''Nana 2'' is a 2006 Japanese drama film directed by Kentarō Ōtani and adapted from

the manga ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

Ai Yazawa is a Japanese manga author. While most of Yazawa's manga is published in Japan by Shueisha, publishers of '' Ribon'' and ''Cookie'' (''Nana'' was serialized in the latter), series like ''Paradise Kiss'' have appeared in non-Shueisha magazines s ...

. It is the sequel to the 2005 film ''

Nana Nana, Nanna, Na Na or NANA may refer to: People and fictional characters * Nana (given name), including a list of people and characters with the given name * Nana (surname), including a list of people and characters with the surname * Nana ( ...

''. Production for the movie began in mid-September and only one and a half month shootings finished the movie in time for the December 9, 2006 release.

Synopsis

Taking place shortly after the end of the first film, ''Nana 2'' focuses more on Nana K. and her love life. Romance develops between Nana K. and Trapnest's bassist Takumi as well as with the Black Stones' guitarist Nobu. Meanwhile, Nana O. works hard for her band while trying to find happiness. Both girls struggle through life, and try to keep their friendship from falling apart.

Cast

*Nana Komatsu:

Yui Ichikawa , is an actress and model from Tokyo, Japan. She is also known by her nickname, ''Yui-nyan''. As an actress she has appeared in several dramas (''doramas''), and in recent years she has concentrated more on her film career. She played a minor ...

*Nana Osaki:

Mika Nakashima is a Japanese singer and actress. Five of her studio albums, one of her mini-albums and one of her compilation albums have reached number one in Japan's Oricon album chart. She also embarked on an acting career, most notably as Nana Osaki in the ...

*Ren Honjo: Nobuo Kyo *Takumi Ichinose:

Tetsuji Tamayama is a Japanese TV and film actor. He joined modeling competitions and was active in ''Checkmate'' and other fashion magazines. In 2001, Tamayama debuted in '' Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger'' as GaoSilver. He continued to star in more movies and TV dr ...

*Shinichi Okazaki:

Kanata Hongo Kanata is an indigenous Canadian word in the Iroquoian language meaning "village" or "settlement". It is the origin of the name of Canada. Kanata may also refer to: * Kanata, Ontario, a suburb of Ottawa, Canada * Kanata Aikawa (born 2004), Japan ...

*Nobuo Terashima:

Hiroki Narimiya (born September 14, 1982), better known as , is a former Japanese actor. Early life He was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. His parents are from Okinawa Prefecture. His parents divorced when he was young, and in his third year of junior high sch ...

*Reira Serizawa:

Yuna Ito is an American-born former singer and actress who was active in Japan. She was born in Los Angeles and was raised in Hawaii. Ito made her musical debut in Japan with the single, " Endless Story", which was used as one of the theme songs for the ...

Casting

Several actors who portrayed characters in the previous film did not return for ''Nana 2''.

Aoi Miyazaki is a Japanese actress. She is known for her roles in '' Nana'' and '' Virgin Snow''. Career Miyazaki started working in the entertainment industry at the age of four. Initially she appeared mostly in commercials, magazine advertisements, and ...

declined to reprise the role of Nana Komatsu, and was replaced by actress

Ryuhei Matsuda is a Japanese film and television actor. Matsuda's best known film roles include the young and desirable samurai Sōzaburō Kanō in ''Taboo'' and the rock star Ren Honjo in '' Nana''. Early life Matsuda was born on 9 May 1983 in Tokyo, to Yūs ...

declined to play the role of Ren and was replaced with Nobuo Kyō.

Kenichi Matsuyama is a Japanese actor. He is known for his affinity for strange character roles, and he is best known internationally for playing L in the 2006 films ''Death Note'', '' Death Note 2: The Last Name'' and '' L: Change the World'' in 2008, as well a ...

, who portrayed Shinichi Okazaki, was replaced by Hongo Kanata.

Theatrical release

Even though both theme songs were released ahead ("Hitoiro" of Nana starring Mika Nakashima on November 29, 2006 and "Truth" of Reira starring Una Ito on December 6, 2006), the movie could only hit the #4 spot on the Movie Charts, from its release December 9, 2006 onward, and overall had very weak and low ratings. Many fans claimed that the exchange of main cast members led to the disappointing statistics. On December 18, ''Nana 2'' made its international debut in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, United States. New York - Tokyo brought the main actresses

and

to the limited seated IFC Cinema. The movie was well received by fans.

Theme songs

''Nana 2'' once again featured the two artists

and

, releasing songs under the names Nana starring Mika Nakashima and Reira starring Yuna Ito, respectively. Nana, starring Mika Nakashima's new single " Hitoiro" featured Takuro of

Glay Glay (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese rock band, formed in Hakodate, Hokkaido, Japan, in 1988. Glay primarily composes songs in the rock and pop genres, but they have also arranged songs using elements from a wide variety of genres, includ ...

as composer and Nana author Yazawa Ai as the lyricist again. It did not do as well as its predecessor "Glamorous Sky," peaking at only #5 on the Oricon charts. Two weeks after the release of the single, however, Nana starring Mika Nakashima released her first and last album, ''

The End The End may refer to: Films * ''The End'' (1953 film), a film by Christopher Maclaine * ''The End'' (1978 film), a comedy by Burt Reynolds * ''The End'' (1997 film), a Canadian film of 1997 * ''The End'' (1998 film), a skateboarding document ...

'', which managed to rank at #2 on the

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in ...

charts. Reira, starring Yuna Ito's "

Truth Truth is the property of being in accord with fact or reality.Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionarytruth 2005 In everyday language, truth is typically ascribed to things that aim to represent reality or otherwise correspond to it, such as belie ...

" had no more luck than Nakashima's new single, ranking in only at the tenth place on the

charts. The music video of the single was filmed in Scotland and used as scenes of the film. Neither of the singles were as record-setting as their predecessors.

External links

* (Japanese) *
NANA2
' at JFDB * {{Kentarō Ōtani 2006 films 2006 romantic comedy films Films directed by Kentarō Ōtani Films set in Japan 2000s Japanese-language films Japanese romantic comedy films Live-action films based on manga New People films 2000s Japanese films ja:NANA#NANA2