NOTE: This review is a continuation of my reviews of this series. If you have not seen any of the volumes or my previous reviews, you risk spoilers by continuing.

Intro

Once again I jump into the pits of this anime in order to submit a review for the otakus out there who really need to know how bad this anime is. The things I do for Epinions.

The Story

Volume three of this series deals with the final summer vacation of jr. high for Nana as she prepares for the second semester of her last year at jr. high at which point she will be dealing with entrance exams so that she can at long last get into the same school as Yuichi since as we all know, getting into the same school as him is the perfect solution to getting a guy to go out with you, and here I thought the easiest solution was to just freaking ask him!

But I digress.. Five episodes are shown on this volume and as I mentioned, all of them have to do with summer vacation which Nana is not getting to enjoy because she’s too busy studying and complaining, plus she has summer school.

In the first noteworthy episode, Nana finally has a real conversation with Yuichi and he invites her to the summer festival and while at first she doesn’t actually accept because she’s too nervous to even speak, the others finally do pressure her to go to the festival and they all try to find him so that they can have a date with him. I will admit that there was one amusing scene in this episode with the principal and vice principal going to the festival and getting drunk on saki.

In another noteworthy episode that was also slightly amusing, the fast track group heads to the coast for a summer study retreat and the trio of terror (or the botox triplets as I like to call them) are invited along as well by the principal and vice principal. This episode had a couple of amusing moments as well with Nana trying to learn how to concentrate after everyone is challenged to enter a ‘haunted temple’ and complete a worksheet. I gotta say that the principal and vice principal have a really twisted sense of humor.

The final two episodes of the volume are the ones that really got on my nerves though as Yuichi is sent off to San Francisco to take part in a student exchange program where he will get to put all the English he has been learning to practical use. Unfortunately on the way there his plane gets caught in a terrible storm and everyone on the plane is passed out from food poisoning (gee, where have we seen this plot before?? *rolls eyes*) so it’s up to Nana and the Nana Rangers to save the day even though none of them know jack about flying a commercial airliner except for the video game that they played at home in which none of them were ever able to even beat the first level.

But as you can imagine, success is in the cards as now all of them are caught in San Francisco where Nana’s mother is working.

The Good And The Bad

Have I mentioned how much this series grates on my nerves and how much I dread having to watch each volume so that I can review it? Well, if I haven’t… I do! This series is just so below average and while I have seen other series that are much much worse, this one easily is near the top of that list. Luckily this volume did have a couple of amusing episodes which helped me get through this volume in one sitting instead of the usual two or three that I’ve had to do for previous volumes.

The animation is still looking very crisp and clear but the storylines continue to be unoriginal and absolutely taxing on my mind. Does anyone really believe that if seven girls in costumes were to help a commercial airliner land in San Francisco that the press wouldn’t be all over it??? Well, apparently the creators of this series do.

The biggest complaint I have about this series though is the characters are just so weak! There is only so many times that I can listen to Nana complain about how badly she wants to date Yuichi and yet every chance she gets to even talk to him she shuts up completely because she’s so shy. Girl get over it!!!

Music

Once again the music in this series is again very weak and annoying. The opening theme song sounds like adult propaganda using anime as a weak effort to get kids to study more and the closing theme is just boring. The only highlight in this section is that the series is continuing to use Scott Joplin’s ‘Maple Leaf Rag’ as background music.

Dub vs. Sub

Veronica Taylor continues to do a good job playing seven different versions of the same character but other than that, the dub for this series continues to be fairly weak with every other character sounding like they have throat infections or are talking out of their nose.

Extras

None on this volume.

Overall

As usual, I’m less than impressed with this volume and will not be giving it more than two stars. It’s got it’s good points but the number of good points about this series is grossly outnumbered by the bad points. Do yourself a favor and just skip this series all together. Life is too short to watch bad anime.


Final Grade: 65% - D

Related Reviews

Nana 7 of 7 Vol. 1: The Luckiest Number
Nana 7 of 7 Vol. 2: Test Of Love
Nana 7 of 7 Vol. 4: Heartbreak By The Numbers
Nana 7 of 7 Vol. 5: Eight Is Enough




©L.B. Bryant 2005

Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children up Ages 8