Here’s a simple piece of advice for when the enthusiasm for one of your hobbies or interests starts to wane: seek out something that represents why you were a fan in the first place. The time I could spend grumbling about how everything’s moeshit, or watching stuff just because other people are watching it, could instead be spent watching something different and enjoyable. Which is what I did.
I’ve not been following much anime at all lately. I’ve watched a few films and TV shows, I’ve recorded some music and I’ve been busy with real life things. As for the last season or two of animu broadcasts, I’ve seen precious little. To break the cycle I idly turned to my backlog. First up, chosen more or less at random, was Nadia: Secret of Blue Water.
Since Wikipedia is so all-pervading, I won’t pad out a paragraph outlining the synopsis, the notorious production or any of that stuff. I don’t want this article to simply be a reaction to, or a reaction to a reaction to, preconceptions about ‘old school’ shows either. Simply put, it’s bloody brilliant television on its own merits, and dismissing it as an historical footnote is doing it, and the viewer, a disservice.
Nadia is a prime example of the genre done (mostly) right. It ticks a lot of boxes, too: steampunk is cool, but frustratingly steampunk stories don’t always live up to the expectations of their fun concepts. A capable screenplay writer/director is borrowing from classic SF literature, using an old Hayao Miyazaki premise (you have just checked the Wikipedia page and noticed that it’s Hideaki Anno reimagining Jules Verne, right? Good). It has memorable characters, cheeky nods to other fan favourites and uses its characterisation and imagination as a framework for some impressive set-pieces and cliff-hangers.
The Miyazaki connection is an important one because there are inevitably echoes of Laputa and Future Boy Conan in many of Nadia‘s themes and ideas, and when set to the template of a traditional family adventure cartoon serial you get some exotic locations and plot devices that are irresistible to youngsters — and the average grown-up viewer’s inner child. If I’d seen this when I was eight or something, as I had in the case of The Mysterious Cities of Gold, I think my head may have actually exploded.
Because of its pedigree, many of the recurring themes are in line with the Gainax manifesto but interestingly they also overlap with Miyazaki’s: e.g. a headstrong female lead, the heroic geek, and the innocence of childhood being celebrated while the adults are looked upon with sympathy for not being kids any more. A lot of Anno-isms creep in as well but the those are tempered slightly by a more conventional cartoonish atmosphere and sense of fun. Still, I’d put money on most of the production team being brought up on Macross and Space Battleship Yamato before being tasked with a series that’s set on Earth during the late Victorian period.
Also: Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. Nuff said
The great thing about the characters here is that they’re flawed enough to be believable yet those flaws don’t try your patience sufficiently to put you off altogether. When the hero Jean starts to act like a clueless nerd, the childlike naïveté turns around into that innocent, pure desire to do the right thing…which he does. Similarly, Nadia’s angst sometimes gets the better of her but her stubbornness is also her strength, and her selfishness gradually melts away in a fashion that’s really heartwarming and satisfying to witness.
There are a few pertinent questions raised, aside from the usual morality stuff that all kids’ TV is obliged to do. Although the Neo Atlanteans are inevitably cartoon villains, the historical context needs to be taken into account since the enemies of these villains are themselves far from blameless (an issue that found its way into pre-production discussions, by all accounts). This is perhaps the one area in which the show’s origins prevent it reaching its full potential, because it could have ‘gone dark’ very effectively and explored these themes more fully. But then, it would have lost its wide-eyed adventure story vibe along the way.
One of Nadia’s claims to fame, apart from being “that famous director also did this…” is that it has an atrocious filler arc. And yes, that filler arc is indeed a complete waste of the viewer’s time and almost undoes the character development and the attachment the viewer starts to have for them. When the plot labours a point, a member of the cast acts infuriatingly out-of-character to stall for time, or the animation takes a nosedive, it feels like the production is trying its damndest to deliberately sabotage itself. Then there’s a musical number episode, which is every bit as cringe-inducing as it sounds…take my word for it and just don’t go there.
It’s frustrating to see the momentum lost when the story treads water for twelve whole episodes, although #30 and #31 are justifiable in terms of storyline. By way of compensation the finale gets its shit together and is Anno firing on all cylinders; which sometimes feels like a rarer occurrence than his legendary status would have us believe. It resolves the major issues, sets the heroes and villains head to head, gives the important players their deserved moments in the spotlight…and even offers one significant individual a true Pineapple Salad exit from the story. It delivers on every level you expect it to, then pushes it a little bit further to make it extra memorable.
Every bit as epic as it looks
So you can chalk this up as a reminder of why Anno deserves our respect, how Gainax can do truly excellent endings, and when it wasn’t being excellent for the rest of the time it had good reasons, i.e. the director wanted to concentrate on planning the finale. The hero’s a decent lad who you will find yourself rooting for, the heroine justifies your patience for her less-than-admirable moments and Verne’s enigmatic submarine captain is deliberately and shamelessly dressed like a starship captain from Macross…and is voiced by the same guy who would later voice Rider in Fate/Zero.
I must admit to being one of those people who likes to sift out trivia, read around the background of a show to get context and generally geek out around it. Sometimes though you can over-think things and miss out on enjoying the title as it was meant to be enjoyed. Nadia had a troubled production and isn’t without its flaws, but getting caught up in that analysis means looking away from the screen and making unhelpful comparisons with other things. It’s genuinely *good* in the straight-up sense that I developed an emotional investment in the characters, I thought about why they made the decisions that they did and sat up late to watch “just one more episode because I want to see what happens next…” It’s imaginative, fun, addictive…it’s good TV, and that should be recommendation enough.