Difficulty rating: ★ ★ ✩ ✩ ✩ Easygoing
Genre: Manga
One important thing to note about Nana is that it is a translated series meaning that it was not originally published French. This means that the French used in the series is not always natural French, and could be a rather awkward translation.
Summary
Nana follows the parallel lives of two very different young women who share the same name: Nana. The two meet while Nana Komatsu is moving to Tokyo to reunite with her boyfriend, and Nana Osaki is returning to Tokyo to revamp her punk rock band. Despite their differences (Nana K. is flaky and girly, while Nana O. is career driven and goth) the two immediately hit it off and begin living together. The series chronicles the complicated romantic and professional lives of both Nanas, as Nana K. bounces around from man to man and Nana O. struggles to make it big.
Mini-Critique
Readers might find Nana O. somewhat annoying, but because the two women are so different, it is easy to identify with (or idolize) at least one of them. This series would best appeal to fiction (not fantasy) lovers, especially those who love Rom-Coms or soap operas. If you like action or fantasy, this is probably not the book for you, but since manga (and comic books in general) are a good way to transition into reading in a new language, don't hesitate to seek out different French manga that better suits your taste!
Difficulty Rating
★ ★ ✩ ✩ ✩ Easygoing
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Manga literature is not nearly as dense as your everyday novel, which makes reading manga in a foreign language easier, since you tend to progress faster in the story line and encounter fewer unknown words. I would rate this as ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩ Intermediate, but because manga stories rely on both illustration and words to tell a story, it is easy to supplement your reading by looking at the pictures. Nana does use some French slang, but readers can oftentimes self-define unknown words using context and the surrounding illustrations.
Access Information
Click here to buy Nana on Amazon