Sydney N. Sweeney

          In the late 2000s, “NANA,” an anime adaptation of Japanese artist Ai Yazawa’s manga series of the same name (published from 2000 to 2009) was licensed for distribution in North America by Viz Media. Today, “NANA” is available for streaming in numerous places, including Netflix and Hulu, but full episodes can be found on bootleg anime websites and YouTube. In this way, the program is incredibly accessible, which makes it one of the more popular drama anime aimed to a mature audience. More importantly, “NANA” is a heterosexist program in which queerness is a subversive, but as a subtext rather than straightforward theme – in the series, all romantic/sexual relationships (and there many) are between a man and a woman, making for an absence of LGBT representation/relationships between any gender at all, although the connection between the two best-friend roommates frequently borderlines romantic, notably in times of heterosexual hardship. This connection is what makes the series significant, despite its flaws that underrepresent the reality of Japan’s LGBT oppression and misrepresentation that arguably reflects the United States’.
Plotline of “NANA”
          The show – a “slice of life” type television drama aimed at young adult and older women – was unique in content, and the anime adaptation proved to be equally successful as the original manga that’s currently under an indefinite hiatus. “NANA” is a soap opera in a way, that follows two 20-year-old women – both named Nana – through their newfound lives in Tokyo, Japan, where both plan to follow their respective dreams. It’s important to note that their dreams are, indeed, respective: Nana Osaki is a headstrong, rebellious, independent punk rocker longing for musical success, whereas Nana Komatsu personifies the stereotypical girl-next-door character of traditionalism that is not unique to American culture – she wants to find a man and get married, despite understanding that she should stay in college and grow less dependent on male figures (an issue she’s had since her high school years). Despite differences, both Komatsu and Osaki become best friends after meeting each other “by fate” in the series’ first episode, and throughout the series and its abundance of heterosexual relationships between both Nana characters, their friends and relatives, “NANA,” like other constituents of the Japanese anime canon, is a queer text in need of deconstruction.
All Things Considered: The Cultural Context of “NANA”
          On Jezebel’s “ROYGBIV” subsite, yuri anime is explicated to be lesbian themed Japanese media. There’s not enough relational evidence to justify “NANA” as yuri, in the same sense that a vast array of anime can be categorized, but the cruciality of looking at Japanese media and society is immeasurable, since homosexuality – and even homoeroticism – in print and broadcast media runs perpendicular to America’s traditional relationship with LGBT representation. Admittedly, there are more male-centered homoerotic anime series in existence (called yaoi, or boy’s love, as a direct opposite of yuri), as Japan, like America, is a patriarchy-at-large, and relative to lesbian women, gay men are overrepresented. Moreover, Erica Friedman of Quora.com and Slate has noted that Japanese people are still hesitant to entirely accept queer people, like American people are – for instance, there is no federal-level law that provides marriage certificate to same-sex partners. However, animated Japanese homosexuality has its prominence in some of the most successful anime series of all time, including “Sailor Moon” and “Cardcaptor Sakura,” both debuting in the 20^th century to acclaim and no censorship. The concept of yuri and yaoi are not subterranean concepts in Japan, but rather mainstream and widely recognized, if not always embraced.
Lesbianism – Sans Raging Boners (or the Hegemony) 
          As lesbian connotations act as yet another facet of the histrionic “NANA” plotline, the idea of lesbianism as an independent concept – meaning, a sexuality theoretically distanced from the male gaze – is entirely different than what the media typically displays. In academic and author Karen Ross’ The Handbook of Gender, Sex, and Media, its noted that a 1993 Kitzinger and Kitzinger study argued that “lesbianism often becomes the ‘object of heterosexual male desire,” further noting that heterosexual male pornography epitomizes this commodification of female homosexuality, and that all women viewers have been trained to consume this image of lesbianism as men would – voyeuristically. However, “NANA” defies this cisheteropatriarchal portrayal of women’s sexual relationships with other women, mostly because the relationship between Komatsu and Osaki isn’t a sexual one.
          The women hug, peck one another on the lips, and make prolonged eye contact almost regularly, particularly when Osaki’s turbulent relationship with her boyfriend Ren Honjo begins falling apart, but the (sadly) revolutionary thing about “NANA” is that it portrays the potentiality of gay female relationships realistically, and genuinely. This is not to say that sexual lesbian relationships are always deceivingly depicted – Netflix’s “Orange is the New Black” has effectively and appropriately demonstrated lesbian sexuality distanced from the male gaze – but “NANA,” a show with a target demographic of adult women, and that audience undoubtedly affects how Komatsu and Osaki’s relationship outlays. Returning to the idea that lesbian connotations become more prominent as heterosexual connects fail, “NANA” is a good example of how lesbianism seems to articulate in the absence, or uselessness of men. In conclusion, “NANA” is a mostly heterosexual programs with queer connotations as an underlying theme, and this queerness is rooted in the relationship between its two main characters, Nana Komatsu and Nana Osaki.


References
Anime News Network. NANA (TV) Encyclopedia. Retrieved April 17, 2017, from http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=6115

Callahan, K. (2014, September 15). These Are The Seven Best Lesbian Anime Series Ever Made. Retrieved April 17, 2017, from http://roygbiv.jezebel.com/these-are-the-seven-best-lesbian-anime-series-ever-made-1634542445

Friedman, E. (2015, May 28). How Does Japan Treat Gay People? Retrieved April 14, 2017, from http://www.slate.com/blogs/quora/2015/05/28/how_does_japan_treat_gay_people.html

Nana Wikia. List of Nana Episodes. Retrieved April 16, 2017, from http://nana.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Nana_episodes

Ronzi, K. (2014, December 19). Japanese Sexism and the Ideal Woman. Retrieved April 16, from https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/posts/japanese-sexism-and-the-ideal-woman

Ross. The Handbook of Gender, Sex, and Media. (2012). Malden: Wiley-Blackwell.
 

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