Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water



"Are you adventurers? Are you prepared to climb the blue waterfall named The Perilous? Do you seek the truth of the legend that lies therein? If you do, then you must first find me."

- Opening narration.

Set in 1889 and extremely loosely based on Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water tells the story of Nadia, a girl who's trying to find out about her past, Jean, a boy who wants to build a flying machine, and the Blue Water, a mysterious gem of Nadia's with strange powers. Their world is home to two shadowy groups in conflict: Neo-Atlantis, who want to rule the world, and the crew of the submarine Nautilus, who have sworn to oppose Neo-Atlantis. These two plots are not unconnected...

This series originally aired starting in 1990 on NHK -- Japanese public broadcasting (the Japanese equivalent of BBC). Carl Macek's Streamline Pictures released a VHS of the first eight episodes. Years later, ADV translated and released the entire 39-episode TV series as well as the maligned, mostly forgotten movie sequel on DVD.

(Entry originally written by Rob Kelk for The Anime Primer, and used with permission of the author.)

Just for the record, this series was the one that gave Hideaki Anno his first Animage Grand Prix before penning out his biggest masterpiece, Neon Genesis Evangelion... or rather, the reason NGE is such a mindscrew. It has been purported that the stress of working on a tight schedule, on a series over which he had almost no creative control was a key factor in precipitating Anno into a four-year-long bout of depression from which he emerged just before (some say while) doing Eva.

A remastered version was released on Blu-Ray in Japan in 2011. Sentai Filmworks has re-licensed the series, and will be re-releasing it on Blu-ray and DVD in March 2014. (It is unknown if this will be the remastered version or the original, though.)

Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water provides examples of:

 * Adorkable: Jean, definitely. Even Nadia's English voice actress has said she would date someone like him in a heartbeat. Hanson, too, once he switches sides.
 * Ambiguously Brown: invoked and discussed within the story itself. Nadia's brown skin, straight hair, green eyes, and "stateless" anime heroine looks are all in marked contrast to the rest of the crew who all have recognizably ethnic features. Most characters only have a vague idea she might be African... or Indian...
 * Anachronism Stew: Most of the non-atlantean technology seems more appropriate to 1910 or even 1920 than 1889.
 * Ancient Astronauts: The true origin of Atlantis, and therefore several major characters
 * Ancient Conspiracy: Behind the separation of the Blue Water.
 * Applied Phlebotinum: The Nautilus runs on a recycled star drive, and the Blue Water fires up whenever the plot starts to drag.
 * Arc Words: The opening narration.
 * Arrow Cam
 * Art Shift:
 * In Electra's flashback during episode 22.
 * Also done very effectively in Episode 35, where merely 3/4 of the exploration of the ruins of Tartessos are entirely in black and white, with only the blue light from Nadia's Blue Water being the sole source of color.
 * During all twelve episodes of the island/Africa arc, the animation both takes a dive in quality and resembles a cut rate Looney Tunes cartoon. (These were produced by other studios in Japan and Korea.)
 * Babies Ever After: The title character (Nadia, married to Jean), the narrator (  of the Terrible Trio, married to a much younger lady   ), and the most "complex" character . Hanson, the other half of the team, has kids but we don't see them (or his wife for that matter). Grandis (the boss of the trio), notably is still single, and loving it.
 * Bad Boss: Other than the usual You Have Failed Me, Gargoyle will shoot his own Mook to convince Nadia that he would shoot Marie.
 * On one occasion, however, he casually tells a mook who slipped up not to worry about punishment.
 * Bamboo Technology: Armed with a bit of salvage, Jean builds a camp worthy of the Professor from Gilligan's Island.
 * Barbie Doll Anatomy
 * Batman Gambit: Gargoyle lures Nemo into a trap using himself as bait. He knows Nemo will do anything to follow him and so leads The Captain to a cavern which he blocks off with mines
 * Its also a Xanatos Gambit: If Nemo does nothing he will eventually starve but if he tries to remove the mines with conventional means they will detonate. Also because of the shifting tides, the mines will go off eventually. Even if Nemo somehow survives the mines and escapes, Gargoyle can observe how his experimental mines will work in the field and save the data for later.
 * Beach Episode: Repeatedly. Most of Grandis' backstory can only be explained when she is in a hot tub or on a beach.
 * Because Destiny Says So
 * Berserk Button: Nadia easily loses her temper over trivial matters, particularly when anybody eats meat. (She eventually changes that behavior, and of course, Jean constantly forgives her.)
 * Between My Legs: When Nadia stands up in the bath.
 * Big Bad: Gargoyle
 * Big Damn Heroes: Often with the Nautilus, pulling the gang to safety in the nick of time. Subverted later, where help arrives just a minute too late.
 * Blind Without'Em: Jean, with the obligatory Dropped Glasses scene. To the point that without the glasses, his eyes are drawn much smaller than the usual "anime" size.
 * Blue with Shock
 * Blush Sticker: Jean
 * Bow Ties Are Cool: Hanson and Sanson wear one as part of their uniforms.
 * Jean also wears a bowtie.
 * Brainwashed:
 * Broken Bird - Nadia, due to her personal experiences with adults; particularly her circus ringmaster at the beginning of the series. This causes her to distrust adults and people in general, believing they either want to use her or simply want the Blue Water she possesses. Thankfully, she gets better with help from Jean, Grandis, and the Nautilus crew.
 * Electra and Captain Nemo also qualify, albeit for entirely different reasons.
 * Canon Dis Continuity: When the show returns in Episode 35 after the infamous island/Africa arc, it all but neglects the events that happened in them (save episodes 30 & 31), suggesting they were never intended to be part of the plot.

Hideaki Anno is even said to have been dissatisfied with the final result of the TV show, and as a matter of fact has made a shorter, more streamlined compilation called "The Nautilus Story", which all but eliminates the filler arc and concentrates on the struggle between Nemo and Gargoyle (some scenes in the more pivotal episodes are cut as well). (This version, clocking in at approximately six hours, was only released in Japan on video and laserdisc.) In fact, this release was as close as Anno came to doing a remake of the show theatrically.
 * The Captain: How much bigger a Captain do you need than Captain Nemo?
 * Charles Atlas Superpower: Sanson breaks out of prison by bending the bars. Later he stops the punch from a mecha twice his size. Both were bare handed.
 * Circling Birdies
 * Cliff Hanger
 * Clip Show:
 * Over twenty minutes straight of the sequel movie is show clips, recapping the entire story thus far.
 * Also, the Musical Episode consisted almost entirely of reused footage, which was used Music Video style as background for the songs.
 * Collapsing Lair
 * Convenient Enemy Base: Twice!
 * Cool Big Sis: Electra and Grandis appear to take turns filling this spot for Jean and Nadia.
 * Cool Ship: Several.
 * Cross-Dressing Voices: Averted in the dub: the three lead roles are played by actual kid actors instead of adult females.
 * Cross-Popping Veins
 * Dead Person Conversation
 * Death by Irony:
 * Defrosting Ice Queen: Nadia is gradually transformed from a cold, aloof, temperamental pessimist to a caring, trusting young woman as a result of her relationship with Jean.
 * The Determinator: Played partly for laughs with Grandis at the beginning. But applied dead seriously in the final episode, where
 * Did Not Do the Research: The African episodes with a tribe whose citizens who wear color paint, use boomerangs, and otherwise look more like Australian aboriginals.
 * Disney Death: Jean, before being revived.
 * Distant Finale: A grown-up Marie lists what everyone is doing years after the story is complete.
 * Dramatic Wind: Whenever Nemo looks off into the distance and broods.
 * Dream Sequence
 * Dress Hits Floor: Most of the female cast at one point or another. This is a Studio Gainax production!
 * Driven to Suicide: Nadia reaches this point after learning the truth about herself and the Blue Water, on top of coming to the conclusion that she's a horrible person; which leads her to believe the world would be better off without her. The attempt is foiled, but not without repurcussions.
 * Electra does the same when she finally learns that Nemo actually does care about her, and tries to shoot herself. Nemo talks her out of such behavior.
 * Dropped Glasses: Minor subversion: the glasses are repaired almost immediately to demonstrate the technological capabilities of the Nautilus.
 * Everything's Better with Princesses: Subverted. The people who call Nadia "princess" rarely seem to have her best interests in mind.
 * Evil Chancellor: Gargoyle used to be this, before pulling off a (mostly) successful coup and moving on to better things.
 * Evil Counterpart: Nemo and Gargoyle are always going on about their vague but important past.
 * Evilly Affable: Gargoyle
 * Evil Overlord: Subverted. While Neo is the emperor of Neo Atlantis,
 * Evil Plan: Gargoyle wants to Take Over the World by reviving ancient Atlantean technology.
 * Explosive Instrumentation
 * Expy: Captain Nemo is Captain Global from Super Dimension Fortress Macross. Anno worked on Macross and reused the design as a Shout-Out.
 * Since the series and Evangelion shared character designers, a few faces are unmistakably similar. Most notable is Shiniji, whose imperceptively girly face is mostly due to being drawn more similar to Nadia than any of the male characters.
 * Face Fault: Mostly in the Filler.
 * The Faceless: Except for his death scene, the villain is always masked.
 * Fan Service:
 * Nadia runs around in her Circus Acrobat costume for most of the series, despite having a full wardrobe available to her. When she does change clothes, she wears sheets and cutoffs.
 * Electra is that blonde in the pic up there. She's quite bouncy in the show.
 * False-Flag Operation: In Episode 15, Gargoyle easily suckers the Eagle Land navy into attacking the Nautilus. By sending a Neo-Atlantean agent in a mask and a pirate hat to drop an "anonymous tip."
 * Faux Action Girl: Much is made of Nadia being a circus acrobat, but she manages to remain useless most of the time. As the first episode demonstrated, Le Parkour skills are great if you're only saving yourself. Not so great when you've got an acrobatically disinclined Geek along for the ride.
 * Filler: There is a long arc about 2/3 of the way through the series that involves the kids not doing much on an island then escaping and don't do much in Africa while the rest of the cast has adventures off screen. Their low quality simply earns them the polite title the Island Episodes.
 * First Kiss: Actually named an episode after it, even if one of them is high on mushrooms when it happens. A more traditional one happens later. Unfortunately it is treated as a cruel tease, because the writers quickly press reset on the leads' relationship immediately after.
 * Flash Back: Most main characters get some exposition in this way. Over twenty minutes straight of The Movie is made up of flashbacks.
 * Friend to All Living Things: Nadia, though she's suspicious of most adults.
 * Fully-Automatic Clip Show: A good twenty minutes straight of the movie.
 * Furo Scene: Two with Nadia. The first one is shared with Electra and Marie and the second one (on a western bathtub) is with Grandis.
 * Gadgeteer Genius: Two of them -- Jean, the heroic and goodhearted main character, and Hanson, a member of the Grandis gang.
 * Granola Girl: Nadia is a vegetarian, a pacifist, and generally skeptical of technological progress in general -- which sometimes poses problems in her friendship/budding romance with Gadgeteer Genius Jean -- although she does eventually abandon this attitude.
 * Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress: Gravitational Cognizance variety.
 * Good Costume Switch: Grandis is the first villain of the series and wears a military uniform. When she announces her Heel Face Turn she's wearing a dress and it becomes her standard outfit (unless she's going into battle).
 * Head Pet: King, on occasion.
 * Heel Face Turn: Grandis and her minions, somewhat unique in that it happens about 1/4 of the way into the series.
 * He Is Not My Boyfriend: Nadia obviously has feelings for Jean, but she impulsively declares otherwise to both Grandis and Marie when both call her out about it. (Naturally, since she has never known anything about love before, she does not know how to acknowledge it or express herself.)
 * Heroic BSOD: While Jean is, at heart, a very optimistic and cheerful character, there are at least two moments where he becomes completely depressed: first, in Episode 15, when he traumatically overhears a sailor he's friends with gassed to death (he is surprisingly melancholy after that), and then, in episode 16, when he learns that . This latter revelation crushes Jean so much that he considers giving up inventing until Nadia, who doesn't like seeing him so gloomy, tries to cheer him up and succeeds by suggesting him to build another aircraft so that they can go on another airflight.
 * Hidden Eyes
 * Human Aliens: So much so that
 * Impossibly Cool Clothes: Most anything Nadia wears.
 * Incredibly Obvious Bug
 * Iris Out: With pause for comment.
 * Ironic Echo Cut
 * Jerkass: Nadia comes across like this several times in the show when she takes her rage out on Jean and Nemo, saying rather undeservedly cruel things to both. (She gets even worse in both the Island and Africa arcs.)
 * In episode 20 she becomes extremely jealous of Jean's friendship with Electra, irrationally believing that the latter is going to take Jean away from her (when, in fact, nothing romantic is happening between Jean OR Electra). Her inability to express her concern of losing Jean nearly ruins her own relationship with him. (All that Jean is doing is just trying to learn more from Electra so that he can help mankind and Nadia herself; despite being stuck in the books at times, he is obviously very dedicated to helping her, to the point where you feel sorry for the boy every time Nadia takes out her anger on him.)
 * As a matter of fact Nadia even lays into Jean when he offers her manmade flowers (that Ensign Fait generously gives the boy) or attempts to compliment her in the abovementioned episode (as Electra advised him to). Naturally, this only succeeds in confusing poor Jean—to the point where he is surprised when she finally plucks the courage to ask him directly for a compliment for an (awkwardly fashioned out of canvas) dress in episode 26. (Fourteen episodes earlier, she doesn't succeed in getting a compliment from Jean about a dress she's wearing since the latter is busy reading a book, but in that case she was sort of expecting him to read her mind and not knowing how else to act.)
 * In that same episode, Nadia furiously declares to Nemo that she hates him and the Nautilus crew; he slaps her for saying that, adding in a stern tone, "Please don't say sad things like that" ("You have made me very sad." in the dub).
 * On the flipside, she does apologize to Jean numerous times for her misdirected anger, even going out of her way to bring him something to eat, go on walks with him, or anything else reconciliatory (in the canonical episodes),
 * Just Between You and Me
 * Kikuko Inoue: Electra
 * Kill Sat: Neo-Atlantis' "Tower of Babel", a ground-based Wave Motion Gun bounced off a satellite to rain death from above.
 * Lampshade Hanging: For King's non-animal behaviors.
 * Lethal Chef: Subverted with Grandis.
 * Lightning Glare
 * Limited Wardrobe: See Fan Service above...
 * Long-Lost Relative:
 * Lost Curls: In early production art, one later version of Nadia has textured hair which the designers admitted they liked, but found it difficult to animate.
 * Love At First Sight: About the sole reason Jean is following Nadia from the beginning.
 * Loveable Rogue: The Grandis gang. In most ways they end up being much bigger heroes than the title character.
 * Love Martyr: Electra
 * MacGuffin: The Blue Water itself.
 * Macross Missile Massacre: The primary form of Sub-to-Sub combat.
 * Magic From Technology
 * Market-Based Title: The Japanese title, Fushigi no Umi no Nadia ("Nadia of the Mysterious Seas"), was basically used by Gainax to forestall Executive Meddling, by ensuring their title followed the same pattern as Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.
 * Man of Wealth and Taste: Garygoyle's suite is immaculate red and worthy for the dinner party he invites sponsors too. The only flaw is his mask and KKK style hat.
 * Meaningful Name:
 * Electra, as in Electra Complex which basically sums up her relationship with Nemo.
 * Actually, she's even closer to Electra of mythology than that: her main motivation is revenge against the people who killed her parents.
 * Sanson is a very strong, vain, and bullheaded man. Like the Biblical Samson.
 * Meanwhile, Hanson's name may be a pun on "Handsome", which he, uh, isn't.
 * Nemo's name means "No one" or "Nobody" in Latin, as they helpfully point out.
 * And "Nobody" in Spanish is Nadie.
 * On a minor note, Nadia is also similar to "Nadar", the Spanish word meaning "to swim".
 * Meat-O-Vision: Jean saw Marie as a plate of turkey after eating some mushrooms.
 * Meat Versus Veggies: The source of Nadia's Berserk Button, as explained above. She tries to impose her views on her friends while turning a deaf ear to Jean's reasoning that they only eat meat for food, not out of murder. Nadia eventually abandons this aggressive attitude, though, when she finally confesses her tragic past to Jean and Marie.
 * Montages
 * Mouth Flaps: In an interview, Gargoyle's English voice actor mentions being incredibly lucky to voice a character who always wears a mask; that way, matching the flaps isn't a concern.
 * Mr. Exposition: Various characters at different times.
 * Ms. Fanservice: Nadia is Ambiguously Brown, spends the majority of her screen time in a Stripperiffic circus costume (which includes a loincloth), and is quite nubile to say she's a fourteen year old girl. Plus, she's an agile acrobat.
 * Multinational Team: Nemo's crew is assembled from people that hate Gargoyle for various reasons. It seems Gargoyle is unpopular the world over....
 * Mushroom Samba: Involving actual mushrooms!
 * Musical Episode: Episode 34, at the end of the Filler arc, using Image Songs strung around an plot of Jean trying to express his feelings for Nadia through song. The English dub cast actually sang their own versions of the songs in this episode.
 * Mysterious Antarctica: Nemo's base is here. Also the World Tree.
 * Nadia, I am your father:
 * Narrator: Later revealed as a slightly older Marie.
 * Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Gargoyle
 * Narrator All Along: As above.
 * Non-Human Sidekick: King
 * Not Good with People: Nadia. Having spent fourteen years of her life in a circus with a cruel, unloving ringmaster, she dislikes grownups with a vengeance. As such, she does not know how to interact with people. Nemo is also like this when it comes to children, although he does gradually warm up to them.
 * Not So Different: When Jean and Hanson stop fighting over the blue water, they realize they're more mecha geeks and simultaneously Squee over the Nautilus.
 * Number Two: Electra
 * Ocular Gushers
 * One Buwwet Weft
 * Official Couple: Nadia and Jean
 * Offscreen Villain Dark Matter: averted by Gargoyle's mooks reporting how his dark matter I.E. commerce in wool and banking, is proceeding and how it is paying for things like his submarine and the Tower of Babel.
 * Oracular Urchin
 * Orphan's Plot Trinket: The Blue Water.
 * Other Stock Phrases
 * Panty Shot: Considering what Nadia wears...
 * Parental Abandonment: Many of the characters are orphans or otherwise deprived of their parents, from Nadia up to Gargoyle, the Big Bad.
 * Parental Incest: Nemo initially viewed and treated Electra as a surrogate daughter to replace his own children who he believed were both killed. However, she had actually already fallen in love with him upon reaching puberty, but decided to continue to keep it a secret as she felt it would just be unrequited after accidentally overhearing that was how he felt about her. They eventually get together though
 * Pillar of Light: Whenever the Tower of Babel fires up.
 * Plot Hole: So exactly what does Nemo hope to accomplish by blowing up Gargoyle's ships while never actually doing anything about his shipyards?
 * The Pollyanna: Jean is a shoe in for a inventor's competition which he ditches to save Nadia, and not only does his plane crash but he is perpertually on the run and in constant danger. And yet, through it all, he is cheerful and even enthusiastic about the technology from both sides in general. (Only exceptions is when he and Nadia exploring Gargoyle's base, and even reacting in horror to two deaths—one of an escaped fugitive, and another, a crew member.)
 * Precursors
 * "Previously On..."
 * Public Domain Artifact: Just about everything in Jules Verne's closet that wasn't nailed down. Plus the "Blue Water" from Beau Geste of all places.
 * Puppet King: Emperor Neo.
 * Putting on the Reich: The Neo-Atlanteans. They greet each other a reversed version of the Nazi salute (right arm extended, then placed to chest). In addition, they also wear black uniforms reminiscent of the Nazi Schutzstaffel, and black Ku Klux Klan-like hoods (officers in charge wear orange).
 * This is made especially explicit in their Omake Theater feature.
 * Relationship Upgrade: All the couples in the series who successfully end up together.
 * Rock-Paper-Scissors: Sanson has bad luck at this game.
 * Romantic False Lead: A villager from the Africa arc who recognizes the Blue Water. This arc is both out of step with the rest of the show and frankly, doesn't make sense, since  Unsurprisingly, Episode 35 promptly disregards this two-episode sidestory.
 * Could also qualify as a Big Lipped Alligator Moment, although the island/Africa arc has plenty of such pointless scenes, hence the reason why it is criticized so harshly.
 * Sand Bridge At Low Tide: The only way to access their escape pod during the unfortunate island arc. (Get the picture yet? SKIP THE ISLAND AND AFRICA ARCS!)
 * Schizo-Tech: One of the more infamous examples is an 80's-looking telephone on board the Nautilus (in 1889), which is supposed to.
 * Seeker Archetype
 * Self-Destruct Mechanism: Jean install one on the cockpit of the plane it build, Nadia touches it
 * Shadow Archetype
 * Shout-Out: To Indiana Jones, Gamera, Tarzan, Uchuu Senkan Yamato, 2001: A Space Odyssey and others.
 * And, of course, multiple shout outs to Jules Verne's works that weren't directly used in the plot.
 * The shout-outs in Secret of Blue Water are innumerable. You think you have found all of them but there's still more. There's an allusion to something outside of the story, often in Real Life, like every five minutes. That's among the things that make the series great. It latches onto everything.
 * Some plot elements seem to be Shout Outs to R.A. Wilson's and Bob Shea's Illuminatus-Trilogy. But then again, Illuminatus itself already contained several Jules Verne Shout Outs, so yeah...
 * Sneezing
 * Snot Bubble
 * Spider Sense: The Blue Water flashes red when Nadia's about to be in danger.
 * Spiritual Successor: Nadia has certain similarities to Miyazaki's Laputa: Laputa: Castle in the Sky.
 * More than you'd think; the original plot outline/treatment was written by Miyazaki himself back in the 70s (pre-Laputa).
 * Steampunk
 * Stock Footage
 * In the sequel movie, about 30 minutes (one third of the entire running time) was taken up by a long flashback sequence (made from footage from the TV series, re-cut without regard for chronological order).
 * Stock Phrases
 * Submarine Pirates
 * Tank Goodness: The Gratan.
 * Teen Genius: Jean. The kid actually beat the Wright Brothers by twenty-four years! He also invented a helicopter. And a rocket. And a music recorder. Which, if you take it at face value, means he invented the speaker, the microphone, the amplifier, and vinyl records. Which means he may well have invented the vacuum tube. And plastic. He also seems to have invented the Ukulele.

In a dream sequence, he goes on to invent the television, the computer, and the a-bomb. He also invented an Ice Cream machine.
 * Terrible Trio: Grandis and crew are an Expy of the Time Bokan gang, with the twist that this time the fat guy is the genius engineer and the skinny guy is the strongman.
 * True Companions: They bicker and quarrel and are inseperable.
 * The Sweat Drop
 * Techno Babble: Whenever someone explains how all this tech works.
 * Time Compression Montage
 * Transforming Mecha: "Catherine", a.k.a. the Gratan.
 * Trap Door: Basically one of Gargoyle's trademarks.
 * Tsundere (Type A-1): Nadia (she gradually gets better, however, if you don't count her actions in the filler arc.)
 * The Un-Reveal: If you expected some huge revelation regarding Gargoyle's face, you'll be disappointed. Besides some suspicious resemblance to Fuyutsuki, his face is completely unremarkable.
 * Underboobs Nadia inadvertently reveals hers while adjusting her top. Naturally, Poor Jean can't help but look.
 * Weapon of Mass Destruction: The Tower of Babel, located in several places in the show: Gargoyle's base, Tartessos, and, ultimately, Red Noah.
 * What The Hell, Nadia?!:
 * Sums up everyone's reaction after Nadia's suicide attempt; especially Grandis and Sanson. The former whallops her for it, the latter chews her out for being selfish and scaring them all. Jean calls them off, and forgives Nadia.
 * Marie when she witnesses Nadia lay into Jean (unfairly and undeservedly) in episode 10. (Nadia eventually apologizes to him for that.)
 * When Nemo shoots a Neo Atlantean to save her from being shot, Nadia accuses him of "murdering in cold blood". From that point on, she stubbornly determines to despise him... despite Jean's attempts to reason with her that she would have died if Nemo didn't act.
 * In episode 20, Nadia misunderstands Jean accepting a reprimand from Nemo (for nearly endangering the Nautilus with yet another failed invention). She makes the situation even worse by laying into Nemo.
 * Where Are They Now? Epilogue
 * Wife Husbandry: Not played entirely straight with
 * Played more straight however with
 * You Can't Fight Fate: But Nadia tries anyway.
 * You Have Failed Me: Gargoyle's way of dealing with some subordinates that have failed to meet expectations.
 * Your Princess Is in Another Castle