Fushigi no Umi no Nadia - Anime - AniDB (2024)

show review

by ThatAnimeSnob on 2010-09-26 21:14

Rating:7

Approval:95.8% (2 votes)

ANIME MINOR JEWELS SERIES
Full list of the review series can be found on this page, 3rd post from bottom:
http://anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl?uid=251338&show=userpage&do=blog&blogid=29009&page=0

TEASER: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYAW-cojw60&feature=related

There is no doubt in

being the father of modern science fiction. His books became the cornerstones of all further storytellers and have been used and remade a billion times ever since. So just imagine an anime being made on his work … ok, Nadia is not the first. Willie Fog, a semi-adaptation of Around the World in 80 Days was made in the 80’s. And I think there were a few more I missed. Nadia is in fact the last directly related to his works anime. And it also has some of the (not yet made) Neon Genesis staff in its production team; with

being the animation studio and

being the director. Characters and uniforms look familiar; so it kinda feels like a combo of two very famous works. Actually three, the anti-villains in the story are basically the Time Bokan bad guys. And captain Nemo is made to look like the captain in SDF Macross. Heck, this anime is in fact a tribute of many famous works and that alone gives it some praise. But even without all that, it has a hundred different ideas that could generate a smash hit. And in a way they did… if only they hadn’t made the deserted island arc…

So the story is kinda familiar but presented in a way it always feels unexpected and energetic. The setting is the industrial revolution of the early 20th century, when the sudden spread of technology is changing the world rapidly. That alone offers the series an elegiac tone, as you are to see things change, not necessarily towards a better form. The lead boy is Jean, a meek glass-wearing nerd inventor who dreams of making a flying machine. But all that change when he meets a beautiful circus girl named Nadia, who is chased by a comical trio for her necklace, which happens to unlock the secrets of the lost city of Atlantis, where a group of fascists (not Nazis but close) plan to use Doomsday weapons to take over the world. And then here comes the Nautilus submarine in the form of rebels. And then here comes a Robinson Crusoe type of story. And what’s with the sexual tension between those two? And that lion cub is so annoying!

Yeah, the story is a huge pile of ideas, most of which quite intriguing. If used properly, they would have made an amazing piece of fiction. And they semi-did but not enough to consider the story amazing. The reason? Pacing once again. Many episodes are used up just for random comedy kicks and that eventually tires most viewers who are promised an epic scale story of action and mystery and they need to tolerate a dozen Gilligan’s Island retarded episodes. But I do admit most are done with enough energy and love to actually appreciate even those dead times. It’s just that the story keeps jumping from dead serious to zany randomness too suddenly and you end up losing focus and interest. So the actual scenario is very elaborating, making references to many works and offers a complete story, yet at the same time it wastes a lot of time in silly moments and loosens too much in a bad way. This may of course aid in the character coloring, so those non-story-driven episodes help in a way too.

Talking about the characters, they are a very likable bunch. Although Jean and Nadia get most of the focus, most others are also colorful enough to deserve praise. If you manage to tolerate the dead times, you will really get to love them, even if they are not original. Nadia’s struggle to protect her heritage, Jean’s goals to be an inventor and the awkward feelings towards her, the trio of the anti-villain’s, Nemo’s burden, even the stereotypical Neo-Atlantis leader gets some pity from the viewer. And each one has his own set of skills and way of taking part in the action. Nadia for example is great at acrobatics and does a good job at evading enemies, while Jean makes several contraptions that aid in various ways, while the Nautilus crew is versed in advanced weaponry. And they do get catharsis to a great extend. So yeah, the cast is wonderful and even the dead-story episodes provide insight to them.

Animation and soundtrack are also extremely well done, especially considering the year it was all done. The take on industrialization, mysticism, desert island and zany comedy are mixing nicely. The characters move nicely around and have vivid facial expressions. And most action scenes are very exiting and not plain old stuff. Some jerky movement exists but nothing major bad. Plus those erotic humor moments, they are great in their own simplicity; I can almost see how they transferred the same feeling over at Neon Genesis. The various homages to other anime and Vern books also look eye-catchy and give the series a sense of nostalgia. There is also a great work done in blueprints and general machinery used in the series. Everything is shown in schematics and even semi-scientific explanations are given to everything. Almost as if I was watching Gunbuster in a lighter tone. Dialogues and voice acting are elaborating for the same reason, albeit don’t forget to get funny and ease the mood. And the opening song, my God it is pure magic.

This anime is pretty much overlooked today by most; mostly because those desert island episodes hurt the overall mood of the series. Also, there was no internet at that time to help build a fan base and its mood was neither just for kids or teens all the time, so the audience felt confused. Not to mention it was still too early for a heavyweight story to hit the market without proper advertisement and with other works like Akira or Ghost in the Shell paving the way for what is to follow. But overall it is a great show that simply lacks focus half the time. It is hard to mix mysticism, technology, comedy, drama, and tributes and Nadia did it rather good.

SUGGESTION LIST
Around the World with Willie Fog

And now for some excused scorings.

show review

by setsunakun on 2009-01-30 21:57

Rating:7.66

Approval:97.3% (1 votes)

Very long I have searched for this. Fushigi no Umi no Nadia is one of those series which I consider as a jewel in Animation history. There are some flaws and I won't back from including them into this review, but my overall impression was great. Thanks Gainax!

Animation
As has been said this is a Gainax series. For all those who don't know, that's the studio that created Shin Seiki Evangelion and realized the animation of titles such as Oruchuban Ebichu, FLCL, Mahoromatic and Kare Kano. Meaning if the label says Gainax, then it's safe to expect there's quality inside.
And so it is: many scenes feature very good character movements, camera angles are creative and the motions of the technical objects is nearly as perfected as what they have later shown in Evangelion.
But sadly there is also a downside. Nadia is one of the longest series Gainax has produced so far and in some episodes, especially the dozen after the first half experience a considerable drop in quality as does the story, but that's next chapters topic. That dozen features more reused scenes than is average at Gainax. They contain a few good ones, but the overall effect of those episode is quite disappointing. Luckily this changes as the story moves on and the last few episodes have their good old quality back. But consider that the series is from 1990 and 1991, so of course it is mostly below todays standards. (But not far, that's a twenty year gap we're talking about so it must have been quite above standard by then.)

Sound
Let's begin with the best part: the opening sequence. Even though there are thirtynine episodes I watched the opening nearly everytime just to hear this song. Called Blue Water this track first takes you above the clouds and warms your heart. I just love it.
The rest of the soundtrack is, with a few exceptions, quite ordinary. There are even some melodies that reminded me of the music later on heard in Evangelion. I don't know if it is the case, but maybe it was the same musician that did both scores. The one track that did catch my attention was the one that is played nearly every time there is a chase going on. Normally you would expect horns or trumpets to back up such scenes, but not this time. In Nadia you hear a guitar, which in my opinion is quite rare for this kind of scene.
I don't know about the standards at that time, but considered today the voice action is at most average. The only voice that's still echoing in my ears is that of the little girl, Marie, who quite often in the whole series says the word: tsumanai, which means "it's boring".

Story
The whole thing starts in france at the 1889 world exhibition. Jean and his uncle, both scientific inventors, have come to enter in a flying competition and have very good chances of winning. As his uncles goes on about finding a girlfriend Jean spots a cute, dark skinned girl riding a bicycle together with a lion cub. He is fascinated and as there is much time until the competition he decides to follow her to the Eiffel Tower. On top he starts talking to her but she refuses him coldly. They are soon attacked by some prototype of Team Rocket demanding the jewel in the girls possession. The girl evades them in a most artistical way and manages to escape. Both the fiends and Jean come to the same conclusion: the girl works at the circus. As Jean reaches besaid circus the girl is on the run again and he offers her to help. Together they manage to flee Paris and set sail for Le havre, Jeans homeplace.
The girls now unveils her identity, calling herself Nadia. The jewel tied around her neck is named "Blue Water". Nadia is quite paranoid and suspect everyone, sometimes rightfully, to only want to steal it from her. She has no memory of her childhood and seeks knowledge about her past and her birthplace. While once again being attacked they manage to escape once again on another aircraft invented by Jean and his uncle which breaks down just above the sea. They are rescued by a military ship but soon fall into water again in a fight with a supposed sea monster. That sea monster turns out to be a submarine called the Nautilus.
After many adventures with the Nautilus the sub is sunk by the notorious Gargoyle who seeks to instate a kingdom he and his henchmen call Neo Atlantis.
Jean, Nadia, her lion King and a little girl they rescued during one of their adventures, Marie, get washed upon the shore of a isolated island. Here they must survive on their own building all needed facilities like Robinson Crusoe. After once again they manage to escape the island they soon find themself face Gargoyle one last time. Just after Nadia finally finds out who she really is...
The first half of the series has the air of a World Masterpiece Theater production (Heidi, Anne of Greengables, Little Women, Peter Pan, ...). Featuring 19h century europe and adventurous episodes.
After the sinking of the Nautilus however the quality of the story telling is declining rapidly. First Nadia sets out into the jungle of their island alone to cut all ties with science. But after that the story writer seems to have been stoned or in a deep depression. Given the time of the events most of the featured inventions are just about as realistic as is a dinner with a martian today. As they escape from the island this is getting better, but doesn't reach the same level as before until the last few episodes.

Differences to the Novels by Jules Verne
As the series is based on the novels by Jules Verne there are of course many references but most of them are used different from the books. As example the captain of the Nautilus, Nemo, is a native Indian in Vernes works and the mission of the Nautilus seems to provide an escape for people who can't live in the established society. In Nadia this is changed to the ship being the base of a handful of rebels who seek to stop Gargoyles ambition and take revenge for dead family members. Also the size and form of the Nautilus differs much. The island where Nadia, Jean and Marie live for about four months is called Lincoln island by Nadia. That was the name of the original Nautilus' base, whereas in the anime that base is set under the South Pole.

Character
Nadia, the heroine has a very dark skin, blue short hair and green eyes. She doesn't know about her origins but is keen to find out. In her company is a little baby lion called King. She worked in a circus until she breaks free. Being a vegetarian she can't stand the killing or cooking of animals and despices people who do so.
Jean is a french boy who likes to invent and is especially keen on producing an aircraft that can take him and Nadia to Africa.
Marie is a little girl of ten. She is found by Nadia and Jean in the arms of her dead mother. Easily bored she often makes trips over the landscape with King.
Ms. Grandis is the leader of the trio that first hunts after Nadia for her Blue Water. She falls in love with middle aged men easily and after being saved by the Nautilus becomes friends with Nadia and Jean.
Sanson and Hanson are Grandis henchmen. Tall and slender, Sanson is the picture of a Dandy. He ofter tries to flirt with the women on board the Nautilus but is rejected as much. Hanson is an inventor like Jean and built the Teams Gratan, a swiss-army-knife like tank.
Captain Nemo is taken directly from Vernes books and modified slightly. He has long darkbrown hair which he hides in the beginning and a moustache. Nemo is a cold being who even shoots an enemy in Nadias presence.
Electra is the first mate of the Nautilus. She harbors secret feelings for Nemo and tries to act like a mother for Nadia and Jean.
Gargoyle is the leader of Neo Atlantis, an organization that wants to reactivate lost Atlantean technology to gain power over the human race. He and his followers consider themselves descendants of the Atlantean race. Finally there's a villain who doesn't turn his back on the hero after the first shot leaving himself vulnerable to surprise attacks by a supposedly dead enemy.
The characters, many new or heavily modified are based on the unique actors is Jules Vernes 20.000 leagues under the sea. As such they are miscellaneous and mostly likeable.

Value
This is one of those series I would recommend to watch to everyone. Well, if you think that outer space and advanced technologies have no place in an adventure tale then you'd rather stay away.

Enjoyment
Even with all the flaws mentioned above this series is a great experience. Adventures, scientific possibilities and parodies make this a really good show.

show review

Rating:7.66

Approval:97.3% (1 votes)

show review

Rating:7.33

Approval:78.6% (2 votes)

[This is my first review]

This early adventure series, Nadia (as I will call it in this review) from the today profilic animation producer/animation studio Gainax is a bit of a mixed bag.

Nadia was one of the first projects of Gainax, created at the beginning of the 90's as (or so I've been told) a television ripoff/retelling of the (at the time) semi-recent Ghibli movie _Laputa_, with the setting based on Jules Verne's _20 000 Leagues Under the Sea_ instead of the typical Miyazaki fantasy of mechanical flight.

As it is, Nadia can easily be seen as an almost-carbon copy of Laputa, with several obvious and non-obvious parallells, down to the sets of characters and backstory and story of the two.

It is my deep belief that Nadia would have done much better as a 24-26 episode series instead of the overlong 30 and plus episodes it ended up as. The quality of the series fluctuates violently in the latter half of the series, as several arcs of filler-like quality were inserted by an obviously different and inferior script-writing, animation and direction group. The first arc of the series - from the beginning until the Nautilus is boarded the second time - is the best in quality and in spirit, and the series lacks most of its magic for the rest of the series. In the end there are several episodes that are skippable by any measure (and I suggest you do so for AT LEAST the ridiculous Nadia Falls In Love 2-episode story near the end), unfortunate flukes in an otherwise good series. The first obvious filler-arc is the Swiss Family Robinson (or wossname) arc on the deserted island and on the moving island (done by the subquality animation team.), followed by some episodes by the original animation team and then back to the odd-jobs team again...

Animation:

The animation of most of the series is good to passable for the time it was done. Especially the animation at the beginning of series is good. unfortunately, two obvious animation groups were employed for this series, the second one obviously inferior, and used in concert with what I will term the filler-arcs of the show. This deals quite a blow to the animation, reducing the score (fixed to inflation) to 7.

Sound:

The music of the series was sometimes quite anachronistic, but not in a that bad way. The seiyuus of the era handled their bits admirably, and I cannot think of any great faults in the sounds of the series in general.

Story:

As with the animation, the story is dragged down by the uneven quality of it through the series, though the overarching plot is good enough to net an 8 in spite of the filler arcs.

Character:

The characters are likeable - or at least, not hateable. The score is dragged down by, yes, the filler arc content and the one-trick-ponyism of many of the characters.

Value:

I deleted this series because of the large ratio of crap filler to good adventure. I don't think I will bother to rewatch this series in the future, either, therefore the value is but a 6.

Enjoyment:

In the end, the good bits are very good, but the bad bits are very irritating. I enjoyed the series despite its flaws, therefore an 8.

End words:

I think this series could well use a fan-based editing to cut down on fillers in the latter part of the series, with several episodes merged into one. As it is, even a simple version of cutting everything but the "What happened in the last episode" bit would serve well.

Also, avid fans of Gainax and Neon Genesis Evangelion might enjoy the Spot What Ideas Were Reused In NGE game.

show review

by meermanr on 2003-03-03 12:50

Rating:8.83

Approval:52.0% (13 votes)

First impressions are that this is a very childish series with typical "bad guys" who are hell-bent on attacking innocent people for no reason; but this is far from the truth.

The character development is superb - due to the adventure-nature of the series the characters are often stuck with only each other for company, often with little to distract them. However, the main character is the ultimate in angsty teenage girls - even the narrator comments repeatedly on how selfish and blind she is - however, it is these exact characteristics which allow for such dynamic character interactions in a wide variety of circumstances - do they react with scorn or sympathy to Nadia's selfishness?

The plot is genuinely intriguing as it doesn't follow any stereotyped plot I know of - as you might guess it mostly revolves around the "Blue Water" a mysterious jewel which is Nadia's only possesion, as it is all she was left with as an orphan adopted by the circus. I won't spoil what the Blue Water is, but I will say that the villians which emerge later in the series called themselves "Neo Atlantis", making for some very interesting developments; sometimes implying things about the so-called Gods of the ancient world (such as the biblical story of "The Tower of Babel" (look it up on wikipedia.org, it's a very interesting story in itself)).

Despite "Nadia" being in the title, she's not exactly the main character - the characters are very well balanced and often don't follow what she's doing (as she's a brat anyways!). By the end of the series you'll know the (impressive) back-story each character has, and will surely have a favourite from among the numerous candidates.

When you think you've got the plot all worked out, it presents a twist you probably didn't see coming - and if you did it'll present in a manner you weren't expecting. This keeps it very fresh through-out. Of course it does have it's predictable moments, and a few episodes in particular were poor, but only 2-3 out of 39!

All in all, this is a very enjoyable anime and does not rely on hype to make something dramatic; you won't find characters repeatedly telling you how dangerous something is, or how powerful the enemy are. If something is incredibly dangerous the characters will probably mark it by simply being more professional - keeping the chat down to a minimum and concentrating on their assigned tasks / jobs to overcome the ordeal. This is enhanced greatly by the presence of a small child in the series who never truly understands the danger they are in, and yet usually acts more mature than the main cast!

The first half of the series is a wonderful light 'slice of life' which follows some very unusual situations of our adventurers which probably belong in a action/fantasy story. The second half becomes quite a bit more serious, involving more myths, battles aboard the Nautilus (a super-science submarine they board near the beginning of the story), and dark revealations.

[This review has been expanded and revised since it's original form, as I recently rewatched the series (after 5 years) - I've ammended the score for sound (down by 1) as I've experienced a lot more anime now... ]