[MA-SOC] Review: "Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water"

[Clyde Adams III]

Correction: The characters Nadia and Jean (as distinct from their English
voice actors) are both 14 years old (not 12) at the start of the series.
 Nadia celebrates her 15th birthday in episode 35.


Clyde
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On Wed, Dec 9, 2009 at 08:07, Michael Haney <thezorch at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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
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