We Were There, Volume 4

We Were There, Volume 4

Yuki Obata

Viz Media, 2009

$8.99, Paperback

978-1421520216

March 14^th, 2012

Genre: Realistic, Romance

Age: 14+

Description: Nana and Yano are going to take their relationship to the next level—sex—but get interrupted just as they start by Yano’s mom. Instead of trying again, they decide to save up their money in order to go on a trip and make it special. This volume continues their story. It is Takeeuchi’s birthday and Nana gets him a cute cell phone charm causing Yano to become insanely jealous. Then Nana finds a picture of Yano, Tak, and Nana-san in Yamamoto’s English book and confronts Yano about his and Yamamoto’s past once again. Tak warns Yano to not tell Nana about the connection or he’ll be sorry and regret it. Instead, he decides to tell her playing it off as part joke and Nana realizes he’s telling the truth—after Nana-san’s death Yano and Yamamoto slept together. Yamamoto continues to harass Yano about the way he treated her sister—she goes as far to tell him the day Nana-san died was her birthday and that she and her ex-boyfriend had been talking all summer long which was why Nana-san was in his car when they crashed. Nana can’t take much more of this drama and confronts Yano—asking him to pretend Nana-san can hear him and tell her what he’s feeling so he can stop being guilt-ridden over her death. He finally breaks down and grieves and it slips out that he wants Nana-san always with him. Not being able to compete with a dead girl, Nana breaks it off with Yano. This volume ends with Yano and Yamamoto honoring Nana-san’s memory.  

Opinion: This is the first real pivotal volume of the series because so much happens and so much is revealed. We learn a lot of emotional stuff. Sure, as an adult, I know the whole “we’ll be together forever” vibe isn’t realistic but teen girls will still eat it up and hope for a happy future for Nana and Yano. There are a lot of secrets to still be revealed and it will be interesting to see what happens next.