As you may have figured out, I am a hardcore OLIVIA fan. Part of the reason has to do with the fact that her voice is unbelievable. I have never heard anyone else hit the high notes quite like her. The way she experiments with style is impressive as well. The only fault I can find is that some of her live performances are very shaky. (The video I posted though, is probably one of her best).
But on the other hand, I think Anna Tsuchiya is one of the best live performers. Yeah, her hair looks a little strange in the video, but just look at her howl at the end of Kuroi Namida!
I was not a big fan of the Nana movies. I will not discuss the casting for Ren and Shin in the first movie (hey, people don't look like flawless Ren and Shin in real life), but I will discuss the music.
A lot of people liked Yuna Ito as Reira. I'll admit she looks the part at some points in the movie, but the music wasn't what I imagined for Trapnest at all. Obviously, that Endless Story ballad was perfect for the little flashback scene with Nana and Ren, so I can't argue too much about that. But Truth?? Another ballad? Obviously, I'm a biased Olivia fan, but I still think Wish was a much better match. It didn't help that in the music video for Truth, Ren looked like he had no idea how to play the guitar. I'm not disputing that Yuna Ito has a good voice, but Reira should have a stunning voice. I'm more impressed with Olivia than I am with Yuna Ito.
Moving onto Mika Nakashima, I'd have to say she certainly looks more like Nana than Anna Tsuchiya. She's also a very good singer. But there are two reasons why I feel Anna Tsuchiya makes the better Nana. One is that Anna's music is almost exactly how I imagine Black Stones sounds like. I liked Glamorous Sky, but it seemed a little too bouncy for Black Stones. As for Hitoiro, I'd have to say I thought it was completely off the mark. Black Stones is a punk band, and fortunately for the anime, most of Anna's music is rock. The second reason is that although Anna Tsuchiya doesn't look like Nana, I feel like she really acts like her. I've watched Mika Nakashima and Anna Tsuchiya's live performances on the Internet, and I'd have to say Anna Tsuchiya has the wild charming stage presence I'd expect Nana to have. I'm assuming it's not her style, but can you even imagine Mika doing that same crazy howl?
Overall, I'd have to give credit to the movies for casting two singers that resemble Nana and Reira fairly accurately. However, I'd have to say I find Olivia and Anna Tsuchiya to be the more accurate representations, in the musical sense. Which is why I suppose those two work so well for the anime, and Nana and Reira work for the movie.
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