"Tamarro Forever" presents...Nadia & Reality !

NADIA & REALITY !
(©Tamarro Forever)

- PART 1-

Part 1:

Intro - What is Atlantis? - Thartesos - Nadia's mother - Atlantean alphabet - NeoAtlantis - Geographic notes

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Intro:
When "Fushigi no umi no Nadia" was released years ago, nobody was interested to discover every single secret hidden inside an anime story...as it happened with Eva, though Nadia's series is full of really interesting elements too...

Please note that most of the informations below are official and/or acknowledged by archaeologists.

Let's start...

What's Atlantis?

Atlantis is more than a "mith". It was described by Plato in 400 a.C. in two books, two dialogues, called "Timeo" and "Crizia". It's described as an enormous island placed over Hercules'Culumns which, corrupted by its evilness, sank in the abiss in a day and a night due to God's will. This destruction happened about 11.000 years ago. Nowadays Atlantis is considered as a possible lost civilization which reached an high level of richness and welfare. Now let's compare some real theories with Nadia's story...

Nadia's birthtown: Tartesos/Tartesis/Tartesso

Nobody knows what's the real translation of its name but it's not an invention: it was built 8000 years ago in Andalusia (Spain) and it was centre of an important and modern (for that time...) Spanish civilization.

Just imagine they knew the first principles of perspective before Michelangelo!

Tartesos, as I will keep calling it, for a series of reasons, can be really considered one of the possible sites of Atlantis. However, there's still somebody who thinks it was just a colony. In "Fushigi no umi no Nadia", Tartesos is identified as Blue Noah, the ark fallen down in an area (Zaire?) in Africa (at least that's what we learn watching the series: you know, lions...savannah...)

So there's no a real connection with the real Tartesos, if not just the Atlantean origin of the city. Something strange...On Italian broadcasting (I don't know if it happens everywhere), Nemo, during one of Grandis' love dreams, says something in Spanish...A coincidence? Knowing Anno's passion for details it could be not...

Nadia's mother:

Nadia's mother appears about 3 times in the whole series. For example, when Nadia throws the Blue Water away, she appears for a second or two. That (and this!) image is exactly the same of a Spanish statue called "The lady of Elche", built about 2500 years ago and potraying a priestess. Funny how, due to its dating, archaeologists use to call it "The priestess of Atlantis". Another coincidence or Anno was already informed about its existence?

(thanks to Guido for a little correction)

Atlantean Alphabet:

Watching the series you probably noticed how Atlantean alphabet is similar to Azteca one. Aztecas considered themselves as Aztlan (a rich and powerful civilization which sank down in the sea) descendants. Another common element is that particular way to draw the sun (as it appears on the hilltop on Red Noah "island version" J)...another coincidence?

Neo Atlantis.

Let's pass now to a really curious (but sadly true) history lesson...

Since Plato's books were discovered by archaeologists in 1800 there was a real psychosis for Atlantis and its mith. Just like nowadays, there were groups of fanatics who believed to be Gods, elects etc etc...Of course there were people who called themselves last survivors of Atlantis! One of those groups became sadly famous in 1880. This "societe' pour le nouveaux Atlantis", which means "Society for Neo Atlantis" was set up by group of people who, thinking they were the direct descendants of the old civilization, aimed to re build it !

...Of course, as well as every other secret society, they never explained when/where/how they discovered their "real origin"...

Anyway, they became famous when, during a meeting between members of a rival group (Societe d'etudes Atlanteennes, society for studies about Atlantis), set at Sorbonne University in Paris, they burst armed with tear-gas and Atlantean symbols. "Funny" how one of those symbols was exactly the same (the eye) used by Neo Atlantis in Fushigi no umi no Nadia! Nobody knows if Anno did any kind of research before making the series...of course it could be all just a coincidence...

Geography !
Watching for the 23425° the series, I wondered if a few geographical details were right or just an invention of Anno & Co. For example, let's talk about the famous Karmadec Trench (check my section about Extras on Laser Discs) where Nautilus was sinking after that battle against Gargoyle's flying fortress.

Is it real?

Yes, it is !

It's a deep trench in Pacific Ocean, near New Zealand, as you can see here ------>

In the series, everything is right: the deepness, its name, the fact it's quite far from commercial courses, the fact there are A LOT of small island near it ! So one of them *is*" Lincoln's island. JJ

Let's pass on...Nemo says to Jean and Nadia nodoby has still made a jouney in Antartics. That's right, though there was an expedition in late 1700. But this one couldn't reach either South Pole coasts ! The first "real" expedition to this place was organized at the beginning of XX century.

Then...Oh, talking about Red Noah, an Atlantean guard tells to Gargoyle they found the it at these co-ordinates: Lat 7 North and Long 62 East.

As you can see above, these co-ordinates correspond to a point in Indian Ocean, near African coast. And, as we know thanks to a short sequence taken from Episode 35, Thartesos is near...