In a world where the earth is plagued with monsters, humanity’s only hope for survival is a group of super powered students known as the talented. These exceptional students are grouped and enrolled in special schools to help grow and refine their abilities so that they may put a stop to these “Enemies of Humanity” once and for all.
The Plot Thickens
The first episode introduces Nakajima Nanao, a quiet, reserved, seemingly talentless boy among his exceptionally talented peers who’s often bullied. After briefly introducing Nakajima as the character who seems to be the protagonist, the anime then introduces Hiragi Nana, a cute, friendly, peppy girl who can read minds. She instantly takes an interest in Nakajima, and as they get closer she also finds out his hidden power, the ability to nullify other superheroes’ powers. All seems well and good as the episode shows the two getting closer, but when Nana finally earns Nakajima’s trust, she uses the opportunity to get close enough to throw him off a ledge killing him.
This is the most shocking part of the anime thus far, as It reveals that Nana is, in fact, the enemy hiding among them, yet the rest of the students are regarded as actual enemies of humanity and are seen as a threat due to their dangerous abilities and potential body count. So as an assassin working for the government, Nana is given the sole task of going undercover as one of the talented, to take out each and every last one of these “potential murderers.”
Highly Talented Nana
As an undercover assassin among the talented, Nana does her job excellently and meticulously calculating each possible scenarios, and profiling her victims before going for the kill. This makes it all the more shocking to witness, especially when the perpetrator is a seemingly young girl with no powers. The series is structured where in each episode or two, she successfully takes out one of the students by outsmarting, betraying, or manipulating them.
The fun in watching the series isn’t to see if she will be successful in taking out her victims but rather how, as the series has proven, she always finds a way to do it. Watching her clever plays and counters is always entertaining as she always takes account of her victims’ powers and personality traits to be successful.
While the brilliance of both Nana and the anime shines through, it also somewhat feels a tad irritating how the anime forces certain scenarios where she always comes out on top despite the interesting ways she does. A good example of this is how she is rarely ever questioned about her power to read minds. And whenever she is, she always gives typical predictable responses, which for some reason always seems good enough for the other characters because they never ask specific questions. She’s also hardly ever put on the spot on how she’s always connected to the several deaths in the anime.
A Careless Plot
Luckily the anime tries to fix this around episode three by introducing Kyouyea Onodera, a gruff, clever suspicious fellow who serves as Nana’s nemesis and counter, sort of like the L to her Kira. As Kyouya’s is blessed with immortality, he seems like a perfect counter for an assassin. It’s just a pity that even with his presence, Nana still always comes out on top by evading his suspicious comments or remarks and tampering with his investigations. So while we have a character that’s fully aware of what’s happening and is made to be the perfect rival, he’s also been rendered useless thus far, as he hasn’t been able to avoid any more deaths.
Any observant viewer will notice the premise of the anime is quite morbid and also leaves many questions unanswered so far. While Nana isn’t your traditional antagonist, she’s also far from a hero as she carelessly takes the lives of these seemingly innocent kids with their potential body count serving as her only motivation.
Other than that, we have no idea who Nana is as a person or how she got herself in this situation in the first place, and as the anime has very little world-building, we also have no knowledge of what happens outside the island these kids are kept in, which is a bit odd, but hopefully, more will be revealed as the anime continues. Currently, the anime seems to be progressing at its own pace while disregarding these important elements.
Talentless Nana- Final Thoughts
Aside from the story, Talentless Nana has fairly standard animation quality. However, the character designs are the most eye-catching part of the anime as it includes characters with unique hairstyle, colors, and looks. All in all, Talentless Nana is a good anime. It just has some very noticeable flaws. Those looking for a bit more intellect in their anime will most likely enjoy this one.
If you haven’t seen Talentless Nana, its available to stream right now on Funimation.
Have you seen Talentless Nana? What do you think of my impressions? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.