Nadia: Secret of Blue Water Volume 11: The Motion Picture - Denkyu.Com

• Media Source:Denkyu.Com
• Reviewed By:Aragami-Frog
• Review Date:10/01/04
• Read the original review click here

Nadia (The Motion Picture): DVD Review
Written by Aragami_Frog

The Movie 'Nadia; the Secret of Blue Water; the motion picture' is based upon the first series that was produced by Gainax. Gainax would later go on to create Neon Genesis Evangelion as well as FLCL and Abenobashi; Magical Shopping Arcade in the years that follow the release of their first series 'Nadia; Secret of Blue Water'.

The motion picture of 'Nadia; Secret of Blue Water' takes place after the series and before the epilogue that is featured at the end of the last episode of the series.

This movie was originally released over a decade ago by the now defunct company 'Stream Line Video' which was a part of Orion. A few years ago ADV picked up the rights to the series and movie and created their own dub version.

ADV recently released this movie earlier this year as part of the 2-part 'Nadia; Secret of Blue Water' collection. The first collection of Nadia only featured the first 20 episodes and the first two soundtracks. It's only in the second collection which features episodes 21-39 as well as the last two soundtracks that the movie is found. Although if you are just looking for the movie and already have the series it's not advised to buy the second collection just for the movie because each collection has the retail price of $50... although some stores sell it for cheaper.

The movie starts out with the 'evaporation' of a German Admiral during a speech of why they should go to war with England... yes, you heard me, he evaporated. Then the movie quickly moves to Nadia who's now living in England and is working for a newspaper company in London. She hopes to be a reporter but her supervisor will only allow her to make everyone tea. It is here that we learn through the conversations at where Nadia works that the 'evaporations' are taking place all over the world to various high ranking dignitaries and soldiers. This all takes place within the first 5 minutes of the movie. The next 23 minutes of the movie are painful for those who have already seen the series.

After the first 5 minutes of the movie the next 23 minutes are spent as a flashback to the series using stock footage from the series and explains how Nadia and Jean first met and what happened to them in their adventures afterwards. For those who have just seen the whole series thanks to the 2 part ADV collection this flashback is just about unbearable. Only twice during this long stretch of stock footage from the series is new animation shown. That consisting of Nadia sitting at her desk recounting her past.

It appears that Nadia is writing about her past during this time but this doesn't fit well with the series because during the epilogue of the series one is led to believe that it's Marie who was telling the story of Nadia and Jean's adventures.

After the exhausting flashback sequence we are finally shown Jean, who's still living in France with his aunt and uncle while tinkering with his inventions. We see Jean toying with his latest creation, a rocket powered miniature plane... which sadly like many of his other inventions goes bust.

After the result of an explosion Jean notices something on the beach. He discovers a young woman passed out on one of the rocks. He takes her to his inventing laboratory that he calls home.

It is in Jean's lab that the movie Jean is different from the Jean from the original TV series. When the girl wakes up in his lab she's laying on a bed naked. In the movie Jean only blushes and doesn't really make a fuss about her nakedness. In the anime series however Jean would react much differently whenever he'd accidentally see Nadia naked. I can only assume that since the end of the series that Jean has some how matured when it comes to seeing a woman naked.

Shortly after the girl wakes up she tells Jean her name, Fuzzy... and Jean finds that her memory is just like her name... Fuzzy.

The movie then steers back to Nadia who is left alone in the office when everyone else rushes out to cover the latest case of a person 'evaporating'. Nadia want's to go but her supervisor refuses. It is while she's alone in the office that she receives a phone call promising to give her information about why people are evaporating. The caller reluctantly agree's to meet with Nadia and when she does meet him their interview is interrupted by gunmen who want her informant dead. The informant gives Nadia a package containing papers explaining what's going on behind the 'evaporations' shortly before he's gunned down. Nadia escapes and decides to distance herself from the papers the gunmen are after so she mails them to Jean in Le Harve France, where Jean lives, only after taking one of the papers from the envelope to keep.

Following the one remaining piece of paper in her possession Nadia proceeds to investigate the 'Evaporations'. It is during an interview with a doctor Whola that she learns part of the truth behind the evaporations and who's possibly behind them. She also learns that the doctor suspected behind the 'evaporations' has a daughter who has some sort of connection to Jean's guest.

When Nadia goes to report her findings she finds that her editor is also somehow connected to the plot as well. She is taken prisoner by the forces behind the 'evaporations' who are some how connected to 'Gargoyle' (the bad guy from the series).

It's up to Jean to find Nadia and find out what the papers he receives in the mail means. Although luck isn't on his side when a few old faces from the TV series arrive at his place and tear his lab apart looking for the papers Nadia sent him as well as for the young girl he found on the beach.

Will Jean and Nadia find out the whole secret behind the 'evaporations' as well as the true background of the girl that Jean found on the beach? You have to watch the movie to find out. In the end we also get to find out why Nadia and Jean live in separate countries living their separate lives. I won't give anymore of the movie away as I already feel that I have already given away too much of it already.

A few things in this movie that struck me the wrong way was the changes from the series. Like I stated earlier, it seems that Nadia is now the one who is responsible for the tale of their adventures in the TV series. In the epilogue of the series one is given the impression that it's Marie who is in fact recounting Nadia and Jean's adventures as she speaks in the first person to the audience during the epilogue.

Another noticeable change is Nadia. In the movie she dresses a lot more conservatively. In the TV series she'd always convert her clothes to show the most skin. While in the Movie she wears a long sleeve shirt and a long skirt and doesn't alter them at all like she did to her clothes in the Series.

Another change in Nadia is her eyes. In the movie Nadia has big roundish eyes while in the series her eyes were more slanted. A bit of background for studio Gainax fans. In their series 'Neon Genesis Evangelion' they got the inspiration for Shinji's eyes from Nadia. They decided to use her eye's for Shinji to make Shinji appear more feminine. Having watched the TV series of Nadia it's these small eyes I've grown used to and it's hard to get accustomed to her having bigger eyes in the movie.

Also in the movie Nadia's brute force mentality is toned down a lot. The Nadia in the TV series wouldn't behave as the Movie version did when her coworkers and supervisor refused to let her do any real work. The TV Nadia would stand up for herself rather than just follow her supervisor and placidly do what he says.

Over all though I think that any fan of the TV series will love this movie and not probably care as much about the changes as this movie presents yet another chance to see our hero's on a daring adventure together.

Posted on Friday, October 01, 2004 (Archive on Monday, November 01, 2004)