Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water simulwatch

Watched this last night because I'm off to a beer festival today!

Episode 10

As a stand alone episode where characters get to know each other a bit better this was great.

I loved the animation underwater. The idea of being underwater in a cave is pretty scary to me and they got the eeriness down. I loved how slowly the tension was built and the way Gargoyles plan was relaved was really clever. It was a pretty good plan really. Why he had to go all villain and monologue to them in morse code was beyond me. What an ego. He does have a god complex I suppose.

Jean really cant help himself can he? Always finds a way to get in trouble and the mine maneuvers where a masterclass of tension building with a real explosive finale!

Also lol that they animated the eyeline arrow!
 
Episode 11

A much more gentle episode after the last high stakes one. The hit and miss escapades of the team trying to fit in with the crew are pretty funny especially Grandis always trying to present her best self to Nemo and how irked it makes Eureka.

The show really lays out its thesis here about knowledge and how it can or should be used. Essentially its spidermans with great power comes great responsibility. I'm also enjoying that we still dont really know what sort of man Nemo is. At times he seems like a friendly mentor esp to Jean but hes clearly got secrets about Nadia!

Also why did they animate Kings balls for one shot?! That was a bit weird.
 
@Professor Irony:
Who wants to tell him? 😅

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Episode 11

Ah-ha, that's the ominous internal hum of an Eva unit I hear being used for the Nautilus's "particle annihilation engine". Captain Nemo's explanation of its distant-future technology already throws up questions about its origin. Hmmm... 🤔😀

He also makes reference to the Tree of Knowledge, which follow up the show's earlier references to the Tower of Babel. Anno likes his nods to religion as story elements.

I think, actually, that that discussion between Nemo and Jean is my favourite scene in the series so far.

Lastly, we see again at episode's end that Nadia's Blue Water pendant is only a small fragment of the larger piece that Nemo holds.
 
@mikezilla2 Ignore me, I was being silly.

Ep 10 & 11

This is definitely my favourite part of the show; just watching the Nautilus crew off on their adventures. I always particularly liked Team Grandis, so it's nice to see them really doing their bit to save everyone else. Some speculate about whether they may have been an influence on Team Rocket in the Pokemon anime, but I gather that kind of dynamic in anime is usually traced back to the Time Bokan franchise.

It's nice to see some more light-hearted moments for the crew too though. Even Captain Nemo gets to show his gentler side, dealing rather diplomatically with Grandis's cooking.

WMD said:
Also why did they animate Kings balls for one shot?! That was a bit weird.
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This is a recurring thing in the show... I don't think anyone quite knows why :/
 
Professor Irony said:
Some speculate about whether they may have been an influence on Team Rocket in the Pokemon anime, but I gather that kind of dynamic in anime
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I thought this when I first saw them in episode 1

Professor Irony said:
This is a recurring thing in the show... I don't think anyone quite knows why :/
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It is odd. It reminded me of Pom Poko a truly bizarre childrens films of animal balls galore!
 
WMD said:
It is odd. It reminded me of Pom Poko a truly bizarre childrens films of animal balls galore!
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I'm pretty sure that this is genuinely one of the reasons I've never been able to gel with Pom Poko. I mean, I don't intend to be prudish or anything, but... yeah. I guess maybe I just can't quite get my head around it as a Westerner.

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Episode 12

You could cut the tension between Electra and Grandis with a knife there. 😬
False politeness was flying back and forth like sharpened daggers.
 
Episode 12

Pretty interesting episode even if largely inconsequential. The Grandis/Electra stuff was fun. Jean entered whole new levels of obliviousness, how he managed to not notice Nadias dress is mad and how hes not managed to grasp her vegetarian/preserve animals lifestyle is ludicrous.

I like how the show uses Nemo to explain its ideas. Having him explain the crews togetherness despite their cultural and racial differences was really good. More people in the world could do with watching this episode and learning a thing or two!
 
Episode 13

So we start with Jean reiterating how he doesnt get Nadias Dont kill things sentiment. Seriously Jean wake up!

I did enjoy the shot of their respective feet as they were arguing while walking! Fun way to change things up a bit especially as the rest of the episode is about Marie's wanderings and running around the island.

I totally felt Kings boredom during the choo choo puff puff bit! That was a mood right there. Also in the english when Kings alone with marie the noises he makes become more speech like in a scooby doodle kinda way and I could follow their conversation. Dunno if the Japanese is the same.

The quiet moment of realisation as Marie realises shes lost was very well done and the subsequent bit as worry turns to full blown panic was really well executed.

The gag/tension with the bluff of the guy falling if the cliff really got me. I genuinely thought Marie had sent the guy to his death!

Nice to see Samson have a moment to shine even as he muddled his way to saving Marie. The second hat joke was solid and how a rock bigger than the cart was nestled at the bottom of the cart is anime madness.

What a cliffhanger though. Nadia has always felt apart but will she ever reconcile this? Nemo was stone cold when danger appeared threatening his crew! No remorse.

Also did anyone else notice the guy earlier I the episode sat with his feet behind his head when examining the plans? Lol.
 
WMD said:
So we start with Jean reiterating how he doesnt get Nadias Dont kill things sentiment. Seriously Jean wake up!
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That's very interesting, because I've found myself siding with Jean in these exchanges, and I find Nadia frustrating as a character. I actually watched this episode last week and drafted up my post then. This was my take on it:

Episode 13

"No! Why?! Why did you shoot him?! He
was hurt!"

Because he had a rifle and had started firing at everyone, Nadia. 🙄
There are other people besides you here — people who actually value their lives.


Amazing how two different viewers can take opposite sides watching the same thing, eh? I'd never questioned my view that Jean was written to be the character for the viewer to side with, but wow. 😮
 
Neil.T said:
That's very interesting, because I've found myself siding with Jean in these exchanges, and I find Nadia frustrating as a character. I actually watched this episode last week and drafted up my post then. This was my take on it:

Episode 13

"No! Why?! Why did you shoot him?! He
was hurt!"

Because he had a rifle and had started firing at everyone, Nadia. 🙄
There are other people besides you here — people who actually value their lives.


Amazing how two different viewers can take opposite sides watching the same thing, eh? I'd never questioned my view that Jean was written to be the character for the viewer to side with, but wow. 😮
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I wasnt trying to say I'm on Nadias side. Shes being way too over the top stubborn. Its just that shes explained herself several times to Jean and he doesnt understand even though hes a bright boy. Nadia doesn't like that other people eat meat but Jean just hasn't understood that even though it's been spelled out several times. At least that's how it felt to me. Dunno if its just the way the dub has handled it over the original.

~AyaMachi~ said:
Omg, why are you noticing all the weird stuff?! 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
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😬
 
WMD said:
Dunno if its just the way the dub has handled it over the original.
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Oh, that's interesting too. 😯
I haven't heard any of the dub bar one opening narration. I liked the opening narration, though. It's a totally different treatment from the Japanese original: it's actually Motomu Kiyokawa who handles those parts. He's Gargoyle's VA!
 
Neil.T said:
Oh, that's interesting too. 😯
I haven't heard any of the dub bar one opening narration. I liked the opening narration, though. It's a totally different treatment from the Japanese original: it's actually Motomu Kiyokawa who handles those parts. He's Gargoyle's VA!
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Does he do it in a menacing way? Is it meant to be Gargoyle doing it? It seems like a crazy big change to make though I have been enjoying the calm grandma voice for the intros.
 
WMD said:
Does he do it in a menacing way? Is it meant to be Gargoyle doing it?
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It doesn't sound menacing in any way whatsoever, no. It's the complete opposite, actually: the voice sounds very much benign and friendly. It has the tone of a storyteller on a children's anime; that's how I'd describe it.

The thing is, though, the opening narrations have been a bit of a puzzle to me since the first episode. I think I had the idea quite early on that it could be Motomu Kiyokawa, and then Gargoyle appeared and, lo and behold, that's exactly who voices him. But... I'm still not entirely convinced it is Kiyokawa reading the recaps.

You see, he also voices a Nautilus crewman in the series, and his voice is easily identifiable; he also voices two separate characters in Yasuhiro Yoshiura's original Net animation Time of EVE, and Kiyokawa's voice is again easily identifiable both times. But the Nadia narrator... just sounds a bit different. It doesn't help that the Japanese narrator is left uncredited at the end of the episode, unlike his English-speaking counterpart.

Once we've finished watching the series I can perhaps have a go at researching it properly without having to worry about anything potentially spoilery. (I'm thinking about how the unknown voice that narrates the beginning of each episode of Gurren Lagann actually turns out to be one of the characters in his later years.)

The narrator of Nadia is definitely not Gargoyle, though; of that I'm absolutely certain.

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Episode 14

"All hands to Code 2 battle positions!"

Ahh, how very Evangelion. I felt right at home with that. We also see some procedural sequences that are familiar to Eva fans in this episode, too.
 
Episode 14

I liked how we started with the main Nautilus crew getting in with it before going back to Nadia. Showed how much they trust him.

Then when Marie got ill I was surprised to see how much Sanson lost control. In fact it was really good to see how much character work the episode did with Sanson generally. Not just a lackey who follows Grandis but hes clearly led a pretty eventful and at times dark life!

Electra looked so dark and evil when talking to the engine mechanic. She really was ready to let the girls die for her own revenge! Thankfully Nemo is not so far gone.

The underwater world continues to be the best thing about this series for me. A other stunning location. And they are very good at using claustrophobia as a horror motif (like the tension building of the sub attack in an earlier episode). That sea monster was pretty terrifying! But why oh why would you bring King along?! That was always asking for trouble.

Incidentally I watched this earlier which turned out pretty relevant to the sea monster attack and how to show that sort of event on film. I found it really interesting:
 
Episode 15

"Wow, the heat-resistant super-alloy used in the engine room is really durable. It won't melt even under this heat."

It sure is, Jean, and that's an early prototype an Eva's Progressive Knife you're holding there, albeit on a much smaller scale. 😋

And I love those words of wisdom from Nautilus crewman Fait: "If anything breaks, you just fix it! Anything other than life can be replaced. Spilt water can't be returned, but you can always pour in some more."

Jean looks funny with the left lens of his glasses missing, though. 😅
IMG_20190812_185528688.jpg

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But then I didn't see the cruel twist this episode would deliver. That was quite possibly harder-edged than anything seen even in Evangelion. Oh my god. 😟
 
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