Young Nana and Ringo live in a world where people develop superpowers upon turning sixteen and are expected to use them responsibly to contribute to the communities they live in. Unfortunately, their own powers are on the lowest rung: Ringo has a pair of superhumanly strong legs, while Nana can manipulate bananas. What's more, Ringo's Disappeared Dad has instilled in both of them a deep-seated desire to go adventuring and to find the legendary land of Oz (not that one), where any wish can be granted. Unfortunately, vagrancy is a capital offense all across the continent that deprives adventurers of any human rights, so both Nana and Ringo have been bullied for their dreams since childhood.
One day, the stars align, and Nana and Ringo say goodbye to their home village in the most final way ever (by violently beating up their abusive village chief), and find themselves on the high road of adventure. Wacky hijinks rapidly ensue.
Banana no Nana (lit. "Nana of Banana") was a short-lived comedy action manga by Oniyazu Kakashi, which ran in Comic Blade from 2010 to 2011. Obviously inspired by One Piece (in terms of plot structure) and various Yuri Genre titles (in terms of the leads' relationship), the series released two bound volumes before being axed, leading to a rather rushed ending in the last couple of chapters.
This manga provides examples of:
- Action Girl: Nana can kick moderate amounts of arse, while Ringo kicks people in the face. Get her angry enough and she'll kick you up a mountain.
- Affectionate Parody: The main characters go on an adventure, they fight, become better, etc. Is this like Shōnen manga/anime? Yes, but this time most of these things are played for laughs, and fancy superpowers are replaced with bananas. Even Fanservice gets its treatment by lampshading, Ringo's miniskirt, and the village chief's justified nudity (see blessed with suck).
- Alternate Character Reading: All the ability names have alternate readings in the original Japanese.
- Badass Normal: The bounty hunter confronting Kagami doesn't have any powers, but successfully defeated many power-users with his unorthodox weapon technique.
- Berserk Button: Hurting either Nana or Ringo will provoke Unstoppable Rage from the other one of the two. In Ringo's case, it includes when Nana hurts herself.
- BFB: Nana attacks a bird that's trying to eat them with a Big Fuckin' Banana. It eats the banana.
- Blessed with Suck: In exchange for very powerful water abilities, the village chief has to lie in a bath for 20 hours a day. If she doesn't do this, she'll die. No wonder she's such a bitch.
- Blush Sticker: Ringo often sports these whenever someone points out her feelings about Nana.
- Break the Haughty: The chief gets thrown out of office and is kicked out. She does admit that she had it coming.
- Can't Catch Up: Ringo feels this way about herself, compared to Nana and Budou. It takes a Near-Death Experience for her to grow out of it.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Ringo is this to Nana ever since Budou joined them.
- Combat Sadomasochist: Itami "Stake" Ugatsu, the bounty hunter Ringo fights in chapter 9. He has a good reason for it, too - his power "Growing Pains" makes him stronger the more damage he takes. (Having a reason for it doesn't make him any less creepy, though.)
- Conditional Powers: Part of the rules of superpowers here, and usually played for laughs. Nana has to eat a banana with the skin on every day, plus an extra one for every time she uses her power; Ringo has to wear a miniskirt all the time to show off her panties. It's that kind of series.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The battle between Nana and the chief is barely even a fight — partially because the chief is too used to thinking of Ringo and Nana's powers as narrow and useless to even consider the ways they might be useful or effective, but partially because Nana's "weak" power really is that strong.
- Cute Little Fangs: Nana sports one to go with her happy-go-lucky personality.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Hoshi Budou becomes Nana's maidservant. Sadly the process was not shown... Then Morishiro and co. fixing their ways (they even plan to re-buy all the girls they sold) after Hoshi defeats him.
- Determinator: It's this quality in Nana that convinces Budou to find a new master in her.
- Disappeared Dad: Ringo's father disappeared when she was young, leaving her (and Nana) a dream for adventure. He is eventually revealed to have become known as "War God"—the man who came closest to Oz, before being supposedly killed. He comes back, Not Quite Dead, however, to propel Nana to the moon, where Ringo has been trapped for the past two years.
- Disproportionate Retribution: The village chief antagonizes Nana and Ringo largely because Nana reminded her too much of herself and how she wanted to go adventuring in the past but never could largely due to her power stipulation (She has to stayed soaked at all times or she'll die) and, from what little flashback we see, the obligation her family put on her. So figures if she can't be allowed to, no one in her village will either. To her credit, after she is stripped of her position following her defeat at Nana's hands, she does come to a Heel Realization about how petty she had let herself get.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: They don't even try to be subtle about the phallic symbolism of Nana's powers. In the final chapter, it is strongly implied that Nana turns a banana into a sex toy during her intimate moment with Ringo.
- Dual Wielding: When Nana gets serious, she dual-wields her bananas.
- Erotic Eating: To explain the Conditional Powers, Nana is force-fed a banana by Ringo in a highly suggestive manner. The banana is even censored at first.
- Fanservice: From revealing and/or fetishistic outfits to panty shots, this series has it all.
- Food-Based Superpowers: The main character, Nana, has absolute control over bananas such as using them as a sword or using the peels as shields. However, the rules of her world have certain conditions to them for one to use their powers. In Nana's case, she can only use her power if she eats a banana once a day, unpeeled. And an extra one if she does use it.
- Gag Series: The series starts off this way, before developing a Myth Arc.
- Genki Girl: The only time you'll see Nana be anything but happy is when she is near death or something bad happens to Ringo.
- Heart Is an Awesome Power: Nana's "Banana Armour" lets her make anything out of them. Ringo's "Antelope Leg" not only lets her jump high but also run fast and kick like a mule. Hoshi's power lets her do housework several times faster than the average person—which, since she wields a sword hidden within a mop, also lets her move incredibly fast in battle.
- Idiot Hair: Both the main characters sport these, fittingly enough.
- Improbable Weapon User: Nana wields bananas in battle while Buduo has a katana hidden inside her mop.
- In a Single Bound: Ringo's ability lets her jump really far, which she uses during her tenure as a delivery girl.
- In the Style of: Try reading the first chapter in the style of Charlie the Unicorn. See how long you can avoid laughing when you hear "Adventure" or "I'm going on an adventure!".
- Intrepid Reporter: Hikaru ventures far to the east and remains in the middle of a warzone to report on it.
- Kick Chick: Ringo doesn't really have any other choice than to be this in combat, given her superpower is just "strong legs".
- Limit Break: Ringo is what is known as a Limit Breaker, a person who can, under certain circumstances, ignore their mental limits and use the fullest potential of their ability.
- Logical Fallacies: Capture and sell off low-level ability users... in order to get the money for a revolution that will set them free. Even Nana calls him out on this.
- Lovely Angels: Ringo and Nana fit the mold surprisingly well.
- Marshmallow Hell: Nana finds herself in one between Ringo and Budou during one of Ringo's jealous bouts.
- Ninja Maid: Nana insists upon going to Maimai, the country of superpowerful maids, to find one for their party because... she wants one. She has her wish granted when a wayward maid warrior named Budou acknowledges her as her new master after being defeated by her.
- No Sense of Direction: Kagami gets lost in the underground caves after she dramatically leaves the leads' campfire just for the Rule of Cool.
- Oh, Crap!: The reaction most people have to witness Nana really angry or Ringo in her Limit Break mode.
- One Head Taller: Ringo, compared to Nana. In a subversion, she is the girly girl to Nana's tomboy.
- Overly Narrow Superlative: "The very finest water vs. banana fight ever" (see above); there's also the garuda, a huge bird whose favorite food is "little girls who like bananas."Nana: What's with that pinpoint taste!?
- Proper Tights with a Skirt: How Ringo attempts to maintain modesty while fulfilling the conditions to keep her powers (tiny miniskirts!). Her tights are so sheer that it doesn't really work.
- Punny Name: Nana's full name is Oba Nana. Fun fact: The O in Japanese means 'Honorable'. Her name is almost literally 'Honorable Banana'.
- Power at a Price: Prices like having to eat a banana with the skin on, having to always wear miniskirts, staying in water for 20 hours a day or you die...
- Put Down Your Gun and Step Away: What the chief orders Nana to do in the first chapter, but with her banana. Naturally, Nana does not comply.
- Quest for a Wish: Those who reach Oz can ask for any wish to be granted. The price being the life of the person they love the most.
- Red Baron: All power-users eventually get an epithet to describe their powers. Nana's is "of Banana", Ringo is known as "White Shock" ("thanks" to her Panty Fighter tendencies), while Budou is initially denied one, but becomes known as "Faithful Sword" in the Distant Finale, thanks to her Undying Loyalty to Nana.
- Role Called: The protagonist's name is Nana. She fights with a banana.
- Seven Is Nana: Many of Nana's special attacks involve the number seven, such as one that throws 777 explosive bananas at the opponent.
- Skyward Scream: Nana lets one out after killing Ringo.
- She Is the King: Nana wants to be, anyway. So she can rule the land so fellow adventurers can have complete freedom. Yes, king.
- Shout-Out:
- Nana hums the theme tune to Lucky Star.
- When saving Nana from the giant bird, Ringo pumps energy into her legs in a way very similar to what Clare from Claymore learned during the Northern Campaign.
- Nana wants to be the king of the world, just like Monkey D. Luffy from One Piece wants to be the Pirate King (see also Whole-Plot Reference below).
- The entire ending just screams Destiny of the Shrine Maiden: the female leads reunite on the moon, profess their love for each other, and have to fight each other to the death to prevent the apocalypse. Ringo then manipulates Nana to kill her... except Nana, unlike Himeko, says bollocks to that, resurrects her, and together, they defy God.
- Single-Stroke Battle: Budou's fight against the fifth squad commander.
- Storm of Blades: Nana can eventually summon hundreds, even thousands of weaponized bananas and hurl them at the enemy.
- Their First Time: They have sex on the moon. With a banana.
- This Banana is Armed:
- Those Two Guys: Hikaru and Kiji.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Nana is loud, self-assured, and determined, while Ringo is graceful (most of the time), timid, and prefers to conform. The two of them quarrel Like an Old Married Couple.
- Too Dumb to Live: The chief somehow completely fails to realize there's any possible use for super-strong legs besides jumping until she's already been kicked into the sky.
- Tsundere: Ringo is repeatedly referred to as one by Nana (out of earshot, of course). On one occasion, Nana induces a "tsundere moment" moment in Ringo (i.e. the rapid shift form tsuntsun to deredere) to stop the latter's superpowered Unstoppable Rage.
- Unstoppable Rage: Make Ringo really angry, and she gets stronger (much stronger) and more violent. It's implied to be a rare special ability.
- You Can't Go Home Again: Ringo kicked the village chief into the sky, effectively burning their bridges behind them. Mind you, it's not like they would particularly want to return to their village. Plus the chief kinda started the fight anyway. So meh. In the ending, Ringo kicks the moon so hard, it flies away from the planet at relativistic speeds—with Nana and Ringo still on it, ensuring that they never go back to their planet again.
- Wingding Eyes: As expected of a 'Limit Breaker', Ringo's eyes become targeting reticles when she uses her full power.
- Whole-Plot Reference: The entire premise just yells One Piece. A young Idiot Hero embarks on a journey as an outlaw vagabond, fighting fellow outlaws and the government, gathering quirky allies, and generally traveling in one direction across the world to reach the place of legend that has, until then, been only reached by one man, a legendary king of the past. Of course, unlike Luffy, Nana is very much aware of romance and part of the motivation on her journey is to be reunited with Ringo.
- You Are What You Hate: Nana and Ringo's village chief wanted to go adventuring herself, but couldn't because her powers were so strong, she had to stay immersed in water most of the time. She realizes that this frustration is the reason she has been so harsh on all the would-be adventurers.
