In 2000 the world was introduced to Ai Yazawa’sNANAmanga series. The series revolved around two Japanese girls named Nana, who meet on a train and strike up an unlikely friendship despite coming from different walks of life. The series was noted for its heartfelt storytelling, excellent character development, and being one of therare hit mangathat was written for adult audiences. The series was such a huge instant success that Viz Media picked it up and made it the cornerstone series of theirShojo Beatmagazine in 2005.
Upon release in America readers immediately fell in love with theunique slice-of-life dramathat had a mature take on romance, sex, and friendship. With success of the manga came an anime adaptation that was equally acclaimed, and while Ai Yazawa had written manga before likeParadise KissandNeighborhood Storythat had small, cult followings,NANAgave the author the kind of success most manga artists can only dream of, and the future was looking bright for everyone involved. Unfortunately, this story was not to last, and in 2009 the series went on a hiatus that it has not returned from since.
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What Happened to NANA?
On May 2009, the 84th chapter was published in the anthology magazineCookie. In this installment the two Nana’s have reunited and are enjoying food and karaoke once again. However, life threatens to take the friends indifferent directions once more, and it leaves one of them wondering if the other one truly needs her in her life anymore? Had the chapter not ended with potential life changes on the horizon it might have made for a good series finale. However, the series was nowhere near complete, and the author had years planned for release.
Sadly, after this chapter was published Ai Yazawa came down with an undisclosed illness which resulted in her being hospitalized. She was released from the hospital in 2010 where she reveled that she may never be able to work on the series again due to the strenuous nature of working as a mangaka. After this announcement she largely retreated from the public eye to focus on her health. There have beenno updates on the status of the series since…until now.
NANA’s Creator Gives a Long Awaited Update
Despite the fact that the series hasn’t been published in years and remains unfinished, people still love it to this day and have kept it in the public eye since. As a result, Yazawa was contacted about putting together apotential art exhibitfor the fans of her work. Despite not fully being recovered, Yazawa agreed to the exhibit. She not only gave her blessing to display her art, she even managed to create some new art herself. Fans of hers were delighted to see new art and wondered if this meant an end toNANA’shiatus was just around the corner?
While being interviewed during the exhibit in Tokyo, a reporter asked her aboutNANA’scontinued hiatus and what the possibility of it returning was. She had this to say:
This exhibition is dedicated to everybody who supports me and keeps reading my work. I am terribly sorry for making everyone worry since I have taken a long hiatus from NANA. I feel like my body has been recovering little by little while preparing for this event as well. Not only that, but I would love to keep working on my manga while taking care of my health from now on. Please look forward to when that time comes.
So that’s great to hear right? She’s back to work and will be releasing more NANA soon right? Well, that isn’t exactly it.
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The Reality of the Situation
While I don’t want to rain on everyone’s parade, there is a little more nuance to this statement than meets the eye. While she did clearly state she wanted to finishNANAand wants to work on it while she recovers, the keyword fans must keep in mind is ‘little by little.’ Yazawa has not been given a clean bill of health by her doctors, and is still suffering from long-term side effects of her illness. What many readers don’t realize is that producing a weekly manga takes hours upon hours a day. It’s a grueling process that results in most manga artists not having much free time to do anything.
While articles about the overworking of manga artists have finally started to become public, the reality is that it is not uncommon for manga artists to ignore their health in favor of producing their work. When this happens, the results can be fatal, as fans ofBerserkfound out with therecent passing of Kentaro Miura. While fans would love to read the rest ofNANA, I believe most would want Ai Yazawa to not overwork herself to death either. Therefore, if we are to take her word for law, she will be working on the manga at a leisurely pace. This means that the series will likely need to have several chapters finished in advance before it can resume publication.
When it does return it’s obvious that she can’t return to a weekly schedule, so it will likely have to resume on a monthly basis as opposed to a weekly release. Not only will this likely be at least a couple of years away, but the anime won’t be able to resume until there is enough material to adapt, which means that project is an additional few years away. So the bad news isNANAisn’t coming back soon. When it does, it will likely be on a slower release schedule. The good news is it appears the series WILL resume. The best news is Yazawa is feeling better to the point where she can start drawing again, and it’s our good fortune that she’s able to do so.
