No String Or Ring on This Shaking Finger

Nana 19 is great, giving us a lot of payoff for the set up. The Stockholm Syndrome motif was interesting as well. The glimpses of the future seem closer and closer lately. Us Americans have only 2 volumes left until we end up having to wait much longer for the manga to come out, due to Yazawa's illness. But even if the manga stopped with this volume, even if Yazawa never draws or writes again, I'd like to thank her for writing this series. Every time I read this series, I'm struck by the intensity of it all- the joy, the pain, all of it. I'm really grateful from the bottom of my heart.

Nana 18

I got it today. The bonus story made me feel sympathy for the devil. I love Nana because it's a story of crushed dreams and broken ideals. Nobu and Takumi- I think they could have both had the women they loved if they had had the courage to shatter their own illusions. And of course, the true love story of Nana- Nana and Hachi. They didn't want to shatter each other's illusions about each other, so things fell apart. Hachi wanted Nana to believe that she was a 'good girl', their madonna not their lilith, and Nana wanted Hachi to believe she was strong, not weak and falling apart. This is why every time I get a new volume of Nana, I cry.