprised that you had so few lookups but this was one of them. It’s a pretty common word in my experience.
It was ケチる I believe (in the context of 奈々 being stingy and not buying an attributed seat).
That was my interpretation as well. As for 強烈 it gave me a bit of trouble, but the trick is to always try looking up the version with the vowel doubled when there’s a ー in case it’s just a slang spelling like in this case…
Also just after that I enjoyed the exchange where 奈々 says “あたしのヤなとこは彼氏には見られたくないの！” and 淳子 replies what I was thinking: “もー手遅れだと思うけど”.
淳子 is really the MVP so far for me. Her going full ゴゴゴゴ when 奈々 talks about her 隠居生活 lifestyle was great. I noticed that in previous weeks, many of you who are already familiar with the manga/anime had forgotten about this character which leads me to believe that she’s going to go away or become a very minor character eventually and it saddens me…
I noticed that as well, my only guess is that I remember that Japan was extremely ahead of Europe when it came to internet on phones. Things like WAP and i-mode were hugely popular there around the turn of the millennium. It’s possible that “message” was basic SMS while “mail” supported more rich content.
Trying to put myself in the shoes of someone that’s new to Nana, but judging by the cover of the volume and by the fact that it looks like they are visiting the same apartment at the end of the chapter, I want to say Yes…
Yes!! I keep forgetting. Maybe next time.
I can’t even confirm or not, I don’t remember how often she appears after 奈々 moves to Tokyo and meets new people. The new people made a bigger impression on me I believe. Wait, maybe then I AM confirming what you think x). We’ll see!
As I am old I think this is it. Although my understanding is that people were actually sending each other emails (and thus they’d have all the space that was available in an email plus emoji and the like). My guess then is that メッセージ is just SMS?
I grabbed an image 俺物語 1, which I had remembered them “texting” back and forth a lot, and here you can clearly see the Re: in the subject line that you get in an email conversation. Amusingly, this was published in 2012!!! Japan was actually pretty slow to get on the スマホ bandwagon because their phone networks were so advanced that it took a while for the new features to be that much better than what they had.
I’ve only ever been on trains in Japan where talking on phones is considered a crime akin to murder judging by the opprobrious looks shot at offending phone users by other Japanese passengers. Also, I don’t remember ever seeing anyone light up a cigarette in the seating compartment of a train. Not saying it’s never happened but I was surprised.
Not the beer though. Wasn’t surprised by the beer at all.
I presume that it was a thing back when Nana was written but is forbidden now, like smoking in planes. There were smoking cars in French trains well into the 2000s for instance.
Finished the first chapter just in time to read chapter 2 tomorrow. I’m a bit late for the discussion, so I’ll just say that I agree with @simias regarding Nana and Shouji — their interaction in this chapter was painful, it felt like a relationship that has already ended, they just haven’t realized it yet.
淳子is doing a reasonably good impersonation of my mother talking to a young me - serial killers and sinking to the bottom of Tokyo Bay & all because 奈々 wants to live in a shared house, living with a stranger, something that foreigners do!
Oh and I love the Doraemon joke.
Things are in motion!!
I adjusted for inflation and that’s ¥83,831.76 today, or $595.77 USD. 
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