Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water

Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water
North American DVD Collection 1 cover
ふしぎの海のナディア (Fushigi no Umi no Nadia)
Genre	Adventure, Historical, Romance, Science fiction
TV anime
Directed by	Hideaki Anno Shinji Higuchi
Written by	Hideaki Anno, Toshio Okada, Akio Satsukawa, Kaoru Umeno, Hisao Okawa
Music by	Shirō Sagisu Yukihiro Takahashi[1]
Studio	Toho, Group TAC, Gainax
Licensed by	ADV Films
Network	NHK
English network	Anime Network
Original run	April 15, 1990 – March 16, 1991
Episodes	39
Anime film
Directed by	Sho Aono
Written by	Kaoru Umeno
Music by	Shirō Sagisu
Studio	Toho, Group TAC, Gainax
Licensed by	ADV Films
Released	June 29, 1991
Runtime	90 minutes
Anime and Manga Portal

Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water (ふしぎの海のナディア, Fushigi no Umi no Nadia^?, lit. "Nadia of the Mysterious Seas") is a Japanese animated television series inspired by the works of Jules Verne, particularly Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and the exploits of Captain Nemo. The series was created by Toho, from a concept of Hayao Miyazaki, and directed by Hideaki Anno of Gainax.

The series follows a young inventor named Jean and a former circus performer named Nadia, who wishes to return to her home in Africa.

In its original Japanese broadcast, it aired from 1990 to 1991 and ran for 39 episodes. The complete television series is available in the United States from ADV Films on DVD. ADV's Anime Network has broadcast the series in the United States. Reportedly, the series was to have been screened in the United Kingdom in the mid-1990s, but the UK distributor was concerned by the level of violence in the series^{[citation needed]}.

Plot

The series centers around Nadia, a young girl of unknown origins, and Jean, a young French inventor. Early in the story, the two protagonists are chased by Grandis Granva, Sanson, and Hanson, a group of jewel thieves who pursue Nadia for the blue jeweled pendant she possesses. After being rescued by Captain Nemo and his submarine, the Super Sea Cruiser Nautilus, the jewel thieves and the young protagonists join forces and participate in the struggle against the Neo-Atlantean forces, who seek to dominate the world.

In the process, Nadia and Jean save the world from violent domination by the Neo-Atlantean forces led by Gargoyle, explore worldly mysteries and the powers of the blue pendant, uncover Nadia's hidden family ties, and ultimately discover the secret origins of Nadia.

Characters

Main article: List of Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water characters

Main cast

Nadia la Arwall

Nadia is a 14 year-old Kenyan circus performer. She is stubborn, short tempered and a strict vegetarian. After Jean rescues her from the Grandis Gang, she sets out on an adventure with him to determine the origin of the "Blue Water", the jewel that beckons the criminals to her. Always accompanied by her tamed lion cub, King, she sometimes mistreats people, but as she grows closer to Jean she learns to become a much more caring and trusting person.

Voiced by: Yoshino Takamori (Japanese), Wendee Lee (English, Streamline), Meg Bauman (English, ADV)

King

Nadia's pet white lion cub, who wears a red bandana/scarf around his neck and a ring onto his tail. He is very attached to his mistress and occasionally gets jealous when Nadia gets closer to Jean. Even so, he is also very fond of Marie and often plays with her.

Voiced by: Toshiharu Sakurai (Japanese), Carl Macek (English, Streamline), Shawn Sides (English, ADV)

Jean Roque Raltique

Jean is a young 14 year-old orphan from Paris who fell in love with Nadia at first sight. He is generous, patient, friendly, and devoted to science as well as his friends. His father is a wealthy trader who was lost at sea and declared dead, but Jean refuses to believe that and is determined to find him.

Voiced by: Noriko Hidaka (Japanese), Ardwight Chamberlain (English, Streamline), Nathan Parsons (English, ADV)

Marie en Carlsberg

Marie is a 4 year-old orphan found by Nadia and Jean whose parents were murdered by the Neo-Atlanteans. The two decide to stay with her and protect her. She is incredibly intelligent and charismatic for her age. Her playmate is "King" the Lion cub.

Voiced by: Yuko Mizutani (Japanese), Cheryl Chase (English, Streamline), Margaret Cassidy (English, ADV)

Grandis Granva

Grandis is a 28 year-old woman. She was born into a rich Italian family, but is now broke and disowned by her relatives. She is the leader of the "Grandis Gang", a trio of jewel thieves. After being rescued along with Nadia, Jean and Marie by the Nautilus, she and her henchmen befriend the children. She develops a huge crush on Capt. Nemo. She also becomes a mother-figure to Nadia.

Voiced by: Kumiko Takizawa (Japanese), Melanie MacQueen (English, Streamline), Sarah Richardson (English, ADV)

Sanson

Sanson is 22 years old and the muscle behind the "Grandis Gang". He considers himself an expert on handling women and is an excellent artist with a rifle. He develops a relationship with Marie and tries to help Jean grow closer to Nadia.

Voiced by: Kenyū Horiuchi (Japanese), Tom Wyner (English, Streamline), Martin Blacker (English, ADV)

Hanson

Hanson is 29 years old and the brains of the "Grandis Gang" who built the Gratan, the gang's small multi-purpose vehicle. Like Jean, he's into science and has a mild crush on Electra.

Voiced by: Toshiharu Sakurai (Japanese), Steve Kramer (English, Streamline), Corey M. Gagne (English, ADV)

Nemo

Nemo is the captain of the Nautilus, a submarine manned by individuals looking to stop the Neo-Atlanteans at all costs. He is a mysterious man with a dark past who acts cold when he first meets Jean and Nadia, but later warms up to Jean's outgoing cheerfulness and enthusiasm. He becomes a father-figure and mentor to both Jean and (most especially) Nadia.

Voiced by: Akio Ōtsuka (Japanese), Jeff Winkless (English, Streamline), Ev Lunning Jr. (English, ADV)

Electra

Electra is 26 years old and an orphan since the destruction of her hometown. She was saved by Captain Nemo and is his first mate on the 'Nautilus'. She and Nemo share a past experience that's never explained.

Voiced by: Kikuko Inoue (Japanese), Edie Mirman (English, Streamline), Jennifer Stuart (English, ADV)

Gargoyle

Gargoyle is the head of the Neo-Atlantean forces and is the primary antagonist. He is hell-bent on world domination, but to do that he must first destroy Nemo and the Nautilus, and take possession of the Blue Water. He is ruthless, cold and remorseless and will kill anyone who gets in his way.

Voiced by: Motomu Kiyokawa (Japanese), Steve Bulen (English, Streamline), David Jones (English, ADV)

Production

This show's origins date to the 1970s when Hayao Miyazaki was hired by Toho to develop a television series. One of these concepts was "Around the World Under the Sea", (adapted from Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea), in which two orphan children pursued by villains team up with Captain Nemo and the Nautilus. It was never produced, but Toho retained the rights for the story outline, while the animator reused elements from his original concept in later projects like Future Boy Conan and Castle in the Sky.

In 1988, Gainax was appointed by Toho to produce a series for NHK Educational TV. Miyazaki's outline for "Around the World Under the Sea" captivated the Gainax staff and, under the direction of Hideaki Anno, created The Secret of Blue Water.

The series was scheduled to run for two cours, but the show's popularity prompted the network to request more episodes. Production on new episodes ran late. Starting with episode 11, Anno was working up to 18 hours a day. After episode 20, NHK put Nadia on hold due to limited budget. The series returned a month later with episode 21. Production was still slow, and Anno asked friend and Gainax co-founder Shinji Higuchi to take over the direction from episodes 23 to 34, while he focused on crafting the final five episodes. These were occasionally referred to as the "island episodes" by fans who consider them oddly animated and poor-quality filler, a sentiment that even Anno shared. Out of the newly commissioned episodes the director has later stated that he would have saved only episodes 30 and 31 if he were given a chance of omitting them; he produced a shortened compilation of Nadia called "The Nautilus Story", which deletes much of the island/Africa continuity and focuses more on the struggle between Gargoyle and Nemo.

Shortly after Nadia completed its first broadcast in Japan, Carl Macek and Streamline Pictures purchased the rights to Nadia. Because of financial difficulties, Streamline could only dub the first eight episodes, released over eight VHS tapes. The dub's cast included Wendee Lee as Nadia, Ardwight Chamberlain as Jean, Jeff Winkless as Captain Nemo, Cheryl Chase as Mary, Melanie MacQueen as Grandis, Tom Wyner as Sanson, Steve Kramer as Hanson, Edie Mirman as Electra, and Steve Bulen as Gargoyle. In 1996, Streamline's rights for the show expired. Later, In 2001 ADV Films purchased the series, and commissioned a new dub to be recorded at their Austin-based Monster Island studios. The new dub cast included actual children in the roles of Nadia, Jean, and Marie—Meg Bauman (14, Nadia), Nathan Parsons (12, Jean), and Margaret Cassidy (11, Marie).

A Nadia feature film sequel premiered in Japanese theaters in 1992. The events take place three years after the defeat of Gargoyle and Neo-Atlantis. Gainax had no involvement in the production of this movie, and the quality suffered greatly as a result; nearly one third of the ninety-minute feature consists of frequently edited clips from the show. Due to its perceived poor quality, the movie is not well known in the United States. ADV licensed it and released as Nadia: The Motion Picture on DVD in August 2002.

Pre-production discussion

Before production of the series, Hideaki Anno suddenly asked the production team why Neo Atlantis want to conquer the world, and why they do not simply use their superior technology to live a more comfortable life. More questions arose as to how they plan to conquer the world. An answer to the latter question was given that since the heroes are in a submarine, Neo Atlantis has to somehow conquer the world via operations using submarines. The final answer was that at that time period, the only method of trade is by sea, and Neo Atlantis planned to monopolize the trading routes. Another question that was asked was, since that it is set in a time where powerful empires colonize developing countries and make big profit from them, stopping the trade routes seems to not be evil but justice. Seeing that production was about to begin and no doubt should be left unanswered, Toshio Okada answered at first that the culture at that time viewed colonization as justice, thus Neo Atlantis' actions are evil at the time. Before the end of the meeting, he gave another answer, which was that Neo Atlantis stops the evil empires from colonizing developing countries, just so that it can colonize the whole world, thus it is the supreme evil. However, no answer could be given to the question asked by Hideaki, and 15 years after the anime, Okada wrote a book called "Seikai Seifuku" wa kanou ka? ("Conquering the World", is it possible?) on behalf of the question.^[2]

Media

Episodes

#	Title	Airdate (Japan)	Script	Storyboards	Episode Director	Animation Director
1	エッフェル塔の少女 Girl at the Eiffel Tower	13 April 1990	Hisao Okawa	Shigeru Morikawa Hideaki Anno	Shigeru Morikawa	Shunji Suzuki
2	小さな逃亡者 The Little Fugitive	20 April 1990		Shoichi Masuo		Toshiyuki Kubooka
3	謎の大海獣 The Riddle of the Giant Sea Monsters	27 April 1990		Yuki Masa		Shunji Suzuki
4	万能潜水艦ノーチラス号 Nautilus, the Fantastic Submarine	4 May 1990		Yoshitomo Yonetani		Kei Takeuchi
5	マリーの島 Marie's Island	11 May 1990		Takeshi Mori	Koji Matsunari	Hidenori Matsubara
6	孤島の要塞 Infiltration of the Secret Base	18 May 1990		Takeshi Mori		Shinji Abe
7	バベルの塔 The Tower of Babel	25 May 1990		Nagashi Tare	Hiroyuki Sasaki	Kumiko Kawana
8	ナディア救出作戦 Mission to Rescue Nadia	1 June 1990		Takeshi Mori		Shunji Suzuki Yoshiyuki Sadamoto
9	ネモの秘密 Nemo's Secret	8 June 1990		Hideaki Anno Kiyoshi Nemoto	Yukio Suzuki	Hiroshi Kugimiya
10	グラタンの活躍 A Crowning Performance by the Gratan	15 June 1990		Yoshisugu Ikegami Mahiro Maeda	Jun Kamiya	Kumiko Kawana
11	ノーチラス号の新入生 New Recruits for the Nautilus	22 June 1990		Takeshi Mori	Hiroyuki Sasaki	Masahiro Kase Tadashi Hiramatsu
12	グランディスの初恋 Grandis and her First Love	6 July 1990		Toshiyuki Kubooka		Shunji Suzuki
13	走れ!マリー Run Marie Run!	13 July 1990		Yuki Masa	Takeshi Mori	Yoshiaki Yanagita
14	ディニクチスの谷 The Valley of Dinicthys	20 July 1990		Yukio Sasaki Kiyoshi Nemoto	Yukio Sasaki	Hiroshi Kugimiya
15	ノーチラス最大の危機 The Nautilus Faces its Biggest Crisis	27 July 1990		Shoichi Masuo		Masahiro Kato Tadashi Hiramatsu
16	消えた大陸の秘密 The Mystery of the Lost Continent	24 August 1990	Hisao Okawa Kaoru Umino	Masahiro Maeda	Kiyoshi Nemoto	Kumiko Kawana
17	ジャンの新発明 Jean's New Invention	31 August 1990		Takeshi Mori		Katsuhide Maruseka
18	ノーチラス対ノーチラス号 Nautilus vs. Nautilus	7 September 1990		Saraiko Gai	Shigehito Makino	Hiroshi Kugimiya
19	ネモの親友 Nemo's Best Friend	14 September 1990		Takeshi Mori	Renji Kawabata	Koichi Takada
20	ジャンの失敗 Jean Makes a Mistake	21 September 1990		Yuki Masa	Kiyoshi Nemoto	Toshiyuki Kubooka
21	さよなら…ノーチラス号 Farewell Nautilus	26 October 1990		Shunji Higuchi	Fumihiko Takayama	Yoshiyuki Sadamoto
22	裏切りのエレクトラ Electra the Traitor	2 November 1990		Mahiro Maeda	Shigeru Morikawa	Shunji Suzuki
23	小さな漂流者 Young Drifters	9 November 1990		Hironori Urano		Kumiko Kawana
24	リンカーン島 Lincoln Island	16 November 1990		Kiyoshi Nemoto	Shigehito Makino	Noboru Koizumi
25	はじめてのキス The First Kiss	30 November 1990		Shinji Higuchi	Shigenori Awai	Kazuto Nakazawa
26	ひとりぼっちのキング King, the Lonely Lion	7 December 1990			Renji Kawabata	Koichi Takada
27	魔女のいる島 The Island of the Witch	14 December 1990		Hironori Urano	Tadayori Uda	Kim Se-Chang
28	流され島 The Floating Island	21 December 1990		Yuki Masa Shinji Higuchi	Renji Kawabata	Nam Yul Park
29	キング対キング King vs, King	11 January 1991		Kiyoshi Nemoto Yuki Masa	Shigehito Makino	Noboru Koizumi
30	地底の迷路 Labyrinth in the Earth	25 January 1991		Shinji Higuchi	Kiyoshi Nemoto	Takeshi Honda
31	さらば、レッドノア Farewell, Red Noah	1 February 1991		Toshiyuki Kubooka	Hironori Urano	Kazuya Tsurumaki
32	ナディアの初恋…? Nadia's Love	8 February 1991		Hironori Urano	Hiromitsu Hoshino	Yoshio Noguchi
33	キング救助作戦 King's Rescue	15 February 1991		Yuki Masa	Renji Kawabata	Koichi Takada
34	いとしのナディア My Darling Nadia	22 February 1991		Makura Inu	Tadayori Uda Hihachi Okamoto	Kim Se-Changbr />Kūbo So-so-so-so
35	ブルー・ウォーターの秘密 The Secret of Blue Water	1 March 1991		Mahiro Maeda	Hiromitsu Hoshino Mahiro Maeda	Takeshi Honda
36	万能戦艦Ν-ノーチラス号 The New Nautilus	8 March 1991		Yuki Masa	Aono Chang	Toshiyuki Kubooka
37	ネオ皇帝 Emperor Neo	29 March 1991		Hironori Urano	Shigehito Makino Makura Inu	Noboru Koizumi Hideaki Anno
38	宇宙(そら)へ… To The Sky	5 April 1991		Shinji Higuchi	Masayuki	Shunji Suzuki
39	星を継ぐ者… Successor to the Stars	12 April 1991		Toshiyuki Kubooka	Takeshi Mori	Shunji Suzuki Yoshiyuki Sadamoto Kazuya Tsurumaki

Video games

A Nadia video game was released in 1991 for the Famicom console and Super Famicom. The player controls a cast of characters in a simplistic strategy battle game. Battles are carried out through an RPG style turn-based system.

There was also an RPG released of Nadia for the Sega Mega Drive in Japan.

Reception

The series won the Animage Anime Grand Prix in 1990.

See also

• Atlantis: The Lost Empire, a film that bears a striking similarity.

Notes

1. ^ "Synthpop's YMO to Hold 1st L.A. Concert in 32 Years". Anime News Network. 2011-01-31. http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2011-01-31/synthpop-ymo-to-hold-1st-l.a-concert-in-32-years. Retrieved 5 August 2011. 
2. ^ "Seikai Seifuku" wa kanou ka?, Toshio Okada, 2007

External links

• Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
• Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water at the Internet Movie Database
• Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water at TV.com