Age Rating: Mature
Genre: Drama/Romance
Price: $8.99

With the tabloids still out for blood, Nana and her Blast bandmates move into a weird dorm building run by their agency.  But they've barely got enough time to settle into their new digs because their
crammed schedule has them running from music studio to TV interview.  The stress of band life and dealing with a disintegrating Ren have started to take their toll on Nana.  If she collapses now, will
she ever get back up?

The complexity of the relationships take center stage again, as the stress of being separated and sequestered takes it's toll on Nana and Ren.  Shin and Reira continue their relationship in secret and
Nobu finds a friend in his new next door neighbor, Miya.  It a very soap-opera-y volume as on top of all that, Hachiko finally makes her peace with Shoji.

This thing I love about Nana, that I didn't think I would is all these complex relationships.  I never watched soap operas growing up, so I never understood their attraction of trying to follow all the different relationships.  What makes Nana so appealing I think, is that the relationships don't just come out of nowhere.  Blast and Trapnest have a long history, and were already intertwined before Nana
came to Tokyo.  So it seems natural that the relationships would not only continue but new ones would bud, and other would change.

Nana and Ren have the most difficult relationship to work through, and their issues become problems for everyone else.  The stress of being separated sends Ren back to an old drug habit that has both
Reira and Takumi AND Yasu worried about him.  Nana finds out what hyperventilation can do to her.  Neither are as strong as their outside persona appears, and they realize they need each other just to
survive.  Is this just dependance, or is really love?  Either way, they finally admit they need each other.

It's through this discovery that the series finally earns it's Mature rating.  Scenes up till now have been the same as the Older Teen rating.  But a scene between Nana and Ren definitely ramps it up, and in a way I probably should have, but didn't expect.  It's still only one scene though, so unless it really starts to ramp up, I might still question the whole series getting the rating change.  This kind of drama is so much better for girls than the overactive melodrama of something like Gentlemen's Alliance Cross.

This volume has it's funny moments, such as Hachiko's family meeting Takumi finally.  Hachiko's sister Nami makes for some good laughs.  Blast's disguises at the end are perfect!  Yasu with hair....  It's also really cute watching Nobu and Miya start up their friendship.  But it's the surprise reveal toward the end that will probably make for some more drama down the road.

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