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Comments - Opinions - Reviews

This section will feature your reviews about the series, opinions about any character you want, comments about the story...about everything! Just send your opinons to me and I'll upload them the same day !

GREAT retrospective about the series
GREAT analysis of Jean

Nadia, Secret of Blue Water is probably one of Classic Anime series of all time.

Visuals: Because of constantly changing visual works of Nadia I'll probably go ahead and review different parts -.- (Gainax, what the heck is wrong with you and your budget allocations -.-)
Episode 1-8, 9-24 (Charactor Introduction, Natillus Saga). Artwork of this part is very well done (compaired to standard of late 80's and early 90's, but it's also compairable to most 90's series). Highly detailed work on the machine and background is what makes me like this series more, they have battle scenes very intense and action oriented. and some dark moments but also contains some parts where it's rather light and childish.

Episodes 25-34 (The infimous Island Episodes)
This is where Gainix tries to save money (or something) and makes horrable mistake of outsourcing animation to cheap sweatshops of Korean and other Japanese anime companies, animation on this parts are very bad, and sometimes downright rediculous, In few scenes there are dialogs where charactor's mouth are not moving, talking about cheaping out on the show X.x

Episode 35-39 (Ending Story)
This is where Nadia comes back with a big bang, all the animation on the series is back to in house Gainix (what too you so long -.-) and it look better then ever. Ending part of the series'll simply blow you away.

Artwork on the overall gets B average because of A on the beginning and the end but D- on the island eps X.x, heck original fansubbers decides to skip episodes 24-28 because of the low quality of the episodes, and those episodes containing storyline rather irrelevent to the series. However Technical aspect of the series is top notch, they're very detailed like that of other Gainix works, such as Gunbuster and Evangelion. You'll notice some similar technical scenes similar to that of EVA and Gunbuster, such as partical cannon firing, and anti-flood bulkhead closing on Nautilus.

Story: hmm what should I say, The series takes huge left turn in like every 8 or 16 episodes. I mean HUGE. If you've seen the beginning episode then skip the middle and get to the ending, you'll have no clue how they got from Poing A to point B. However, storyline of the series is very intense, it's got love, hate, friendship, super sciences, evil guy in a mask, ship that can blow up everything, those rediculously huge weapons that blows up cities, and etc. And biblical references to boot. Details on technical items are also very well done, most technical stuffs they talk about makes good sense if you're veteran to Sci fi stuff like Star Trek, such as Pair Annhilation engine (Matter Antimatter reactor), electromagnetic water propulsion drive, and etc. and If you're wondering where Matter antimatter reactor comes in the middle of 1889, you'll just have to see the series to find it.
If you watch first few episodes and thinks this series is one of those childish adventure series, you're greatly mistaken. This show probably has one of most complicated, sometimes emotional, and "back stabbing" storyline.

Music: Musical Score of this series are awesome!! It does perfect job of setting the mood. Opening animation is rated one of best in anime, both songs and animation goes very well together, and very good and catch vocal songs for opening. Ending song doesn't have flash animation but it also has very good vocal song. And the sequence they had on the final episode where Marle sends her model airplain flying then cuts into the ending animation made me go "that's so cool!!"

Voices: Acting on this series is very well done, Hidaka Noriko(Akane of Ranma 1/2, Soujiro of Kenshin) does very good job of doing Jean, as male role as story demands to it. Also I liked the voice acting Marle for doing such a good job of doing naive little girl. Electra was done by one of current top notch voice Inoue Kikuko (Belldandy of A!MG, Kasumi of Ranma 1/2). Many of Nadia's voice became current top voice actor/actresses.

Overall: Well series is considered Gainix's best work (most thinks even higher then EVA,
Okay I've been ranting for too long, I don't think I'm making any senses over here, but oh well :P

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Character analysis: Jean, the real main character of Nadia

The show called Nadia of the Mysterious Seas, but something is amiss. Despite the title, Nadia doesn't seem to be the main character. Although it's not my place to name a show that I didn't produce, I'd say it ought to be called "Jean's Bizarre Adventure".

The story begins with Jean and his uncle preparing for the flying contest. Starting then and until the very last two episodes, the entire show is given to us from Jean's perspective. Jean first sees Nadia riding by on her bicycle, and we know nothing about her until Jean learns something about her. Just like many other anime involving romance, the main character likes another character and the audience knows this. We don't know how that other character really feels until they say it or until their actions reveal it, but we know the main character's feelings from the start. Godai of Maison Ikkoku for example, from the first time he sees Kyoko, we know that he thinks she's gorgeous. At first, Kyoko has no interest in Godai, and we know almost nothing about her emotions for several episodes. Even then, we are in constant contact with Godai's thoughts and dreams, his feelings and troubles, while we only get chance glimpses of Kyoko's slowly-growing attachment to him. It's the same in Nadia. We know how Jean feels and what his hopes for the future are, we see his dreams, we share his difficulties with Nadia, but we're given very little of her side.

The island episodes really show that Jean is the main character. We see Jean working to make the island livable, we see Jean try and deal with Nadia's vegetarianism, we get Jean's perspective of misunderstanding in the relationship, especially regarding the smooching. If Nadia were really the main character, we'd see her struggle with love for Jean that gets blocked by his lack of understanding for her different ways. We don't get that, but instead we get Jean's love for her being smashed repeatedly by her stubborn and cold-hearted attitude. It's Jean to whom Nemo comes in a dream and gives advice, not Nadia. Now I'm gonna give a bit of unimportant spoiler here, so watch out: In a later episode (my favorite, episode 34), Jean composes a song of love for Nadia. Since he's the main character, we get his perspective of asking others for advice and composing the song. If Nadia were the main character, then we'd see her perspective of wondering what Jean is doing sneaking around and asking others questions, and we'd share her surprise that he wrote a song for her.

Some other evidence: In movies and TV, who's usually the main character? The good guys or the bad guys? It's the good guys, the light side, the pure, the bright and shiny. Hideaki Anno, Nadia's director, has said that Jean and Nadia are like his own light and dark sides. So then Jean must be the main character, for he is the good, the light, and the pure.

It may be the case that Jean Loc de Lartigue is supposed to be Jean-Luc (a very common French name) de Lartigue, which means that he has the same name as Jean-Luc Picard, everyone's favorite sci-fi TV series main character. This further proves that Jean is the main character; he was named after the main character in a new and extremely popular TV series (at the time). Believe me, you haven't really seen ST:TNG until you've heard the Japanese dub (Riker's and Nemo's voices are the same).

As I mentioned before, there are places where Nadia takes over as the main character. For five minutes, she's the main character in the episode with the big old whale, and in the last two episodes, she's basically the main character, but both times only because she holds Blue Water. There are lots of shows where the main character steps aside for an episode and someone else has the spotlight; what matters is who is number one for the majority of the time. It's plain for all to see that Riker is number one. Ah! I mean Jean! Jean is the main character! So next time you're asked what your favorite anime of all that you've seen is, you'll say, "It's Jean's Bizarre Adventure, of course!"

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