[marclemagne]

I watched the first episode of Nana twice, and then instead of skipping through to take notes as I had planned, I ended up watching it a third time. I guess I liked it a lot considering I've never re-watched an episode of anything so soon after watching it originally, much less re-watching twice! (I hope that makes sense.)

I was impressed with the animation. There seems to be a focus on movement and small details that really adds to the experience. Two moments stood out for me and made me laugh: (1) After Light Nana (I like the idea of Light and Dark Nana as descriptions for now, as someone said earlier. I guess they have different nicknames later) has such a fun time checking out the apartment, she walks in a line right past Dark Nana and her rental guy straight to her own rental guy and says, "I'll take it." I liked her expression and the look in her eyes. (2) When the rental guy and Dark Nana are talking about privacy and Light Nana is bouncing from foot to foot with her arms stretched out in front of her like she is going to hug Dark Nana. Funny, cute, and fitting given the conversation going on. Both of these scenes are impossibly cute. Also, this must be the season of crazy surprised/shocked facial expressions. So far this and Kyo u no Go no Ni have made me laugh a lot with their funny facial expressions.

Another thing I was interested in was at the end when the two girls shook hands. It is interesting, personality-wise, to note the type of rings they have on. Light Nana has a ring with a heart on it which is all-too-fitting for her personality while Dark Nana is wearing finger armor which, again, suits her personality well. One is open while the other is closed, guarded.

I also like how colors are used. They are both hard and soft. Humans are drawn with long thin hard lines while objects and background images have soft, waterly lines. Humans have strong, solid colors (especially Dark Nana) while objects and background images are soft and almost blurred. I really thought the scenes while it was snowing were beautiful.

I also noticed some scenes with 3D animation. Generally, I'm not a fan but it fit here and didn't conflict with the colors or traditional animation (I can't help but think of Witch Hunter Robin and how bad I though they mixed 3D animation with traditional at times).

I really liked the themes and music throughout the episode. I thought the selection and usage was perfect. Also, although I enjoyed the opening song, what really caught me was the ending song. I love that song at the end, and I liked how it started to play while the girls were shaking hands and then went to the credits.

The comedy in this show so far is really good. It makes me laugh and I have a good time watching. But at the same time, I can't help but feel like this show is so much more serious than a lot of the stuff out there right now. Even after one episode I feel like there's more meaning here than there was in a whole season of another show I just finished watching, Canvas 2. In that sense, I guess, it feels a bit like Honey & Clover, which ending up being one of my favorite shows.

Anyway, I'm hooked and I can't wait to see more.