Product Details

• Actors: Yoshino Takamori, Noriko Hidaka, Yûko Mizutani, Toshiharu Sakurai, Akio Ôtsuka
• Format: Animated, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0), Japanese (Dolby Digital 2.0)
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Adv Films
• DVD Release Date: June 19, 2001
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005BJEC
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #67,037 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Nadia, Secret of Blue Water - The Adventure Begins (Vol. 1)" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

These first four episodes introduce a long, involving anime series that should provide a wonderful stepping stone for youngsters being weaned from Pokémon. Based partially on Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water begins as Jean, a young French boy who builds airplanes, teams with his uncle to enter a flying competition at the 1899 World's Fair in Paris. It's there that the preteen Jean meets and immediately falls for the exotic Nadia, who leads an unhappy life as a circus performer. Jean turns protector when Nadia is chased by a trio of bumbling villains who are after the mysterious "blue water" in Nadia's necklace. Their pursuit leads to the open sea, where Jean and Nadia board an American battleship searching for a vengeful sea monster, ultimately revealed as Captain Nemo's submarine, Nautilus. This first series from Hideaki Anno (Neon Genesis Evangelion) has some of the charm and rich detail of the films of Hayao Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke) but features cardboard villains that could be distant cousins of Pokémon's Team Rocket. Nadia, Secret of Blue Water stepped into the limelight in 2001, 12 years after its original production, thanks to myriad similarities to Disney's ambitious animated feature Atlantis: The Lost Empire, including period setting, design, characters, story, and a mystical blue necklace. Nadia has the added benefit of its scope, 39 episodes spanning 16 hours, affording fans many more adventures ahead. Rated 12 and up for violence, but suitable for ages 7 to teens. --Doug Thomas

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Neglected Nadia--and a Harbinger of Things to Come, July 30, 2001

By 

Michael Huang (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nadia, Secret of Blue Water - The Adventure Begins (Vol. 1) (DVD)

This neglected series, which I saw in its entirety on fansubs, might very well be the best TV series adventure drama for younger audiences produced in anime--but I'm not so familiar with anime aimed at younger audiences, so that's not something I say with total confidence. There are still numerous flaws in the storytelling, especially in the middle episodes that were made after Director Hideaki Anno handed over production to his assitant Shinji Higuchi and the animation was farmed out to cheaper, overseas animation studios. (I guess he came back for the final episodes, which are pure Anno indeed.) On the whole, "Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water" is an age-appropriate series that doesn't fail to include compelling characters, a twisting, consistently interesting plot, and a grand finale that's logical and actually worthy of everything that came before it. Anno didn't even manage to pull something like that in "Evangelion," no matter what the greater strengths of that later show were.

What's actually rather amazing in seeing this series is how many parallels the storyline and even the characters of Nadia, Captain Nemo, Electra, and the Neo-Atlantean organization were carried over into "Evangelion." Suffice to say that in the second tape, the middle episodes before the infamous "Island" sequence, and in the final five episodes--the echoes are undeniable. (Biblical references abound, for example.) Situations, lines, and themes turn out to be similar, and occasionally they even rival the brutality that "Evangelion" portrayed so vividly--though of course, this show was made for children and thus Anno had to pull his punches. Reportedly, he was unhappy about this fact; I suppose "Evangelion" made up for that! Even the infamous close-up montages of still objects that would be a hallmark of Anno's later work shows up from time to time in this show.

The colors are bright and sharp, if a bit 80s-ish and slightly dated by today's anime standards. The character design is also much more "round" and "cartoonish," with the eerie exception of Nadia herself--a dead ringer for Shinji, if I ever saw one. (Of course both "Eva" and "Nadia" shared the same character designer, so it's no surprise.) Special note must be made about the delightfully Jules Vernes-ish mechanical devices--the Gratan, for example, or the intricately designed Nautilus, which has throwbacks to the spaceships in Anno's debut OAV, "Gunbuster." As a previous reviewer has noted, the influence of Miyazaki, especially "Laputa: Castle in the Sky," is significant, though they're not specifically the flying machines that Miyazaki has a special affection for. The alternate late 19th Century portrayed in this series is quite charming and intricate, in a Jules Verne-ish way again.

What I liked about this show is that while the above-mentioned brutality and plot twists are definitely present, the strong sense of faith and vitality is never lost in the characters--especially in Jean, who never loses hope, even when the moody, introspective Nadia does. Jean's optimism is believable, not contrived, and it is his devotion and energy that drives this show, even as many of the characters around him start to fall apart in remarkably similar ways that the "Eva" characters did. I think this ultimately was the secret of this anime's true success in Japan and in the early US anime fan community, besides the humor and impressively detailed mechanical devices and plot twists.

I look forward to completing this series on DVD, hopefully with the valuable, revealing, and necessary omake/extra bits released as well.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A flawed, but very, very good anime series, June 19, 2001

By 

Jon J. Marx (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nadia, Secret of Blue Water - The Adventure Begins (Vol. 1) (DVD)

I love the Beatles White Album, but I only love about half the songs on it. Beatles manager George Martin always said he thought it should have been done as a single album, taking the best from both records, and it would be the best rock album ever. This is basically how I feel about "Nadia." Director Hideaki Anno chose to make the series 39 episodes long rather than the usual 26; I feel that if he condensed the series to 26 episodes long, he would have a killer show on his hands.

Nadia was Anno's first series, and essentially spins halfway between his work under anime legend Hiyao Miyazake (Princess Mononoke, Nausicaa) and his own landmark series Neon Genesis: Evangelion. The best elements of Nadia feature remnants of Miyazaki's spellbinding magical qualities, and Evangelion's scorching and unsettling vision of looming apocalypse. Our heroine Nadia finds herself exploring a vast and strange lost underwater kingdom, while coming to terms with her own tortured family life and the frightening proto-Nazi organization that her Atlantean kingdom has turned into. Anno doesn't fail to dazzle us with a glimpse at a haunting and magical world, but he pulls no punches either.

Tragically, both of these aspects are rather damaged by Anno's handling of comedy in the series. The mixing of comedy and serious material within Nadia is nothing extraordinary; the Japanese have a knack for handling this brilliantly (see Cowboy Bebop, Slayers: Try, and even the incredible Irresponsible Captain Tylor). Anno himself handles this masterfully - albeit with a vicious streak - in Evangelion, where he lures the viewers in with lighter-hearted fare before dumping unspeakable horror on them. But in Nadia, there is simply too much comic relief; the gag characters don't know when to shut up. When the Hitleresque Gargoyle is nearly destroying Nadia with a horrific battalion of organic spaceships, silly jokes are still being cracked. It just spoils the purity of the moment.

Likewise, the comic sequences stretch on too long at times. Nadia and Jean's stay on the island, for example, lasts at least six or seven episodes, with most of the plot taken up with Jean's comic swipes at Nadia's obsessive vegetarianism. By the time they get off, you nearly forget that the plot that landed them there.

This is not to say this a bad series by any means; it's simply a warning. Don't expect THE most incredible series ever; truth told, it is probably not as solid a show as Anno's Evangelion is. But it remains his close second, and one of the best anime series in recent memory. If you've seen Evangelion, Nadia has some of the same feel, but in much gentler way... Nadia takes you by the hand where Evangelion stomps on your face with a metal boot.

So definitely check out Nadia. You'll get the bonus of seeing where Disney stole their newest movie from, too...

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Neglected Nadia--and a Harbinger of Things to Come, July 30, 2001

By 

Michael Huang (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nadia, Secret of Blue Water - The Adventure Begins (Vol. 1) (DVD)

This series, which I saw in its entirety on fansubs, might very well be the best TV series adventure drama for younger audiences produced in anime--but I'm not so familiar with anime aimed at younger audiences, so that's not something I say with total confidence. There are still numerous flaws in the storytelling, especially in the middle episodes that were made after Director Anno Hideaki handed over production to his assitant, but on the whole, "Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water" is an age-appropriate series that doesn't fail to include compelling characters, a twisting, consistently interesting plot, and a grand finale that's logical and actually worthy of everything that came before it. Anno didn't even manage to pull something like that in "Evangelion," no matter what the greater strengths of that later show were.

What's actually rather amazing in seeing this series is how many parallels the storyline and even the characters of Nadia, Captain Nemo, Electra, and the Neo-Atlantean organization were carried over into "Evangelion." Suffice to say that in the second tape, the middle episodes before the infamous "Island" sequence, and in the final five episodes--the echoes are undeniable. (Biblical references abound, for example.) Situations, lines, and themes turn out to be similar, and occasionally they even rival the brutality that "Evangelion" portrayed so vividly--though of course, this show was made for children and thus Anno had to pull his punches. Reportedly, he was unhappy about this fact; I suppose "Evangelion" made up for that!

The colors are bright and sharp, if a bit 80s-ish and slightly dated by today's anime standards. The character design is also much more "round" and "cartoonish," with the eerie exception of Nadia herself--a dead ringer for Shinji, if I ever saw one. (Of course both "Eva" and "Nadia" shared the same character designer, so it's no surprise.)

What I liked about this show is that while the above-mentioned brutality and plot twists are definitely present, the strong sense of faith and vitality is never lost in the characters--especially in Jean, who never loses hope, even when the moody, introspective Nadia does. Jean's optimism is believable, not contrived, and it is his devotion and energy that drives this show, even as many of the characters around him start to fall apart in remarkably similar ways that the "Eva" characters did. I think this ultimately was the secret of this anime's true success in Japan and in the early US anime fan community, besides the humor and impressively detailed mechanical devices and plot twists.

I look forward to completing this series on DVD, hopefully with the valuable, revealing, and necessary omake/extra bits released as well.