'Nana' is one of the possible pronunciations in the Japanese language for the number 7, and it ends up being used as a feminine name with a possible double meaning in anime and manga.
One of the Japanese
Numerological Motifs.
Four Is Death is another one.
One Two Three Four Go is a
Sister Trope.
Examples:
- Elfen Lied features experimental subject Number Seven, or "Nana" as her father figure calls her.
- Loveless has a Hikikomori called Nana who only briefly shows up in the anime but plays a larger part in the manga, and her name likely refers to her dependence on computers. She's referred to as "Seven" in the Tokyopop manga release.
- Both stars are named Nana in the manga Nana, and live in apartment 707—effectively using this trope as its entire premise. One of them is called "Hachi" (short for Hachiko, but also meaning eight) to differentiate between them.
- In Shichinin no Nana (Sevenof Seven), a girl named Nana is split into seven personality fragments.
- And all those fragments get names that describe them and start with Nana. The exception is the eighth, bad Nana, Jamanana.
- Best of all, the primary Nana's Japanese voice actor is also named Nana.
- Mega Man X: Command Mission has a reploid named Nana as your Mission Control, with the number seven displayed prominently on both her breasts.
- In Puni Puni Poemi, the seven Aasu sisters are all named after numbers, in reverse age order. So the youngest sister is named Hitomi (from "hito" - one), and the oldest is named Nanase.
- Kodomo no Omocha's Sana is named after her birthday, March 7.
- "Na na na" in a song is sometimes shown as the English number 7 in karaoke. One example of this is Konjiki no Gash Bell's sixth ending
.
- Nanako in Tsukihime/Kagetsu Tohya. Originally... well, not quite originally since she was a human once with a presumably human name. Er. Anyway, previously, her name was Seven, in English, as she's the spirit of the Seventh Scripture; a fusion weapon created from her soul and the horn of a unicorn monster. Arihiko translates that to Japanese, Nana, and then adds a feminine ending to it. There, Nanako the horsegirl, spirit of a BF Harpoon Gun that shoots pages of the Bible. Yep.
- Tsuna is occasionally associated with the number 27. It's on his door, as well as the mitten form of his X gloves. Tsu sounds like two, and na is seven. Thus, 27.
- Saki of Futari Wa Pretty Cure Splash Star is associated with flowers (hana); naturally, her birthday is August seventh (ha - eight, na - seven).
- Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni gives us Reina, the original name of Rena, which is a combination of 0 and 7 and refers to the creators' name, 07th Expansion.
- Nana Mizuki WHORES out this trope for her singing career up to a point that she charges $77 dollars for her concert tickets.
