NADIA MECHANIC ANTHOLOGY (part 2/2)

Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water 海底兩萬哩

The video above is the second part of "Nadia Mechanic Anthology".

Nadia MECHANIC ANTHOLOGY (part 1/2)
Nadia MECHANIC ANTHOLOGY (part 2/2)

已下轉貼自Wikipedia

Trivia

• This show's origins date back to the mid-1970s when Hayao Miyazaki was hired by Japanese movie giant Toho to develop ideas for television series. One of these concepts was "Around the World Under the Sea", (adapted from Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea), in which two orphan children pursued by villains team up with Captain Nemo and the Nautilus. It was never produced, but Toho retained the rights for the story outline. This explains why Anime fans often liken Nadia to a Miyazaki production; the animator reused elements from his original concept in later projects of his, notably the Sci-Fi series Future Boy Conan and his action-adventure film Castle in the Sky.^[2]

• Approximately ten years later, Gainax was appointed by Toho in 1989 to produce a TV series which would be broadcast on the Japanese educational network NHK. Miyazaki's outline for "Around the World Under the Sea" was the one which captivated Gainax the most. Under the direction of Hideaki Anno, the animation studio took the central story and setup Miyazaki had developed and touched it up with their own creativity.^[2] (incidentally, Anno had previously worked for Miyazaki as an animator on Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.)

• Nadia showed up on the Japanese Animage polls as favorite Anime heroine, dethroning the then top champion, Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaa.

• Nadia was originally intended to have an estimated 30 episodes. Since the show was so popular in Japan, however, NHK requested Gainax to produce more episodes, extending the episode count to 39. These episodes, dubbed as the "infamous island episodes" (which begin on Episode 23 and conclude on Episode 34), took hits for poor animation (since, as mentioned, other animation studios in Japan and Korea produced these episodes), ill-conceived plotting, and character stupidities; consequently, they drove many fans away. Only by Episodes 35-39 does the show return to its initial roots wherein lies its appeal. The setting of these episodes was suggested by Jules Verne's other novel featuring Captain Nemo, Mysterious Island.

• According to the notes found in the DVD sleeve of the Italian edition, the true reason behind the difference between the "infamous island episodes" and the rest of the series, would be that production was late on schedule. Starting with episode 11, Anno was working up to 18 hours a day on the series, and yet he was unable to cope with the screenplay, which was then handed to the storyboard team. After episode 20 (aired September 21, 1990), NHK put Nadia on hold to make space for news coverage on the Gulf War: the series returned about a month later with episode 21 (aired on October 26). Nonetheless production was still late, and Anno asked friend and Gainax co-founder Shinji Higuchi to take over the direction of the series, while he was going to focus on the ending. According to the same source, Anno would have stated that episodes 30 and 31 were the only he would have saved among the Island Chapter ones, while episode 34 was entirely scrapped and replaced by edited sequences of previous episodes.

• At the start of each episode, a Japanese inscription appears on screen (written in the Latin alphabet) and is read by a man's voice challenging the viewer to follow him for an adventure. "Are you adventurers? Do you seek the truth behind the mythical being that lies beneath the blue waterfalls named The Perilous. If you are, then you must first find me." This derives from the perplexing challenge of Arne Saknussemm in Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth.

• Shortly after Nadia completed its first broadcast in Japan, Carl Macek and his company, Streamline Pictures purchased the license for Nadia in the hopes of bringing the show to U.S. television, but because of financial difficulties, Streamline could only dub the first eight episodes. (Coincidentally, Anno worked on Macross, which Macek adapted into the successful Robotech). The original VHS release of the episodes was one per tape and not being sold at bargain price, was not popular with budget minded consumers. The episodes were eventually collected as two compilation tapes at a more bargain price. The dub's cast included Wendee Lee as Nadia, Ardwight Chamberlain as Jean, Jeff Winkless as Captain Nemo, Cheryl Chase as Mary, Melanie MacQueen as Grandis, Tom Wyner as Sanson, Steve Kramer as Hanson, Edie Mirman as Electra, and Steve Bulen as Gargoyle. In 1996, Streamline's rights for the show expired. Later, ADV Films purchased the rights for Nadia, and commissioned a new dub to be recorded at their Austin-based Monster Island studios. This dub cast actual children in the roles of Nadia, Jean, and Marie (in the Japanese and Streamline versions, all three parts were played by adult actors). In ADV's version, Nadia is portrayed by Meg Bauman (who was, like Nadia, 14 years old at the time she recorded the part), Jean by Nathan Parsons (12 years old), and Marie by Margaret Cassidy (11 years old). Interestingly, Cassidy originally auditioned for the Nadia role.

• A complete dub was produced in Mexico around the time Carl Macek first got his hands on the series and released the first few episodes on VHS. This Spanish dub's cast included Xóchitl Ugarte, Enzo Fortuny, Álvaro Tarcicio, Leyla Rangel, Mónica Manjarrez, Jorge Arvizu, Francisco Colmenero, María Fernanda Morales, and Blas García.

• The series contains numerous nods to other Japanese television series, as is to be expected in a series by Gainax, which is famously comprised of "otaku" (fervent anime fans). Ostensibly, the Grandis Gang are modeled after the villains from Tatsunoko's Time Bokan series, and M78, the home system of the Atlanteans, is also the home of Tsuburaya's Ultraman.

• There are various Biblical references in Nadia: Secret of the Blue Water. "Noah's Ark" and the "Tower of Babel" are two such examples. One example presented near the end of the series, a giant artificial human called "Adam", is faintly reminiscent of the Adam and Evangelions of Neon Genesis Evangelion.

• Jean's family name, Raltique, is derived from the name of the famous French photographer Jacques Henri Lartigue. Lartigue started talking photographs of aircraft at the Ligue Aérienne in 1908, at the age of 14, incidentally the age of Jean in the Blue Water series.

• In the Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual, authors Michael Okuda and Rick Sternbach state that the superconducting crystals used in Starfleet phasers are called fushigi no umi. Sternbach is a noted fan of anime.