I admit. I totally underestimated this series. After watching 4 episodes of the anime, I was surprised at how much I'm enjoying it. I had expected it to be your average series that relied on that twist at the end of episode/chapter 1 and then went downhill after that without the element of surprise. I'd even admit I had thought the author was for sure riding on MHA's popularity by introducing a setting that's so similar to MHA and a "main male lead" who's basically Izuku born with a quirk. So when I decided to check out the manga, I was ready to just skim through and drop it after having seen what it has to offer. To my surprise, it has everything it needs to make me enjoy it. The best way to summarize it is Death Note meets My Hero Academia meets Among Us: The Animation.
Story: 8/10
It relies on a simple concept: a talentless protagonist is sent undercover to a school full of talented kids to slaughter them from the inside. For the first few chapters, I thought it was going to be a monster (murder) of the day type of story. Nana finds a new target, gets close to them, finds out their talent, kills them, Kyoya suspects her but can’t find any evidence to support his claim. But then I was proven wrong when these first few murders actually have foreshadowings for later twists that I never saw coming (and they totally make sense when you think about them), and the causation of the events are all connected and make sense. Nothing just happens for no reasons. The methods used to kill the characters aren’t asspulls and can be logically foreseen with all the pieces presented to us. It’s like a mystery game of solving the murder except we’re the killer and we’re trying to use the information available to us to kill these OP characters.
The author isn’t afraid to push Nana into a corner that seems like there’s no way out, and then come up with a brilliant way to get her out of it. It’s like Death Note where Light and L’s cat and mouse games often ended up with Light in a pinch and it seemed like it’s game over, only for him to come up with a way out that’s so simple and effective yet we didn’t foresee that. I also like how the author isn’t afraid to change settings to further the worldbuilding and raise the stakes. There are still many things that haven’t been explained yet about this world and how it works, which is why I merely gave the story an 8/10.
Art: 8/10
It’s a simple art style that fits the type of story it’s telling. It can be cutesy and bubbly when Nana is blending in, and can also be horrifying and chilling when Nana’s being murderous and savage. It reminds me a lot of Kaguya-sama: Love is War, where the art is good and cute most of the time, but can also make the manga seem like a horror manga whenever Kaguya’s been all yandere-like.
Character: 8/10
The characters started out as your usual tropey characters. We have the cute pink-haired girl who’s secretly a psycho, a kind, naive girl who always puts others before herself no matter how much they bullied her, we have a playboy with long hair, a violent guy with a fire power, a boy with ‘no power’ who’s bullied by others… (now how many times have we seen these before?) I expected these characters to be like MHA’s Class-1A where they all have one or two personality traits unique to them and get no development afterwards (except a few key characters). This is not the case with Talentless Nana. Characters are affected by their situations, and their goals, motivations, and personalities also change accordingly.
Nana, surprisingly, got the most character development. What I thought was plot holes (how many of the estimated kill counts don’t make sense, yet Nana believed them) were brought up later on. She went from your typical pink-haired psycho killer to a girl who gradually began to suspect her orders and superiors after being touched by the kindness of others and drowned in guilt after seeing the sacrifices others are willing to make for her. The changes weren’t instant. Nana went through denial, hesitation, acceptance, and finally rebellion. Her development made her more realistic, and also more likeable. I found myself rooting for her more later on than I had in the beginning. She’s not just a mindless puppet. She’s her own person and has her own view of the world. And even if it contradicts what she was told, she was willing to put her bet on her own judgement and take control of her own life.
Aside from our protagonist, some of the side characters also received developments of their own. I can’t explain in detail without spoiling, but just know that a certain character actually defied their cliche personality traits after being affected by certain events (people change, what a surprise) which led to them taking a darker route and playing a completely different role than I had expected from them.
Also, there are nearly no fanservice so that’s a plus. And the tiiiiny bits of fanservice (literally just Nana and Kyoya taking off their shirt, and a few others) all make sense. They’re not your typical “ahh i tripped and face-planted in your boobs”. They all happen for a reason and are integral to the plot.
Enjoyment: 10/10
Let’s just say… I expected nothing and got everything.
Overall: 8.5/10
This story has MHA’s setting and characters but with actual development, Death Note’s cat and mouse game between characters who are more relatable than the #1 detective in the world and a sociopathic straight-A student with a God complex, and Among Us’s “there’s an imposter among us!” concept. I caught up with it in a day after watching episode 4 of the anime. The last time I was this into a manga was when I read “My Home Hero”, which is honestly a masterpiece imo.
Don’t judge this manga by just the first few chapters, or by the cover and synopsis alone. You will find yourself enjoying more than you expected, and you will also grow to love the characters (Nana especially). The twists are unexpected but if you piece together what’s been shown to you, you can foresee the twists 90% of the time. They’re not asspulls, or too difficult to understand. They’re the perfect amount of difficulty for the readers. You’re not going to see intricate plans like most of Yagami Light’s plans, but that doesn’t make Nana’s plans here any less entertaining to watch. They’re more...suited for average people like you and me who don’t have an IQ of 150+.
Nana also isn’t a sociopath like Light. She’s just a normal girl brainwashed into seeing the talented kids as the enemy. Deep down, she still cares and can sympathize with others, though she would even fool herself into believing she doesn’t.
And lastly, I ship Kyoya x Nana to hell and back! Though there hasn’t been any romantic developments between them, you can’t stop me from liking their rivalry. So if nothing else, ‘enemies to friends to lovers’ shippers should check out this manga so you have one more ship to ship.
PS: those of you who contributed to this manga getting such a low score needs to reevaluate your decision because this manga deserves at the very least a 7/10.
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