in-the-farplane

[in-the-farplane]

NANA ・ナナ・Chapter 79・Hachi, Nobu, Takumi, and Ren

What's the general consensus about Ren possibly being Nobu's kid? Seems like it mostly 70/30 in favor of Takumi as the father. I used to think Takumi was absolutely the father because the timing alone seems to favor him. However, having Nobu on focus with dialogue like this in this panel from chapter 79 had me thinking about what made Ren struggle with the family back together. This could definitely be an intentional mislead! But I'm chewing on the thought nonetheless.

Side note: this write up on Satsuki being Nana and Ren's daughter has me fully convinced.

My head canon prediction for what happens in the future is that something comes to light about Ren's parentage and Ren learns about it himself, maybe overhearing that Nobu is actually his father or learning about the Hachi Nobu Takumi triangle and thinking that his existence caused this rift. People mention just how intelligent Ren is, and maybe he could comprehend the gravity of that love triangle at a young age.

I personally think Nobu follows through on the promise to teach Ren guitar as his own way of honoring a wish from his role model (I don't see Takumi taking the time to teach his son guitar, especially when the backstory of his own musical learning is doing whatever he can himself to play for Reira).

So if Ren were to learn that Nobu – the one who taught him his favorite thing in the world – is his real father, that could totally be fuel for Ren to not want anything to do with Hachi, and follow Takumi to London instead.

Up until this panel, it seems like Takumi was the one who was keeping Ren in London and Ren was having a hard adjustment to life over there. But now with this panel, it seems it's the other way around. It's Ren's choice to stay. And Hachi says she has to "do something about that" of course as his mother, but she's also tied up with finding Nana along with Satsuki being in her care.

Nobu being the father and Ren finding out could also explain the complications surrounding his relationship with Hachi in the future. Right now the two of them seem to enjoy these moments of peace they have when they're alone. But especially if he was Ren's biological father and part of the reason why Ren is away from Hachi, he would respect that space. Like Shin said, Nobu is a pacifist and there's not much he can do in this family matter but support Hachi from a distance without interfering on her (deteriorating) marriage.

I think Nobu and Hachi will eventually get back together when she divorces Takumi. Takumi won't get together with Reira but he will admit he can't untether himself from her radar. I want Nana to come back to everyone and she and Hachi are back in 707. It's hard to imagine what the kids would do though, I haven't gotten that far in the pipeline thought yet.