Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water
Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water | |
ふしぎの海のナディア (Fushigi no Umi no Nadia) | |
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Genre | Adventure, steampunk[1] |
Created by | |
Anime television series | |
Directed by |
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Original network | NHK General TV |
English network | |
Original run | April 13, 1990 – April 12, 1991 |
Episodes | 39 |
Anime film | |
Directed by | Shō Aono |
Produced by |
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Written by |
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Music by | Shirō Sagisu |
Studio |
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Licensed by |
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Released | June 29, 1991 |
Runtime | 87 minutes |
Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water (ふしぎの海のナディア, Fushigi no Umi no Nadia, lit. 'Nadia of the Mysterious Seas') is a Japanese
The original Japanese broadcast of the series aired from 1990 to 1991 for 39 episodes. Streamline Pictures released eight episodes in the United States on VHS from 1992 to 1993. The full series was distributed in the United States from 2001 to 2002 by ADV Films on DVD and VHS, with an American broadcast airing on ADV's Anime Network. Following the 2009 closure of ADV, Sentai Filmworks re-licensed the series and re-released it to Blu-ray and DVD in March 2014. GKIDS acquired the license in 2022 and released a new 4K restoration the same year.[2]
Plot
Set in an
In the process, Nadia and Jean save the world from violent domination by the Neo-Atlantean forces led by Gargoyle, explore worldly mysteries and the powers of the Blue Water, uncover Nadia's hidden family ties, and ultimately discover the secret origins of Nadia.
Production
This series' origins date to the mid-1970s when
Gainax's initial involvement with the project occurred during an internal power struggle within the company. During a pitch with NHK, Group TAC requested character designs and settings. Hiroaki Inoue provided character designs and storyboards for the pitch that were provided by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto and Mahiro Maeda working in secret. After the conclusion of the pitch NHK chose to proceed with Inoue's Nadia presentation. However the estimated cost of producing the show would cause Gainax to lose money. After a meeting at NHK where senior Gainax staff demanded Inoue be removed from the project or else they would withdraw, Inoue left the company. Sadamoto was originally assigned to be director but eventually dropped out, preferring to concentrate on design and animation. Hideaki Anno was chosen as his replacement.[5][6] The series contains references and in-jokes to other anime works including Space Battleship Yamato, Macross and Time Bokan.[7] Some episodes of the series were animated in Korea.[6]
At the completion of the series, Gainax had lost ¥80 million on the project and had no rights to the series itself. However, they were allowed rights to produce a video game of the series, which would set record earnings for the company. During production of the series, the company was also involved in other works to offset the losses; however, other issues arose surrounding those projects which highlighted several issues within the company.[8] Group TAC later requested Gainax produce a Nadia movie and provided a ¥50 million advance. Hideaki Anno was convinced to direct it after initially declining the role due to the stress of making the series. Initial production work began and included character designs by Sadamoto. However, the company was unable to develop the project and withdrew. The original advance had brought Gainax's loss on the series down to ¥30 million, but the advance was spent on early production, leaving Gainax unable to repay it until after the success of Neon Genesis Evangelion, in which Gainax returned the advance to Group TAC, minus some costs from Gainax's involvement in providing designs and edited footage from the series.[9]
Evangelion itself was originally planned as a further sequel to Nadia, regarding the 16 "Adams" who escaped from the destruction of the Red Noah and caused a cataclysmic event known as The Dead Sea Evaporation Incident (死海蒸発事件, Shikai Jōhatsu Jiken), but the scripts for all 26 planned episodes had to be completely rewritten when Gainax could not secure the rights to Nadia from NHK.[10]
Media
Anime
The series was broadcast on NHK between April 13, 1990, and April 12, 1991, and consisted of 39 episodes.[11] Two DVD box sets were released in Japan between June 1 and October 1, 2007. Ten individual discs were released between April 23 and May 21, 2008. A Blu-ray box set consisting of seven discs was released in Japan on November 23, 2011.[12] Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water – Nautilus Story, a compilation director's cut by Hideaki Anno,[13] was released in Japan on VHS and Laserdisc on June 21, 1991.[14][15][16]
Streamline Pictures licensed the series for North America and produced an English dub of the first eight episodes, which were released on individual tapes as Nadia between March 1992 and August 1993.[17] Streamline co-founder Carl Macek pitched the episodes for a television broadcast, intending to use the network money to dub the rest of the series, but was unsuccessful.[18][19] Orion Home Video later distributed the episodes on two VHS tapes in January 1996 as The Secret of Blue Water, each of which contained four episodes.[20] Compilations for the remaining episodes were planned by Streamline, but Orion declined to have them produced.[21]
In June 1999,
A Nadia feature film sequel premiered in Japanese theaters in 1991. The events take place three years after the defeat of Gargoyle and Neo-Atlantis. It was released as Nadia: The Motion Picture on DVD in August 2002 by ADV Films.
Manga
In 1992 a manga adaptation of the series was released under the name The Secret of Blue Water Comic. Although the characters from the series appear in the manga, the stories are not related to the original story and are typically of a comedic nature.[32]
Music
Since the series' first airing in 1990, Toshiba EMI's anime music label, Futureland, released several CDs containing the music of the series; of note are three initial volumes of music, as well as an extended compilation, Hooked on Nadia, which contained more cues than the three original CDs.
On August 27, 2012, Starchild released a complete box set of music from the series. The set consists of 11 CDs and a DVD-ROM.[12]
Video games
The first
Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water made its first
Reception
The series won a number of awards in the Animage Anime Grand Prix of 1991 including "Best Work". The opening theme Blue Water was voted as best song, while Jean, Sanson and Nemo were respectively voted as fourth, fifth and thirteenth best male character. Six episodes were voted into the top 20 best episodes, including episode 22 which was voted as best episode overall. Nadia herself was voted as best female character, and was also the first character to overtake Nausicaä as the favourite female anime character in Animage's readers poll.[36] In 2001, the series placed 72 in a list of top 100 anime productions decided by Animage.[37]
In The Anime Encyclopedia, Jonathan Clements and Helen McCarthy noted the series made an obvious attempt to reach the mass audience adding that "Very rarely has this approach produced a show of such enduring charm and emotional validity". They recognise that the audience is aware of a "dark and terrible fate" hiding behind the otherwise positive nature of the show's visuals and music. The series is compared to Gainax's later Neon Genesis Evangelion, which made the "lurking darkness" a central theme.[38]
Atlantis controversy
When
Although Disney never responded formally to those claims, co-director Kirk Wise posted on a Disney animation
See also
References
- ^ Osmond, Andrew (March 4, 2015). "Animatsu Acquires Secret of Blue Water for Blu-ray and DVD". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on October 25, 2019. Retrieved January 6, 2020.
1990s steampunk adventure series by Evangelion creator Hideaki Anno
- ^ Mateo, Alex (April 20, 2022). "GKIDS to Release Nadia - The Secret of Blue Water TV Anime With 4K Restoration". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on April 20, 2022. Retrieved April 20, 2022.
- ISBN 1-880656-92-2.
- ISBN 1-933330-10-4.
- ISBN 1-4139-0234-0.
- ^ a b Gustav Horn 1996, p. 25.
- ISBN 978-1-933330-22-8.
- ISBN 1-4139-0234-0.
- ISBN 1-4139-0234-0.
- ISBN 978-4-87233-315-2.
- ^ ふしぎの海のナディア アニメ 詳細データ. tvdrama-DB.com. Archived from the original on April 26, 2014. Retrieved February 16, 2014.
- ^ a b "ふしぎの海のナディア リリース". Starchild. Archived from the original on January 3, 2002. Retrieved February 16, 2014.
- ^ Inoa, Cristopher (August 6, 2022). "How the Chaos of Making Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water Almost Killed an Anime Studio". IGN Southeast Asia. Archived from the original on June 15, 2023. Retrieved June 15, 2023.
- ^ ふしぎの海のナディア ノーチラス・ストーリー. Suruga-ya (in Japanese). Archived from the original on June 15, 2023. Retrieved June 15, 2023.
- ^ ふしぎの海のナディア ノーチラス・ストーリー1. Suruga-ya (in Japanese). Archived from the original on June 15, 2023. Retrieved June 15, 2023.
- ^ ふしぎの海のナディア ノーチラス・ストーリー6. Suruga-ya (in Japanese). Archived from the original on June 15, 2023. Retrieved June 15, 2023.
- ISBN 1-880656-92-2.
- ISBN 978-1-933330-22-8.
- ^ Brubaker, Charles (May 3, 2015). "Streamline Pictures – Part 3". Cartoon Research. Archived from the original on March 1, 2023. Retrieved August 26, 2023.
- ^ "Exiting Action Adventures For Kids Of All Ages". Protoculture Addicts. No. 38. p. 3.
- Cartoon Research. Archivedfrom the original on May 13, 2023. Retrieved August 26, 2023.
- ^ "Companies make announcements at A-kon". Anime News Network. June 10, 1999. Archived from the original on May 18, 2019. Retrieved February 23, 2014.
- ^ "ADV Katsucon Announcements". February 15, 2000. Archived from the original on April 12, 2014. Retrieved February 23, 2014.
- ^ "Upcoming releases". Anime News Network. May 4, 2001. Archived from the original on September 3, 2013. Retrieved February 16, 2014.
- ^ Beveridge, Chris (May 28, 2002). "Nadia Vol. #10". Anime on DVD. Archived from the original on August 17, 2005. Retrieved December 18, 2023.
- ^ Barkley, Brett (December 2, 2005). "Nadia, Secret of Blue Water Collection 1 (w/CD)". Mania.com. Archived from the original on February 13, 2011. Retrieved February 2, 2014.
- ^ "Nadia, Secret of Blue Water Collection 2". Anime on DVD. Archived from the original on November 1, 2006. Retrieved December 18, 2023.
- ^ "Sentai Filmworks Adds Gainax's Nadia - The Secret of Blue Water TV". Anime News Network. November 9, 2013. Archived from the original on January 15, 2014. Retrieved February 2, 2014.
- ^ "Nadia Secret of Blue Water: Complete [Blu-ray] (1990)". Amazon. Archived from the original on January 27, 2014. Retrieved February 16, 2014.
- ^ "New Anime Releases – 21/06/2015". Anime UK News. June 21, 2015. Archived from the original on September 12, 2021. Retrieved September 12, 2021.
- ^ "Win Nadia: Secret of the Blue Water!". Anime UK News. June 15, 2015. Archived from the original on September 12, 2021. Retrieved September 12, 2021.
- ^ Helen McCarthy. 500 Manga Heroes and Villains. p. 120.
- ADV Films. September 30, 2003. Archived from the original on December 8, 2018. Retrieved December 18, 2023 – via Anime News Network.
- ADV Films. 2003. p. 60.
- ^ "スーパーロボット大戦X". Archived from the original on March 3, 2018. Retrieved April 26, 2018.
- ^ "第13回アニメグランプリ [1991年5月号]". Tokuma Shoten. Archived from the original on May 23, 2010. Retrieved February 16, 2014.
- ^ "Animage Top-100 Anime Listing". Anime News Network. January 15, 2001. Archived from the original on April 15, 2019. Retrieved February 16, 2014.
- ISBN 1-933330-10-4.
- ^ Zion, Lee (May 15, 2001). "Probing the Atlantis Mystery". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on June 29, 2011. Retrieved July 15, 2012.
- ^ a b Yasuhiro, Takeda (March 25, 2019). "The Notenki Memoirs: Studio Gainax And The Men Who Created Evangelion". Gwern. Archived from the original on November 21, 2019. Retrieved October 29, 2019.
- ^ Patten 2004, p. 187.
- ^ Zion, Lee (July 19, 2001). "Nadia vs. Atlantis, Revisited!". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on June 29, 2011. Retrieved July 15, 2012.
- ^ Reuben, Adrián Arriba (April 3, 2015). "La Gran Mentira de Disney (2): Atlantis es un Plagio". CBR (in Spanish). Archived from the original on November 12, 2020. Retrieved October 29, 2019.
- ^ Ashcraft, Brian (March 21, 2014). "Some Say Frozen Ripped Off a Japanese Anime. Here's Why". Kotaku. Archived from the original on October 31, 2019. Retrieved October 29, 2019.
- ^ a b Baron, Reuben (July 17, 2018). "10 Times Hollywood Ripped Off Anime (And 10 Times It Was Vice Versa)". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on November 12, 2020. Retrieved October 29, 2019.
Bibliography
- Gustav Horn, Carl (1996). "Conscience of the Otaking – The Animerica Interview with Toshio Okada". Animerica. 4 (3). Viz Media.
External links
- Official website
- Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
- Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water at IMDb