“Nee Nana, do you still think you have nowhere to go back? That table and those chairs are still there... near the window... just as they were then..”
I'm finally going to go through Nana volume 3! It took me a while to finish this one because a lot has happened lately and I just couldn't get to do it. I recently started volume 4 and haven't opened the 5th one. I believe volume 6 is already out too.
This one is an orange volume, it has both Nanas walking down the stairs of the building where they live. Love these covers guys! It's as if they were telling a story too. Plus, I reaaaally like Hachi's outfit. ♡
We have a short summary of the story so far so we can remember what has happened in the previous volumes. It is also divided in 4 chapters, from 5 to 8.
Let's dive into it!
Chapter 5 continues where we left, after Nana and Nobu's small concert for Hachi at the apartment, since it was late, some of the neighbors complained about the noise. We see Hachi apologizing to them while they say how nothing good comes out of apartment 707. After that we see Nana taking a bath, Hachi goes in the bathroom to tell her there has been a murder in their apartment, which was something she imagined. Nana kicks her out of the bathroom. Hachi is scared just by thinking about it and starts talking to Nobu and asks him to stay over the night, that way he can use her room and she can sleep with Nana. They also have a short conversations about how the band used to be like and how they didn't have a bass player anymore. In the end, Nobu stays. Then we move on to a scene where Nana is trying to sleep but Hachi is still very excited because of the concert and keeps thinking about the band. It is kinda cute cuz Nana gets annoyed.
The next day Hachi makes a poster announcing a band is looking for a drummer and a bass player, she includes a funny drawing of Nana and Nobu and leaves it outside Sabrina, the store where she works and The Jackson Hole, where she later meets Shouji for lunch. Hachi keeps talking about Nana and the band and Shouji seems to be annoyed because she's constantly talking about it and spending more time with Nana than with him. They seem to start having small arguements everytime they meet, which makes Hachi feel like a selfish, bad girlfriend. After lunch, back at Sabrina, someone asks Hachi for information about the band. This someone is my pretty boy Shin-chan! (Okazaki Shinichi, he's a 15 year old rebel guy who ends up becoming *spoiler alert* Balst's bass player. He's a very troubled and lonely kid but very mature for his age.) I love him so much, I was reaaaally looking forward to seeing him. Hachi is actually surprised of how fast someone was interested interested in auditioning. That night when Shouji is at work, his boss introduces him to his new coworker, Sachiko. (I hate this girl...) He gets a little nervous because Sachiko is the name of the girl Hachi uses to say he's cheating on her.
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| My pretty boy, Shin-chan |
At the same time, Nana and Nobu are kinda "interviewing" Shin, who lied about his age saying he was 18 when he's only 15. Nana tells him she need to hear him play to see if he's good enough to join the band so, he gets a studio where the can play together. Everything works perfectly fine when they play together but Nana suddenly stops the song ans asks Shin who's the bass player he admires the most, to which he says it's Honjo Ren (Nana's ex). Nana tells him it's easy to sing with the way he plays and gives him just one condition to join the band; to be better than Ren. So, Shin is officially part of Blast!! Hachi is super excited and wants some recognition from Nana cuz she was the one who found Shin, in a way. Nana "thanks" her giving her a peck on the lips. Guess that's Nana being Nana. (At least according to Nobu).
Moving on, we have Sachiko leaving work, which happents to be at the same time Shouji does. So they are walking to the same station but, Sachiko doesn't realize it's him who's walking behing him and thinks someone is following her. He decides to talk to her so he doesn't look like a creepy stalker and they end up walking and taking the subway together. They kinda bond on their way home. 🙄
Chapter 6. We start this chapter with Hachi realizing that after a month living in Tokyo, she's broke. And that's becasue since she moved to the apartment, she started buying furniture for her room and, even tho she's working, the things she buys are charged in her paychecks each pay day~ Nana reminds her she is supposed to pay for half of the expenses and she has to continue doing it or, she'll have to leave. Hachi runs to Jun-chan and Kyosuke to ask for help (money). At some point Kyosuke is willing to lend her some money but Jun-chan stops him and ends up giving Hachi a big bag of rice to make it until the end of the month. When Hachi is at work, she's trying to think of ways she can make it until her next pay day when suddenly, her boss asks her if she wants to go have dinner with him after work. Of course she accepts, it's free food! But, at the same time, she feels a little guilty because of Shouji.
Speaking of Shouji, we move on to a scene where Kyosuke sees him with Sachiko at school, he greets them and while Sachiko leaves to get some drinks, he starts asking him about his relationship with her. He suspects something is going on between them and tells Jun-chan.
Then we see Nana in the rehearsing studio, playing the drums by herself, my pretty boy Shin-chan arrives wearing Nobu's clothes because he spent the night at his place. They have a shor conversation about hos Shin should go home every now and then or his parents will be worried, to which he responds that it won't happen. In a way, he was expecting Nana to scold him or something but she was pretty chill about it. This surprises him in a way. But, she lets him know she understands her situation, knowing some parents just don't care.
After that, we have Hachi and Mizukoshi-san enjoying their dinner at what seems to be a type of izakaya. They are talking about Shin, his age and how they still need to find a drummer for Blast. When they finish, Mizukoshi-san tells Hachi he invited her because he had something to tell her. She gets all nervous thinking he's gonna confess his love or something but... he actually tells her he's thinking about closing the store. That'd mean, she would lose her job.
While they are discussing that, Shouji and Sachiko are running to the stations after work, as usual. Sachiko decides to wear this horrible kind of sandals(?) and one falls off as they are running upstairs like a cheap version of Cinderella. Shouji notices this and decides to wait for her so, they both miss the last train. She tells him she did it on purpose. Suddenly, Hachi call Shouji crying, asking for help. We see Shouji and Sachiko taking a cab together and when they arrive to Sachiko´s house, he tries to pay and she rejects it because "she doesn't let guys with girlfriends pay for her things". Yeah, right. 🙄 And she leaves crying~ When Shouji arrives to his apartment, Hachi is there, they start talking about money but he doesn't have much cuz he just bought a computer for school so, he can't help her.
The next day, when Nana and Hachi go out, Hachi notices there are ¥300,000. She's excited and thinks it's from her former boss but, when Nana checks it, they realize it's was fom Hachi's mom. This made her feel relieved and wants to invite Nana to eat something good to celebrate. She still wonders why her mom sent her that money if she didn't know anything about the store closing. Nana asks her if she's gonna call her mom and kinda mocks her saying she'll start crying as soon as she hears her mom's voice. Hachi tells Nana that is normal to miss home, and asks her if she doesn't miss hers to which she says she doesn't have a home... but! as soon as they arrive to their apartment, Yasu is waiting at the door, Nana gets close to him and starts crying. He's officially moving to Tokyo to be a part of Blast again. (and to be with Nana, of course ♡) This chapter closes with a nice pic of Nobu, Shin, Nana, Hachi and Yasu enjoying dinner at the apartment.
Chapter 7. This chapter starts with Hachi on the phone with her mom, she called to thank her for the money, her mom tells her the reason she sent that money was for her wedding with Shouji. Guess knowing Hachi, her mom thought they'd get married right away. Here we can see Hachi's mom and her younger sister, Nami. Nana kinda laughs at Hachi cuz she's a little drunk and, they were not expecting the money to be for that. At some point, Hachi thought her mom would ask her to go back home. Yasu returns, Nana welcomes him with a peck, which surprises Hachi, she's not sure what kind of relationship they actually have. Yasu takes Nana to her room and helps Hachi with the dishes before leaving. While they're at it, she can't help to think she' could marry a guy like him, hehe. Once Yasu leaves, Hachi goes to bed and continues wondering about the Nana-Yasu relationship and then about her relationship with Shouji and the money for the wedding. The next day we see a very hungover Nana surprised to see Hachi ready to go to a job interview for an editorial. Even tho it is basically doing small tasks, she's excited and hopes to be able to share some ideas for the magazine one day. Before she leaves, Nana asks her if she wants to go see the band rehearse now that Yasu is there, Hachi agrees.
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| Natsuko & Nami, Hachi's mom and younger sister. |
We move on to Jun-chan at school, she finds Shouji and a friend and decides to greet them. The friend leaves them and she pretty much starts asking Shouji about Sachiko. Shouji gets all nervous, of course. At the same time, Sachiko asks Shouji's friend if he's seen Shouji, they start talking and for some reason he ends up asking her out but, she rejects him. Jun-chan tells Shouji he has to do something about his situation cuz he's not only going to hurt Hachi, but he's also hurting Sachiko. After that, Jun-chan leaves and Sachiko approaches him after secretly listening to his conversation with Jun-chan. She tells him she heard what they were talking about and after she returning a book he lent her, he runs away cuz he doesn't know how to act around her anymore. He has lunch at Jackson's Hole, where he's constantly thinking about his situation and what to do. While he's there, Hachi joins Blast to see their first rehearsal as a 4 memeber band.
I guess Shouji goes to work after lunch cuz we see Sachiko changing to leave work, this time she decides to wear sneakers cuz she "watns to respect" the fact that Shouji has a girlfriend and want to run to take the last train on time. They meet outside the restaurant (I don't remember if I mentioned that Shouji works in a restaurant~) and Shouji tries to explain things to Sachiko but he doesn't really know what to say since they were "just friends" so, he just says "I'm sorry" And she starts crying saying it was all her fault because she tried something even knowing he had a girlfriend. She also says she doesn't want to lose the friendship they have and promise not to interfere in his relationship. Nana and Hachi are going home from the rehearsal, talking about Hachi's future job and random stuff. And, we close this chapter with Shouji and Sachiko in his apartment (it could be hers, idk), where they finally decide to sleep together.
Chapter 8 starts with Shouji waking up to a message from Hachi where she's telling him she has a new job and a lot to tell him. He meets up with Kyosuke and asks him if he has ever cheated on a girlfriend. Of course he says no, cuz he doesnt want to lose Jun-chan but this also makes him suspicious of Shouji and Sachiko. Later Shouji and Hachi have lunch together, she pretty much tells him about her new job and this woman she doesn't like there. As usual, they end up arguing and he just leaves anfter walking her home, which makes it hard for her to try to make things up with him.
The next day we see Hachi at work, we meet Sakagami-san, the woman she was complaining about, and her boss, who looks like a pervy, pld, creepy guy. Most of her coworkers are older men anyway. When she arrives home, Nana seems to be in a very good mood. She tells Hachi that a space was opened and Blast will have the chance to be part of a concert on May 05th. Everyone is excited.
At the same time, Shouji and Sachiko are together, having dinner and talking about some things happening at work on May 05th, children's day, which happens to be Sachiko's birthday. Hachi calls him and he tries to ignore it but Sachiko tells him if he continues ignoring her, she'll suspect something~ I mean, really girl? He picks up the phone and Hachi tells him about the concert and how she'd like to go with him but he rejects her invitation saying he will have a lot of work that day because of children's day. But he's lying, he actually wants to spend that day with Sachiko...
Then we see Jun-chan painting and Kyosuke admiring her. ♡ He tells her some sweet things but she's not the romantic type, hehe. They he ends up telling her about Shouji and Sachiko and how he thinks Shouji is already in love with her. They both spend some time thinking how things could be once Hachi finds out. Jun-chan calls her right away to see how she's doing. Hachi invites them to the concert and also tells her she thinks Shouji is acting a little weird.
That night Nana, Hachi and Shin decide to go to the restaurant where Shouji is working. Hachi is excited but Shouji is nervous cuz he doesn't want Sachiko and Hachi to meet so, he hides in the bathroom. Sachiko notices Hachi and drops a tray she's carrying, breaking everything on it and cutting her finger. Hachi goes to help her right away, not knowing who she is. Sachiko leaves the place crying all dramatic and asks Shouji to end whatever their having because his girlfriend is a nice person and it's not fair for her. At the same time, Nana, Hachi and Shin are eating inside, talking about Shin and how they are both worried about him not having a place to leave. This makes him tell them he is not worried because he sometimes sleeps in random women houses who also give him some money. Of course they are shocked, specially considering he's only 15 years old. Suddenly Shouji comes to their table and asks Hachi if she'll be busy later that night cuz they need to talk...
And there is where this volume ends. We have some Junko's room as usual. There were some things i really enjoyed about this volume, like seeing my beautiful boy Shin-chan and Nana together with Yasu again. But, I strongly hate Sachiko and Shouji. I remember I was heartbroken the first time I saw this in the anime, as I rewatched I didn't suffer that much and i was over them but, I can't stand the girl! Plus Shouji is not as charming as he was at the beginning. I don't want to make this post longer so I'll stop here for now. I'm already reading volume 4 so, I hope to finish it soon.
Thanks if you read til the end~ I'll see you next time.
Previous Manga posts:
Manga Reading: Nana Volume 2 🍓
Manga Reading: Nana Volume 1 🍓
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