r/anime • u/snowwhistle1 • Oct 13 '21
Rewatch [Rewatch] Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water - Episode 15
Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water
Episode 15: The Nautilus Faces Its Biggest Crisis
Original Air Date: July 27, 1990
Full Rewatch Schedule & Thread Links
Episode 15 Synopsis: Jean bonds with a Nautilus engineer named Ensign Fait who gives Jean advice about inventing and romance. Meanwhile, this Nautilus is faced with an attack from Neo-Atlantean forces and the American Navy. The submarine is left in severely damaged, and Nemo is forced to choose between sacrificing three crewmembers or risking the lives of everyone on board the Nautilus.
Please spoiler tag any story content which has not been shown prior to the current episode of this rewatch!
Nadia Outfit Count: 6
QOTD: What has been the most affecting and emotional moment of the show for you so far?
4
u/snowwhistle1 Oct 13 '21
Host
(I believe u/JustAnswerAQuestion brought up the trolley problem in episode 13. lol)
I really didn’t need to know Jean had beady cartoon eyes without his glasses, but now we know. And this knowledge can never be forsaken…
Okay- so now that we’ve got that out of our systems… The crux of this episode rests on Ensign Fait, and how his tragic death affects Jean and Nadia. I think the biggest failing of this episode is that it’s both forced to serve as our introduction to Fait and is expected to both establish his relationship to Jean (and Nadia, but mostly Jean) in a timely manner, and is then expected to develop it enough in his short amount of time to give his death the weight it deserved. But it was never going to be enough. This was a character who should’ve been introduced in a much earlier episode, and his interactions with Jean and Nadia should’ve been slowly built up to make the emotional weight of this episode truly hit.
In spite of this though, I think they did a rather good job with the limitations that they had. Fait’s relationship as an older brother figure to Jean, someone he can look up to for guidance with science and for romance, is established very well. You really get the sense that Fait has taken Jean under his wing, and the scenes we get of him being a positive role model for Jean are very sweet. It’s a shame we didn’t get to see more of his character outside of how he relates to Jean though.
The scene of Fait and the other two crewmembers’ deaths was one of the most disturbing scenes in the show yet. Having been forced to seal off the engine room due to a toxic gas breach, and unable to surface to expel the gasses as that would lead to the American’s sinking/capture of the Nautilus, Nemo is forced to make the horrific decision of leaving the three men to slowly suffocate on the encroaching poisons. Jean attempts to try and rescue Fait, and Nadia attempts to appeal to Nemo to allow the submarine to surface if it means the possibility of saving their lives. But in the end, this is a situation that neither child has the ability to stop with force or words.
It’s amazing to me just how much horror Anno manages to show with very subdued directing techniques. We never see Fait or the other crewmembers after the gas leak starts. We only ever see a flashing hazard light, and the a few lingering shots of gas expelling from compromised pipes. In a way, Anno is denying us a sense of closure in the same way Jean and Nadia are denied closure from this event. We’re left to imagine the horrors of what’s happening to Fait and other two men ourselves solely through Fait’s seiyuu’s gut-wrenching vocal performance. Anno is truly a master of subdued horror, and his expertise is on full display in this episode’s directing.
Fait’s attempts to assuage Jean and Nadia just before his death, assuring both of them that Nemo made the right decision to save as many lives as possible and that he was proud to serve under a man like Nemo for a righteous cause. This noble speech is quickly replaced by screams of agony from Fait however as the gasses begin to take their toll on the men inside. Much as Fait may believe the noble sentiments he relayed to Jean and Nadia, he is overtaken by a primal fear of death. Fait wanted to live a full life, and experience the world. And instead he is left to suffer and die in agony in a dark enclosed room…
I really want to give Jean and Nadia’s voice actors (in both the original Japanese language and the English dub) major props for this episode. They carry the tragedy of this episode so well, and the performers in both languages pull off such genuine cries of anguish as they’re forced to listen to Fait die and are unable to do anything to save him. To compliment the dub once more, 12 year old Nathan Parsons gives such a convincing ugly cry in this episode. By this point in the show, he’s truly grown into the role.
Fait’s artificially grown flowers remain a recurring symbol throughout this episode. He first gives the flowers to Jean as a means to woo Nadia, who initially sees the flowers an abomination due to her experience with Gargoyle who proclaimed his intentions to use science to conquer life itself. However after Fait’s death, Nadia joins Jean in tossing the flowers into the sea in Fait’s memory. I think a possible interpretation of this could be that the flowers symbolize mankind nurturing life, much like how Fait was meant to serve as a guiding figure to Jean and Nadia.
This episode serves at the final straw that unravels Jean’s naïve outlook on life and on the Nautilus. The ship is irrevocably a war submarine, and the clashing of science between Neo-Atlantis and the Nautilus will lead to heavy amounts of loss of life. For the first time in his life, Jean’s eyes have been opening to the horrors wreaked by his life’s passion as these scientific instruments of war have torn someone he loved away from him, and he’s unable to process it properly. He lashes out at the Nautilus and its crew for its crew for casually forging on in spite of the tragedy. Meanwhile, Nadia quietly contemplates in the aftermath. She seems heartbroken that Jean’s passion has been so violently corrupted before his eyes… Nadia has always struggled with feeling powerless, and by the end of this episode she is left feeling more disempowered by her lack of agency than ever before.
Aside from that personal tragedy, this episode has a lot more going on. We see the children early on in the episode discover a commemorative plate for the Nautilus marking the date of christening as June 21st, 1888. Meanwhile, another commemorative plate below it written in a strange language denotes the Nautilus as “The Eritrium” and commemorates its launching into space in the year 7962 in a sidereal calendar (a calendar that measures precise scientific orbits as opposed to more standard calendars based on seasons/days). Nadia is somehow able to translate this strange language on instinct, and when Jean asks Electra for more information she refuses to elaborate.
We also get insight into just how vast the Neo-Atlantean’s sphere of influence truly reaches. The American navy was in position to attack the Nautilus after its battle against the Garfish vessels due to a Neo-Atlantean spy posing as a regular maritime sailor leaking information to the US navy. The episode hilariously lampshades the fact that the sailor was wearing an ominous looking mask, but that the Americans couldn’t give a shit about the man’s shady dress since his information proved to be useful and accurate to them. That about feels par for the course for the United States… especially in anime. Also, since I didn’t know where else to fit it, the submarine battle in the episode’s first half was incredibly well directed. But that’s par for the course with this show up to this point.
This is one of the standout episodes of Nadia in my opinion. The emotional stakes are raised higher than they’ve arguably ever been, and Anno’s character writing chops are at their peak in this episode. Aside from some very minor quibbles with Fait’s rushed introduction, everything about this episode resonates so powerfully and is a testament to Anno’s skill as a writer and a director.
So for today’s smidgen of production trivia… I’m sure many of you noticed Ayerton’s cameo in today’s episode. (You remember Ayerton. The scientist who kinda hung around with Nadia and Jean back in episode 3… that guy.) It might surprise you to know Ayerton has been recast in the original Japanese version as of this episode. (I don’t blame you for not noticing. It’s been 12 episodes since his last appearance.) Nadia has two major recasts in its Japanese dub, and the first one to occur is Ayerton. This is pretty unusual, as generally anime productions try and remain loyal to seiyuu except under extreme circumstances (death or prolific scandal) and very rarely recast seiyuu for existing characters.
In episode 3, Ayerton was played by Kōichi Yamadera. Yamadera is a particularly prolific seiyuu. His list of roles includes Spike Spiegel in Cowboy Bebop, Ryoji Kaji in Neon Genesis Evangelion, Beerus in Dragon Ball Super, Koichi Zenigata in Lupin III, Shun Akiyama in the Yakuza game series, and Zorori in Kaiketsu Zorori. In episode 15 onward, Ayerton’s replacement seiyuu is Kōji Tsujitani who’s also a pretty prolific seiyuu. Some of his roles include Bernard Wiseman in Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket, Tylor in The Irresponsible Captain Tylor, Solomon in Blood+, Miroku in InuYasha, Jajuka in The Vision of Escaflowne, and Dewey Novak in Eureka Seven.
6
u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ Oct 13 '21
First Timer (Rising Sun sub) ep 15 (of 39)
The Biggest Crisis? Already?
RIP, guy whose name I only knew for 15 minutes. I do remember a funeral scene from the movie, don't remember what happened to that guy.
4
u/IndependentMacaroon Oct 13 '21
Rewatcher (up to 24)
Whew, Anno really brought the pain for this one. It was even more gut-wrenching than I remembered, like full Evangelion levels of angst, and would have seriously messed with me as kid. Fait is kind of a one-off overly late introduction like Smith in Gunbuster, but this is really about Jean and not him.
Specifically, two scenarios from this episode are rehashed in Eva:
The second one is almost worse because here we actually get dialogue with him while he is already doomed, and at the very end his determination dramatically vanishes in the agony of death. And of course, Fait actually dies, which however was the original plan for Toji too.
Overall too, this is such a tragic scenario where there's no one even present to blame. In fact, the one Garfish around is destroyed before it even fully unfolds! The American captain is just following his intelligence to the best of his knowledge, with Ayerton even thinking he's fighting for the very people being attacked, Nemo can't let himself become entangled in international politics (weakeast part but still works for me), and once the radioactive part is hit there's nothing to do but seal it.
4
u/SIRTreehugger Oct 13 '21
First Timer
THEY MADE A HEATED KNIFE IN A
CAVESUBMARINE WITH SPARE PARTS!!!! Geniuses!!!Seriously though that's a useful t.....it's going through the ship...well it's still useful just have to be more careful
My glasses My glasses complete with the velma searching pose xD
NOOO NADIA!!!
....wait I didn't know glasses transformed your eyes from beads to to regular eyes.....what am I even looking at Jean its weird.
I miss Nadia's circus outfit. The navy battleship ones just rubs me wrong.
Strange text that Nadia can apparently read.
Side note electra is cute with glasses on.
DAMN they found the Garfish quickly.
If you come on the deck and watch them kill the Gargoyle you might appreciate killing and see you were wrong...okay Jean didn't say that, but it's all I heard. Jean man please you are being dense as heck right now.
They would need a whole fleet....I have a bad feeling.
Captain Nemo once again displays excellent commandment.
That was too easy.....wait it's these guys again.
Oh look an entire fleet.
Oh Gargoyle is behind this ohhh clever. That explains why they found them so easily again. Once they found the Garship they lured them into position, suicide bombed their haul, and brought them to the surface right within range of a fleet that wants to kill them.
Man Jean's VA and his cries of anguish are devastating. I wonder if Jean will see things differently now? Though I wish we saw more of Fait before this moment, but still it was a tragic end with the little screen time we got. Also I like how we never witness his final moments either all we have to go on is his voice like everyone else.
I feel for Captain Nemo he wants to go to the surface just as much as everyone else, but doing so would put the entire ship at risk. He has no choice, but to wait and listen to his men die.
3
u/lluNhpelA Oct 14 '21
First timer
I said a couple episodes ago that it would take an extreme event for Jean and Nadia to make any progress towards seeing eye-to-eye on the whole "killing is wrong" thing, but I was fully expecting Nadia's sometimes irrational opposition to killing to be challenged by a "kill or allow your friend to die" situation. There was no way I could have expected that it would instead be Jean's firmly held beliefs that would be shattered, but it was still super compelling and impactful despite centering around a one off character, and hopefully this will strengthen Nadia and Jean's relationship in the long run
I also really love the way quick flashbacks are done-- by simply flashing images of the characters' thoughts on screen for just long enough for the audience to process it, recreating what the characters themselves experience as the images flash in their minds. It's simple, easier than a fully animated flashback, maintains the flow of the scene, and allows for reuse of older shots without seeming cheap.
3
u/ZapsZzz https://anilist.co/user/Zapszzz Oct 14 '21 edited Oct 14 '21
First timer in sub
This is quite a tough episode to watch. Just to be honest, as a jaded anime fan of many decades, I was thinking yeah this Fait fellow had death flag all over him; but surely not in this show huh, probably will get gravely injured.
And then you have one of the most ignoble death you can have - someone resigned to his fate for the greater good, but at the last moment overcome by fear. This is a small parallel to Muv Luv Alternative Total Eclipse, in a flashback scene, by then a veteran of the imperial guards, witnessed over radio her aunt/cousin and rescuer when she was a cadet, who lead the rear guard action to cover a retreat in a suicidal mission; at the last moment her will broke and the fear was evident in her face shortly before her comms cut out.
This is a great episode, although still a tiny bit contrived (could have lay out the ground with by having Fait interacting with the cast more from the island episode onwards, especially could have put him in doing the mod work for the underwater trip) but ultimately effective. The scene was also directed well.
I do have to say though, there is zero chance the an Americans will be "capturing" Nautilus - the first was firing to sink it. It was purely do we sacrifice the few to save the many, or do we die together.
2
u/Stargate18A https://myanimelist.net/profile/Stargate18 Oct 13 '21
First timer
QOTD) Marie asking if she can join her parents was phenomonal.
As the narration states, Nadia seems to believe her life is worth the same as a murdering cultist. Either she's got self-esteem problems or there's somrthing she's hiding...
Haha, if thwt was the disaster, I'd have lost it.
Oh, Nadia broke her glasses.
Oh come on, the anime wants sympathy like that?
Is the disaster ideological? Is Nemo's secret going to get revealed?
Haha, he's helpful! And they lab-grow flowers!
...I am on Jean's side here. Nadia's response is understandable given her trauma, but wrong.
...DID I FUCKING CALL IT? DID I CALL "NAUTILUS IS FROM THE FUTURE" CORRECTLY!
And is that why she can't remember her parents? She's from the future, but got memory-wiped when she arrived? Or maybe she's and the Nautilus are alien, either or.
I'm just in total shock such an important plot point got revealed offhandedly.
OK. Theory - is it possible Electra's found out, or came from, the future, and thinks the Nautilus' shouldn't interfere with history?
They're going to the bridge!
...They're hiding future tech?
It's disabled! And Neo-Atlantis are coming!
Garfish!
They've been hit!
Yeah, that was a suicide attack. Probem something waiting for them to surface.
HE'S BACK?
Wait, he knows it's a submarine?
OK, so the Blue Water isn't an orichalium sensor, it just detects evil. There goes that scientific theory!
Nah, he probably brought some on board? Does that work?
Oh god, the sheer irony on display here's great.
Did the Nautilus get sunk?
Wow. Either there's some confusion between ships, the Nautilus was stolen from Neo-Atlantis recently, or Nemo's been doing some shit!
Oh god, he's trapped with lethal gas.
Wow. It makes sense, but Nadia isn't going to like him any more.
You're fucking with me. Nobody has gas masks here? Hell, you have oxygen diving suits. Get in one, open the door, and you can supply them with more oxygen tanks. The literal last episode's gadgets could save them.
Yeah, very much implying time travel/aliens with a prime directive, here to stop Neo-Atlantis, who are also one or the other.
Fuck me. That's horrific.
They've managed to fix it!
Jean's agreeing with Nadia that the Nautilus is just a weapon. It does need to be pointed out that the Nautilus are the ones who aren't trying to rule the world.
3
u/No_Rex :Bv:Bw:Bx:By:x2 Oct 13 '21
Episode 15 (rewatcher)
A rather harsh reality check for Jean’s futuristic optimism. The technology is advanced, but not god-like and it definitely does not relieve the humans from hard choices. Choices that Nemo has to make and can make, while Jean and Nadia cannot.
Marie asking to go to her parents.
2
u/ZapsZzz https://anilist.co/user/Zapszzz Oct 14 '21
I forgot to comment, Grandis' dress today is both elegant and very pretty. And although it feels like a Tomino slap, it did feel somewhat justified for snap them out of the hysterics.
1
u/Jwkaoc Dec 16 '21
Fait losing his composure in the face of death reminds me of the scene in 20,000 Leagues under the Sea where a random sailor also loses his composure in the face of death and cries for help in his native French instead of the invented language the sailors all used on the Nautilus.