Anime Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water

[Dagger]

I'm glad I finally got around to starting this delightful series. Made in the early 1990s, Nadia is one of Gainax's best-loved works--and it's easy to see why. The show has aged quite nicely in terms of artwork and animation. More importantly, it's very well-written and well-directed (thanks to Hideaki Anno). Nadia and Jean, the two main characters, make a perfect team whether the scenes they're in are comedic or dramatic.

While Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water is ostensibly based upon the classic science-fiction novel 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, it's an extremely loose and imaginative adaptation. I've heard there are some [i]terrible[/i] filler episodes later on, but I'm inclined to think that good aspects of Nadia by far outweigh the bad. Nadia is one of the few series which I enjoy so immensely that I try to stretch it out as much as possible (rather than just marathoning two or three DVDs every day). Its background music is just wonderful, and I absolutely love the OP.

Since ADV just released the entire 39 episode anime in two incredibly cheap brick sets, now would be a great time to check it out. ;)

~Dagger~

[JTurner]

I discovered this series back in 2001 when ADV was first releasing the DVDs. Back then, I was waiting for Disney to release "Castle in the Sky". I heard that "Nadia" had a lot of similarities to Miyazaki's film, which is what drew me to it in the first place.

All I can say is that it is a great series... for the most part anyway. The characters are likeable and interesting (Jean, in particular, is my favorite), and the story setup is engrossing and very imaginative... until you get to episodes 23-34. At that point, "Nadia" as a series takes a complete 180 degree turn for the worse. The animation declines drastically, the characters turn into caricatures of themselves (Nadia in particular devolves from an interesting heroine into a totally unlikeable, bizarre b***h), and the concepts are absolutely devoid of the complexity and depth the opening eight episodes and the "Nautilus" chapters shared. The only exception out of this is Episode 31, which fills in background information on the protagonist's past. But "Nadia" never comes back until the final five episodes (35-39), and even then, while the ending is indeed exceptional, its impact would be much stronger if the bad episodes were excised from the series. (I later found out that these episodes were added on to cash in on the shows popularity with a different director at the helm, which explains everything.)

It's too bad that "Nadia" suffers from such an unfortunate flaw, because its best parts are some of the best in Anime. Some of my favorite episodes include:

Eps. 1-8: The beginning of the series. Especially the Gargoyle's island arc (5-8). That is arguably the best "arc" in the whole show.
Episodes 14-19: These are my favorite "Nautilus" episodes--all of them are superbly written, edited, directed, and characterized. The ones which involve exploration and marvels (16, 18, 19) and especially traumatizing situations (14, 15), in particular, are superb, and what makes "Nadia" as a series.
Episodes 21-22: An awesome closure to the "Nautilus" arc
Episode 31 (and parts of ep. 30): If there's any part of the Island arc that is resolutely watchable, it's this segment.
Episodes 35-39: Must-sees, no questions asked.

-Jon T.

[onenuttytanuki]

Not to open an old wound. But one can see how some people can say that Disney ripped off Nadia when they made Atlantis. Of course these are the same type of people who will point out how much Kimba the White Lion and The Lion King are similar.
The elements are there ,yet, then again you could find the same elements in a few other shows and movie,. But just not as clustered together.

[Vigilance]

Do you know how much the Box Set cost and where to get it? I was thinking about buying it for my collection, so that I can increase my collection of anime, and I heard this series is good too because of the story to the anime.

[JTurner]

[quote name='Blitz_Kid']Do you know how much the Box Set cost and where to get it? I was thinking about buying it for my collection, so that I can increase my collection of anime, and I heard this series is good too because of the story to the anime.[/QUOTE]

I think you can find it on places like amazon.com and Ebay.

-Jon T.