NADIA, SECRET OF BLUE WATER

By: Andrew Osmond
Date: Tuesday, April 25, 2000

The first thing to get out of the way is the name, or rather names. The Secret of Blue Water was the official English designation of this wildly popular 39-part TV saga by the future creators of Evangelion. However, anime purists know it as Fushigi no Umi no Nadia, which broadly translates as 'Nadia of the Sea of Mystery.' ADV films have opted to compromise and call it Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water. Clear so far? To take the second title first, Nadia is the heroine of our story, a teenage girl whose shadowy heritage leads her into a rollicking adventure involving battleships, would-be world conquerors and one Captain Nemo of the Nautilus. Blue Water, meanwhile, is the name of the jewel Nadia carries, the only clue to her past, whose nature may have world-shattering consequences.

The tale begins in Paris, 1889albeit an 1889 on a rather different time-track from our own, with giant battleships, primitive aeroplanes, zeppelins and more idiosyncratic contraptions. As in Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, ships around the world are being attacked and destroyed by what seem to be fantastic sea-monsters. Boy inventor Jean has lost his father to one of these attacks, missing presumed dead; however, Jean has made it his mission to find him. Meanwhile, he's on a trip to Paris to enter a flying competition when a girl catches Jean's eyea beautiful, impossibly agile, dark-skinned stranger accompanied by a white lion-cub. An attempt at introduction on the Eiffel Tower is broken up by the appearance of three crooks, all after the jewel she carries. Later, Jean helps the girl (who's Nadia, of course) escape her pursuers, and the story takes off from there.


To give away much more would spoil the surprises, though the opening credits reveal Nemo and the Nautilus play a major part in the adventure, albeit reworked from Verne's creations. It's not giving away too much to say the story combines adventure and heroics with a strong group of main characters and increasingly prominent SF elements. Nadia also has the bonus of being a serial, rather than a series, a common advantage of TV anime over western cartoon shows. The 39 episodes have a coherent arc with a beginning, middle and satisfactory end. Character development and plot revelations actually _lead_ somewhere. True, there are story problems (see below) but the overall show is far more compelling than its 'reset button' rivals.

Nadia was originally screened in Japan in 1990-91, at a time when TV anime was in decline. It was an instant hit with fans, and Nadia famously overthrew Miyazaki's heroine Nausicaa (see below) in the readers' poll of top anime magazine Animage. The show also became a fast favorite among western anime fans. Part of the reason is that Nadia was a remarkably slick production by contemporary anime standards. The exuberant opening sequence (a seagull, sea, clouds, the singer breaking in with the theme song) is an anime classic, and the backgrounds and designs are very attractive by TV standards. True, some episodes are better-drawn than others, and the show has dated in ten years, especially compared to newcomers like Escaflowne and Cowboy Bebop. That said, it's still infinitely better made than, say, Pokemon.

Nadia has its roots in two rather different anime camps. On the one hand, it was made by Studio Gainax and directed by Hideaki Anno, two names now linked to the SF saga Neon Genesis Evangelion, the most talked-about, argued-about and all-round controversial anime ever released in the west. Some of the character designs were by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, who had previously worked in that role on Gainax's acclaimed 1987 film Wings of Honneamise. (Sadomoto was originally slated to direct Nadia, but dropped out after two episodes.) However, the source storyline comes from not only Verne but also Hayao Miyazaki yes, that_ Hayao Miyazaki, of Nausicaa and Mononoke fame. The summary above will feel familiar to fans of Miyazaki's 1986 film Laputa (a.k.a. Castle in the Sky), soon to be re-released on video in America, as well as the director's previous children's serial Future Boy Conan (1979). The girl with a world-changing secret... the boy sworn to protect her... haven't we been here before?

Well, yes and no. Secret, Laputa and Conan have a common ancestor, an unmade Miyazaki outline written in the mid-70s for the Toho studio, called Around the World in 80 Days by Sea (a plain allusion to two Verne novels). The embryo story had the idea of two young children, their pursuit by bumbling crooks and sinister forces, and the appearance of Nemo and the Nautilus. (It also seems fair to presume the heroine had a world-changing secret.) Beyond that, fan myth holds Miyazaki was personally involved with the series, possibly designing the characters, and indeed Anno had worked as an animator on Miyazaki's seminal Nausicaa (1984). In fact, however, Miyazaki was not involved with Secret. Toho, which produced the series with NHK, simply suggested Miyazaki's treatment to Gainax, and Gainax took it.

In retrospect, Nadia is a cross between Miyazaki's Laputa and Gainax's later Evangelion, with the darker 'Gainax' elements becoming more central as the story progresses. Certainly Nadia, the central character, is more an Anno than a Miyazaki heroine. She's lonely, unsociable, insecure, unreasonable, constantly on the defensive and (it becomes clear toward the end) self-hating. In all this, she resembles Shinji in Evangelion, and Anno confesses that both characters were autobiographical. With her bundle of neuroses, it's not hard to imagine Nadia as an Eva character, and she's often accused of being unsympathetic. (She certainly spends a lot of time berating people who go out of her way to help her.) For the same reason, however, fans find Nadia one of the most convincing anime stars. Her prissy, self-righteous moralityardent pacifist, fanatic veganparodies Miyazaki characters like Nausicaa.

If there's one thing that makes the difference between Secret and Eva, it's the character of Jean, a sunny optimistic lad filled with the joy of discovery and adventure. Jean saves Nadia from sinking into Eva-style angst, though even he's put through the wringer at times, as he discovers the science he loves has terrible consequences. Then there's Marie (or Mary, the spelling is debatable), a little girl who turns up early on to raise Nadia's maternal instincts. Marie and King, Nadia's lion-cub, provide much of the humor, though happily their cuteness doesn't unbalance the series. More comedy is provided by Nadia's first three adversaries, the regal heiress Lady Grandis and her loyal henchmen Hanson and Sanson. Fear not, these are no Team Rocket clones (perish the thought!) and prove more important than they seem. Many more characters turn up on the wayindeed, the real bad guys don't turn up for several episodes.

Nadia's characterization is only one Gainax hallmark in the show. There are a surfeit of fan boy in-jokes, though none are necessary to enjoy the story. To take the most obvious, the Nautilus submarine bridge is pinched from the SDF spaceship in the science fiction serial Macross (remade in America as the opening of Robotech). Just to make the link obvious, Nemo himself is modeled on the SDF's Captain Grobal/Groval, with a touch of Leiji Matsumoto's Captain Harlock. In another Gainax tradition, Nemo's right-hand woman Electra fills the role of 'older female' mentor for Jean, in much the same way as Big Sister in Gainax's space-opera Gunbuster and Major Katsuragi in Evangelion.

As her (assumed) name suggests, Electra has tragic secrets in her past, as does Nemo and indeed Nadia. Indeed, while the series has (too) many light and silly episodes, it's more memorable exploring darker dramaanother link to Evangelion. Again, it'd be a pity to spoil the story, but don't assume Secret is a cozy adventure. Some developments are literally jaw-droppers, and while there's nothing like the excesses of End of Evangelion (Gainax's shocking movie spin-off from the TV show), it's certainly not all kids' stuff. Perhaps the best individual episode is part 16, after a tragedy on the Nautilus, which ties up threads and introduces others in a way which shows off anime narrative at its finest. In fact, that episode almost justifies the whole show.

Then again, Nadia is one of those infuriating anime where quality wobbles over the scale. The best episodes are superb and the worst watch-able, but there's a distressing amount of padding; it could have been a 26-parter. Like Eva, it oscillates between plot-driven, dramatic episodes and 'silly' bits in a way that's quite disconcerting, though in fairness other anime do the same. If you like unashamedly 'silly' anime humor, you'll have no problem. If, on the other hand, you think Eva would have been ten times better minus the penguin and the kitschy homages...well, you might fast-forward certain Nadia episodes or considerhorrors!skipping them altogether.

Luckily the first eight-part arc is one of the best, and draws you in so well that you can tolerate what follows. For the recordand this is of course subjectiveparts nine to fourteen are average-to-good, fifteen and sixteen are standouts, and seventeen to twenty-two start lamely and build to a great climax. The next batch, often known as the 'island episodes,' were farmed out to other studios in Japan and Korea, with Gainax stipulating the main plot points. They're generally regarded as the worst, though some of the sillinessespecially an extended dream sequence with a Thunderbird (!)is endearing. Thirty and thirty-one extend the plot, but the next three installments are rather awful. Thankfully, things get back on track for the last five parts, which explain and tie up the story so well one wonders if this was really from the makers of Eva. A Nadia movie sequel followed in 1993; by all accounts, it's best forgotten.

Historic postscript: for readers thinking they've seen videos of this show in the past, you're probably thinking of the rather good '90s dub from Streamline, adapted by Carl Maceck of Robotech fame. The voices for this version included Arkwright Chamberlain (Kosh in Babylon 5) and Cheryl Chase (Angelica in Rugrats) as little Marie. Unfortunately, only the first eight parts were released, and attempts to get the show on TV came to nothing. It's not hard to see the problems: while Nadia's plot would enthrall many children, the violence and occasional 'lewd' humor (at the females' expense, natch) would deter broadcasters. Nonetheless, with Pokemon at its zenith, Gundam Wing currently running on Cartoon Network, and rumors of a possible Escaflowne screening, this is a time when anything seems possible. Who knows, we may see Secret on the small screen yet.

[NOTE: Nadia will be released subtitled in eleven volumes by ADV Fansubs, a new label of ADV Films. At the time of writing, Volume One's has been releasedkeep an eye on http://www.advfilms.com/advfansubs for updates and subscription information. The tapes will also be sold by anime/comics stores, and hopefully some mainstream retailers. For readers outside the US and Canada, the tapes should be available from specialist distributors. ADV also hope to sell a dubbed version of Nadia to TV. Watch this space.... ]

Production: Studio Gainax
Chief Director: Hideaki Anno
Character design and co-director: Yoshiyuki Sadamoto
Writers: Hisao Okawa and Kaoru Umeno
Animation director and character design: Syunji Suzuki
Art directors: Masanori Kikuchi and Hiroshi Sasaki
Music director: Shiro Sasisu
Sound director: Katsunori Shimizo
Editor: Akio Satsukawa
Producer: Hiroshi Kubota

Cast:
Nadia: Yoshino Takamori
Jean: Noriko Hidaka
Marie: Yuko Mizutani
Grandis: Kumiko Takizawa
Sanson: Kenyu Horiuchi
Hanson: Toshihara Sakurai
Nemo: Akio Otsuka
Electra: Kikuko Inque
Gargoyle: Motomu Kiyokawa