Originally published on www.otakureview.net

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

Another volume down, only one left before I can forget I ever watched this series.

The Story

Four more episodes are on this volume with the first episode having Nana’s parents returning from America. As you can imagine, this causes big problems since her parents are not expecting to see six clones of their daughter at home. Luckily they’re only home for one day so it’s one day of hiding all the extras. If that weren’t bad enough though, her parents want to send her to school in America.

Next up, Nana is stressing due to her exams getting harder and so she goes in search of a very special and specific good luck charm that everyone says will improve test scores just by having one but unfortunately she misses out on getting one so she tries different good luck charms instead including banana peels, clovers, deep fried bread and anything else she can think of to the point of obsession. Unfortunately for her, her attempts at retrieving good luck charms keep getting thwarted by an unknown person who is also after the same good luck charms.

With entrance exams just around the corner, Nana starts panicking when she realizes that the pencil that her love, Yuichi, gave her is missing. No one knows where it went but it suddenly becomes obvious that there is an eighth Nana that was previously unknown. This eighth Nana makes things even worse by causing all sorts of problems including being mean to her friends and failing her tests in class.

The final episode of the volume mostly takes us back into our main plot as Nana is offered the chance to get into her top choice high school without even having to take the entrance exam but unfortunately the early acceptance is also being offered to her love, Yuichi, and only one of them will be accepted for it creating a showdown between the two of them. Everyone tries to help Nana prepare for her interview including the eighth Nana who is convinced that she is the only useful Nana of the entire bunch.

The Good And The Bad

I’ve never been a fan of this series. At all. Ever. I will admit that there have been some shining moments here and there but for the most part this series continues to find new and more inventive ways of destroying brain cells and this volume is no exception. I think the biggest issue I have with this series is that there’s no suspension of disbelief. It’s aimed at young girls taking exams and is supposed to be a bit more of a slice of life anime with a bit of fantasy thrown in but even still, there are some scenes where the character reactions are so terribly unbelievable that it’s insane.

A great example of this is in the first episode of this volume when the Nanas are taking Nana’s parents around town in a whirlwind tour directing the car to go through hedges and temples and even going so far as to make the car fly… and neither one of her parents says anything about it, they barely blink!

The pacing on this volume is also something that was slightly odd to me since it had no real set pace and seemed to jump back and forth many times with one episode going by very smoothly and quickly, other episodes feeling like they were taking hours to complete and yet another episode that had a smooth and fluid first half but a terribly drawn out second half.

Music

This volume did have some good background music that I don’t remember hearing in previous episodes which I thought was a very nice improvement. In the third episode of the volume you should listen for a soft flute song being played in the background while Nana is sitting at her desk. Very nice and something that I would listen to even if it were played out of context.

Dub vs. Sub

This volume made me want to turn the sound off on my TV so many times. Veronica Taylor is an incredibly talented voice actress and I’m actually a fan of hers but listening to her do seven different versions of the same annoying character at once is absolutely torture and in the Japanese it’s even worse since it’s seven different voice actresses doing the parts!

The writing is bad enough but adding these on top of it makes it even worse.

Extras

None.

Overall

This series continues to be a mind numbing bore and I can’t wait to be over. There’s only one volume left that I haven’t reviewed yet and to say that I’m looking forward to seeing it would be an understatement because I know that once I’m done with it I’ll never have to watch this series again.

Final Grade: 69% - 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. 3: Greatest American Heroes
Nana 7 of 7 Vol. 4: Heartbreak By The Numbers




ŠL.B. Bryant 2006


Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older