Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water Omake

[Cladinshadows]

Hey all, I'm new to the community and haven't really watched fansubs for quite awhile, but I'm starting to get into some of these new series.

Anyways, I've always heard about Nadia, and The Secrets of the Blue Water Omake in available here...but isn't Nadia liscenced in the U.S already? I see DVD's available on Amazon.

This is probably a portion that wasn't released here, I know, but I just want to make sure I can't go buy it.

So is this liscenced or not?

[xris]

Originally Posted by Cladinshadows

So is this liscenced or not?

The fact that we list them on AnimeSuki is a good indication that we don't consider them as licensed.

If you look on the main site, under Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, you will see we have this note.

While Nadia has been licensed by ADV, the Omake "extra" episodes were not. These short Omake "extra" episodes were included as a bonus on the Japanese LD set. They were never released on any other format

P.S. Since the omakes are a fansub and not licensed, will move thread into the Fansub forum.

[Cladinshadows]

I realize that the very fact it's on Animesuki meant it probably wasn't liscenced ('Suki's stance on liscenced anime is a big part of why I like it so much), I just wanted to make sure. And since I was unsure of liscencing, I never clicked on it to download and didn't see that note - so sorry.

Thank you for the reply.

[tyciol]

Is there also a motion picture of this series? I can't see it listed anywhere but there's some torrent and I'm wondering whether or not the movie is licensed like the TV.

[gsilver]

I own the R1 DVD set, and it includes the movie.

[roriconfan]

I didn't find a topic about the main series so you will just have to tolerate my review of the SERIES and not the OMAKE here.

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There is no doubt in Julius Vern 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; 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 villains. 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. I will be rather lenient and give story a 7. It would easily be a 10 if you take out all the silly moments. But even then, you end up losing most of the coloring the characters get, so in a way you need to rely too much on non-story-driven episodes to get to like them. Just look what that did to DBZ Kai. Which can be a chore, since this is not a random sitcom.

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 live through the dead times, you really get to love them, even if they are not original. Nadia’s struggle to protect her heritage, Jean’s 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. I give characters a 9 just because they feel a bit slow in those darn episodes.

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 really 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 magic in full colors. So I have no reason to give both less than a nice 9.

This anime is pretty much overlooked today by most. Partly it’s 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 at times. I still give it a 7 in Value and Enjoyment, for its bold albeit sloppy take on a hard to achieve mix of mysticism, technology, comedy, drama, and tribute.

SUGGESTION LIST
Around the World with Willie Fog

[tyciol]

Is it okay to watch the omake before we watch the main series since that is all that is available? Or should we wait until we can find a DVD and see the base 39 first?

[Flower]

Originally Posted by tyciol

Is it okay to watch the omake before we watch the main series since that is all that is available? Or should we wait until we can find a DVD and see the base 39 first?

Imo you should definitely watch after the series, as it contains major spoiler material....

[Guido]

About 11 years ago, back in those good, old days when I was a college student at the University, my local University anime club started screenings for Fushigi no Umi no Nadia.

At first, I didn't have any idea about this show, however, at that time I already did have perfect knowledge who GAINAX were (and still are). Hence, I did start the show not at the start but at the 11th episode at the time, and just a few minutes took me in to get myself immersed into the world of Nadia and her Blue Water.

This show again carved within me my love for types of anime shows featuring teenage protagonists getting in caught in the middle of a strife between to factions and ending up joining the crew of the rebels. Some others mentions are: Vision of Escaflowne, Eureka Seven, and among few others to mention.

Yep, Nadia is a tribute to great anime classics from the 80's and to Jules Vernes 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, but GAINAX reinvented the formula to be enhanced with their unique storytelling and take on sci-fi.

As the banned member, roriconfan, delightfully posted in his long review for the show about a year ago, Nadia is packed with lots of colorful characters and not one of those characters, except maybe for Gargoyle's henchmen, share monotonous personalities.

Jean, even until the end, stayed true to his innocent character and never resorted to kill. It is his love towards Nadia and optimism that gradually changes her overall character.

Nadia, I have to admit that she got many times on my nerves due to her imposed beliefs on vegetarianism more so than not resorting to violence to kill other people. But, Jean gradually changed her, and in the final episode Nemo taught her that science can also be used to make good and create life, as opposed to Gargoyle's perverted use of scientific knowledge.

The Grandis Gang are among my most favorite villains. The first time I saw them I swore they were like sort of the prototype template used to create the Team Rocket Trio from the Pokemon anime franchise, but I realized that there have been other anti-villain characters way older before the Grandis Gang, taking the villain trio from the Yatterman series that dates way back before Secret of the Blue Water was ever conceived.

Captain Nemo and Electra, the latter experiencing the most development in her character, were characters whose presence continued to echo on Nadia and Jean after being absent from the show very long. I feel particularly compassionate for Captain Nemo for the sins he committed, and all the blame he put himself all alone for all the people he lost during the first Babel Tower incident.
His sacrifice was not only heroic but a request for Nadia to live her life in the world they all helped to save at the end.

Gargoyle, I praise him as the type of scheming, manipulative, and soulless villain. Because those types of villains play with the protagonists' hearts and cynically crush them right before their eyes. Those types of villains, IMHO, are better elaborated than the archetypal madmen infused with God-insane powers that are bent to conquer the world, or even the Universe, just by themselves relying nothing but only in their supernatural powers.
Gargoyle isn't like that, except for his insane obsession of racial purity and to have the Earth dominated by all-pure Atlantean, the irony given his greatest secret revealed at the last episode's climax.
For Gargoyle, I do not feel any kind of sympathy because I truly hated him for all the things he did to Nadia and Nemo, to Tartessos, to all the countless victims his Neo-Atlanteans slaughtered in cold blood, and he never regret any of those things; he was closed to nothing but his childish ambition to place Atlanteans back as rulers of the Earth and nothing more of that.
It's good that even in the last episode the writers chose not to humanize him too much, because I would have considered it a cheat as a viewer attempting to humanize a villain just until the end when for almost the entire story he or she has been portrayed as the No-Heart devil that crushes everybody's hope and innocence.

The series had its ups and downs, and those filler episode put to waste good episodes like that of the Red Noah, but the drop that spilled the glass for me were those stupid filler episodes at Africa before the main story returned back again in episode 35.
I believe with all honestly that 39 episodes were not enough to give Nadia a good pacing; they should have followed with 16 or 17 episodes right after the fillers had ended and not just five.

Anyways, I finally concluded this beloved show from beginning to end, from the first to the last episode, that started watching about eleven years ago.