Review: "Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water"

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Michael Haney

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Dec 9, 2009, 3:08:17 AM12/9/09
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I have to say this series was pretty unique. It is based on "20,000
Leagues Under the Sea" by Jules Verne and is set in that era of the
late 1800's. The story focuses on a very pretty young girl named
Nadia and her lion cub companion King, a young French boy/inventor
named Jean, and a little girl named Mary. Nadia has a jewel pendent
that a group of thieves want called the Blue Water. Jean tries to
save her from them on the Eiffel Tower, and eventually uses a glider
he invented for the Paris Exposition to rescue her. Their adventures
eventually lead them to Captain Nemo's Nautilus, the ancient ruins of
Atlantis, and .... the rest would spoil it for you its best you see
this series to really appreciate it.

The main villain of the series, Gargoyle, is a ruthless bastard, but
he isn't your typical two dimensional "doing evil for the sake of
evil" kind of villain. He's worse then that, he's the kind of villain
who believes that what he is doing is the right thing, and that he is
totally justified and within his right to do the terrible things he
does and believes wholehearted that he is doing a good thing and not
something evil. Of all the villains in anime I've seen he is one of
the most believable because of this.

Nadia, Jean and Mary are voiced in the English dub by actual children
(Nadia's VA is 12, Jean's is 11, and Mary's is 8). This makes their
portrayal as kids rather believable and Jean's French accent doesn't
sound fake. There is noticeable character development, realistic
personality flaws, and the relationship between Nadia and Jean is very
realistically portrayed. There are no two-dimensional characters in
the series except for one, and he appears for only a brief time in a
couple of filler episodes near the end of the series.

Like any anime there is fanservice. Most of it centers on Nadia
(she's got a couple of brief nude scenes, she's a voluptuous young
teenage girl blossoming into womanhood of course she's going to be the
focus of most of the fanservice), but its few and far between and
never goes over the top. The rest of the series seems to swing
between loony-tunes-ish slapstick humor, intense serious drama and
seat of your pants action. The writers were not afraid to kill off
important characters either and also tackled subjects like
relationships, war and the environment. They also borrowed from the
Bible, using alternate re-tellings of biblical stories as major
ancient historical events which had relevance to the plot.

Overall, as an old-school anime "Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water" is a
must-see for any self-respecting Otaku. The story grabs you and just
won't let go. You'll find yourself wanting to know what the hell
happens next at the end of each episode. The artwork, for an older
anime, is pretty good and rather high quality. There is consistency
in the way the characters are drawn from scene to scene. The music is
a mixed bag but generally pretty good, and there is a music episode
which also serves as a kind of mini-recap episode. There is a movie
which I've only seen a little bit of. Most of the first half of the
movie is a recap of the series.

I highly recommend this series and if you want to introduce someone to
anime this a great series to show them. Its not too heavy on the
fanservice, though the artists seemed to go out of their way to make
Nadia look as sexy as possible for a 12 year old girl, and the story
is really addicting. The characters are memorable, you begins to
really care for them, and the villain ... well "hate" is too soft a
word to use for how you eventually feel about that guy. The DVD has
extras such as interviews with the cast, including the children who
voiced the lead roles. This series should be in every Otaku's
collection.

--
Michael "TheZorch" Haney
thez...@gmail.com
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