Re: Simulwatch - Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water [current - 23-29 - the infamous Island arc]
To those of you who choose to skip past the following episodes, trust me, it'll be for your own good. But for the morbidly curious, here's a summary of each of the next nine episodes.
Episode 23: Young Drifters
There are warning signals with this episode from the start. The opening recap -- which summarizes everything from episodes 1-22 is abnormally longer than usual, making up three minutes. Then we get ANOTHER minute of recycled footage over static involving scenes with Captain Nemo as Nadia reflects on how badly she has treated him, ending with Nemo sternly telling Nadia after slapping her on the bridge, "Nadia, I want you to know you have made me very sad." (In Japanese, it's "please don't say sad things like that.") The animation also begins to look shabbier and the colors get muddier.
More detrimental is the flow of the story. The whole storyline of the children and King getting shipwrecked on an island and deciding to stay could have easily been told in less than three minutes, but having it stretched out to an immensely overlong 19 minutes means for an essentially eventless and boring pace. At one point the kids discover a damaged Garfish, but nothing comes of it.
Regrettably, the style of the animation begins to turn Looney Tunes-ish and comical. Just after the opening three minutes, Nadia, in a fit of frustration, slams her fist against the wall, causing water to spew out. It's too slapstick to be convincing, and it only gets worse when Jean sneezes and causes the cabin to take on even MORE water, which he tries to stop by swallowing it and swelling up like a balloon! No seriously, I kid you not. What makes this cartoonish stunt so distracting is that it comes out of nowhere. No other moment in the show before this has Jean doing any such Tex Avery style stunts.
You also start to get hints that the characters are starting to act quite differently from what you'd be used to, but it doesn't truly get bad until….
Episode 24: Lincoln Island
OK, this is where the show REALLY begins to become drastically jarring. It starts out with Nadia rudely awakening Jean, Marie, and King from their crudely established tent, and already deciding that the island will be Lincoln Island and that the beach will be NaMaKi Beach. (She also starts to act very neglectful of Jean by not considering naming the beach "NaJaMaKi".) Then it just gets more weird when she takes the two into the jungle and announces that she is "reborn." Declaring to live with nature in the forest, she abandons them for no reason, leaving Jean, Marie, and King to salvage whatever supplies they can from Nemo's cabin and set up a camp. Their only food are canned rations, and before you know it, Nadia comes rushing back and stealing them away, leaving her friends with nothing else to eat. She tries to open them with the heels of her feet, then a stone, and finally a boulder… all to no avail. Jean, Marie, and King go out to sea to catch fish, which results in another painfully long stretch in which nothing happens (Marie implying that she's getting really bored); she and King play "shiritori", and they miss catching a big fish the size of a whale. All of this happens in the style of a cartoon. Nadia gets into trouble by trying to retrieve a valuable from Nemo's cabin (the hologram of her family), and almost drowns, beckoning the animals and fish to save her. Of course the opposite happens and Jean and Marie have to save her. She shows them NO gratitude and yells at them for catching fish. Marie, of all people, chews Nadia out for her stubbornness: "What do you expect us to do?! Do you want us to starve to death instead of catching some fish!? I think those fish understand that more than you!" Nadia later apologizes for her actions and Jean forgives her. Unfortunately, Nadia doesn't stay humble for long because after reading a book in which Marie has scribbled pictures in it, she starts to get mad again.
And to think that this is from the same show where we were treated to battles underwater, encounters with death, a sense of intrigue and mystery, and imaginative locales to explore? Well, all that is gone from these episodes.
Episode 25: The First Kiss
A brief sequence in which Gargoyle "laments" Nemo's passing and informs his crew that they will be engaging in a new project called "Red Noah" and two flashback dream scenes are the only saving graces of this otherwise truly bad episode. It's worse than the previous two, the artwork is shabbier, and the characterization and writing hit a new level of low. As mentioned, the best parts of this episode, aside from the Gargoyle scene, are the brief bits where we see Nadia at the circus, whether she is walking fearfully across the trapeze to the ferocious shouts of her ringmaster, who only acts "nicely" when he feeds Nadia cheese and fries, and being tragically separated from one of her first animal friends, Momo the elephant, who is put to sleep out of illness and for apparently attacking Nadia.
That's all you need to know from this episode, because otherwise this was the first that truly infuriated me. Nadia becomes more and more unlikable, and even Jean acts out of character by sneaking meat into her breakfast. Problem: can you name any other episode prior to this where Jean did such a stunt? No, you can't. This is insulting to his character just as Nadia's previous stunt in episode 24 was. The episode has no major plot, it's just a series of randomly sketched bits strewn together however which way, mostly awkwardly. Not even a brief scene where Grandis, Sanson, and Hanson are surrounded by sharks can save it. And what the hell is up with King doing all these crazy human stunts? He's SUPPOSED to be an ANIMAL, for crying out loud! Whose idea was it to have him act like that?
It's a shame this episode is so disappointing, because one would think that the title would lead to a change in Nadia's friendship with Jean. Sadly, it doesn't. And when the namesake finally happens, it does so for all the wrong reasons. After declaring to starve rather than eat whatever food they have left, Nadia eats a can of rotten spinach (out of nowhere) and gets sick with a fever, prompting Jean to find a cure for Nadia in a cave. Instead he finds hallucinogenic mushrooms(!), which seep into his consciousness and cause him to imagine that he's eating a huge feast. Marie conks him on the head and takes him back to camp as he continues to babble nonsense in his delusional state. With no explicable explanation, Nadia is cured from her sickness and stupidly talks to the delirious Jean, kissing him off-camera. Which is unfortunately undone in the next episode.
Episode 26: King, the Lonely Lion
This gets my vote for being one of the worst episodes in the show. There are three episodes deserving of that title here, and this is one of them. The other two are episodes 32 and 33.
The only saving grace of this episode is a romantic scene in which Jean and Nadia sit under the nighttime, gazing at the moon through his telescope, where Nadia admits that she appreciates his efforts to help them survive. Eventually this leads to them having a real kiss, this time on camera.
That scene could have been a truly great opportunity to move Jean and Nadia's relationship into a romantic one if it had just ended there and without the previous scene where he gets stoned on mushrooms.
Because that's the reason it only happens it all.
Immediately after this, the writers pull a middle finger and take Nadia and Jean all the way back to square one by having him think that this kiss is their first; Nadia lays into him for not remembering their last one and becomes resentful of him all over again. Seriously, I found this very insulting and frustrating to sit through. To make matters worse, it gives a poor impression of both characters. What should have been a genuine turning point only turns out to be a cruel, nasty tease.
While I may have mentioned the worst offense of this episode, there are, again, other warning signals. The animation is worse than the last episode, and again, there is no major story to justify its length. Marie, too, acts out of character, at one point chasing King across the beach sadistically, swinging him by the tail into the sun. Yes, into the sun! I really don't know WHAT the writers were thinking with this, because even though Marie feels bad for it, it feels like a pointless and insulting bit to pull for this character. The second half only gets even stranger in which Jean, searching for King, after Nadia angrily sends him to the mountains to search for him saying that "it would be easy for a heartless boy such as you" (seriously, I was really beginning to detest Nadia at this point, not only was the incident on account of her own stupidity, she is absolutely unreasonable about it, to the point where one wonders WHAT Jean could possibly see in her). Jean steps off a cliff and is standing suspended in space for about five seconds until he looks down and his eyes bug out, then he falls, Wile E. Coyote style, into the dirt, leaving a Jean-shaped pancake in the wake. What follows is a ridiculously overlong, pointless, and annoying "dream" sequence in which Jean imagines he's showing invention after invention to Nadia and Marie, including a gravity bomb and a flying machine straight out of Thunderbirds.
King continues to act very strange in this episode as well. Jealous of the interactions between Jean and Nadia, then writing a message consisting of "meow meow meow", then sitting under the waterfall like a Buddhist. Again, this is totally out of character for what is supposed to be a LION cub for crying out loud.
I really, really dislike this episode. It's a slap in the face to the characters, it's devoid of any genuine substance or imagination, and it's a generally stupid and pointless story that ultimately does nothing for the main storyline. It's unfunny, it's poorly written, and worse, totally unenjoyable.
Episode 27: The Island of the Witch
The animation just doesn't get any better with this episode. In fact, it looks truly awful here.
The non-adventures of our pals on Lincoln Island come to a halt after a stunt involving King attached to a kite using a telescope where he spots a typhoon, which subsequently destroys our friends' camp, and Nadia suddenly stops being resentful and acknowledges Jean for trying to keep them safe. (By this point I was just so outraged at the way the writers handled her character I could care less. By making her go a hundred steps backwards, any supposed progression forward alienated her personality for me so much.) Anyway, after the storm, something else floats into view. Of all things, it turns out to be ANOTHER island.
They go exploring the bizarre area which houses all sorts of strange trees from different regions of the country, and eventually find their old friend, Ayerton, in the sand buried up to his head. Marie calls him a "headman" (and at one point refers to her and King as husband and wife!), and they free him. He spends the latter half of the episode recounting his exploits on the Abraham, claiming he's a Count from England, and getting Jean and Nadia's names wrong, acting like he doesn't know them. (What? The last time we saw Ayerton in episode 15, he was shouting "That shot was for Jean and Nadia!") Ayerton's presence seriously doesn't add anything to the show at this point, it just feels the writers were looking for another character just to pad time.
After talking about how he ends up on the island, the episodes just veers into more bizarre goofiness. The island, aside from having unusual vegetation, apparently is not ordinary, as he describes: "The sun rose from the west, the night once lasted for 24 hours, snow fell on tropical vegetation, and one day, after a stretch of dry weather, the sea froze into an enormous block of ice!" He even talks about the laws of gravity being unusual on the island, having the ability to run faster than ever and jump even higher!
Wait a minute, you say, what about the "witch" referred to in the title?
Well, Ayerton comes down to just that in the last three minutes of the episode where he describes encountering the "Kings of Terror", a threesome including "a witch with a shrieky voice and blood-colored hair, a tall-slender with the strength of ten men, an an ingenious but enormously fat fiend" who go about on "a devil's serpent."
One can easily guess what he's talking about.
The episode ends with a to be continued cliffhanger, when booming footsteps shake the silence and our pals come face to face with a scarlet-colored giant wrapped in a billowing cloak.
Episode 28: The Floating Island
"Oh no! It's them!" cries Ayerton, "The KINGS OF TERROR!"
Cue a Road Runner style scene in which our friends run across the island at super fast speed, jumping even farther than usual, etc.
Just when you think it can't get any stranger.
We find out that the "monster" is actually the Gratan in disguise and Sanson, Grandis, and Hanson are very much alive. They've established a camp somewhere on the island which is more sophisticated than the run down one Jean and the others have on Lincoln. They lament on Nemo and the Nautilus' supposed fate with yet another brief recap of scenes involving Nemo on the Nautilus. Then we get yet ANOTHER minute long recap where Sanson and Hanson describe their heroism during the fateful attack of the Nautilus under Gargoyle's SeaNet Gun (Beam Catch, depending on which version you see), and how they washed up ashore on the island.
"But our troubles weren't over," concludes Sanson, "We found that this dummy of a count was already living here."
Ayerton becomes infuriated over being called a dummy and he and Sanson get into a shouting match. We eventually discover that the new island they're on is MOVING. Jean, Nadia, and Marie briefly return to Lincoln Island to move their stuff to Grandis gang's camp.
Compared to these past episodes, this one is not TOO horrible, but it still gets off on the wrong start and even though the return of the Grandis gang livens things up, again, there is no major plot to drive this episode. The second half is padding, where Grandis warns Nadia to bite back her stubbornness, otherwise she'll lose Jean's love. Feeling bad for how she's treated him lately, Nadia decides to cook lunch. Unfortunately, her first attempt is a disaster; Jean chokes on Nadia's lunch and faints, Sanson pulling a fishbone out of his frothing mouth(!). "I'm so sorry, Jean!" admits Nadia.
Sanson and Hanson also compete over trying to give Jean advice on how to impress Nadia. Brute strength? Knowledge? And in one particularly amusing exchange, Sanson suggests Jean going for something women want what men have. "A mustache?" asks Jean innocently. "NO!!!! Power!" replies Sanson. This is probably the only moment of the episode where I truly laughed.
Nadia tries cooking again for Jean, only to have the same thing happen. Jean stands up for Nadia, though, and she begins to talk with Grandis about how she might have feelings for him. Grandis asks if Nemo was Nadia's father, and she says "You can call me Mama, for if Captain Nemo were alive, it would have come to pass."
While less offensive than these previous episodes, this is still very underwhelming and frankly, quite dull. There are some funny moments, but otherwise, it's only so-so.
Only worth watching the second half of ep 27 and the first half of 28 if you wanna know HOW the kids are reunited.
Episode 29: King vs. King
Sanson and Hanson get into a huge row (with one amusing "999,999,999,999,999,999" line) in which they decide to settle by constructing two mechanical lions resembling King(!) to race across the beach.
No, seriously. That's the main concept of this episode! I kid you not.
It's not among the bottom-three episodes of Nadia, but it's the fifth worst. Nadia reverts to her grumpy self again, and treat Jean very offensively yet again. He uses the same toothbrush Nadia uses, uses his telescope to look around, catching Grandis by a cliff, and when he innocently strolls into the forest where he comes across Nadia is milking a goat. Nadia accuses him of wanting to eat it, showing that she can talk with animals.
Luckily, she stops with her rages when Jean asks her about why.
This leads to the only noteworthy scene this episode is good for. Nadia tells both Jean and Marie about an incident that happened while she was 4-5 years old on the way to a performance, when she saw her goat buddy Smokey taken away ("because he was too old to work.") Moved by her animal friends' cries of pain, this incident leads Nadia to understand what animals say.
If the rest of this episode had anything else as meaty as this, it would have at least been good for something. Other bizarre bits include: Grandis imagining Nemo serenading her opera-style. Hanson and Sanson both competing with Jean for advice.
The race itself happens, which culminates with Jean chasing both lions off a cliff into the ocean where he finds five circles on a plate of iron. Of course he returns safely and everyone's all right. The end.
If the above sounds frustrating to sit through, trust me, it is. The bad animation and derailed characterizations don't help matters either. There are also two instances where characters' mouths are moving with no dialogue coming out, or even some other occasions where a character's mouth is not moving and we still hear dialogue.
These episodes really should have been cut down to a good episode and a half. Stretching them out to two hours and 36 minutes was a serious mistake. Not only does it destroy the momentum of the show's previous episodes, they destroy the characters and ruin whatever development they had.
If you decide to sit through them and the even worse Africa arc (32-34), consider yourself warned.
