Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water - Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.5

Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water - Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie Review

An early anime classic finally surfaces on Blu-ray.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 25, 2014

Hayao Miyazaki is rightly viewed as the elder statesman of anime, but just as you might look at your aging parents or even grandparents and not be able to imagine them at your particular age, Miyazaki was a young man once, trying to make his name in the Japanese animation industry. Like a lot of fledgling artists, Miyazaki had ideas which sometimes did not come to fruition in the way he imagined them. An idea he had for a television series based loosely on Jules Verne’s iconic 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was optioned but never produced in its original form. Miyazaki actually revisited some of his original concept in his beloved film Castle in the Sky, but Miyazaki’s original formulation languished for some time until—perhaps urged on by that very film’s success—animation house Gainax in conjunction with Toho started developing the story for a long form anime series. The result was Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, a highly influential series which has attained legendary status with many anime fans but which for one reason or another hasn’t seemed to penetrate into the general public consciousness the way, say, Dragonball Z has. Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water does contain a few recognizable Miyazaki tropes, including children as the focal characters and some whimsically charming retro “technology” which seems almost organic at times, but in other ways the series is firmly the creation of its director Hideaki Anno (Neon Genesis Evangelion), even if according to Anno himself he didn’t have complete creative control over the project. While Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water is actually fairly lighthearted a lot of time (something that might not initially be thought of as an Anno trademark), there is an undercurrent (no pun intended, considering the series’ watery focus) of melancholy running through the show, especially with regard to the mysterious Nadia, an orphan child who has amnesia and seems untethered from her own enigmatic history.

The series begins at the 1889 Paris Exposition where a young boy named Jean and his daffy uncle are entering a contest to see whose flying machine can stay aloft the longest. While a number of previous entrants catapult precipitously off a huge launching pad and directly into the Seine (in what looks like an animated version of that opening montage in Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines), Jean and his uncle tweak their craft until Jean spies a beautiful young girl bicycling by, with (of all things) a lion cub accompanying her. Jean is instantly entranced, and takes off after the girl, leaving his uncle in the lurch.

Nadia has perhaps been conscripted to perform as a circus acrobat, but Jean first finds her on the observation deck of The Eiffel Tower, where she initially demurs his advances, but soon doesn’t mind when he at least tangentially helps to keep her from being attacked by a trio of buffoonish villains. Around Nadia’s neck is a gorgeous blue amulet, which seems to pulse with power whenever she’s in danger. As the series progresses, this portal to “blue water” becomes an integral plot point, and it’s revealed the stone has even more powers than even Nadia realizes.

The first several episodes of Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water detail Jean and Nadia ultimately working together to outfox (and outrun) the dastardly trio of villains. The lead bad guy (actually gal) is raven haired Grandis, who is accompanied by two dunderheaded henchmen named Hanson and Sanson. These three have a bizarre vehicle which can morph into various components which allow the trio to follow Nadia and Jean into various terrains, including the ocean. After a couple of intermediary skirmishes, Jean and Nadia end up on Captain Nemo’s Nautilus, which is when the main thrust of the plot kicks in. By this time, rather unexpectedly Grandis and her acolytes have become grudging allies of Nadia and Jean.

The 39 episodes of Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water might be split into three unequal sections. There’s the first grouping, which frankly takes up the bulk of the series, where the relationship of Nadia and Jean is nicely detailed, we get backstories for several supporting characters, and the pervading mystery of Nadia, who soon finds herself up against some scary cult like figures called the Neo-Atlanteans, headed by their mastermind Gargoyle (all of the Neo- Atlanteans wear bizarre masks that are kind of a combination of Kabuki makeup and the Phantom of the Opera’s face covering). Unfortunately, there’s a middle section of the series where Jean and Nadia get stranded on a deserted island, and this middle (and middling) section is the most lethargic and repetitive of the show, so much so that much of the ebullient joy and evanescent intrigue which populated the first section gets at least slightly dissipated. Luckily, things pick up again in the final few episodes, as a rather huge variety of interlocking plot points are consummated and just about all existing plot threads are neatly sown up by the finale.

The series may ultimately not deliver any huge surprises, especially after its tantalizing build up as to who exactly Nadia might be (most people will get an inkling within a few episodes). But this series has incredible heart, as exemplified by the actually surprisingly emotional wrap up, where Nadia has to take the advice of Captain Nemo and his comely assistant Electra, advice which may put their futures at risk but which will hopefully provide a happily ever after for her and Jean. The series is visually quite inventive (in an “old school”, early nineties kind of way), and it is one of the few anime that actually seems to care about giving its characters breathing room and adequate development time. There’s no denying that some of Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water is a bit trying to sit through, but overall this series easily deserves its reputation as one of the formative works of late 20th century anime.

Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water - Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Sentai Filmworks with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.34:1. With a couple of notable exceptions, this is another good looking vintage anime series from Sentai, one that has either been sourced from relatively pristine elements or been lovingly restored. Colors are gorgeous saturated, bright and vivid, and line detail remains very sharp and fluid (compare, for example, the jagged stair stepping in the interlaced clean opening and closing animation with that in the actual series and the difference is rather remarkable). This has an "old school" animation style which some might feel is rather soft looking. Character designs (which were relatively revolutionary at the time) are fun and pop extremely well throughout this high definition presentation. There are still rather copious white flecks and the like which eagle eyed viewers will be able to see in virtually every episode, and it looks to me that some rather liberal denoising has been applied here, for there are relatively few instances of noticeable grain. There's also minimal though noticeable telecine wobble at times.

Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water - Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water features DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 tracks with the (sometimes lamented) ADV English dub and the original Japanese language version. Both of these tracks sound just slightly boxy at times, a tendency which is most pronounced in the music and effects, less so with the dialogue. There's a rather huge difference between the voice acting in the Japanese and English versions, and fans will probably want to at least spot check both of these. Much has been written about Nathan Parsons' English language voicing of Jean, but it's best to remember Parsons was a kid himself when he performed this role. Yes, his French accent is hugely variable (to the point where he can alternately be unintelligible or the accent completely disappears), but he provides a lot of innocent gusto to the role. Aside from the aforementioned narrowness, both tracks sport very good fidelity without any major damage to discuss.

Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water - Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Clean Opening Animation (1080i; 2:52)


• Clean Closing Animation (1080i; 1:10)


• Japanese Promo (1080i; 5:05)


• Japanese Spot (1080i; 00:32)

Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water - Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water is a very sweet natured show that has just a hint of what would later be termed "steampunk" in its variety of late 19th century technology. Combine that with the mythology of Atlantis and the storytelling verve of Jules Verne, and all the elements are in place for a grand adventure story. The characters here are lovingly developed, and if the series tends to bog down in its middle section, there's always something fun just around the corner for those with a bit of patience. The video here is generally quite good, though it's awfully grain free for such a vintage prodcution. The audio is decent but not fantastic sounding, and fans already will have "chosen sides" about whether or not they like the English dub. With these caveats in mind, Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water comes Recommended.