Nadia:Secret of Blue Water Vol 2

Rating:
Summary: The good, the bad, and the ugly of NADIA. It's all here!
Review: Hot on the heels of their first 5-DVD+2-CD Collection edition of NADIA: THE SECRET OF BLUE WATER, ADV Films releases the second "collector's" installment of the franchise, in a 6-DVD+2-CD package. However, while NADIA: THE SECRET OF BLUE WATER COLLECTION 1 was brilliant -- featuring the best episodes of the show -- I'm afraid that COLLECTION 2 is weaker by comparison. Although the package DOES include some more must-see treasures, it also houses a very strange mixture of mediocre to awful episodes and a totally useless, unnecessary movie.

You see, NADIA was originally intended to be a 26-part TV series, but because the show was so popular in Japan, backing distributor NHK Enterprises requested animation studio GAINAX to produce more episodes, extending the episode count to 39. GAINAX wanted no part in this, which is partially why they subcontracted the animation to other studios in Korea and Japan. Regrettably, no thought was given to the story either, resulting in some of the worst batch of filler episodes ever produced. It's a shame that a show as exceptional as NADIA would suffer from this fault, as it DOES end with a bang, but it would have been better if the filler crap remained in the trash can where it belongs. It's bad enough that NHK almost sank NADIA with such poor episodes, but two year after the show completed its first broadcast, a theatrical feature was made: an attempt which failed miserably and is almost universally hated to this day.

So what's good about this set? Well, the first two episodes on the sixth DVD (which wrap up the Nautilus arc) are some of the best you'll ever see in NADIA. Herein lies a spectacular showcase of animation, music, action, and an emotionally charged confrontation where some of the secrets we've been waiting to discover are revealed. Even better are the final five episodes (35-39), which end the show even stronger than it starts (in a way that literally blows the filler crap out of the water as though they never existed). The artwork in these episodes is amazing, and the climactic showdown features more suspense, unexpected surprises, dramatic staging, and a tearjerking ending that will leave you on the edge of your seat.

The leftover 12 episodes, however, are something of a mixed bag. Only about 30% of the content seems to keep the show on topic (landing on a floating island which turns out to be a spaceship, learning of Nadia's birth origins, as well as Jean singing a song which causes Nadia to think twice before she throws another temper tantrum for no good reason at him) and is worth watching.

The remainder of the content should very well have been cut from the show, as it's mostly the product of greedy studio executives wanting to make more money out of the show, therefore forcing the writers to churn out pointless (and some truly awful) filler material. The adventurous spirit, gorgeous artistic merits, and well-conceived character interactions are all gone from the studio-imposed episodes, which contain the following: painfully stupid and uncharacteristic antics from our pals, extraneous and poorly conceived sequences, stuff that should never have been written, and awful animation. It's probably best to skip the crap and pretend they never happened, for I cannot imagine anybody finding much to enjoy when the story reduces itself to churning out garbage and not moving along -- the Lincoln Island sequence, the King VS. King race, and some of the moving island content, in general. Some of it is funny and/or nice but too much of it is horrible. The real stinkers, however, are 1] any scene where Nadia is portrayed as an unlovable bitch and not as a confused young girl; where her actions completely contradict everything that she's ever done in Episodes 1-22, and 2] the two African episodes. They don't suit the story, they don't add anything to the show, and they don't work at all.

And then there's the Motion Picture. I haven't seen this movie, but as far as I know, just about EVERYBODY hates it. From what I was told, about 30 of the 90-minute feature consist of recycled footage from the TV show, while the remainder of the movie consists of a story which is both contrived and inconsistent with not only the series, but with itself, too. The animation, in addition, has the same inferior, cheap and rushed quality as the infamous island episodes, making the movie an altogether waste. I have no plans to watch this movie anytime soon, and my strongest recommendation is to AVOID IT AT ALL COSTS.

But I do have to give credit to ADV for finally releasing this collector's set, since most people probably can't afford to shell out over a hundred bucks for all ten individual DVDs. I won't deny that there are some episodes which provide for some first-rate, delightful entertainment. As mentioned, however, there are too many mediocre to hideous filler episodes overflowing with uncharacteristic stupidities and ludicrous writing, and a movie that falls flat on its face.

Rating:
Summary: The good, the bad, and the ugly of NADIA. It's all here!
Review: Hot on the heels of their first 5-DVD+2-CD Collection edition of NADIA: THE SECRET OF BLUE WATER, ADV Films releases the second "collector's" installment of the franchise, in a 6-DVD+2-CD package. However, while NADIA: THE SECRET OF BLUE WATER COLLECTION 1 was brilliant -- featuring the best episodes of the show -- I'm afraid that COLLECTION 2 is weaker by comparison. Although the package DOES include some more must-see treasures, it also houses a very strange mixture of mediocre to awful episodes and a totally useless, unnecessary movie.

You see, NADIA was originally intended to be a 26-part TV series, but because the show was so popular in Japan, backing distributor NHK Enterprises requested animation studio GAINAX to produce more episodes, extending the episode count to 39. GAINAX wanted no part in this, which is partially why they subcontracted the animation to other studios in Korea and Japan. Regrettably, no thought was given to the story either, resulting in some of the worst batch of filler episodes ever produced. It's a shame that a show as exceptional as NADIA would suffer from this fault, as it DOES end with a bang, but it would have been better if the filler crap remained in the trash can where it belongs. It's bad enough that NHK almost sank NADIA with such poor episodes, but two year after the show completed its first broadcast, a theatrical feature was made: an attempt which failed miserably and is almost universally hated to this day.

So what's good about this set? Well, the first two episodes on the sixth DVD (which wrap up the Nautilus arc) are some of the best you'll ever see in NADIA. Herein lies a spectacular showcase of animation, music, action, and an emotionally charged confrontation where some of the secrets we've been waiting to discover are revealed. Even better are the final five episodes (35-39), which end the show even stronger than it starts (in a way that literally blows the filler crap out of the water as though they never existed). The artwork in these episodes is amazing, and the climactic showdown features more suspense, unexpected surprises, dramatic staging, and a tearjerking ending that will leave you on the edge of your seat.

The leftover 12 episodes, however, are something of a mixed bag. Only about 30% of the content seems to keep the show on topic (landing on a floating island which turns out to be a spaceship, learning of Nadia's birth origins, as well as Jean singing a song which causes Nadia to think twice before she throws another temper tantrum for no good reason at him) and is worth watching.

The remainder of the content should very well have been cut from the show, as it's mostly the product of greedy studio executives wanting to make more money out of the show, therefore forcing the writers to churn out pointless (and some truly awful) filler material. The adventurous spirit, gorgeous artistic merits, and well-conceived character interactions are all gone from the studio-imposed episodes, which contain the following: painfully stupid and uncharacteristic antics from our pals, extraneous and poorly conceived sequences, stuff that should never have been written, and awful animation. It's probably best to skip the crap and pretend they never happened, for I cannot imagine anybody finding much to enjoy when the story reduces itself to churning out garbage and not moving along -- the Lincoln Island sequence, the King VS. King race, and some of the moving island content, in general. Some of it is funny and/or nice but too much of it is horrible. The real stinkers, however, are 1] any scene where Nadia is portrayed as an unlovable bitch and not as a confused young girl; where her actions completely contradict everything that she's ever done in Episodes 1-22, and 2] the two African episodes. They don't suit the story, they don't add anything to the show, and they don't work at all.

And then there's the Motion Picture. I haven't seen this movie, but as far as I know, just about EVERYBODY hates it. From what I was told, about 30 of the 90-minute feature consist of recycled footage from the TV show, while the remainder of the movie consists of a story which is both contrived and inconsistent with not only the series, but with itself, too. The animation, in addition, has the same inferior, cheap and rushed quality as the infamous island episodes, making the movie an altogether waste. I have no plans to watch this movie anytime soon, and my strongest recommendation is to AVOID IT AT ALL COSTS.

But I do have to give credit to ADV for finally releasing this collector's set, since most people probably can't afford to shell out over a hundred bucks for all ten individual DVDs. I won't deny that there are some episodes which provide for some first-rate, delightful entertainment. As mentioned, however, there are too many mediocre to hideous filler episodes overflowing with uncharacteristic stupidities and ludicrous writing, and a movie that falls flat on its face.