Nana, Volume 13 Book

I'm starting to get bored with this series. Plot and character development have been in stasis for about two books now. Reading this volume kind of felt like eating soup meant for two people that's been watered down so it can feed ten.

There's definitely some entertainment to be found here, but it's a lot of sweet nothings. The soap-operatic dilemmas that the characters are currently encased in are the painfully uninteresting products of their entry into the 'real' world. Things were much more interesting when they were on the outside, living in a naive dreamworld.

This is even mirrored by the changes in Yazawa's drawing style for the last few books. While initial volumes had loving multi-page spreads that were fawning centerfolds of affection for the characters she was bringing into being, the last two volumes feature pages full of closed panels that mainly just move the plot along. Even though the plot is being moved along, however, the story itself isn't being advanced at all.

If things don't return to business as usual within the next couple of volumes, this series is in danger of losing me.