#i hope she's learned jazz piano in the passed 7 years like she mentioned wanting to do

[komatsunana]

Ai Yazawa End-of-Book Notes 1-21

So at the end of every volume of NANA, Ai Yazawa has a brief paragraph about the manga or just some introspection about her life. They give great insight into the series and I think only a few are found on the scans of NANA online, so I thought I’d share them all!

Volume 1

The creator, Ai Yazawa, told us, “I created this story so that it could be enjoyed as a stand-alone and, at the same time, have a complete ending that could be connected to an ongoing series.  I hope you’ll look forward to the future of the two Nanas!”

Volume 2

A note from Ai Yazawa: “I had thought that if the two Nanas met each other, they would probably be constantly fighting, but they seem oddly friendly.  What’s up with that?!  It’s one of me (not so) seven wonders (ha-ha).”

Volume 3

Since childhood, the artists I’ve looked up to haven’t been writers and illustrators, but mostly musicians.  Music provides me the most emotional effect and excitement.  If there was no music, I don’t think my creative juices would boil.  Music is that important to my life.

- Ai Yazawa

Volume 4

I realized one day that there are hit songs with the same names as the main female characters, NANA, JUNKO, and SACHIKO (the kanji for JUNKO is different, though).  It’s not that big a deal, but I sometimes just hum the melodies longingly.

- Ai Yazawa

Volume 5

In the initial drafts, Nana’s band was a rockabilly band like the Stray Cats.  But due to various circumstances, I didn’t keep it that way.  But if they were rockabilly, Ren, Nobu and Shin would have had pompadours.  And Yasu too?

- Ai Yazawa

Volume 6

When I was a child, I used to take piano lessons.  Even after I stopped taking lessons, I bought sheet music I liked and continued playing.  I’ve had my hands full for several years now, but one of these days I’d like to learn how to play jazz piano, which I’ve wanted to do for years now.

- Ai Yazawa

Volume 7

I had an opportunity to interview a group of professional musicians.  I showered them with questions, but they answered willingly, and it was very helpful.  I was having problems balancing the fictional world of manga-like simplicity and gorgeousness with a sense of reality.  But I realized again that what’s important is the humanity of the characters.

- Ai Yazawa

Volume 8

When I was in high school, there was a cool girl in my class who was a lone wolf.  I was really into a foreign New Romantic-type band then, and when she asked me one day, “Do you want to go to their concert together?” I was overwhelmed.  My heart fluttered more than when I was with my boyfriend (☺).  Have you had a Hachiko experience like that?  - Ai Yazawa

Volume 9

One day, I realized I had to write a bonus story.  I was talking to my editor about it (Let’s do a story about the history of Trapnest!) when Naoki swooped down triumphantly, shouting “Then I’m the star!”  The day will come when he gets his place in the sun.  You really don’t know what’s going to happen next in this manga! ☺  - Ai Yazawa

Volume 10

Natural disasters can’t be prevented, but man-made disasters don’t have to occur.  That’s what I think.  I didn’t end up writing real world events into the Nana story, cause there are people who would have been deeply affect by my retelling.  I wouldn’t be able to keep it ambiguous enough, and I didn’t want to just brush over the issue irresponsibly.  I hope you all understand.   - Ai Yazawa

Volume 11

The 2001 Chofu City Hanabi Festival was really postponed ‘cause of typhoon and was rescheduled for Oct 27.  When I was taking photos by the Tama River, an old man started talking to me and told me that “the fireworks festival that as cancelled is going to be held soon.”  The entire fireworks arc was born that way.  A uniquely precious encounter.  It came out of this chance encounter with that man.  Thank you very much.  - Ai Yazawa

Volume 12

Nana is expanding into other media!  Since I believe it’s my duty to concentrate on my work, my policy is to get involved as little as possible.  (Sorry!)  The way the creators are developing this work is so passionate, I’m overwhelmed by it.  I have to do my best along with Blast, so people don’t say this manga is worthless and that the publicity is the only good thing about it.   - Ai Yazawa

Volume 13

Before the shooting of the movie began, I accepted and offer to rite the lyrics for the theme song.  I did this to thank them and hoped it would be a song of encouragement.  I had my doubts, ‘cause I was worried it might not turn out how they wanted.  But the heartwarming work of HYDE, the composer, cheered me on.  The live-action NANA movie is filled with director Otani’s (and many others’) love for Nana.  I was very moved by that.  So please watch the movie and feel their love too.   - Ai Yazawa

Volume 14

I confess.  The seven characters I find easiest to draw (as pictures and as characters) are Kudo from Search Weekly, Hachi’s father, Kawano from Gaia, Matsuo from Gaia, the guard Yamagishi, Ginpei Moroboshi, and Mitsuru Narita.  I’ve been a manga for 20 years.  Lately I’ve been wondering about myself as a shoujo mangaka. ☺

- Ai Yazawa

Volume 15

In the small garden of the house I’ve been living in for over ten years, I have encountered many living beings.  Stray cats taking naps, intimidating praying mantids, lizards shining iridescently, a jet-black leech with a head shaped like a hammer, long thin flatworms, and snakes.  A perfectly shaped cast-off cicada shell has turned into a fixture for three years because I didn’t want to take if off the window screen.  When I’m busy, I want to move to a condominium in the heart of Tokyo, but I feel at home in this place.

Volume 16

I talked before about wanting to make Blast a rockabilly band.  The other day, the editor of Tenshi Nanka Ja Nai pointed out, “Ms. Yazawa, you said you wanted to do a rockabilly band story before you began Ten-nai.”  I don’t remember that at all, but I had the idea that long ago?!  Nowadays, I really have the urge to draw a comedy manga: What if Blast was a rockabilly band? ☺

Volume 17

I don’t particularly like talking about my age ☺, but maybe because of my age or not exercising enough or the curse of the Demon Lord, I can’t overexert myself anymore.  I’m going to get a thorough physical checkup for the first time in my life.  It’ll take two days, including an overnight stay, and they’re going to check all my internal organs thoroughly.  How frightening.  I should have the results by the time this volume comes out in Japan.  Please pray that I won’t be thrown in the hospital.  Not for my sake, but for Nana and the others!

Volume 18

Hello.  They found something wrong with me during the thorough physical checkup I mentioned in volume 1.  I went to the hospital, I gave up smoking for a while, and in the end, I had an operation.  I’m finally getting better.  I apologize for making people worry.  During my hospital stay, the beautiful nurse inserted a painkiller suppository as if it was nothing and told me “I’m a big fan ♥.”  I was really embarrassed! ☺ Thanks for taking care of me. Thank you!

Volume 19

Hello.  I wrote in the last volume that “I’m getting better,” but as soon as I wrote that, I had to call an ambulance and was forced to suspend the series, so the release date of the new volume was set back.  I’m really sorry to keep you people waiting!  For those of you who waited patiently, thank you so much.  It’s a rare thing for me, but I took a break like a human being, and so this time I was able to recover completely.  From now on, I’ll my best but won’t push myself to the brink of collapse.  Please watch over Nana-san and the others from now on as well!

Volume 20

Hello.  Because of the way the story turns out, I thought it would be inappropriate to joke around with bonus pages at the end of the volume.  I figured we could do without them sometimes, that they’re just bonus pages, so I took the plunge and did away with them completely this time.  But I’m feeling super anxious ‘cause it seems like somethings missing.  It looks like I can’t be a stylish mangaka who can play the game with just the main story, someone who doesn’t need to throw up a smoke screen with the extras.

Volume 21

Hello, Yazawa here.  With this volume, no matter what scene I was drawing, I as heartbroken.  I had a hard time, and it took longer than usual to draw.  So it was such a relief when Satsuki appeared.  Somehow the panel with Satsuki and Yasu together felt especially soothing.  I never envied any of Yasu’s girlfriends or Nana, whom Yasu protects, but I’m totally jealous of Satsuki, whom Yasu’s taken under his wing since she was a baby.

[onewheelneil]

Israel day 7

This morning during Shabbat we are not required to be up for anything until 11 am so everyone was able to sleep in and catch some much needed sleep. I ended up getting up pretty early so I just surfed the internet on my phone. Then I got hungry so I got up did my morning routine and strolled down to breakfast. They had this really good bread pudding and pastry as well as lemon poppy seed pound cake. I filled up a plate and stacked a small plate of cottage cheese on top and when I went to sit down the top plate of cottage cheese slipped and flipped all onto my seat. The two people I was with laughed at me and said I should just sit in it. I was a little embarrassed but nothing major and quickly cleaned up so I could enjoy my breakfast. It was scrumptious except for a potato eggplant quiche that was like eating a tablespoon of salt and a bland piece of dough that looked like it was going to be sweet but wasn’t. Other than that the hard-boiled egg and other stuff I mentioned before was really good. Apparently I look Israeli because several times this week I have either come up to a person to ask for help and they immediately start talking Hebrew or I am sitting somewhere alone using my phone and someone comes up and asks if I’m Israeli. When we all were ready to start our activity the other birthright group had taken our room so we had to move to another. It ended up being the hotels bomb shelter so that was interesting. We ate snacks after a wine prayer and hung out while we found another room because the bomb shelter was too hot. We got to the dining room from the “fancy” Shabbat dinner and started our activities with a Q/A session with our tour guide about any questions we had about Judaism. We talked about the thoughts about homosexuality and mental health and what the people generally think. A lot more questions were asked including what Israelis think of muslims and what Judaism is to us. I asked what Judaism has to say about leaving earth if they believe it’s a holy planet but the guide said that god and nature are one not particular to earths nature. After much discussion we were allowed to go to lunch where we ate potatoes and beef and rice that was a little over cooked. They also tried to serve an apple crisp but they failed at making that. After lunch we had 2 hours to ourselves but they wanted us to stay in the hotel. Me and 5 other peeps decided to be rebels and go to a very nearby park to chill. I brought my unicycle and another brought his guitar. We walked/unicycled over and I noticed there were barely any cars or people outside. Since it is still Shabbat people are usually inside with their families. You can’t drive a car if you are keeping Shabbat. So the traffic drops dramatically. The park was really pretty with a big field and trees that gave shade. I explored around and actually found some sport courts and some skate parks with rails and ramps to do tricks on. I didn’t want to get hurt so I didn’t try any (as my guide said “no paperwork”). So we just hung out in the shade while the guy in our group played guitar. At one point a girl who dabbled in classical/flamenco guitar wanted to try it out and she was amazing. She used this weird strumming technique that made it sound really cool and percussive. Once the time to meet was arriving we started our short stroll back and I gotta say unicycling with no straight route was really nice and peaceful. Everyone loves the unicycling and their most popular question is “do you bring that thing everywhere?” I always answer yes it’s my baby and I bring it EVERYWHERE. They never fail to say wow afterwards. What’s so nice about this group of people is their curiosity of my unicycling and their unanimous appreciation of my hobby. When we got back to the hotel (we made sure we would be back before they found out we were gone) people were just chatting around the halls of our rooms in the hotel. One of the guys in the group wanted to try unicycling and he could get up easily using the walls of the hallway but still found it hard to feel in control when going forwards. Once it was time we headed down to do a presentation with Israeli soldiers that joined our group. They set up a little competition. They split us into 3 groups and we played did a little one person race, jeopardy round, and a guessing a famous Israeli person from a picture round. The race involved a girl in my team putting on an Israeli military uniform correctly then eating a plate of skittles with no hands. It was fun to see the three people struggle with the uniform. I observed the uniform when the Israelis first joined the group so I knew where the beret and where the ribbon went on the uniform. Then they all had to eat the skittles. The other two contestants decided to inhale all the skittles and try to chew em all at the same time. Our teammate decided to go slow and steady and actually beat out the others. Then during the jeopardy round every team answered their chosen question correctly. We actually got a question about when Jews eat fish heads. None of us knew the answer do I guessed Rosh Hashanah because when translated to English it means head of the year. It was surprisingly correct so everyone on my team was relieved. The next round each team picked a picture from a pile and tried to guess what the occupation of the person in the picture. We actually guessed all of our picture correctly. Two of the harder pictures was a model and a politician. After all the games were over my team ended up winning but we all learned more about Israel and Judaism. The next activity involved is splitting into 7 groups each with an Israeli. Then we talked about what makes us identify as a Jew. One of the main topics that was debated was supporting the IDF or marrying Jewish as something that really identifies with being Jewish. One topic that I thought resonated with being Jewish was keeping kosher/Shabbat but others did not, only because we didn’t keep kosher, but I felt like if I did keep kosher or celebrate Shabbat I would feel more Jewish. The Israeli in my group agreed with us on two things except on marrying Jewish. He felt that marrying Jewish would make it so our children would more likely to be raised Jewish. I understood so we decided tzedakah was one of the bottoms of the list of things that made us identify as Jewish. My group debated and recognized that contributing to your community was a personal trait rather than a Jewish trait. Other groups had their opinions and had debates between groups and it was all healthy debate no yelling or saying you are wrong. It was interesting to hear people’s deep feelings about this topic and give another perspective. As we all shared we all listened too which was cool. No interrupting or trying to overpower someone else with their opinion. Afterwards we had a little break to get ready for our night out and then met back in the same place in order to learn more about the holocaust. It was a very emotional discussion about how the Jews were a defenseless people and were carted off to auschwitz for extermination. Then we watched a video of how Israel got a chance to do a flyover with 3 f-15 fighter jets over auschwitz. It was very informative on what Israel means to the Jewish people. Then we were able to go out. E walked through Jerusalem to an awesome pedestrian area where it is popular to celebrate the end of Shabbat. I started walking around with two other buddies searching for a nice quiet place to drink. We roamed around looking at different crowded places until we found a nice quiet bar with a few people. These people were stoked about my unicycle. They immediately got up and tried to ride it. I told them the basics you should use a wall or railing to get on it the try to ride forward. They struggled to get on it but one guy had ridden one before and another never rode one but was super muscular and had done other balancing sports. They both got on a got a good amount of revolutions before falling. The guy who did balancing sports wanted to get one and also gave me a free shot of tequila. I definitely agreed to that a sucked it down. It wasn’t that bad no lime or anything. Then a female bartender came out and tried and struggled but had fun and offered me a free beer. It was awesome to say the least I saved about 50 sheckels so that was nice. Also I was happily buzzed after all the drinks. Then another group member came by and told us about a jazz bar we had been looking for but didn’t know exactly where it was. They headed there while I said goodbye to my new friends when I was ready to go I lost them so I started off in a direction I thought they went in. While going in a direction, two different groups of people stopped me to try the unicycle. One guy had done it for years so he hoped on and the other guy struggled immensely. After the second guy tried it out I actually asked them where the jazz bar was and they pointed it out for me where I met up with my friends. It was really relaxing music that just made the beers taste so much better. We also met the staff of the trip that sat with us (totally did not buy us shots cause that’s against the rules) and we just chatted and enjoyed the ambiance of the place. The jazz band had saxophones, a piano, drums, guitar and sometimes a singer. Eventually it was time to go so we regrettably got our things together and met everyone back at the meeting spot then we went back to the hotel and talked about tomorrow’s trip to see the holocaust museum and ride camels. After we got back I immediately passed out on my bed. Thanks for reading!