Talentless Nana, an anime scheduled to air from October 2020, appears to be a youth supernatural battle manga depicting the battle between young boys and girls with special abilities and the "enemies of humanity" who threaten humanity. However, the end of the first episode takes a sudden turn, as if to push you off a cliff, revealing that it is actually a clever suspense story. We would like to give you some spoilers about the plot of Talentless Nana!
Synopsis 1: A School on an Isolated Island with People with Special Powers Fighting the Enemy of Humanity
Long ago, a being known as the "Enemy of Humanity" appeared in the world, threatening to disrupt social order. To combat this "Enemy of Humanity," humanity gathered boys and girls with mysterious abilities known as "Special Powers" and trained them at a school on a remote island. A boy named Nanao Nakajima was called to this school, but he was called incompetent and struggled to fit in with his classmates. Then, two transfer students arrived at the school. They are Nana Hiiragi, a bright, energetic, but somewhat awkward girl, and Kyoya Onodera, a mysterious boy.
The Talentless Boy Nanao
Nanao possesses special abilities, but he keeps them secret and remains inconspicuous in his class. Though he is the son of a wealthy family, he is also treated as incompetent by his own family. Despite his respect for his father, Nanao is bound by his father's words: "Become the best and become a leader." However, his encounter with transfer student Nana Hiiragi marks a major turning point for him. Nanao, who has the ability to read minds and is cheerful and not shy around strangers, encourages him to become class representative. He then finds himself battling two other supernatural powers, Moguo Iijima and Seiya Gun.
Nanao's Abilities
Nanao initially considered resigning from his position as class representative, but when Nana was threatened with harm in the aftermath of Moguo's attack, he stepped in to protect her. Nanao's ability is the ability to "nullify abilities." Nanao's powers, which are meaningless unless he's dealing with a superhuman, used to be a complex for him, but coming out about them allowed him to open up to his classmates. This action would dramatically change Nanao's destiny.
A Sudden Turn
That day, Nanao was pushed off a cliff by Nana. The true identity of the "enemy of humanity" was the superhumans themselves. To those without superhuman powers, superhumans were nothing more than a threat, disrupting order. In the past, superhumans had rebelled and nearly destroyed the world. Nana is an assassin without supernatural powers, dispatched by the "Committee" that oversees the school to eliminate supernatural powers.
The Protagonist is Nana Hiiragi
This story isn't about the supernatural powers of Nanao Nakajima, but rather a suspenseful tale of Nana Hiiragi, a supernatural powerless individual who uses her wits and courage to kill supernatural powers. Nanao's ability to "nullify supernatural powers" means he has no supernatural powers that prevent him from killing. This is what changes his fate.
Synopsis 2: Nana Hiiragi's Secret Activities
Nana was assigned by the committee to select her targets based on the "estimated number of kills," which calculated how many non-ability users would kill if they continued to grow. After killing Nanao, who had the highest "estimated number of kills," she chose her classmate, Shibusawa Youhei, who possesses the ability to "travel back in time." His ability is so overpowered that his estimated number of kills was 800,000, second only to Nanao.
Goodbye Shibusawa-kun
Nana's personality allows her to approach Yohei without arousing suspicion, and she uses her analytical skills to uncover the specifics of his powers. Yohei, who has no fear of being killed, reveals his weakness as a cost of time travel: the longer he travels back in time, the more rapidly he fatigues. Nana lies to Yohei, claiming that Nanao has been attacked by an enemy of humanity, and sends him back in time. However, the location he travels to is a pond frozen by Seiya Gun at this time. Naturally, the pond hadn't frozen over in a few days, and Yohei drowned. They successfully eliminated the second supernatural power user.
Synopsis 3: The Greatest Enemy, Onodera Kyoya
Nana successfully eliminated the two supernatural power users, but there was one person who posed the greatest threat to her. That person was transfer student Onodera Kyoya. Kyoya's insight rivaled Nana's, and he was so sharp that he questioned the very structure of the school. Nana recognized Kyoya as the most dangerous element and made him her next target. When Nana visits Kyoya's room, she notices expiration dates on the fresh food. While his room is messy, the bathroom is kept clean, revealing his lack of a sense of smell.
Goodbye, Onodera-kun?
Kyoya was caring for stray cats in a shed outside the school. Nana took advantage of this situation by filling the shed with gas and setting up a trap that would explode the moment Kyoya turned on the gas stove. Kyoya, who has no sense of smell, doesn't notice the smell of gas. The plan was successful, the hut exploded, and Kyoya burst into flames and ran out of the hut. However, Kyoya did not die. He had the power of immortality. Kyoya turned his suspicious eyes on Nana, who was the first to arrive, and to Nana, Kyoya became her greatest threat, a man with an intelligence comparable to her own, but who she could not kill.
Synopsis 4: VS. the Future Predictor
Nana becomes friends (in name only) with Michiru Inukai, a girl who is bullied in her class and has the ability to heal. She uses Michiru to inflict injury on herself in an attempt to divert Kyoya's suspicions. However, Kyoya isn't the only one who suspects Nana of Nanao's murder. Hatahei Tsunekichi, who also has the ability to predict the future, also realizes through his precognitive abilities that Nana is the culprit.
Goodbye Hatahei-kun
Tsunekichi exploits Nana's weakness and tries to get her to do something erotic. Tsunekichi's ability is to photograph future scenes with an instant camera while he sleeps and print them out, a unique quality that remains unchanged no matter how hard he tries. Nana takes a photo of herself being killed in advance, then switches the photo to trick Tsunekichi into thinking his fate remains unchanged. She outwits him and kills him with a poisonous needle.
Synopsis 5: VS. Necromancer
Despite numerous doubts, Tsunekichi's death is declared a death of illness and his funeral is held. However, Kyoya suggests that an autopsy be performed on Tsunekichi. While Nana, who does not want the cause of death to be revealed, is shaken, Tsunekichi suddenly wakes up. This is the power of Shinji Kazama, who possesses the "necromancer" ability to control corpses. The necromancer's power allows him to extract memories from the corpse, as long as they are remembered. Nana is forced to shut Shinji up as soon as possible, and must also kill his girlfriend, Yuka Sasaki, who possesses the power of "superhuman strength" and is likely to raise a fuss upon discovering Shinji's body.
Goodbye, Sasaki-san, and Kazama-kun
After killing Shinji with a poisonous needle, Nana breaks into Yuka's room, but is stopped just before the crime is committed by a man of incredible strength. It's Shinji, whom she thought she'd killed, who stops her. It turns out that Yuka was the real necromancer. Yuuka transforms a large number of corpses into zombies and attacks Nana, but is found guilty after discovering that her powers are ineffective in sunlight, that she needs Shinji's belongings to activate the zombies, and that Shinji and Yuuka were not lovers at all, but that Yuuka was Shinji's stalker and that she was the one who murdered him.
Synopsis 6: Jin Tachibana, the survivor from five years ago
After killing Yuuka, Nana assassins Kirara Hanyu to clear Kyoya's suspicions. Afterwards, she reports the deaths of Yuka and Shinji, and kills Takanashi Kaori with a delayed poison trick. However, Kyoya still casts his suspicions on Nana. Although she manages to outwit Kyoya at the time, Kyoya becomes even more wary of Nana. However, that night, Michiru, who is a kind-hearted person and had no doubt at all that Nana was the culprit, holds a cutter blade to her. It was as if Michiru knew everything.
That Man, Tachibana Jin
The next day, Nana is called by Michiru, but she realizes that Michiru is a fake and a person with the ability to transform. That person is Tachibana Jin, a senior and the only survivor of Nana's class. Five years ago, a person with special abilities was murdered by a classmate in Jin's class, sparking a war between people with special abilities and a school life of killing. Jin is the only survivor of that brutal massacre, but he suspects there is some kind of motive behind it. Jin knows about Nana's crimes and proposes a deal to her.
Synopsis 7: Why Nana Became an Assassin
Nana tries to escape the situation somehow, but Jin can transform into all surviving supernatural powers, making it impossible for her to escape. However, Jin's goal is to engage in dialogue. He wants information about the organization behind Nana through Nana. To build a relationship of trust with her, he asks about her family. Nana's family was murdered by a supernatural power when she was a child.
Nana's Past
Nana wakes up in Michiru's room. Michiru finds Nana collapsed outside and nurses her back to health. In the presence of Michiru's devotion, Nana can't help but share her past. Nana reveals that her parents were murdered by a robber when she was a child, and that she was indirectly responsible for the murder. Back then, Nana was a sloppy child who couldn't clean up after herself, leaving her room messy and the windows open. Wanting to read the next chapter of the weekly magazine, Nana sneaked out of the house in the middle of the night to go to a convenience store, leaving the window open, allowing the culprit to enter and commit the crime.
Goodbye, Ishii-kun
Then, another murder occurred. It was her classmate, Ryuji Ishii. However, this time it wasn't Nana's doing. This meant there was another murderer, and around the same time, the island's wild animals were being brutally murdered.
Synopsis 8: Michiru and Nana
After hearing about Nana's past, Michiru acts as if she's concerned for Nana, but something seems off. Nana notices that the vial of poison she used in the crime is missing and deduces that Michiru has realized her crime. Nana sneaks into Michiru's room, but Michiru's diary is filled with trust. It turns out that it was Jin who had the vial of poison. He appears and tells Nana that Michiru has collapsed in the bathroom before leaving.
True Friends
Nana nurses Michiru after she collapses, and when she recovers, she asks her why she's so kind to others. At her previous school, Michiru used her powers to heal a boy's wounds, which led to her being shunned by the other girls. She was then helped by a delinquent student named Hitomi Hosokawa. Originally, she hadn't attended school, but she began to come to school to protect Michiru. However, she had terminal cancer and was forcing herself to attend school in order to help Michiru. Hitomi later passed away, and Michiru's kindness, which led her to help anyone, was what helped her.
The Unexpected Truth
After hearing Nana's story, Michiru realizes something. When Nana wakes up one morning, her room is tidy. This means that her parents likely cleaned her room and locked the door while she was asleep. Nana became an avenger after being constantly blamed by those around her for her parents' deaths, but it becomes clear that this assumption may have been incorrect. From then on, Nana begins to see Michiru as her true best friend.
Synopsis 9: The Death of Inukai Michiru
There's progress in the murder of Ishii Ryuji. Kyoya finds a bloodstained jersey in the room of his classmate, Sorano Fuuko, Ryuji's girlfriend, whom he had suspected from the start. However, Gin tells him that someone called Michiru that night. Feeling uneasy, Nana asks Kyoya for help and heads to Michiru's location. Michiru is being pursued by an invisible murderer. Nana arrives just in time and risks her life to save Michiru.
Goodbye, Inukai-san
The perpetrator of Ryuji's murder, and the one currently attacking Michiru, was Rentaro Tsurumigawa, a man with the ability to "astral projection." Nana bided her time to prevent Rentaro from pursuing her, and Kyoya held down Rentaro's true form, causing his astral form to disappear. However, Nana's consciousness faded from the fatal wound. However, Michiru, who had returned, sacrificed her own life to revive Nana, but Michiru died in return.
[Talentless Nana] Summary with Spoilers
I thought it was a youthful supernatural battle, but it was completely different! Talentless Nana is actually a suspenseful battle of wits in which non-talented people use their wits to eliminate those with supernatural abilities. As the story progresses, the protagonist, a ruthless avenger, begins to change, and the true identity behind him is revealed. The clever foreshadowing makes for a fun story with plenty of predictable twists. Talentless Nana is scheduled to begin airing in October!
