I don't know if anyone really cares about this whole debate thing (Nene and Naru can both be in the manga, guys...) anymore but I went to ask people stuff and here's an info dump!
The question I asked my friends and colleagues today was between an intern with a high learning curve and socialization skill but needed proper training before integrating into the company (Nene), and an intern with industry standard skills who is loyal to the company but struggled with working with others (Naru), who would they prefer?
So I spoke to eight managers today. Three work in finance, two work in marketing. These five work with me in a bank. I also spoke to some friends. One works at an independent boutique (her own), one works at a gaming start-up, and one is a front-of-house restaurant manager.
Without going into too much details, here are the results from a managerial point of view:
Nene: One finance, Two Marketing, Restaurant
Naru: Two finance
Neither: Boutique, Gaming
Arguments for hiring Nene:
High Learning Curve
Strong Social Skills
Lightens Work Atmosphere
Flexible
Arguments for not hiring Nene:
Too Social
Lack of Experience
Lack of Loyalty
Arguments for hiring Naru:
Strong Technical Skills
Loyal to Company
Arguments for not hiring Naru:
Weak Social Skills
Careless/Sloppy
Unfortunately, we don’t know as much about Naru’s personality as we do Nene’s, but this was the common conception. I would disagree Nene has a lack of loyalty to Eagle Jump as there is a factor there that keeps her attracted to the company (Aoba). I would also disagree that Naru generally being careless/sloppy because it’s probably a stressful mistake. However, both traits have yet to be disproven in the manga so we assumed so.
After speaking around, we generally decided the ultimate question is whether Nene’s high learning curve beat out Naru’s starting skills. A high learning curve is generally considered better than strong skills because in the long run, the person with fast learning will absorb more information, be quicker to adapt to workplace environments and will be one of the most flexible members of your team. However, if the starting skills are above and beyond most entry employees, this makes the person a solid contender for a great addition to the group for speeding up processes, adding a new skillset and making the team as a whole a bit more capable.
This information is not provided in the mange so we couldn’t decide. Overall, there was a general favoritism towards Nene, though again, this is largely due to her high learning curve. When I mentioned that the intern may be a college student, this caused mixed reactions. Some people immediately wanted to reconsider, while others took it as a chance to catch up on those skills and get some experience. Better to snatch good employees up quickly, after all.
TLDR => All Girls are Best Girls. But more seriously, Nene and Naru bring different things to the table. A strong social set is useless with the learning curve to back it up, and a loner strong technical set is useless in a team-based environment. Nene inches past Naru for preferred employee due to her learning curve.
(Disclaimer because some people here are salty: this is simply an analysis of Nene and Naru if they were serious options for managers to consider. If we were to hire either, we would have to take responsibility for their contributions to the team—good and bad. This has nothing to do with their worth as characters and their perspectives onto the overall story of NEW GAME!)
