by Can Tran

Created on: November 11, 2009

Naoki Fujieda is one of the important characters in the manga series by Ai Yazawa known as "Nana." While Naoki's role is somewhat important, he is the only major character with a minor role throughout the series. So far, he is the one absolute character that provides comic relief throughout the story. In the story, he is the drummer for the popular Japanese rock band called "Trapnest." He is the equivalent to Nobu of the rival band known as "Black Stones" in regards to cluelessness. Unlike Nobu, Naoki is the constant source of comic relief.

He does not make an appearance in the story until later on when Nana Komatsu a.k.a. Hachi and Nana Osaki, the two main characters of Nana, go to Hachi's hometown to see Trapnest in concert. Eventually, Naoki constantly makes appearances throughout the latter part of the story. Unlike the rest of the characters in Nana, Naoki's role remains consistent as the loud mouth that acts as the constant point of comic relief.

It is revealed that like Takumi, Naoki is one of the oldest members of Trapnest. The interesting thing about Naoki is that while he is the loud mouth and comic relief in the series, he is the sanest and overall mentally balanced of all the characters. Unlike the rest of the characters, Naoki has no skeletons in the closet and no emotional let alone excessive baggage being lugged with him. Unfortunately, Naoki is perhaps the overall clueless individual of the group.

But, the cluelessness does have its benefits. It means that Naoki does not get dragged into the interesting soap opera of the various characters. He does not get dragged into the semi-live triangle with Nana, Ren, and Reira or the love triangle with Hachi, Takumi, and Nana. However, Naoki does prove to be a gateway character to the past of many of the many major characters in the series.

Like Nobu, Naoki's role pretty much remains the same. However, Naoki is the person that is completely clueless to the relationship between Takumi and Hachi, the making up between Ren and Nana, and the relationship between Reira and Shin. While Naoki seems to be the most stable character, he is perhaps the one character that has any significance to the group. He is perhaps one of the most humorously pathetic characters in the series.

Despite being the drummer of a major popular band, Naoki barely gets any attention. On top of that, Naoki does not get any girls as he had originally hoped. Plus, the paparazzi do not really bother with Naoki. Overall, Naoki's role remains the same throughout the story. It is unknown on what the future of Naoki's fate is due to the series currently being on hiatus.

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