Anime Review: Talentless Nana

Talentless Nana was so much fun. It blew me away from beginning to end. What I thought was probably going to be a cliche superhero anime ended up being one of my favorite anime of the year. Every week I waited for the new episode, and every week I enjoyed it. Though every week I hated that it was over. And after just finishing the last episode of it, I have to say that was an amazingly powerful end to a fantastic season. Except for one small detail. I mean, it was a fantastic season, but the story is not over. It didn't end here, it just stopped. And will there be more? No idea. And that's what hurts so much. I can deal with a wait. I've dealt with waits before. Promised Neverland, ReZero, Attack on Titan, all great shows, all breaks between seasons, sometimes very long waits, and that's fine. But what about these smaller shows that don't blow up? I guess it's done decent, all things considered. But it's not like everyone was talking about it, though I could just be out of touch with the anime community. So it doesn't seem like it's likely to get a season 2, which does suck. Anyway, before I get into the things I liked and didn't like, let's go through a quick, spoiler-free overview. Talentless Nana is about a school for the talented, those with various superpowers, basically. Starts are focusing on Nanou, a character who doesn't appear to have any powers, so there are a lot of questions about this, like why is he here, why would he be at a school like this? We get some interesting background about him, learn about the challenges of his past as he made friends, and then just a very interesting psychological look at how his situation has affected him. Though the story doesn't just focus on him. The show is kind of divided into arcs, each arc focusing on an individual character, their powers, and how their powers have affected them. There's also a big story involving the mysteries of the island that the school is on, and the threat posed by the enemies of humanity, and so it's a good structure. Smaller arcs leading to a bigger story, so that should work out fine, and I love this show. But can I call it good if it ends here? Let's look at what we got. We got the start of an interesting world, though this season only focused on the characters on the island. So what good is an interesting world if we only see a small part of it? It's a good start, certainly, but does a good start mean it's good as a whole? Like consider building a house. A good foundation is needed, but would anyone say you're good at building houses if you didn't put roofs on them? And then looking at the characters, we got interesting aspects of the main character's backstories and how that led to the place we have now, and then some very good character arcs too. But many of the big ones seem unfinished, like the main character's character arc. It felt like the past few episodes were leading to a big climax here, all the conflicting feelings and desires about to come to a head, and then the big surprises in the final episode, which that should lead to a really big impact on the character, but then it just stops. So is that good character development? I mean, sort of. I really liked what we got, found it was really impactful and interesting, but we only got part of it again. And then the story. Individual character arcs were handled well enough, and one of the things I really liked here were the different mind games back and forth between the characters. This worked really well because you have a main character that doesn't have superpowers, and it was really cool how this was used. Like, physical fights are cool and all, but I would much rather see a main character win with the power of intelligence, and that's what we got here. It actually reminded quite a bit of Death Note at times, and yeah, maybe not quite as good, but definitely ups here. The pure suspense here just was great. And then there's some also really emotional parts here, mainly with Mitru's arc near the end, because, well, I think you'll understand if you've seen the show. Granted, I do like Mitru's type of character as a whole, so I was predisposed to like her, but I really liked the focus that the show gave her here, and the impact that she had on the other characters. So yeah, I will say the individual arcs were good, even if we don't get more. But with it just ending here, the overarching story is terrible, because we don't have it. Like, it's a good start, but again, a good start does not make a good story. It's like if you made a cake with only half the ingredients. Would you want to eat that? Okay, maybe you just might be weird that way, but I want a cake with all the ingredients. Actually, no, I just kind of want cake as a whole. And I also want to dig into the message here a little bit, because it's something that I find really interesting. There was a line back in the beginning of episode 7 which said that people don't believe facts, but instead people. I want to do a full video on this idea, and how everything in the show can be viewed through the lens of this line, and what it's saying about society as a whole. In short, we can see how the actions of the characters are affected by their beliefs in others, whether it's factually supported or not. It's easy for someone to believe something illogical if they just trust the person saying it, as the characters demonstrate here. But it also shows how people can change their views on things, not through logical reasoning, but due to other people. There's a lot here, and I like how the idea is explored. And I think if the whole show is viewed with this motif in mind, then a lot of issues some of the community have just don't make sense. And it also applies to real life as well. Consider it next time you see people being dumb on Twitter. In fact, just look at what's trending on Twitter right now. Actually, never mind, I don't want to go down that rabbit hole. So, in conclusion though, is the show good? That's what the review is trying to answer. I want to say yes, because I enjoyed watching it a ton, but it just stopped. And maybe we'll get a season 2 down the road, I don't know. And it only ended today, so there's time. Since we typically don't get the announcement of a season 2 right away, unless it's a big show, so maybe we'll get more. But unfortunately, I feel as likely that we never will. And if I can't get a conclusion to the story and anime, then is the anime story good? As much as I love the show, I have to answer no. So yes, that is my review. A sad one, considering how much I love the show. If we get a season 2 though, it will definitely be one of my favorites, possibly even going into my top anime of all time list, depending on how good the season 2 is. And then maybe we'll just go read the manga. Maybe we'll do videos on the manga, that could be interesting. Anyway, thank you for watching, let me know your thoughts in the comments, and I will see you all next time.