A brief description
An action adventure
story about a young circus acrobat named Nadia who is befriended by a French
boy, an ingenious inventor named Jean. The story begins at the Paris International
Exposition of 1889 where Jean, who has an entry the "aeroplane"
flying competition, meets Nadia, a cautious and untrusting exotic girl who
has caught Jean's eye. Nadia who finds herself pursed by a trio of thieves,
reluctantly accepts the help of Jean, as the thieves try to steal Nadia's
mysterious amulet known as "The Blue Water." Together the pair
embarks on an adventure as they pursed by the thieves.
My impression
Nadia is meant to be a fast paced story, with enough goofy characters, so that short attention spans won't get lost. I believe the intention of Nadia was to appeal mostly to children, but I have one disappointing note, the subject of death is dealt with a certain amount of clarity concerning the murder of Mari's parents. My gosh even the family dog gets shot! This may be disturbing for children. In our Disney culture where death is something that happens to only bad guys, parents might want to least preview this movie beforehand, or reserve it for older children.
The character design of Yoshiyuki Sadamoto is beautiful and those who enjoy the art of anime will like this movie. Nadia is probably the first anime where I truly began to appreciate the quality of good voice acting. Having only seen the English-dubbed versions, I don't think I would have enjoyed it as much if I saw the subtitled version. I found myself smiling at the cute French accents of Nadia and Jean, and the blaring British accents of Grandis and her two henchmen Samson and Hanson.
As a point of interest for those of you who enjoyed the Nadia series, I would strongly recommend Miyazaki's Laputa Castle of the Sky. Laputa's plot theme was the inspiration for the initial episodes of Nadia. And to further complicate the plot, Laputa was inspired by the Anime Future Boy Conan. Be sure to check out this Future Boy Conan web site.
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