Wednesday, July 20, 2005

   Another anime recommendation!!!
Yup, it's another anime recommendation, since I enjoyed writing the last one!!!

This time it's a little known anime called 'Nadia The Secret of Blue Water'. Quite an old show, aired on Japanese TV in 1990.

The story is, apparently, an adaptation of the Jules Verne novel "20,000 Leagus Under The Sea" (Although I've never actually read the book, so I'm not sure how close to the original it is!!). Set in 1889, the story focuses on a mysterious 14 year old orphan girl, Nadia. Working as a circus acrobat at the 1889 World Exposition in Paris, Nadia is attacked by Gem Theives who try to steal the Blue Water, a gem which is the only possession Nadia has from her past. However, she is rescued by a young inventor named Jean, who has a number of ingenious, but not always reliable, inventions to hand!!! The two kids manage to escape and through a series of unfortunate events, mostly through Jeans 'ingenious' inventions, end up stranded in the Atlantic Ocean. Here they are picked up the Nautilus, an amazing submarine way ahead of its time and its mysterious crew.
The series twists and turns from there as Nadia discovers more about the Blue Water and the real bad guys who are after it.



This series is definately aimed at a slightly younger audience than myself, however, what drew me to it was the people behind the series.
The show was directed by Hideki Anno, perhaps best known for his series "Neon Genesis Evangelion" (My favourite anime of all time). Not only that, but the show also had the same character designer, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto (Nadia and Shinji look incredibly similar!!! Lol) and even the same musical composer, Shiro Sagisu.

After watching the series, I could really see just how much it influenced Evangelion. So many of the little details, some of the suits that people wear later on in Nadia look like very simplified versions of the 'Plug Suits' that the Eva pilots wear, the music seems very familiar, suitably atmospheric and a storyline which twists and turns to become much darker as it goes along!!!! (Not as dark as Eva, but still theres a familiarity to the story telling).

Nadia The Secret of Blue Water is an enjoyable series, not groundbreaking, but still a show that I believe deserves a more attention. Definately worth a watch if you're an Evangelion fan!!


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