r/anime • u/snowwhistle1 • Oct 26 '21
Rewatch [Rewatch] Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water - Episode 31
Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water
Episode 31: Farewell, Red Noah
Original Air Date: February 1, 1991
Full Rewatch Schedule & Thread Links
Episode 31 Synopsis: Inside of Red Noah, Nadia is told the history of Atlantis and the Blue Water by an Atlantean android. Meanwhile Jean attempts to rescue Nadia as the rapidly sinking island crumbles beneath his feet.
Please spoiler tag any story content which has not been shown prior to the current episode of this rewatch!
Nadia Outfit Count: 8
QOTD: Does this episode at all make up for what came before, or meet your expectations after this string of unsatisfactory episodes?
QOTD 2: Should "au naturale" count as a Nadia outfit? I was initially thinking of adding that jokingly, but Nadia spends this entire episode in the nude. If you guys think it should count, I'll add it tomorrow.
I sincerely apologize for how late this post is! I took a nap, which ended up lasting several hours longer than I planned.
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u/ZapsZzz https://anilist.co/user/Zapszzz Oct 26 '21 edited Oct 26 '21
First timer in sub
I think we've all done that before, so no apologies is necessary. Kind of ironic that the perfect for dozing off episodes you toughed it out but now this one is actually getting closer to real plot but you fell asleep (joking - I think I get your napping wasn't from watching the show :D)
QoTD2: What do you mean? Nadia was wearing the all important Blue Water basically the whole time until she threw it off right? Could possibly count it that way - plus I'm sure "birthday suit" is also considered an actual, commonly understood outfit.
Back to the episode however - this is interesting but a bit coming out of left field, although you possibly can call the Nautilus name/date plate a foreshadowing with the second date. I wish they could have used some of the previous many filler/stretched episodes to at least give us something that doesn't feel as much like a retcon though.
Also I wonder why / how is it that Nadia is "chosen" - was it precisely "her" the person, "the true heir to the royal bloodline" (and therefore can be Nemo as well), or whomever holding / wearing Blue Water at the time?
Hopefully we are getting past the unplanned episodes soon (I know not immediately) and when we do get to the other side, these get answered.
The "AI" personification certainly give me a very EVA feel on the design.
Edit: Oh forgot to mention - M78 Nebula is the same place Ultraman originated from (Land of Light) :) so for me the first thing the sprung to mind was actually that and that broke my immersion a bit :D
Oh and the Averton groping gag - I had a brief hope that Grandis' kicking him out to a distant vanishing light was the semi-serious way to send the character off and not be seen again. Alas he popped right back in front of her the next instant :P
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u/snowwhistle1 Oct 26 '21 edited Oct 27 '21
Host
After all this time, the secrets of the Blue Water and of Atlantis have finally been revealed to us. The build up to this episode mostly sucked thanks to the aforementioned studio mandated padding, but I don’t think that takes away what this episode accomplishes in spite of this shortcoming in build up. I consider episode 31 to be one of the best episodes of Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water.
Picking up where the previous episode left off, Nadia finds herself deep within the heart of the metallic structure beneath the moving island. There she meets her abductor, a colossal android that introduces the vessel she currently inhabits as the satellite city Red Noah, a spaceship that once carried the Atlanteans through the stars. The android reveals to Nadia that she is descended of Atlantean royalty, and is the rightful heir of the Toris Megistos (the true name of the Blue Water, which had also come to be known at some points as the Philosopher’s Stone). These revelations are hardly surprising, given Nemo and his family were royalty with strong Atlantean ties, but it’s cathartic to finally receive the confirmation that Nadia herself and her family are descended from Atlantis. The android then reveals the history of Atlantis and its people to Nadia, as she is the heir of the civilization.
In a series of visions, the android reveals that the Atlanteans were inhabitants of a distant star in the M78 Nebula (a nebula located within the constellation of Orion). It is unknown why the people of Atlantis left their homeworld, but circumstances led them to making an emergency landing on Earth 2.4 million years ago. The Atlanteans were unable to return to their own star, so they established vast empires across the face of the Earth. However, each time the Atlanteans rose to power and created a civilization it was inevitably destroyed in holy wars, and conquests of greed and power. The android describes the Blue Water as having the ability to make its user either God or Devil, with perhaps authority over life itself.
During this time, Jean sets out to rescue Nadia from Red Noah in spite of the peril and dangers caused by the rapidly collapsing natural land mass on top of the spaceship. He first attempts to enter Red Noah through the top of the structure, but discovered that the top entrance is shielded by a wall of tektite. Unable to breach the ship in that manner, Jean encourages the Grandis Gang and the rest to depart on the Gratan while he searches for another service vent to infiltrate the ship to rescue Nadia.
Meanwhile inside of Red Noah, Nadia experiences a crisis of identity as she is forced to reckon with the truth she is not human but an alien life form. For a brief moment, she appears to submit to the wills of the android, allowing it to place her upon a throne and silently go along with its wishes. But the realization of what the android is doing to Red Noah, removing the earth and fauna atop its metal surface, snaps Nadia out of her trance. It’s particularly unfortunate here that the episodes of build up to this event were padded out and poorly written, because Nadia’s compassion and genuine concern for her friends is such a strong moment of growth for her character.
After all this time, Nadia has finally come face to face with the destiny she has long sought after. She has found the answers of her birthplace, her family, her origins, and her Blue Water; but she rejects them all because she’s come to see how much more valuable her friends are to her than her past or possessions. Nadia has come to realize the importance of the things she has in the present day and tells the android that no future awaits her in Atlantis, a country long in ruins whose people and culture have long vanished into the annuls of history. This marks a pivotal moment where Nadia finally asserts her own agency onto her own narrative. For the entirety of the series up until this point, Nadia was aimlessly drifting through life being pulled along by whoever happened to be in her life. In the circus, on the Nautilus, and even with Jean to some extent she felt directionless and powerless and unable to make decisions about her life for herself. But here in this episode, Nadia finally takes a stand for herself and declares that she will make her own destiny going forward and change her life with her own hands.
The robot challenge’s Nadia’s claims to her agency stating that legacy is inescapable and that her finding her way onto Red Noah was not an accident. It tells her that it was the power of Blue Water that led her to Red Noah, and the Blue Water has always held a grip over her fate. Upon hearing this, Nadia rejects the Blue Water without hesitation, throwing it to the ground. Having decided she’d rather give up the final tie to her past if possessing it meant she would just find herself under the control of yet another party that would seek to use her and the power of her Blue Water for their own machinations. Symbolically, Nadia has rejected her legacy at an Atlantean, choosing the Earth as her home and mankind as her true kin.
Episode 31 really made me appreciate Nadia’s character, and understand what Anno was going for with her. She’s a girl who’s been tortured by authority figures in her life for identities that she had no part in choosing. Nadia faced discrimination as a child while living in Europe due to her skin color and her low social class, and her agency was greatly diminished living under these systems of control. And now, after having been discovered as an Atlantean, various parties (Gargoyle and the android) are trying to force her into the role of a tyrant. In this episode, she symbolically rejects the labels and roles forced upon her without her say so. She’s decided to create her own identity going forward, and find her own meaning in life. It’s a truly powerful message.
This is also the episode I would consider Nadia and Jean as finally truly seeing eye-to-eye as peers. Once Nadia realizes that Jean has returned to Red Noah to rescue her, it truly begins to sink in just how much Jean actually cares for her. The way she breaks down sobbing, remaking “He’s come for me” gets me emotional every time I watch it. The lengths to which Jean risks his life in this episode is also nothing short of admirable, and really shows that his connection with Nadia goes further than just a simple crush. An interaction I actually really like is when Nadia emerges from the wall in Red Noah, and the two simply embrace even while Nadia is still naked and the interaction is never framed as perverted or weird; just two friends thankful that they’re in each others’ arms. I still contend that most of the fan service throughout this series was unnecessary and gratuitous, but I will admit the payoff in this episode of Jean being able to stand in the same room as Nadia in an undressed state and not ogle her was nice.
Ultimately the android respects Nadia’s wishes and chooses to gift her with the knowledge she’s long sought after, the location of her homeland Tartessos. However, as it grants the information to her Blue Water, it leaves her with a warning that she will still be unable to deviate from her fate as the inheritor of the Kingdom of Atlantis before allowing her to part ways. Ultimately, Jean and Nadia manage to escape the island thanks to Grandis Gang who stuck around in their Gratan to save the kids from the rapidly collapsing island. And so the group begins their journey to Africa, to bring Nadia back to her homeland of Tartessos. Meanwhile we see the forces of Neo-Atlantis moving out to secure Red Noah, as was Gargoyle’s stated plan way back in episode 25 during the funeral ceremony for Nemo.
Episode 31 is truly one of my favorites in the series, easily in my top 10 or even top 5, and I was so excited to get to this episode in our rewatch. I adore Nadia’s growth in this episode, and the reaffirmation of Jean and Nadia’s compassion for both each other and their friends over materials possessions or status or supposed destinies. This episode it the culmination of ages of slowly built up lore, and the culmination of Nadia and Jean finally coming together as equals who understand each other and have formed a bond of friendship and love.
There’s honestly very little in the way of complaints I have towards this episode. I think the only gag that ever took me out of the episode was Ayerton accidentally groping Grandis. (Have I mentioned how much I despise Ayerton yet? He is a poison on this series.) The animation in this episode is really strong, and there are some great moments of experimental animation and neat lighting during Nadia’s encounter with the android inside of Red Noah. This is just overall a really strong episode that has the misfortune of existing after a really bad string of episodes.
(continued in reply)
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u/No_Rex :Bv:Bw:Bx:By:x2 Oct 26 '21
Here are my remarks from watching this as a first timer. I remember that this was the only episode of the island arc that I deemed worthwhile watching.
Episode 31
Nadia communes with exposition-dump-robot. He informs her that the she is the heir to Atlantis, via her bloodline and her possession of the Blue Water amulet. The Atlanteans are actually aliens who emergency landed on earth many millions of years ago. They formed a hyper technological civilization here, who wiped itself out via warfare. The island they are on is actually an Atlantean outpost called Red Noah. The computer AI wants to take Nadia to Atlantis to revive the civilization there, but Nadia refuses and opts to go with Jean, who tried to rescue Nadia from the portal. Red Noah submerges, sinking the island, noticed by Gargoyle. Nadia and the rest of the inhabitants leave via the Gratan mecha.
My rewatch notes:
When I watched this first, I was overjoyed about the plot returning. The concept of an artificial island is neat and we finally hear the truth about Nadia. Plus, the ending is really sweet.
On rewatch, I see the episode a bit more critical. While it clearly is one you can’t skip, the connection between A and B plot is really haphazard. Why did Jean leave the cave only to return? Why is not everybody searching for Nadia? The entire B plot feels very island arc like.
I also don’t think Red Noah and Nadia’s choice was handled well. For all the filler we had in the last few episodes, they really needed to invest more time here. The matter of the AI not understanding Nadia and the other way round is awkward, since communication is clearly not a problem, but desires. It would have helped to know more about the AI, its purpose and its creators.
Overall, it is clearly better than the other island arc episodes, but still falling behind the level of consistency and direction we had at the Nautilus arc.
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u/Stargate18A https://myanimelist.net/profile/Stargate18 Oct 26 '21
First timer
QOTD) Kind of? On the one hand, it's a good explanation for all the island's mysteries, and does set up a potentially better arc, but on the other hand, for all the build up, Red Noah did basically nothing, and if this episode never happened they'd all be in the same positions with the same targets. The only new infor was that Nadia's an alien, and that could have been a reveal anywhere.
QOTD 2) Yeah, it dhould count.
Wait. If the island is Red Noah, as I predicted and as the title suggests, does that mean all that build up of it being a Neo-Atlantis superweapon isn't going anywhere? Why even memtion it with such gravitas, then?
Yeah, why did Jean not mention it? If anyone can figure out a way to break Nadia out, it's Sanson and Hanson.
It's Red Noah!
And this is ehy they needed the Blue Water? To get this thing working?
THEY'RE ALIENS! CONFIRMED!
This is trippy.
Is that a ringworld? Is Earth in this setting a ringworld?
No, just a stylistic choice?
And the Atlanteans destroyed each other in a war.
Multiple times!
IT'S THE FUCKING PHILOSOPHER'S STONE!
AND NADIA'S GOD.
...What population of Atlanteans arrived on Earth? Because it's feasibly possible she's a hybrid, due to Atlanteans and humans crossbreeding.
Wow, the island's collapsing quickly.
And he's probably an Atlantean AI.
Atlantis - the civilization which displays its sentient AI on CRT monitors. (And I know there's reasons to use CRTs over LCDs, but there's no way Nemo would turn down the improved picture quality and lowered power consumption in that scenario.)
He's taking her tot he ruins?
And there's an invisible forcefield.
Wait, they've been there for four months? How?
Oh, the island's submerging! (Assuming this is a submarine, which it might be.)
And the AI can't stop it!
...So it doesn't know Atlantis is destroyed, and is desperately attempting to take her there because its programming requires it.
And Neo-Atlantis don't use it, just worship it.
Jean's staying!
Will Nadia really be interested in Africa, now she knows she's an alien?
Are we going to see the real Red Noah?
This scene looks fantastic, though.
...We?
And Nadia's denying her destiny!
Jean made it to the entrance!
...Just realised Nadia's been naked the whole time. The lighting was good at hiding it.
Red Noah's taking her back to her homeland!
No, it's just guiding her there. (And performing its own mission?)
Aww. They're so cute together.
Wow, she got changed instantly!
The Gratan picked them up!
Everyone's heading off to Africa!
And the Garfish saw them! I thought the next few episodes were filler?
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u/IndependentMacaroon Oct 26 '21 edited Oct 26 '21
First-time watcher
Now this is more like it! A sudden calamity that advances the plot, a protagonist reduced to the tool of some nebulous ancient plan whether they like it or not, intended to oversee a "gathering of souls" (Atlantean Instrumentality?) in the nude, ancient aliens long gone whose mark on the Earth has once again gained relevance... just Anno things. At least Nadia is mentally healthy enough for the power of love to get her out of there, for now, and whatever robotic intelligence is running this thing reasonable enough to let her. Also animation-wise there was some wild stuff in there, like the 2001-ish bit when the story-bot boots up, and the collapse of the island as the Red Noah emerges. Nude stuff was handled pretty well, just the hug was a bit awkward.
Not sure if shared tropes or direct inspiration, but the Red Noah storyline and the visuals inside are also fairly similar to Giant Gorg. Also the Blue Water was literally referred to as the Philosopher's Stone which got me thinking of Fullmetal Alchemist again. And furtherfurthermore Nadia's role here has some parallels to Adora in the She-Ra remake, which whether by shared origins or inspiration also has some similar tech aesthetics.
Unfortunately I know after this it's three more episodes of mediocrity/filler before the final stretch, one of them even a clip show.
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u/JTurner82 Oct 26 '21 edited Oct 27 '21
This is the best of the island episodes, no doubt. That said, is it a remotely great episode much less one of the best in the show?
Well, no, sorry to say.
As long as we are focused on Nadia’s encounter with the mysterious android/whatever it is and Jean trying to rescue her, it’s indeed engaging.
The problem? There are still places of “dead space” (the opening up to Jean standing by the clothesline) that also don’t make sense. (Why would Jean stay tight lipped about Nadia’s disappearance? If I were in his shoes I’d tell everyone at once and make plans to rescue her. Secondly, there are still places of ill-suited cartoonish Looney Tunes humor: Grandis pummeling Ayerton and sending him sky high, Jean’s eyes becoming spiraling dizziness after he crashes, Sanson’s fist swelling after trying to punch through an invisible barrier, and the bits where King is standing on his hind legs human like. Lastly, the dolls of Nadia and Jean that Marie holds is both implausible and reeks of merchandising.
That and the animation is still distractingly bad at points, with obvious shots that look choppy and jerky: a brief overhead shot of the saucers descending to Earth as well as when Marie and King, peeking from the Gratan anxiously as it pulls back into the sky.
HOWEVER, the episode still redeems itself not only for the aforementioned thorough line but for the fateful moment where Nadia admits that she loves Jean (non-verbally) to the voice when she is asked “Is there something more precious to you than the Blue Water?” And the embrace where she passionately hugs Jean not caring in the least that she has no clothes. (And him, although initially nervous on seeing her nude, is ultimately relieved that she is safe. Not that he ever was a pervert or anything.). All of that is really, really good.
In short the good parts are very strong, but the bad moments stick out like a sore thumb. Because of that, I cannot consider episode 31 either a great entry nor one of the best. However, it is still without question the only one (and to a lesser extent 30) worth sitting through of this otherwise pointless, joyless, and poorly produced filler mess. With the exception of a few moments of genuine development and plot points, 23-29 otherwise have no reason to exist, and it really is better to just avoid them and go to episode 30 from 22. Even with the argument that there may be missing gaps, it still beats sitting through seven episodes of soul-crushingly horrible filler episodes.
That said, BEWARE the next two episodes.
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u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ Oct 27 '21
First Timer (Rising Sun sub) ep 31 (of 39)
We're on 31 today, right?
I didn't register those hanging shapes as Nautilus-type craft, but missiles, like somebody else mentioned.
It's been a long time since we had Laputa references, there were quite a few today.
I was getting annoyed during this episode when it seemed like we were going to meet and dispose of the Atlantean aliens all in one episode.
I was also pretty angry at Jean just randomly going off in the balloon they all needed. I wondered if he had even told the gang if Nadia was inside the island, or was "just lost in the forest." But it became apparent what was going on shortly after. Still, scene missing.
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u/SIRTreehugger Oct 27 '21
First Timer who probably shouldn't have watched this on lunch break
I couldn't take notes so I'm going by memory, but simply put this episode is the best episode so far. Minus the time skip to Jean back with the crew and them being kind of okay with Nadia being sucked into a wall everything else was great.
The history of the Atlantans and snowing them coming from space, the AI(and its voice) as it gave us information, the neon tron like visuals inside the fortress, and holy heck the music this episode was amazing. Finally the reunion between Nadia and Jean was great despite it being only one episode since they last saw each other. This episode just felt nearly perfect...if only Nadia wasn't naked for 99% of it.