Talentless Nana

Episode 4

Turns out infiltrating a remote school full of superpowered students and killing them off one by one in complete secrecy is more difficult than it sounds. Now under the immortal and obstinate Kyoya's intense scrutiny, Nana has no choice but to adapt to the situation and change her modus operandi. And let's be real: inviting all of her victims out to lunch before throwing them off the proverbial (or, in Nanao's case, not-so-proverbial) cliff was going to get noticed by someone sooner or later. There are a lot of teens left to murder, so our cute cutthroat chooses to play the long game for the time being.

At first, however, it looks like the next victim is going to be the demure and gullible Michiru, who is able to cure any wound by licking it. I'll immediately commend Talentless Nana for not being super gross about that, although there's only so much you can do about a power almost certainly designed with fanservice in mind. I also like that Michiru causes both Nana and the audience to once more question the government's motives. Nana's only momentarily puzzled at the death toll ascribed to this skittish healer, but I'm definitely not taking that number at face value. The first victim's murder potential was already suspect—how could a Talent-neutralizing Talent kill Talentless people?—and Michiru can't even defend herself against bullies, let alone become an enemy of the state. The machinations behind Nana's mission likely run deeper and more nefarious than she knows. I hope Talentless Nana keeps teasing and developing this angle, because in addition to galaxy brain murder antics, I'd love to see some commentary on how power wields prejudice to its own advantage.

Since Michiru is neither an immediate nor distant threat to her operation, Nana instead uses the healer's good nature to throw Kyoya off her scent and usurp the classroom's chalk-encrusted throne. Like the rest of the show, this involves no small number of contrivances aiding Nana's subterfuge, but there's been nothing egregious enough to ruin anything for me. In fact, I like that the main thing holding Kyoya back has nothing to do with Nana and everything to do with him being antisocial and more than a little creepy. He can accuse Nana all he'd like; if no one believes him, he can't do much to help them. Nana, meanwhile, uses her effervescent charm to ingratiate herself into everyone's good graces, and consequently she enjoys a hero's welcome and an effortless transfer of power—although I suppose stabbing yourself in the back isn't quite “effortless.” It's a nearly poetic act too, with her weapon of choice almost giving her gambit away to Kyoya's powers of observation and deduction. Even he's doubting himself, however; he's going to need hard proof before he can convince others, and himself, that Nana is the real threat stalking their school.

Lucky for Kyoya, there is proof! Unlucky for Kyoya, it's in the hands of an inscrutable weirdo. Tsunekichi shows up basically out of nowhere and singlehandedly corners Nana in a way she can't weasel her way out of. With the ability to predict the future via polaroid, he both foresaw Nanao's cliff tumble and currently foresees his own strangulation at the hands of our pink pigtailed protagonist. This is, without a doubt, bad news for Nana and serves as an adequate cliffhanger for the following week. But Tsunekichi himself is also sus as hell. For starters, if he knew Nanao was going to die, why didn't he do anything to stop it? If he couldn't stop it, why didn't he come forward about it immediately? And what is he looking to get out of confronting Nana like this (besides the delightful slapstick of seeing her get a face-full of noodles)? It seems like he's embraced a destructively nihilistic attitude, as a result of his deterministic beliefs stemming from his powers. That makes some logical sense, but it doesn't paint a complete picture. It's also very possible he's lying about what his Talent actually does.

Whatever the truth and resolution end up being, I like watching Nana squirm. The blank, panicked stare she gives whenever something goes wrong is consistently funny to me, and therein lies a lot of Talentless Nana's appeal. While it's fun to hear the details of her Machiavellian machinations via monologue, it's a lot more fun to watch her gears turn on the spot once her self-preservation instinct kicks in. She has her wits, but she's outclassed in almost every other conceivable way by her Talented classmates—and even Kyoya is giving her a run for her money in the wits department. She's an underdog serial killer, so I just gotta root for her. Maybe you'll think differently, but given the choice between an easily-flustered pink-coiffed predator, and a gloomy ally of justice who plays Bomberman all day, I know who I'm siding with.

Rating:

Talentless Nana is currently streaming on Funimation.

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