Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
Desslok
My frustrating love/hate relationship with Anno and Gainax continues with Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water. The series starts REALLY strong. The mystery surrounding Nadia is compelling, her interaction with Jean is fun, and the 1800s Jules Verne-inspired adventure kept my eyes glued to the screen. The world is interesting, and the series has the feeling that it is building toward something special.
And then the island episodes hit and kill the series stone dead.
Look, the occasional filler episode or two is fine. I love the old-school Fist of the North Star, and that show is infamous for recap episodes. But the Island Episodes go on for far too long, completely disrupt the pacing, and, worst of all, torpedo Nadia as a character. She goes from occasionally abrasive but generally earnest to…
Read at the sourceshovelkun_
Really great adventure story that shouldn't be overlooked because of a few production problems. Some episodes have some issues with filler or rushed animation but they can be safely skimmed through or skipped if you want. Overall it's great. Characters have interesting personalities, relationships, and development, animation is good outside the aforementioned exceptions, and the action is fun to watch. There are a lot of cool scenes showcasing sci-fi tech and semi-realistic ship combat too, if you like that kind of thing. The story is fun and has some surprisingly impactful moments despite the usual cartoonish and light-hearted tone. Captain Nemo and the antagonist Gargoyle are probably my favorite characters, they have a great dynamic and a lot of fun scenes and battles throughout the ani…
Read at the sourcespacenewtype
What a wonderful show full of adventure, discovery, and relationships. This story follows the titular Nadia and a young inventor, Jean, as they get caught up in a spanning adventure that takes them across the ocean, under the waves, and through the skies in search of Nadia's past all the while discovering more about each other and, more importantly, themselves.
The character relationships of the cast are dynamic and really change over time. The animation is beautiful to behold; there are great elements of mecha and magic present in the show... I hesitate to say much more as don't want to spoil the experience of the story. It really is a treat to experience for the first time. Overall a beautiful mix of light and dark elements.
The narrative is all tied up in a bombastic and exciting conc…
Read at the sourceMikaelX
Full disclosure: I did not watch the 39 episode anime, I watched the 30th Anniversary fan edit, which converted the 16+ hours series into a trilogy of movies of less than 6 hours in total. A lot of people who presumably saw both say this is the way to go, and I guess they're probably right, because this shortened edit worked very well as a "director's cut". And I can definitely see how the story would suffer from adding 10+ more hours of pointless filler...
The anime is not perfect (its age shows!), but it's very charming and full of surprise plot twists that kept my interest all the way through. So instead of complaining about the weaknesses I'll just applaud its strengths.
First and foremost, it's the charm that carries this show! The characters are very simple, but in an earnest and e…
Read at the sourceProudElitist
Do you want to see Evangelion before Evangelion took a definite form? look no further than this series, which is simply a preamble to what Hideaki Anno made with that one, and I mean that it's a preamble in the true sense of the word not only in terms of visuals and scenes copied and pasted but also because it de facto encapsulates every virtue and sin (oh no the christian symbology from Ultraman and Ultraseven has taken hold of me too! help me! No, wait, I'm an Ultraman fan too, everything's OK) of that series, in turn the virtues and sins of the creator, who can write enticing and reflexive stuff when he refuses to give go to any pretention of fake intellectualism (hello the Gainax Bounce on Grandis' tits and the nude butt of Nadia/Vegetarian Asuka in the bathtub! Hello final reference t…
Read at the sourcecloudviiiiiii
This series is one of the best animated features ever made. Away from the bizarre island arc, it is nearly flawless. I recommend watching the 30th Anniversary fan edit, which converted the 16+ hours series into a trilogy of movies of less than 6 hours. It also treated the major issues like the island arc, and some other continuity errors and fillers in an amazing way. I personally think this is the best way to watch this work of art.
The best thing about this masterpiece is the character development and writing. This is by far one of the most enjoyable, relatable and well written cast of characters in a work of fiction. The music too is amazing. Could be Shiro Sagisu's finest work.
Read at the sourceneongenesis92i
The characters are truly loveable and well-written (Jean and Nadia are both adorable in different ways), many interesting and philosophical themes like science/nature conflict, growing up, human race and its flaws, love, death, fate, duty, sacrifice, hubris are covered. I loved how joyful and childish the show looks like at first sight, but it actually ended up being kinda dark and deep.
The story itself is also really interesting, and the ending (ep 35 -39) is grandiose. The Island and Africa Arcs are for sure flawed in many ways: they are mostly fillers, with crappy and boring humor and gags, ininteresting events (King being jealous...), boring character interactions (Sanson and Hanson were just so annoying), and sometimes the graphic style looked horrible (ep 27...). But there were some…
Read at the sourcemattpointon77
I was introduced to the world of anime back in the mid-1980s when, as a child, I saw The Mysterious Cities of Gold. Ever since then I've searched for a series that can compare and now, I have found one.
Nadia is not MCOG and I still prefer the latter, but in style, plot and characterisations, there are lots of similarities, from an historical setting, world travel and survivors from an ancient civilisation destroyed by war.
Nadia is better in terms of characterisation. There is a degree of depth to all the characters that does not exist in MCOG. The dynamics between Nadia and Jean are excellent.
Nadia falls because of too much padding. Cut out the Lincoln Island episodes, the awful musical one and stuff like the battle with the giant squid and it would be on a par. I believe it was orig…
Read at the sourceephemerry
Fushigi no Umi no Nadia was a cacophony of many different things: an explosion of colors, an unusually worldly settingーparticularly for an anime of its time, and machinery fetishization that is noticed, it nearly breaks the fourth-wall, by the main heroine (Nadia) who annoyingly whines and throws tantrums throughout most of the show. I felt as though Hideaki Anno was attempting to merge Space Battleship Yamato with Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea into an original, awe-inspiring tale.
• Nadia: Secret of Blue Water fails where it’s successor, Neon Genesis Evangelion, thrives. This is with tonal consistency and focus, areas that cause Secret of Blue Water to fall behind despite its influence on the medium. There are some truly chilling and thought-provoking moments in thi…
Read at the sourceCodeBlazeFate
Nadia is a strange and interesting series to talk about. From its reception, you’d find a show that can go from fun to nauseating and amazing to terrible at the drop of a hat after a magnificent early run. From the title and the premise, this show sounds like a wonderfully charming time. It creates this sense of trepidation as to whether you should watch the show, as while there is a lot of joy to be had, some may deem the lengthy yet temporary drop in quality not worth sitting through even for the ⅔ of the show that is worth cherishing.
Allow me to state that for all intents and purposes, now only is this show worth watching, but that a majority of it is some of the most charming and pleasant anime out there. Beyond the main antagonists and Nadia herself, every major character has a dist…
Read at the sourceSmartreviews
Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water is one of anime's greatest kept secrets and a hidden gem (no pun intended) for most modern anime viewers. While I wouldn't say it's based off of 20,000 leagues under the sea, it certainly does take inspiration (Nemo) and pay homage (Jean) to many of Jules Verne's works. Most importantly, it's accurately captures Verne's spirit of adventure that would be expanded upon in Hiyao Miyazaki's latter works. It was basically Gurren Lagann before Gurren Lagann. Yet, I wouldn't blame anyone for rating this show a flat 7. Why?
Well, while the first 23 episodes and last 5 episodes made up one of the greatest adventure animes I've ever seen, episodes 24 through 34 made up for one of the worst adventure animes I've ever seen. It was almost as if the creator of episodes 2…
Read at the sourceBunBytes
STORY - 5/10
Apparently this idea was pitched by Hayao Miyazaki over a decade before the series was made. In total honesty I'm no fan of Miyazaki when it comes to his stories - I watch Ghibli for the animation - so it's no surprise I wasn't the biggest fan of the plot of Nadia. What confused me most was the inclusion of filler (there's an episode where the characters sing 2+ minute songs set to clips from previous episodes), considering it ran to a non-standard 39 episodes and wasn't adapting anything. It's very hard to pin down the story's faults beyond that, though, because the writing is inconsistent in its quality. It opened well, the episodes on the Nautilus were great, and the finale was fantastic. But anywhere inbetween those three points ranged from passable to annoying. I believe…
Read at the sourceyoung_kappa
I'll say it right off the bat, this show totally soiled my expectations. I was certain Nadia: Secret of Blue Water would become one of my all time favorite series at an 8/10 or possibly 9/10 score until about the halfway point where the directors just threw in about ten episodes of superfluous and boring character interactions just to stall on keeping the plot going, that largely being what killed this for me along with the fact that it's chock full of blatant animation errors, among other things I'll get into. But it certainly has some very redeeming qualities.
Nadia's story is the strong point. It's definitely one of the best stories I've ever seen in a series, up to a point. You may or may not know already that it loosely follows the plot of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,…
Read at the sourceLaLeLuLiLo
The story opens on 1889 as the world is in the midst of an industrial revolution, as well as the start of the famous french world fair with its main attraction being the Eiffel tower, the tallest structure during its time as well as a monument to modern engineering, industry, and science. Enter Jean Ratlique a young french inventor whose dream is to be the first person to make an actual flying aircraft. Jean along with his uncle enter a sort of flying/gliding competition, until Jean falls in love at first sight with a dark skinned girl who walked passed by. Jean leaves his project in order to strike up a conversation with her, until a group reminiscent of team rocket intrudes in order to steal a blue jewel around the girl's neck. The two kids are able to escape, and jean later figures out…
Read at the sourceAironicallyHuman
'Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water' is a fascinating piece of overlooked anime history, as well as an adventure classic. Those fond of 'Neon Genesis Evangelion', in particular, owe it to themselves to watch it because Nadia is the anime that directly influenced Evangelion; in the form of director Hideaki Anno's very own version of a much loved Ghibli classic.
The reason Nadia holds such influence is - partly - because the stress of working on the series was what lead to Anno's (in)famous four-year period of depression, which he would later channel into a sort of negative creativity in the form of THE psychological breakdown anime; Evangelion. The two share the same animation studio, Gainax, and a considerable amount of key staff, including Anno himself, the character designer (Sadamoto) and…
Read at the sourcehasabrowngirlnit
[Warning somewhat spoilerish]
Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water ‘starts off’ as a great anime. The first ep was well-done and serves as a perfect example of how to capture your audience's attention from the very beginning.
We are quickly introduced to the character Jean, who we understand is an upcoming inventor, he then spots Nadia, a mysterious girl who wants to find out where she comes from. Later, on we meet Grandis and her crew, who will quickly become my favorite characters in the series, and see that they are after the ‘blue water’ that is Nadia’s necklace.
So there we go, we have are plot, we have are mysterious, what should come next is just a bunch of whacky eps of Nadia and Jean trying to get away from Grandis and her crew.
Well, not exactly.
The plot quickly takes on a inter…
Read at the sourceFear_the_Reefer
Jean Raltique is a 14 year old, wide eyed inventor living in 1890’s France. He and his uncle are participating in the Birdman Rally, an event that wouldn’t actually be established until 1970’s England, but we’ll be gracious and ignore that fact. He falls in love at first sight with an exotic looking circus performer named Nadia, who wants to return to the place of her birth, which... Due to her dark skin... she believes to be Africa. They’re attacked by a trio of jewel thieves, and are chased all the way back to Jean’s house, where he smoothly offers to fly her all the way to her home. Another encounter with their aggravators leaves them stranded out at sea in a floating plane wreck, until they(and their pursuers) are picked up by a futuristic submarine named The Nautilus. Grand adventure…
Read at the sourceNeverKnowsBest26
Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water is one of the first works acclaimed director Hideaki Anno. Though inspired by Jules Verne's "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" it is a sci-fi adventure that is enjoyable even without any knowledge of Verne's story. The show displays Anno's talent as a director early in his career. While not as refined as Anno's definitive work, Neon Genesis Evangelion, it benefits from Anno's mastery over characters and spectacle. Sadly, it also suffers from the director's unfortunate tenancy to overemphasize on those strengths and his weakness in theme and plot.
The show follows Jean Roque Raltique, a young scatter-brained inventor who spends most of his time creating half-baked inventions. While in Paris, Jean meets a girl named Nadia and instantly falls in love wit…
Read at the sourceBornIn1142
Story: Nadia, the Secret of Blue Water is supposedly based on the novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The truth of the matter is, the plot elements shared by the two can pretty much be counted on one hand. The two stories are practically unconnected. But that's alright. The plot crafted for Nadia "based on" Jules Verne's is actually quite good by its own right. It offers both awesomely epic action and touching emotionality and handles both wonderfully. There are a few nicely executed twists thrown in as well.
Of course, no review of Nadia can get around a certain arc in the middle. Episodes 23-34 are directed by a replacement director. The twelve "filler" episodes, in my opinion, aren't horrible, but they ARE horribly mediocre in comparison to the rest. For those twelve episodes (episodes…
Read at the sourceJTurner
In the mid 1970's, prior to obtaining his well-deserved status as Japan's greatest animator ever, a young Hayao Miyazaki was hired by Japanese movie giant Toho to develop ideas for TV series. One of these concepts was "Around the World Under the Sea", based on Jules Verne's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea," in which two orphan children pursued by villains team up with Captain Nemo and his mighty submarine, the Nautilus. Although it was never produced, Toho nonetheless kept the rights to the story outline. Miyazaki would reuse elements from his original concept in later projects of his, most notably the terrific action-adventure Castle in the Sky. Ten years later, in the mid-1980's, animation studio Gainax was commissioned to produce an original Anime series to be broadcast on television netw…
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