Soulsavior42 give us the review for Secret of the Blue Water
-SoulSavior42 (Zeronuckols@gmail.com)
Nadia: Secret of the Blue Water
Animation: 7/10
Story: 9/10
Music: 6/10
Action: 7/10
Overall: 7/10
Length: 39 Episodes
Themes: Romance, Adventure, Coming of Age, Comedy
Highlights:
Awesome Factor – This has Captain Nemo, The Nautilus, and Atlantis….Nuff Said
Emotional Factor – Series will stab you in the heart more then a few times in least expected places
Adventure Factor – Wont find a better adventure series for only 39 episodes.
Bad Factor: Horribly annoying eye catch
Brief Summary
When I first heard about this series I was surfing through a big long list of anime on Nation-Anime and just saw “Nadia”. I heard about this series a long time ago and have ran across and though about picking it up from time to time but never have. After researching a bit I read “Based on the Jules Verne novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” Immediately I start downloading the first 3 episodes in excitement. Now obviously since this is an anime and having read 20,000 I already knew out of the gate that it wouldn’t be like the book. (duh) Nadia is loosely based around 20,000. When I say loosely I mean that Captain Nemo and the submarine Nautilus are in anime. So lets leave it at that.
The story revolves around our main characters Nadia, a acrobat in the circus and Jean, a young inventor in 1989 Europe. Pretty cool setting since the industrial revolution and inventing things interest me greatly. At first the story really didn’t interest me, I just wanted to get to the submarine and my favorite sea captain. After some shenanigans, which I wont, disclose for your sake of needing to watch series they find themselves caught up in a battle with Neo Atlantis and the Nautilus. Jean and Nadia end up joining the crew of the Nautilus along with some friends and thus begin the story about 3 episodes in.
Over all the writing and story telling are stellar, I wish the company that wrote this story could have giving Code Geass some pointers. That aside, the episodes keep you very entertained whether it is some good emotional scenes with Marie, Jean, and Nadia or some hilarious scenes with Hanson and Sanson. After a few episodes I found myself not paying attention to time or my surroundings and double clicking the next episode for at least a few hours every night. Upon reaching the halfway point in the series episode 20 things reach a catalyst which sets up the ending of the series, now this would be grand except that for the next 10 episodes there is little to no story development accompanied by many boring and rather uninteresting episodes, I would almost go as far to say as to just skip these episodes but that’s up to your digression. Now I bet your wondering why I gave this series 9/10 for story, well you haven’t gotten to the end of the series yet, after coming out of the horrible stretch I will dub the “desert island” episodes the story picks up speed like a Ferrari going from 0 to 60, after some twists and familiar faces the ending is right around the corner and doesn’t disappoint in the least.
The comedy and romance for this series are a bit predictable as with are some plot points here and there, but for the most part the writers keep everything well balanced for the viewer and it doesn’t get to overwhelming until the desert island episodes.
Animation
For being made in 1989 I was very impressed with the smooth motions and very well animated action sequences. One of the biggest things I look for in older series I how much animation they reuse throughout the series, as for Nadia I noticed little to no reused animation, which was quite impressive. The actual style and quality that is used is outdated to today’s standards so for you super HD viewers don’t expect much in that category. The main reason I gave animation a 7 was due to the desert islands episode stretch where it seems the animators went on vacation for 2 months and let their cousins figure out how to draw and animate things at the same time, which was quite disappointing and aggravating when the episodes are already very boring to begin with.
Music
First off the opening for the series is probably one of the catchiest openings I’ve heard in a very long time and can definitely say that over the span of 2 weeks it already has about 70+ plays on my IPod. As for the music during the episodes, it has much to be desired, being a bit choppy and very redundant at times. Also at some points during the series the music ruins a perfectly good moment in the story and is totally unneeded.
Action
The action for this series is pretty exciting and seems to be well thought out and has justification for some of the “ridiculous” weapons and moments for the series. The main action for the series is a few torpedoes here and there and some very large nuclear sized explosions so for the most part the action is few and far between save the latter end of the teens and the ending of the series.
Overall
Personally, I loved this series even with the desert island episodes and some sound issues. I was captivated through the whole series waiting to find the next clue about Nadia’s past, or the secret of the Blue Water gem. To top it off it has the Nautilus and Captain Nemo so its tough to dislike something so golden as this series. I definitely give this series a recommend for anyone who is interested in adventure, submarines, or a good love story.
Download:
English Subbed torrents
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