Munou na Nana (or, if you didn't pick it up from context, Talentless Nana) centres around a girl called Nana (who I didn't realise was the protagonist until a couple of episodes in) attempting to deceive a group of superpowered teenagers into thinking she is one of them in order to murder them all. There's plenty of interesting subplots and there's enough cliffhangers to rival Dover, but there's a few problems that I would like to get into.
As I implied in the title, this series feels like something of a watered-down Death Note to me. There's plenty to like if you enjoyed Death Note, but it's nowhere near as good. If you've got this far without having watched the series first, I should probably warn you that there's spoilers ahead.
Premise: [4/5]()
The concept of a school full of superpowered teenagers is nothing rare these days (my favourite example being Toaru Majutsu no Index, but this particular series probably more resembles Boku no Hero Academia), but I don't think there's many series involving a powerless girl attempting to use nothing but ingenuity and wit to murder all of them in cold blood. Ignoring the relatively generic setting, it's a very cool concept.
Story: [3/5]()
Munou na Nana relies heavily on cliifhangers to keep the viewer interested. This isn't exactly a bad thing, as it does get you wondering what's going to happen next week (for about ten minutes after watching, anyway), but it gets to the point where you can expect them at the end of every episode and you can be pretty secure in the fact that the story you're watching will absolutely not have a satisfactory ending within the episode.
Another thing that gets pretty tiring is Nana's plot armour. It makes sense that, against a group of teenagers with (largely) relatively average mental capacities, a girl like Nana would have a level of protection set up against most of the Talenteds' potential actions, but there's some stuff at which I've rolled my eyes at just how contrived some stuff is. Especially when she worms her way out of Kyoya's grasp despite the latter having nearly solid proof of her misdeeds.
I do have to say that there are quite a few twists and turns that I didn't expect; the appearance of the shapeshifting dude was certainly unexpected, for example. In my opinion, this doesn't completely nullify my above complaints, but it's easy to forget about them when something unprecedented and, frankly, awesome happens.
Music: [3/5]()
The insert music in the series is alright. It's a little generic in places, but it's in no way bad, and Yasuhara Takanashi (who also worked on Naruto Shippuden and Fairy Tail, among others) did a pretty good job of underscoring certain moments and adding extra drama.
The opening is definitely listenable, and made its way into my playlist, but like the score, it's nothing special. Relatively normal as openings go, with a pretty talented woman belting out some good vocals over a hard-rock background, but there's nothing about it that makes it any better than that for any other series.
I only remember listening to the ED once, and I don't remember liking it very much. A lot softer than the OP, which may be some peoples' thing (and definitely fits well for an ending) for sure. Again, though, nothing too special.
Execution: [4/5]()
I like what's been done with the execution of the series. The voice acting is great - albeit nothing that will go down in the ages - with Rumi Ookubo (who's built a fairly impressive repertoire with roles such as Fate's Astolfo and Nona from Death Parade) able to switch perfectly between Nana's bubbly, 'outside' personality and her cold, dark inner self, and Mai Nakahara giving Michiru Inukai her cutesy, airheaded personality with a voice so rhythmic that I could swear her lines were done with a metronome.
The animation is generally solid; the style is a little childish compared to the subject matter, but if that's the artist's style, I can't argue. However, there are some extremely out-of-place moments. One that comes to mind is in Episode 10, when Nana collapses into the water; her smile is probably meant to look cool (and I can see how it might have been intended as such) but it just looks so weird, and it's enough to ruin one's immersion in the series.
Enjoyment: [4/5]()
For me, this was an incredibly fun series to watch. It keeps a good level of tension throughout, and knows when to ease it off for some comedic or emotional scenes. I enjoyed it very much in the same way that I enjoyed Death Note; seeing Nana and Kyoya act friendly and helpful to each other is quite reminiscent of the dynamic between Light and L. But that might be what drops my score for this from a 5 to a 4; while I watched it, I couldn't help but compare the two shows throughout, and having watched Death Note first, this series feels like a somewhat disappointing tribute.
There are plenty of interesting characters who pop up in this series, bringing with them a host of Talents and personalities. But none of them are able to stick around as long as Kyoya. He's consistently a force able to counter and sometimes outsmart Nana, while maintaining an extraordinarily human side of himself through his desire to understand and befriend his fellow students. His Talent isn't that exciting or unique, but the rest of his character certainly is.
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This scene was truly chilling to me. Before this, Nana was just a sweet girl with a heart of gold and a major problem related to her Talent. But it was this scene that reminded everybody watching what the true nature of this show is, as well as Nana's uncanny ability to manipulate and deceive those around her. Truly a brilliant start to the series.
One thing I wanted to mention was how the series handles Nana's character development. At first, I thought it wasn't a great move leaving it so late into the series (as we recently saw from Kamisama ni Natta Hi, attempting to squeeze as much as possible into the last few episodes truly doesn't go well), but as I thought more about it, I think it works, as it puts us in a similar position to the Talenteds watching her. As her classmates see her carefully-constructed facade slowly crumbles away (particularly in front of Kyoya and Michiru), we see increasingly significant pieces of her youth and her backstory, giving us a reason as to why she's doing it while reflecting the progression of the actual story. It also dedicates more time in the first few episodes to Nana's struggle against Kyoya and the inventive ways in which she carries out her murders.
Altogether, I would recommend this series to anyone looking for an exciting time without many strings attached. It does a decent job of creating attachments to the new characters introduced practically every episode, although it can feel a little overwhelming trying to remember who's who. Nana's plot armour is a consistent issue, but when you watch this series, it's usually the case that you're having enough fun to ignore that. I think that the series could be renewed for a second season (like many others, I want to find out what happens to Nana, Michiru, and the rest but I simply do not want to read the manga) and could definitely benefit from some fine-tuning in the animation department.