I feel the same. I’m going to avoid watching anything of the anime at least until we’re done with the manga. In general I’ve found that the image that I have in my head of manga characters differs pretty massively from the usual anime style. Especially the way they speak… It’s often so extreme and unnatural in anime.
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Yes exactly, the voices can be a big deal breaker. And now with music too. Even though it’s a big part of the plot, it might not be bad but it will for sure be different
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Chapter 12
Start Date: 2025-07-11T15:00:00Z
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That’s so funny bc I find that anime almost always makes the manga come to life for me more. Like in the manga they’re just part of a real person but with the anime it’s much of them. I suppose it helps that I often use anime to decide if it’s worth it for me to get into a manga in the first place (although I did technically start Nana waaaaaaaaaay back when before it even had an anime).
I do agree about the music part, tho 
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Finished the 11th chapter and I’m halfway through the 12th one now. The 11th chapter was really fun to read (even though the discussions were sad/heavy) because I could follow everything without any look-ups wooohoo.
The 12th chapter is going to hit us like a truck, isn’t it?
Oh I read this section and thankfully it’s not toooo bad (did get a headache after though)
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Speaking of which, Chapter 12 comments
What a great chapter. Was happy to see Hachi confess to Nana that she knew about her and Ren before the concert, and loved Nana’s reaction. Super wholesome overall too, with Nana telling Hachi’s family how happy she is for her.(funny to see her talk that way too, with Nana-san and so on) (speaking of which, I can see it too, that Nana and Ren talk the same way.)
(Was as surprised as Hachi by Nana’s style, I was sure she would go for the red dress she was also wearing the first time she met Ren!)
Also I have no idea what Nana is saying p. 156
An expression about being a hypocrite? got that from the French translation:
New vocab:
ジャケ買い
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p154
I was wondering if there was a kanji version of ナナ’s name, but during the introduction to her mother 奈々 says あたしと同じ名前なんだ。カタカナでナナ。
It’s it possible for Japanese people to have kana-only names? I know that it’s common especially for women to spell their first name in kana but I always assumed that it was a casual thing and in official documents there would be a kanji version.
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I’d say kana only (and especially katakana only) names are still the minority but they’re definitely not non-existent. In fact, my understanding is that katakana names are kinda cool bc they evoke foreign names (even if they are Japanese like ナナ).
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Just finished chapter 12 last night! ! ! !
I feel like this chapter ends the first sort of “major arc” of the series. Now it’s on to some even more heart-rending stuff!
Chapter 12 Thoughts and F E E L S !!!
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I found the opening panel (the magazine interview with Ren) to be really difficult to read. I kind of couldn’t follow who was speaking. I need to go back and re-read…
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Nana’s love of Hachi’s mom is SO funny. She’s so smooth! Seeing Hachi’s whole family is very adorable, too. The panel when they are just chugging along in the minivan on 149 made me giggle.
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The panel showing Hachi’s family home on 153 looks SO western to me?!
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It’s clear that Hachi is still really hurting over Shoji. Since her conversation with Junko a few chapters ago, Hachi really hasn’t actually talked about it or faced those feelings head on. She’s really just thrown herself into supporting Blast and now her mission to get Nana and Ren back together.
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The conversation between Nana and Hachi when they are unpacking was very gentle and moving. They’re really actually opening up to each other.
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The flashback to how Blast got its name! So funny!!! The chemistry between Nana and Ren is palpable here, too. Every time we’ve seen them so far they’ve been an established couple so it was cute to see them when they were still getting to know each other.
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The full page when Ren takes the stage is admittedly pretty badass.
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Gahhh the final panel…absolutely one of the most memorable and iconic moments in the entire series, imo!
Junko's Room
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I loved the ParaKiss crossover! I think a few other people in this thread said they had read it, right? I have read/watched it, but in English. I recently re-watched episode 1 and the animation quality was kind of poor…
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Lmao at the fanart being all of Sachiko.
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Bigger LMAO at the fanmail being corrections.
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Pro tip: the interviewer has the ◆ symbol in front of their lines. That’s how it works in real magazines too, so I don’t think you’re the only one who has trouble keeping who is saying what straight 
And that one of Hachi and Shoji 
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The tone feels so different to me in French. I think it’s partly because of translator decisions but also because I still don’t have a very good feel for tone in Japanese, I miss the subtle cues. There are so many small changes in phrasing that can subtly alter the tone of a sentence in Japanese…
It is true that the interviewer in the Japanese version uses mostly タメ口 which I suspect is seen as very casual for an interview.
Also I was wondering, how do they handle the ナナ・奈々 spelling difference in the translations? Isn’t it sometimes ambiguous if it’s always just written Nana?
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Not me ALWAYS misreading this as tamero
I think in English it’s Nana (K) vs NANA (O), but that’s just based on what I’ve seen online. I also just see a lot of Nana K and Nana O (which is how English would deal with that situation).
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Let me know if you have specific situations in mind from the manga. Here are 2 situations I can think of.
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Ok but hear me out: call one Nana as usual but the other Nannah. Problem solved without clumsy footnotes. I’m a genius.
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Works for writing but not for talking though. Hence coming up with Hachi.
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I happen to have out my English language copy of volume 4. (I read the tiny magazine article in English because even with a magnifying glass by eyes are too bad to easily read the tiny Japanese. Doing that I’m almost caught up…) I also checked out the scene in volume 2 from @Akashelia’s post. It’s much the same as the French: both girls are just Nana. (Well, NANA, the lettering is in all caps, like the French.) In the family introduction, ナナ just says “Hi, I’m Nana.” with no last name. The bit about katakana is dropped (and there are no notes).
Occasionally in things like the back cover text the last names are used.
It’s been a while since I read the English ones, but I don’t recall any dialog with Nana O. or Nana K. Generally it’s pretty clear which one is being referred to.
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Oh wow that’s strange 
probably judged to sound too unnatural?
So many things lost in translation!
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By the way, names can even be hiragana only, see for example the name of NANA’s mangaka 
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The thing is that Japanese authors like to play fast and loose with the spelling of their pen name so I wasn’t sure if it was her true given name. Searching around on the web I don’t see any mention of pseudonyms however, so it probably is?
Also I just noticed that her Japanese Wikipedia page starts with:
矢沢 あい（やざわ あい、1967年〈昭和42年〉3月7日[2] - ）は、日本の女性漫画家[2]。兵庫県[3]尼崎市出身[注 1]。大阪モード学園中退[2]。血液型B型[2]。独身。[要出典]身長167cm[注 2]。
At least they don’t mention her cup size…
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