''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 nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

by Ai Yazawa. It is the sequel to the 2005 film '' 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 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 th ...

*Nobuo Terashima:

Hiroki Narimiya (born September 14, 1982), better known as , is a 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 school, ...

*Shinichi Okazaki:

Kanata Hongo Kanata may refer to: People *, Japanese voice actress *, Japanese actor, voice actor and model *, Japanese actor, musician and fashion model *, a multi-platinum songwriter *, Japanese manga artist Fictional characters * Kanata Asumi, the main cha ...

*Yasushi Takagi: Tomomi Maruyama *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 ...

*Reira Serizawa:

Yuna Ito is an American-born former pop singer and actress who was active in Japan. Ito made her musical debut in Japan with the single, " Endless Story", which was used as one of the theme songs for the popular 2005 film '' Nana''; she also starred in ...

*Ren Honjo:

Nobuo Kyo is a Japanese actor who is represented by the talent agency Cube. He graduated from Ichikawa High School. Biography Kyo was born with Korean nationality in Japan and later became a naturalized Japanese. In 1998, he won the photogenic award and ...

*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 ...

*Naoki Fujieda: Momosuke Mizutani *Kyosuke Takakura: Takehisa Takayama *Junko Saotome: Anna Nose *Shoji Endo:

Yūta Hiraoka is a Japanese actor who belongs to the talent agency Amuse, Inc. He gained recognition in 2004 film ''Swing Girls'' and won "Newcomer of the Year" Award at 28th Japan Academy Prize. Then he appeared in several dramas and films, including ''Water ...

*Mr. Kawano:

Seiichi Tanabe is a Japanese actor. He won the award for best actor at the 24th Yokohama Film Festival for '' Hush!'' and at the 27th Hochi Film Award for ''Hush!'' and ''Harmful Insect''. Filmography Film * ''Atashi wa juice'' (1996) * ''April Story'' (1998) ...

*Miss Sakagami:

Rumi Shishido is a Japanese singer and voice actress from Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. Shishido debuted as an idol singer with Sony Records in 1990 with the single "Cosmic Rendezvous." In 1992, she left her management and began releasing music independently. ...

*Sachiko Kawamura: Saeko *Mizukoshi: Kazuma Suzuki *Natsuko Komatsu: Yoshiko Miyazaki *Yokoi: Tetsuhiro Ikeda *Satô Kôichi: Mickey Koga *Nami Komatsu:

Natsuki Okamoto is a retired Japanese fashion model and actress An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or ...

*Nao Komatsu: Mieko Kon'ya

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 Yū ...

declined to play the role of Ren and was replaced with

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. He was ca ...

, 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 (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, 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 music, rock band formed in Hakodate in 1988. The core four members, vocalist Teru (singer), Teru, guitarists Takuro (musician), Takuro and Hisashi (musician), Hisashi, and bassist Jiro (musician), ...

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: Film * The End (1953 film), ''The End'' (1953 film), a film by Christopher Maclaine * The End (1978 film), ''The End'' (1978 film), a comedy by Burt Reynolds * ''The End'' (1995 film), a List of Canadian films of 1995, Cana ...

'', 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 Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that ...

charts. Reira, starring Yuna Ito's "

Truth Truth or verity is the Property (philosophy), property of being in accord with fact or reality.Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionarytruth, 2005 In everyday language, it is typically ascribed to things that aim to represent reality or otherwise cor ...

" 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.

References

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