Nana and Kaoru: Serialization, Volumes, and Adaptations

Ryuta Amazume’s manga Nana & Kaoru (ナナとカオル) moved around inside Hakusensha’s seinen magazines. The main story started in Young Animal Arashi on 4 January 2008 and finished there on 2 October 2009. It moved to Young Animal on 23 October 2009 and ended on 12 August 2016. Hakusensha collected it in 18 tankōbon, from 28 November 2008 to 28 October 2016. In November 2021 Fakku and Denpa announced an English 3-in-1 omnibus.

Nana & Kaoru: Black Label is set eight months after the events of the main series. It opened as an extra edition of Young Animal Arashi on 2 July 2010 and ended on 4 April 2014. Five collected volumes came out between 29 June 2011 and 29 July 2014. Fakku licensed it in English. The first English volume was announced for 15 April 2025.

There are two side series. Tamami Momose’s Nana Kao Pink Pure ran in Young Animal Arashi from 7 October 2011 to 1 November 2013, with a collected volume on 29 January 2014. Nana & Kaoru: Last Year was serialized as Nana to Kaoru: Kōkōsei no SM Gokko. The subtitle means high-school students’ SM pretend-play. The characters are students still in school, so this piece does not describe any scenes. It ran in Hakusensha’s digital erotic magazine Harem from 29 November 2018 to 29 October 2021, five volumes, the first on 29 July 2019 and the last on 24 December 2021.

Films, OVA, staff

Atsushi Shimizu directed two live-action films. The first opened on 19 March 2011. Nana & Kaoru: Chapter 2 opened on 8 September 2012. The cast list names Maho Nagase for the first film, Miku Aono for the second, and Rakuto Tochihara. AIC PLUS+ produced an OVA released on 29 March 2011, directed by Hideki Okamoto, with character designs by Atsuko Watanabe. The lead voices are Kaoru Mizuhara and Junji Majima. No plot here either.

Oricon checks

Sampled Oricon weekly ranks: main volume 3 was 30th, 25,008 copies as of 31 January 2010. Volume 5 was 22nd, 34,146 copies as of 31 October 2010. Volume 6 was 15th, 34,792 copies as of 3 April 2011. Black Label volume 1 was 23rd, 33,619 copies as of 3 July 2011. Black Label volume 2 was 28th, 21,655 copies as of 3 June 2012. Black Label volume 3 was 46th, 18,741 copies as of 2 March 2013. Main volume 9 was 24th, 55,005 copies as of 7 October 2012. Main volume 11 was 22nd, 40,873 copies as of 4 August 2013.

What one review actually said

Jean-Karlo Lemus at Anime News Network wrote about the first volume. He saw room for the series to continue, noted the detail in the art, and said the author had done a lot of actual research into BDSM ideas. He also said the opening was bumpy. That is a review line, not a scene.