Nana of Banana

I want to start this review with a shoutout to @ifeelfine, who asked me to read this manga for, seriously, months and months. In his words, this was a manga with an ending so rushed and ridiculous that I was guaranteed to love it.
And I see where he’s coming from, I’ve read a lot of axed manga, and even reviewed a couple of them, and I’m always curious and interested in how they handle their cancelation.
In Bakuman, when discussing about axed manga, the editor mentions that when faced with this scenario the author basically has two choices: Either keep the style they were going for and remain true to the manga to the very end, or the more fun alternative of just use these chapters to try as much different things as possible, as experience for their next project.
Both these approaches can deliver some ridiculous and fun (or not so fun) results, like Gyaru Kuri, which changes from a wholesome manga about cleaning to a horrible dramatic manga about… a rape victim. Or, in a lighter note, Takamagahara, which decides to tell the ending it wanted to tell, even if that meant skipping all the character development and storytelling that would give the ending any resemblance of sense. I always admire the few that manage to make a story feel complete in these situations. It more often than not works more for gag manga than any plot heavy one, but it’s a thing that I do appreciate, it’s hard to create a story that’s supposed to be told in 10~20 volumes, and realize you have 4 or 5 chapters to wrap it up, to still give a graceful ending in this situation is amazing.
But upon my friend’s description, I knew Banana no Nana was not going to be one of these few later cases, but before we go into how Banana no Nana ends, I feel like we should rewind and see how it starts.

Banana no Nana tells us the story of Ouba Nana (Yes), a girl with the power to create and manipulate bananas (Yes), and her friend Ringo, whose power is enhanced leg strength. Together they wish to travel along the single continent of their world and find the mythical land of Oz, which is said to house a God capable of granting any wish. This plot feels like just any generic battle shounen idea, but the main influence for Banana no Nana is obvious from the start, since this is a manga that clearly wants to be One Piece.
The idea of traveling the world and visiting unique places, of gathering a crew full of weird and wacky characters with different powers, the goal of reaching a place no one ever did before, even the “inherited will” undertone is here, as the father of Ringo is said to have found this mythical land. It’s all here, even going as far as having Nana repeating Luffy’s wish to gather X members before reaching their goal, almost word by word.

And it’s normal to want to be One Piece, Banana no Nana is certainly not the first manga to take inspiration from the best-selling manga of all time, but the problem isn’t so much the similarities as is the actual lack of originality throughout the majority of this series.
If I was to tell you that this manga is a yuri One Piece about bananas you’d probably would imagine something way more unique than what is inside these pages. It’s a manga that, other than it’s gimmick of bananas, plays very safe to the tropes of battle shounens. Over the course of it’s first volume it never really tries to utilize a concept or idea that is unique to it. It lacks an identity of its own and just blends together with all the other soulless battle shounens that you may encounter.
And, well, to be fair, there is one concept that I quite liked, that is introduced right on chapter one. The powers come with a “Risk”, a punishment of sorts, and the stronger the base power, the worst the punishment. To use examples of the characters of chapter 1, Nana’s banana power requires her to eat an unpeeled banana for every time she uses it, the main villain’s power is to control water, so she must remain inside water for most of her day, and by far my favourite excuse for panty-shots ever, Ringo’s power of super-legs requires her to use a mini-skirt at all times.
It’s a fun concept that’d I like to see used in a better manga. But other than that, everything else here can be skipped.

The only other thing I have to add as a compliment, before we jump into the ending of this manga, is the artstyle. It’s not unique at all, it fits the manga in that regard, but contrary to the plot, there is definitely quality to it. It’s pleasant to eye, it’s fun and clean.

So, here we are, if you read everything up here and still plan to read the manga and don’t want to be spoiled, then stop reading here as I’m about to talk about the ending in detail. For everyone else…

So, at chapter 11, less than 3 chapter before it ends, Ringo is, and I’m not joking here, punched to the fucking MOON.

Yes.

The moon.

With a punch.

For real.

I honestly can’t think of anything else but this short from ASDFMOVIE.

▶

Our mission now is to save Ringo, but between chapter 11 and 12 I think we miss about 50 volumes of content, as two years have passed, Nana is super powerful and famous now and there’s four new “main” characters as part of her crew that were never introduced before (and, thankfully, one that actually was) and we’re just supposed to act like we knew them all along.

Nana and the guy who punched Ringo to the moon meet again and battle, but then Ringo’s dad appears and…

Sorry, I need a moment…

And…

Kicks Nana to the fucking moon.

At this point, it’s hard to argue that it doesn’t make sense, how else would she find Ringo other than being… kicked to the moon. Like that sketch again, actually this time, 100% like it.

It’s then revealed that the Moon is Oz, but the wishes you ask also come with “risks” and Ringo had asked to see Nana again, which just happened, but now due to the risk she needs to kill Nana or the world will end. There’s a couple more info dump about the world, but it really doesn’t matter.

There’s a couple more shenanigans happening over the course of the last chapter but it all culminates in them having to stay in the moon forever together, and then there’s lesbian sex on the moon.

That’s how it ends, with a ton of lesbian sex, which, you know, is hard to argue against.

I kinda skipped some of the weird stuff that happens in the last two chapters as it really is a barrage of information and insanity and it’s a car crash that is fun to see and enjoy and not just for the lesbian sex, actually, the kicks to the moon where the highlight of the series to me.
But 11 out of 13 of these chapters are nothing special or even good. It’s easy to see why it got cancelled as it’s, overall, a very bland experience with a loud ending.