Nadia: Secret Of Blue Water

sothis Jul 21, 2006

4

StoryThe story of Nadia takes place in the late 17th century, when planes are just starting to fly and inventions are being discovered every day. Jean is one of these inventors; he's fourteen, and lives in France with his uncle and aunt. Things in his life were fairly normal until Nadia drifted through town. Dark skinned and companions with a lion, Nadia was not only unusual, but was a sight for sore eyes, and Jean was instantly smitten. What he'd soon discover is that a wide variety of bad guys are after Nadia and her pendant known as the Blue Water... and thus the story begins. Nadia and Jean's adventures will take them onto the Nautilus, a submarine piloted by the famed Captain Nemo. They will encounter dangerous enemies and make close friends where they'd least expect it; and most importantly, they will eventually discover the secret of the Blue Water. The big problem with the story is... well... there is no story, not compared to how many episodes there are. It's true that ultimately, there ends up being a very interesting and very deep storyline, but out of the 39 episodes I'd say you could condense all of the "plot" into about 6 episodes total. What's the rest, then? Pure kiddy filler and nothing more. AKA it sucks unless you are six years old. We see random days on the submarine where various characters are learning how to cook or are doing chores. We see countless episodes in the island arc where the characters are dealing with survival skills. In general, this is a series that can only be counted on for one thing: extreme amounts of filler aimed at a child audience. The only problem is, unlike Ghibli movies that are actually enjoyable for older folks, Nadia ends up being boring, repetitive and downright annoying for those of age. AnimationVisually, Nadia looks very outdated. Character designs are very old looking and often times (in the case of the villains) look a little crude and too simplistic. In general the animation definitely seems to shift between decent looking and crude... perhaps because of budget? A great deal of the series takes place underwater in the Nautilus, so we see a lot of the ship in many scenes. The backgrounds seemed to be detailed but never were breathtaking. Overall I’d say very average visuals on pretty much every level. SoundNadia’s music ranged from good (sounding like it came right out of Skies of Arcadia) to bad (very cheesy overused tracks that sound like they came from a Saturday morning cartoon). The Japanese voice acting is fine, though I actually ended up watching the majority of the series dubbed. In most cases dubs are definitely not superior to the subbed version. I’m not sure if I’d call it superior in this case, but it definitely is watchable. The best part is that everyone keeps his or her respective accent. Jean is French and thus, he always has a French accent. CharactersCombine the poor story with the obnoxious antics of Nadia herself and you have a series that becomes almost painful to watch. She’s holier than thou, obnoxious and overall bossy as far as her beliefs go... namely, that she’s a vegetarian. If I have to hear one more bitchy speech about how everyone is a murderer because they are eating meat, I’m going to stab myself. Often times I wanted to reach through the screen and bitch slap Nadia for being so goddamn annoying. "Don’t you care? You murderer! You are destroying helpless animals... don’t you have a soul?! I’d rather starve! WHINE WHINE WHINE WHINE WHINE". You’d need enough cheese to feed a goddamn army with the amount of whine she brings to the table. Poor Jean sees something in her and keeps trying to calm her down whenever possible (as she freaks out all the freaking time), but she keeps being a neurotic baby instead. Ugh. Anyways, Nadia’s antics make even the story episodes irritating, and the filler episodes almost unbearable. The rest of the characters are fine, though the trio of villains look exactly like the bad guys from Pokemon, which doesn’t help matters. Also, Captain Nemo looks an awful lot like Captain Harlock... not sure if that was on purpose. Another "important" part of the series is supposed to be the budding romance between Nadia and Jean, but in my opinion ends up being unconvincing and a little contrived. Maybe it’s the whole fourteen year old love thing that bothers me, but more likely it’s because Nadia is so annoying that I can’t see why anyone would stick around to humor her. I didn’t feel empathetic or warm hearted at all about their situation, not even by the end of the 39 episodes. OverallI don’t know.. in general, Nadia just didn’t end up interesting me. In fact, I felt like I wasted (literally) 20 hours of my life. While the story ULTIMATELY ended up being quite interesting and unique, the sheer number of boring and uninteresting filler episodes ruined any chance of this being on a top 20 list. If you are under the age of 10 or have children, I can see why Nadia might appeal to you. Because hey, I’ll be honest: for children, Nadia is probably a pretty good watch. It’s filled with immature romance, empty side stories and has a baby lion that makes cute noises. But it also lacks depth, feeling, and an overall sense of maturity that would have helped make it likeable. Unless you want a lighthearted filler series, I’d suggest staying away from Nadia. I can’t think of much that made it redeemable enough to waste that much time on, and given a second chance, I wouldn’t watch it again.

ThatAnimeSnob Apr 23, 2012

7

ANIME MINOR JEWELS SERIES Full list of the review series can be found on this page, 3rd post from bottom: http://anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl?uid=251338&show=userpage&do=blog&blogid=29009&page=0TEASER: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYAW-cojw60&feature=relatedThere is no doubt in Jules Verne being the father of modern science fiction. His books became the cornerstones of all further storytellers and have been used and remade a billion times ever since. So just imagine an anime being made on his work … ok, Nadia is not the first. Willie Fog, a semi-adaptation of Around the World in 80 Days was made in the 80’s. And I think there were a few more I missed. Nadia is in fact the last directly related to his works anime. And it also has some of the (not yet made) Neon Genesis staff in its production team; with GAINAX being the animation studio and Hideaki Anno being the director. Characters and uniforms look familiar; so it kinda feels like a combo of two very famous works. Actually three, the anti-villains in the story are basically the Time Bokan bad guys. And captain Nemo is made to look like the captain in SDF Macross. Heck, this anime is in fact a tribute of many famous works and that alone gives it some praise. But even without all that, it has a hundred different ideas that could generate a smash hit. And in a way they did… if only they hadn’t made the deserted island arc… So the story is kinda familiar but presented in a way it always feels unexpected and energetic. The setting is the industrial revolution of the early 20th century, when the sudden spread of technology is changing the world rapidly. That alone offers the series an elegiac tone, as you are to see things change, not necessarily towards a better form. The lead boy is Jean, a meek glass-wearing nerd inventor who dreams of making a flying machine. But all that change when he meets a beautiful circus girl named Nadia, who is chased by a comical trio for her necklace, which happens to unlock the secrets of the lost city of Atlantis, where a group of fascists (not Nazis but close) plan to use Doomsday weapons to take over the world. And then here comes the Nautilus submarine in the form of rebels. And then here comes a Robinson Crusoe type of story. And what’s with the sexual tension between those two? And that lion cub is so annoying! Yeah, the story is a huge pile of ideas, most of which quite intriguing. If used properly, they would have made an amazing piece of fiction. And they semi-did but not enough to consider the story amazing. The reason? Pacing once again. Many episodes are used up just for random comedy kicks and that eventually tires most viewers who are promised an epic scale story of action and mystery and they need to tolerate a dozen Gilligan’s Island retarded episodes. But I do admit most are done with enough energy and love to actually appreciate even those dead times. It’s just that the story keeps jumping from dead serious to zany randomness too suddenly and you end up losing focus and interest. So the actual scenario is very elaborating, making references to many works and offers a complete story, yet at the same time it wastes a lot of time in silly moments and loosens too much in a bad way. This may of course aid in the character coloring, so those non-story-driven episodes help in a way too. Talking about the characters, they are a very likable bunch. Although Jean and Nadia get most of the focus, most others are also colorful enough to deserve praise. If you manage to tolerate the dead times, you will really get to love them, even if they are not original. Nadia’s struggle to protect her heritage, Jean’s goals to be an inventor and the awkward feelings towards her, the trio of the anti-villain’s, Nemo’s burden, even the stereotypical Neo-Atlantis leader gets some pity from the viewer. And each one has his own set of skills and way of taking part in the action. Nadia for example is great at acrobatics and does a good job at evading enemies, while Jean makes several contraptions that aid in various ways, while the Nautilus crew is versed in advanced weaponry. And they do get catharsis to a great extend. So yeah, the cast is wonderful and even the dead-story episodes provide insight to them. Animation and soundtrack are also extremely well done, especially considering the year it was all done. The take on industrialization, mysticism, desert island and zany comedy are mixing nicely. The characters move nicely around and have vivid facial expressions. And most action scenes are very exiting and not plain old stuff. Some jerky movement exists but nothing major bad. Plus those erotic humor moments, they are great in their own simplicity; I can almost see how they transferred the same feeling over at Neon Genesis. The various homages to other anime and Vern books also look eye-catchy and give the series a sense of nostalgia. There is also a great work done in blueprints and general machinery used in the series. Everything is shown in schematics and even semi-scientific explanations are given to everything. Almost as if I was watching Gunbuster in a lighter tone. Dialogues and voice acting are elaborating for the same reason, albeit don’t forget to get funny and ease the mood. And the opening song, my God it is pure magic. This anime is pretty much overlooked today by most; mostly because those desert island episodes hurt the overall mood of the series. Also, there was no internet at that time to help build a fan base and its mood was neither just for kids or teens all the time, so the audience felt confused. Not to mention it was still too early for a heavyweight story to hit the market without proper advertisement and with other works like Akira or Ghost in the Shell paving the way for what is to follow. But overall it is a great show that simply lacks focus half the time. It is hard to mix mysticism, technology, comedy, drama, and tributes and Nadia did it rather good. SUGGESTION LIST Around the World with Willie FogAnd now for some excused scorings. ART SECTION: 8/10 General Artwork 2/2 (looks nice) Character Figures 2/2 (generic but well defined and memorable) Backgrounds 2/2 (detailed fitting with the feeling of the series) Animation 1/2 (basic) Visual Effects 1/2 (basic) SOUND SECTION: 7/10 Voice Acting 2/3 (a bit corny but fitting with the feeling of the series) Music Themes 3/4 (good and fitting with the feeling of the series) Sound Effects 2/3 (ok I guess) STORY SECTION: 7/10 Premise 2/2 (interesting) Pacing 1/2 (erratic) Complexity 2/2 (several themes and tributes) Plausibility 0/2 (none) Conclusion 2/2 (cheesy but solid) CHARACTER SECTION: 8/10 Presence 2/2 (strong) Personality 2/2 (rather cheesy but well founded) Backdrop 1/2 (generic but at least most have some) Development 1/2 (overblown but it’s there) Catharsis 2/2 (solid) VALUE SECTION: 5/10 Historical Value 1/3 (still remembered by some as an interesting retro title) Rewatchability 1/3 (low because of the loose plot) Memorability 3/4 (well made enough to bother remembering it) ENJOYMENT SECTION: 7/10 Some parts will feel dull and aimless but in overall it was an enjoyable ride. VERDICT: 7/10

Garyuu Jan 30, 2011

7.5

When watching the series I expected my rating for story to be lower. It seemed it was mostly filler episodes, with hardly any episodes dedicated to the main plot. It wasn't till later did I realize that the show had a lot less filler than I thought. Those random episodes now seem less random, when you connect the dots. The problem is that all of the important information in one of these episodes can be summed up in a few minutes. They just stretched the story a lot longer than it should have been. That could be bad for some people, but I still enjoyed it. There were still a lot of episodes that were completely filler, and the show didn't need it. They could have cut the show down by fifteen episodes, and would have been the length of a standard series. Looking past those filler and pseudo-filler, how is the story? Damn good. It seemed really original. It provided a really interesting twist on well known stories (i.e. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and Atlantis). Unfortunately the ending was hurt a little by them stretching the show out. They must have realized all of the sudden they were running out of episodes. The ending was rushed, and some characters underdeveloped. Once, it was over I realized... I was sad. The show as over. I took my time on this show. It took up a good few months. Now that I am done with it, it felt like a part of my life has ended. The animation was fine. That's all that I can really say. There was nothing amazing about it, but it wasn't really bad either. Character designs weren't very unique. It was almost like I have seen some of these characters before. Music was also the same as the animation. The series had decent enough music, but I could not remember a single tune. If you were to play a song from the series, I might recognize it. That is a big maybe. The OP is an exception. I did find it to be pretty good. Or maybe I just have a thing for anime themes from the 80s.     Possibly the worst part of the show was the characters. The odd thing is, most of the characters were fine. I did consider cosplaying as Nemo to the next anime convention. The problem is Nadia. I can not believe how much of a jerk she was. Things seemed like they were going to be okay at first. When we meet her, she is unfriendly to Jean. That's because she did not know him, and she did not trust people. Once, started to trust him, she warmed up again. I did not realize her feelings would be all over the place. She would just get mad at every little thing. At one point, Jean saved her life, and she somehow still was able to get angry at him. He did not even do anything wrong. It was her self righteous personality, that made me want to strangle her. Mostly it dealt vegetarianism. She would constantly bring up how evil everyone was because they eat meat. I do not even think the writers understood vegetarians. Nadia was never able able to come up with a good argument in her defense, but everyone else was still evil. Jean brings up the fact that other animals kill, and eat meat. She just brushes him off. Nadia also believes that self defense is wrong, and apparently you should just let someone kill you. Okay... Maybe that last part was really more of a rant. Honestly though, it was the only real problem I had with the show. The other problems, I could deal with. So, I basically did enjoy this show, and I would recommend it. It's just that every now and then a certain character would just start grinding my gears. I mentioned that I was sad that the show was over. It might seem odd with a score of 7.5. To me that would be an average score. The fact is, I don't know what to rate it. I disliked it, yet I liked it. It was annoying, yet awesome. Give it a try. If you don't like it by ten episodes, then it might be safe to say, you possibly won't like the rest.