This series is pretty good, I don't know why many have reviewed it badly. I suggest that you read the manga, this series is full of sadness and despair.
20 Reviews
Starts Out Great, Falters Late
sheerforce30 July 2022
Warning: Spoilers
In short, the premise of this story is what carries most of it. The switch from a standard-looking MHA-esque hero story to Animong Us is an interesting start, and the series is at its best when it follows this plotline. I won't pretend that the characters as a whole are incredibly developed or the events are perfectly believable. That said, the first half or so of the show keeps interest and momentum by showing the battle of wits between an extremely smart and ruthless killer (which isn't a bad thing by itself, as some other reviews assert: not every protagonist has to be a hero) and an almost extremely smart detective, with just enough funny dialogue and okay backstory to keep the characters from getting unlikeable. It stays just within suspension of disbelief and gives a darkly fun dynamic that isn't seen that much in other anime.
Then along comes the second half, where the writers seemingly lose their nerve and turn a once fairly unique story into a severely generic one. My main complaint is the decision to suddenly make every single person she goes after far worse than she is. In addition to the villains themselves being unnecessary and generally less interesting than past victims, this completely removes any moral ambiguity and turns Nana from a complicated character with a sadistic streak and a badly skewed moral code into a bog standard anti-hero fighting the "villain of the week". In short, what starts out as a heavy subversion of this sort of school superhero/villain story ends up turning back into one played fairly straight. There are other issues, but this is by far the most severe, and everything shown about the possible second season makes it seem like this would only get worse.
In short, watch the first half for the cool kills and investigations, then lower your expectations for the rest.
Then along comes the second half, where the writers seemingly lose their nerve and turn a once fairly unique story into a severely generic one. My main complaint is the decision to suddenly make every single person she goes after far worse than she is. In addition to the villains themselves being unnecessary and generally less interesting than past victims, this completely removes any moral ambiguity and turns Nana from a complicated character with a sadistic streak and a badly skewed moral code into a bog standard anti-hero fighting the "villain of the week". In short, what starts out as a heavy subversion of this sort of school superhero/villain story ends up turning back into one played fairly straight. There are other issues, but this is by far the most severe, and everything shown about the possible second season makes it seem like this would only get worse.
In short, watch the first half for the cool kills and investigations, then lower your expectations for the rest.
Very underrated
chrisplasmeijer28 November 2021
Honestly a great anime and I don't understand why other people don't like it that much
Incantator30 November 2020
Warning: Spoilers
I really don't understand why there are so many bad reviews. Maybe if they would take the time to watch more than 3 episodes they would understand how good it actually is. This anime is full of plot twists. It's so unpredictable that it kinda scares me. The plot is great. While watching the first few episodes I thought I knew exactly what's gonna happen, but everything took me by surprise. At the time of writing this review there's only 9 episodes released and every single one is amazing. You can actually feel the character development and as someone who read the manga I can say there will be a lot of it in future episodes. The character design over all is good and pretty original. So I would say that I recommend this anime to whoever likes psychological thrillers. For me the anime is amazing and it's definitely 10/10. (I truly don't understand why some people review shows when they have watched like 2 episodes. I think that to say that a show is dumb or bad you should at least watch it)
This is an odd show
ceojonathanmontgomery8 November 2023
Warning: Spoilers
Hello Fellow Humans,
This Anime is all about humans and their stupidity and how much people are sheep. What do Iean by this? Well humans objectively are sheep. Take religion for example it produces people who think one way and don't question things that are wrong. The main serial killer girl was told these people with powers are evil and need to die. So she was brainwashed like religions do to people and now she see people that are different than her as less than or not human. I seem to remember a thing called racism and also people who hate those with different sexualities and religious beliefs. The same is being shown in this show. Even though most of these people with powers are kind and good, this serial killer thinks she is helping the world by murdering these people. When in fact she has been brainwashed and is being used by others do do what they want. She is a sheep meaning she isn't thinking for herself.
Now you then have the blonde who can heal and gave her life to save her friend aka the serial killer. This irritates me because this girl ignored all the signs and blindly followed this serial killer and then saved her life ending her life and never knowing what she really did. I hope she goes to heaven or hell and a being shows her what she did. I would love to see her face when she was told her friend she defended this entire show was actually a serial killer. Instead of blindly following someone you should take a step back and look objectively.
The murders started the day this pink haired girl showed up and yet no one suspects her of anything. Except one guy. But everyone else falls for her act. I see this in our society today so many people falling for one or two peoples act who are evil and don't have the best interest for society at heart they just want money. Please make sure you think before you follow the group. This show is a perfect example of what happens when you blindly follow someone and when you cast an entire blanket over a group of people. Just because one person did something doesn't mean everyone is like that one person. That would be like saying well a few white people are racist and murders so all white people must be this. You can do this with all races. But it's a blanket statement and this type of thinking keeps you in a very small box. This pink haired serial killer had someone kill her parents and was told it was a special person with powers. So she then killed a bunch of people with powers because she decided that all people with powers are evil. Which objectively makes zero sense whatsoever.
It's an interesting Anime and it shows how our society has so many flaws. Hope you watch this and decide to be kind to all and give people a chance before deciding what type of human they are by putting labels on them before getting to know them.
This Anime is all about humans and their stupidity and how much people are sheep. What do Iean by this? Well humans objectively are sheep. Take religion for example it produces people who think one way and don't question things that are wrong. The main serial killer girl was told these people with powers are evil and need to die. So she was brainwashed like religions do to people and now she see people that are different than her as less than or not human. I seem to remember a thing called racism and also people who hate those with different sexualities and religious beliefs. The same is being shown in this show. Even though most of these people with powers are kind and good, this serial killer thinks she is helping the world by murdering these people. When in fact she has been brainwashed and is being used by others do do what they want. She is a sheep meaning she isn't thinking for herself.
Now you then have the blonde who can heal and gave her life to save her friend aka the serial killer. This irritates me because this girl ignored all the signs and blindly followed this serial killer and then saved her life ending her life and never knowing what she really did. I hope she goes to heaven or hell and a being shows her what she did. I would love to see her face when she was told her friend she defended this entire show was actually a serial killer. Instead of blindly following someone you should take a step back and look objectively.
The murders started the day this pink haired girl showed up and yet no one suspects her of anything. Except one guy. But everyone else falls for her act. I see this in our society today so many people falling for one or two peoples act who are evil and don't have the best interest for society at heart they just want money. Please make sure you think before you follow the group. This show is a perfect example of what happens when you blindly follow someone and when you cast an entire blanket over a group of people. Just because one person did something doesn't mean everyone is like that one person. That would be like saying well a few white people are racist and murders so all white people must be this. You can do this with all races. But it's a blanket statement and this type of thinking keeps you in a very small box. This pink haired serial killer had someone kill her parents and was told it was a special person with powers. So she then killed a bunch of people with powers because she decided that all people with powers are evil. Which objectively makes zero sense whatsoever.
It's an interesting Anime and it shows how our society has so many flaws. Hope you watch this and decide to be kind to all and give people a chance before deciding what type of human they are by putting labels on them before getting to know them.
A Wonderful Mindgame
inthenameofmenoth20 December 2020
Warning: Spoilers
This review will implicitly spoil the first episode. If you want a mindgame anime that I feel deserves a spot alongside Code Geass, then I highly recommend giving this a watch.
The first episode subverts quite excitingly, and the central theme is an excellent question centered around upbringing, and responsibility of evil actions. The main character must maintain a lie of a life, while killing off their fellow students one by one. The catch is, their fellow student have superpowers, while the protagonist has none, and they overcome this in some very cool ways.
The main criticism I see of this show is "It's so obvious who the killer is, the other students are so dumb". However, the show addresses this. The students are in middle school, they are children and think like children, and this is important both to the plot and the theme (basically, the government is scared of these children because they have insanely powerful superpowers and prefers them dead). The "antagonist" is quite intelligent, on the level of the main character, and part of the joy of the show for me is how they have to proof absolutely that the protagonist is the killer, despite their near certainty, because the protagonist is just that good at manipulating people.
The first episode subverts quite excitingly, and the central theme is an excellent question centered around upbringing, and responsibility of evil actions. The main character must maintain a lie of a life, while killing off their fellow students one by one. The catch is, their fellow student have superpowers, while the protagonist has none, and they overcome this in some very cool ways.
The main criticism I see of this show is "It's so obvious who the killer is, the other students are so dumb". However, the show addresses this. The students are in middle school, they are children and think like children, and this is important both to the plot and the theme (basically, the government is scared of these children because they have insanely powerful superpowers and prefers them dead). The "antagonist" is quite intelligent, on the level of the main character, and part of the joy of the show for me is how they have to proof absolutely that the protagonist is the killer, despite their near certainty, because the protagonist is just that good at manipulating people.
A murderous thriller for a teenage audience
glumski18 November 2023
'Talentless Nana' tells the story of superpowered children on an isolated island, amongst whom a serial killer is hiding. Large parts of the story are told from the killer's perspective, others from the self-declared teenage detective trying to solve the murders.
This cat-and-mouse game reminded me of a child-friendly version of Death Note, though it certainly requires more suspension of disbelief. Both the killer and the detective regularly make Sherlock-Holmes-like deductions, only that the writers certainly aren't as talented at coming up with reasonable schemes as Doyle. This is further hampered by the young target audience: all the clever schemes must remain understandable to kids, so the script heavily relies on everyone being oblivious and multi-step plans going perfectly right.
This isn't a huge issue, as long as you keep in mind that this is not Breaking Bad but a show aimed at young teens. Just like we shouldn't complain about violations of physics when watching Star Wars, we should forgive 'Talentless Nana' its own take on logical thinking.
What bothered me far more is that the series declined as it went along, ending with a finale that was neither fish nor fowl. In the first few episodes the killer is a deeply morally ambigious character, killing fellow teenagers without remorse. Yet as the show progresses, those victims suddenly become monsters themselves, the killer suddenly is quite heroic, and the overall theme of the show turns from something unique into something widely generic. I found the ending particularly disappointing: it leaves all the loose ends untied, dissatisfying the viewers that liked the first half of the season, while also compromising the more wholesome themes of the second half. Basically, the writers tried to go for the best of both worlds yet ended up with the worst.
Nevertheless, 'Talentless Nana' was enjoyable and certainly had its moments. Ultimately, though, it's just not all that memorable, its uniqueness sacrificed for no good reason.
From a technical standpoint the show is good, with lovely animations and a good art style. The English dub is also pretty great.
I hope the writers will continue with similar concepts in the future. Perhaps then they'll actually stick to their themes. I certainly would enjoy watching something like that!
This cat-and-mouse game reminded me of a child-friendly version of Death Note, though it certainly requires more suspension of disbelief. Both the killer and the detective regularly make Sherlock-Holmes-like deductions, only that the writers certainly aren't as talented at coming up with reasonable schemes as Doyle. This is further hampered by the young target audience: all the clever schemes must remain understandable to kids, so the script heavily relies on everyone being oblivious and multi-step plans going perfectly right.
This isn't a huge issue, as long as you keep in mind that this is not Breaking Bad but a show aimed at young teens. Just like we shouldn't complain about violations of physics when watching Star Wars, we should forgive 'Talentless Nana' its own take on logical thinking.
What bothered me far more is that the series declined as it went along, ending with a finale that was neither fish nor fowl. In the first few episodes the killer is a deeply morally ambigious character, killing fellow teenagers without remorse. Yet as the show progresses, those victims suddenly become monsters themselves, the killer suddenly is quite heroic, and the overall theme of the show turns from something unique into something widely generic. I found the ending particularly disappointing: it leaves all the loose ends untied, dissatisfying the viewers that liked the first half of the season, while also compromising the more wholesome themes of the second half. Basically, the writers tried to go for the best of both worlds yet ended up with the worst.
Nevertheless, 'Talentless Nana' was enjoyable and certainly had its moments. Ultimately, though, it's just not all that memorable, its uniqueness sacrificed for no good reason.
From a technical standpoint the show is good, with lovely animations and a good art style. The English dub is also pretty great.
I hope the writers will continue with similar concepts in the future. Perhaps then they'll actually stick to their themes. I certainly would enjoy watching something like that!
Perfect
floriandrescher31 October 2020
The best anime in 2020
thelightzap30 December 2020
I have watched many anime this year, but this anime was very special. I was feeling goose bumps every moment when I followed the 8th, 9th and 12th episode, who evaluate the anime 1 out of 10 children who only watched Jujutsu kaisen
And Sorry for the bad english
Really decent show but only to your taste
Irishchatter28 December 2020
I am really surprised to say that this series was actually quite decent and this is despite what people think of it saying it's boring, etc which I totally disagree from my personal point of view. Yes it's not a masterpiece or original but it was far from boring for me, it was in fact, interesting enough! Anyways, the story goes that a secret serial killer/spy called Nana basically kills anyone who is the enemy of "humanity". Of course she meets unique students who have different personalities such as Michiru and Kyouya. Michiru is a little darling like she cares about Nana so much and yet Nana is a bad egg who's suppose to kill her lol. Kyouya on the other hand, is a smart lad who's pretty wary of Nana and he always is attracted to detail in order to track the killer.
While you're watching this, you do get the atmosphere of "who done it?" or " Is Nana gonna get caught???? " like the show is good that way to have your nails biting through the end lol. By the way Rumi Ookubo absolutely nailed her performance as Nana because she was able to put a performance on a "serial killer voice" to a " sweet cutesy girl voice ". Both these types of voices were totally on point.
By the way without trying to spoil it, the ending made me cry man! You should definitely check out this mystery horror series, as I said before, it's really a decent show of 2020 that I've ever watched!
While you're watching this, you do get the atmosphere of "who done it?" or " Is Nana gonna get caught???? " like the show is good that way to have your nails biting through the end lol. By the way Rumi Ookubo absolutely nailed her performance as Nana because she was able to put a performance on a "serial killer voice" to a " sweet cutesy girl voice ". Both these types of voices were totally on point.
By the way without trying to spoil it, the ending made me cry man! You should definitely check out this mystery horror series, as I said before, it's really a decent show of 2020 that I've ever watched!
i really love it!
natuhnatiuk24 December 2021
I liked the anime so much that i went and read the manga!! It was actually my first time reading manga cause i'm not use to it, but i really liked the story!! It's so good, but it's ongoing so i'll have to wait about a month for the chapter 69 :(( but i really recommend this anime and the manga!! I just wish they would complete the anime with the remaining chapters :(
It's Dumb and a Big waste of time
vishwanathveerni3 November 2020
I created a account to specifically write this review.
The Plot is straight forward People gain supernatural powers and the government wants them dead out of fear.
The main character plays Among US with the classmates killing them one by one and the fun part is despite the students missing and having solid evidence against the killer no one notices Like they have Super powers like time travelling, predicting future , immortality and yet they are Super-Dumb.
I recommend watching it for yourself to understand how bad it is.
Dumb
micebivwie27 October 2020
Warning: Spoilers
I actually hate this anime so much that I had to make a review somewhere, despite them having the powers and solid evidence of she being the killer, they never notice. This makes me hate an anime for the first time.
If I had to rate, the story line would be 0 and drawing would be 8.
If I had to rate, the story line would be 0 and drawing would be 8.
Bad story and bad main character (spoilers alert)
francois-laroche-328 October 2020
Warning: Spoilers
I could only bare to watch the 3 first episodes. The story so far is so bad that I see no point in continuing to watch it just to see if it will get any better. The backstory of the main character is poorly developed so far and she is just unlikable (unless you like senseless killing). Most of the main characters that we get to know a little better throughout the show (and that are actually likeable) die within the same episodes that we get to know them. If only the main character was likeable and had an interesting backstory, I could maybe want to see more of that show, but after 3 episodes, you still barely know her and just grow to hate and despise her more and the story leads to more disapointment.
TRASH
mkstark5 May 2022
Warning: Spoilers
At first I watched like 2 eps and got hooked immediately, the plot was promising, and the characters were intersting.
As the story progressed, the plot became repititve and the characters became less and less interesting, they are so dumb and have no purpose other than being murdered, and they are all psychopaths, literally, there is no a normal person in this anime! Even the main character.
Wasted my time on this trash!
As the story progressed, the plot became repititve and the characters became less and less interesting, they are so dumb and have no purpose other than being murdered, and they are all psychopaths, literally, there is no a normal person in this anime! Even the main character.
Wasted my time on this trash!
The story is boring in my opinion
aldydarting-0342915 July 2021
Overrated, pretentious, annoying, pointless rubbish..
gtenalokes6 March 2023
Its like a lazy mix between The promised neverland and Death note, made for "don't ask questions, just consume product and get excited for next product" kind of people...
The poor writing, underdeveloped world building, poor character development and military grade plot armor results in a nonsensical story without rhyme or reason, the whole season is just filled with idiots running around and dying without consequences...
Most of the characters are unbelievably ignorant and stupid and show zero concern in the presence of pending death the whole idea behind the island doesn't make a lick of sense....
I fully understand the idea behind this anime and it really had potential but the execution was so poor that it comes off as annoying as it can be and ultimately unsatisfying...
I'm sorry but anyone who gives this show high ratings and praises is just as ignorant and dumb as the children on that island...
The poor writing, underdeveloped world building, poor character development and military grade plot armor results in a nonsensical story without rhyme or reason, the whole season is just filled with idiots running around and dying without consequences...
Most of the characters are unbelievably ignorant and stupid and show zero concern in the presence of pending death the whole idea behind the island doesn't make a lick of sense....
I fully understand the idea behind this anime and it really had potential but the execution was so poor that it comes off as annoying as it can be and ultimately unsatisfying...
I'm sorry but anyone who gives this show high ratings and praises is just as ignorant and dumb as the children on that island...
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