Belgian luxury chocolate brand Godiva is teaming up with Ai Yazawa’s popular shojo manga NANA, releasing items like the “Chocolixer” drink at stores nationwide starting September 16. NANA began serialization in 2000 and has sold 48 million copies total, but it has been on hiatus since 2009 — now entering its 17th year. On 5channel’s Geinou/Sports News+ board, while some fans were happy to see new artwork drawn by Yazawa, many others said they’d rather see the series finished than get a collaboration, and the sheer length of the hiatus itself became the main topic of discussion.
9/15 (Tue) 12:00
Belgian luxury chocolate brand Godiva is collaborating with the popular shojo manga NANA. The brand’s signature “Chocolixer” drink and chocolates will go on sale at stores nationwide starting September 16.
NANA (Shueisha) is a shojo manga by Ai Yazawa that began serialization in 2000. It has sold a cumulative 48 million copies and was even adapted into a live-action film and an anime. The manga has been on hiatus since 2009, but its popularity hasn’t faded — even now, “who’s your favorite NANA character?” debates still pop up regularly on social media.
Huh, so you're a Nana too (a famous line from the manga, spoken between the two heroines who share the name Nana)
6AnonymousSep 15, 2026 15:28
Look, we're done with the collabs and the illustrations already — if you don't have it in you to keep drawing the manga, fine, turn it into a novel, but just finish NANA.
8AnonymousSep 15, 2026 15:29
Aren't they the ones who made that risqué chocolate?
9AnonymousSep 15, 2026 15:29
Re: #1
I think of whiskey and instant ramen
10AnonymousSep 15, 2026 15:29
I'm from the generation that stopped following her after Gokinjo Monogatari (´･ω･`) (another Ai Yazawa manga)
11AnonymousSep 15, 2026 15:29
This was the first shojo manga I ever collected the whole set of
12AnonymousSep 15, 2026 15:30
So she can still draw…
Then why won't she finish it?
14AnonymousSep 15, 2026 15:31
Re: #1
Some percentage of the original readers are probably dead by now
15AnonymousSep 15, 2026 15:31
17 years on hiatus? She's clearly got zero intention of finishing it lol
16AnonymousSep 15, 2026 15:32
Wasn't the hiatus because she got hit by a car?
Guess she's mostly healed up by now
33AnonymousSep 15, 2026 15:39
Re: #16
That's Kyoko Okazaki you're thinking of (a different mangaka)
18AnonymousSep 15, 2026 15:33
Times have changed so much it probably feels impossible to write now
19AnonymousSep 15, 2026 15:33
If she's got time for collabs, she should be drawing the manga instead
20AnonymousSep 15, 2026 15:33
I feel like the anime ended in a way that felt conclusive — was that an anime-original ending?
22AnonymousSep 15, 2026 15:34
Thinking about it now, I guess both of them are kind of a 'Mii-chan,' huh
23AnonymousSep 15, 2026 15:34
I'd crack up if the characters suddenly started using smartphones, like in Togashi's manga (Yoshihiro Togashi, Hunter x Hunter's famously slow-updating author)
24AnonymousSep 15, 2026 15:34
Makes Togashi look like a saint in comparison — at least he gives us the occasional update, hiatuses and all
25AnonymousSep 15, 2026 15:34
NAHA /(°o°)\
27AnonymousSep 15, 2026 15:35
Inazuma Tuesday (the theme song from the NANA anime)
30AnonymousSep 15, 2026 15:36
Re: #27
Great song
That song alone is why this gets overrated
29AnonymousSep 15, 2026 15:36
No matter how good a series is, mangaka who can't finish what they start deserve real criticism.
31AnonymousSep 15, 2026 15:38
More than the romance or the dark side of the entertainment industry, what sticks with me is getting completely lost jumping between the future and the present
43AnonymousSep 15, 2026 15:49
Re: #31
Wait, is that really what it's about?
32AnonymousSep 15, 2026 15:38
I love Tenshi Nanka Ja Nai (another early Ai Yazawa series)
58AnonymousSep 15, 2026 15:58
Re: #32
That romance-obsessed student council forcing everyone to pair up for the school festival was terrifying
35AnonymousSep 15, 2026 15:40
She could just hand off the story outline to someone else to draw and wrap it up. Poor readers, honestly.
38AnonymousSep 15, 2026 15:42
My image of Vivienne Westwood changed a lot because of this manga
39AnonymousSep 15, 2026 15:44
Huh, so you're a Nana too
40AnonymousSep 15, 2026 15:48
This makes me think of the actress Nana Kinomi
42AnonymousSep 15, 2026 15:48
Is there some kind of illness that makes you unable to draw anymore?
44AnonymousSep 15, 2026 15:49
Isn't 'Hachi' the retort curry brand? (a pun on the character name Hachi)
45AnonymousSep 15, 2026 15:50
I want to read the rest of Itazura na Kiss (another famous manga left unfinished when its author passed away)
46AnonymousSep 15, 2026 15:50
Godiva went from being luxury to just being expensive
49AnonymousSep 15, 2026 15:52
Re: #46
Ever since a Turkish company bought them out, they've been pumping out collabs nonstop and the brand's cachet has dropped
55AnonymousSep 15, 2026 15:54
Why has Godiva fallen so far?
57AnonymousSep 15, 2026 15:57
Re: #55
I really wish they hadn't done convenience-store collabs for the Valentine's season
62AnonymousSep 15, 2026 15:59
Are there no characters who actually died?
70AnonymousSep 15, 2026 16:05
Re: #62
She's a former band member who quit and debuted in a different band, so…
Background and key points of this discussion
NANA has been serialized in “Cookie” magazine since 2000 and has sold a cumulative 48 million copies, making it a major hit. It has been on hiatus since 2009 due to Ai Yazawa’s health issues, and no new chapters have appeared since. Some commenters in the thread mistakenly claimed she was recovering after being hit by a car — that actually refers to a different manga artist, Kyoko Okazaki, and the mix-up was quickly corrected. Godiva was founded in Belgium in 1926, but was acquired in 2007 by the major Turkish food conglomerate Yıldız Holding; the “the brand has gone downhill” sentiment tied to its recent flood of collaboration products stems from that change in ownership. The thread also included an incorrect claim that Godiva had become a Korean company, which this article excludes in favor of accurate information. Fan reactions were split between excitement over the new artwork and calls to finish the series instead of doing collaborations, bringing renewed attention to just how long the 17-year hiatus has been.
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