Towards A Critical Understanding of Nadia

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Towards A Critical Understanding of Nadia

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Postby ran1 » Tue Oct 02, 2012 8:26 pm

SPOILER: Show
I'd like to actually refine this to a "quality enough to get published" level, so if you have any comments or proofreading, let me know via PM.

You can read them as google docs here

Also, if any of you folks have more concrete sources, I'd gladly adapt them into the essay.


Also, I tried to implement footnotes, but they just came out as numbers. Regardless, I left them in there so you can cross reference them with the google doc version


Preface: Why Study Nadia?

In terms of form and content, Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water (conversely, Nadia of the Mysterious Seas) is seen as a more adolescent and less refined attempt at reaching the artistic catharsis that are ultimately fulfilled in renowned Japanese animator Hideaki Anno’s omnibus, Neon Genesis Evangelion. Anno’s first nationally aired TV series, Nadia allowed Anno’s nascent studio, GAINAX a place on the cultural map that was not achieved with the studio’s first major project -- Royal Space Force: Wings of Honnemaise, and would not be surpassed until Evangelion five years later.

The story behind the series is a timeless one: a young inventor by the name of Jean meets Nadia, a mysterious dark-skinned acrobat at the 1889 Parisian World fair. The two are pursued by a group of jewel thieves after Nadia’s “blue water”, a mysterious and rare gem. After a brief stay in Normandy, the two are forced to escape the villains once again on a flying machine crafted by Jean and his late father. They crash land at sea, later to be rescued by Captain Nemo of the Nautilus, a high-tech submarine dedicated to stopping the evil Gargoyle and his dreams of world domination through ancient Atlantean science.

If this sounds like more of a “Ghilbi” project than a “GAINAX” one, it should be understood that the concept itself was from Hayao Miyazaki’s dustbin, who had pitched the project to Toho prior to Laputa: Castle in the Sky. In a deal solidified by NHK, GAINAX, coming off early success from Royal Space Force: Wings of Honnemaise, Nadia would become the first nationally aired TV series that GAINAX ever produced and Anno directed for a large audience. In spite of a chaotic production -- which will be addressed later -- the series lasted for thirty-nine episodes and brought significant marketing power to GAINAX past the art cinema that had been achieved with Royal Space Force.

Following the success of Nadia, however, Hideaki Anno plunged into a four year struggle with depression. Most of Anno’s closest associates -- the friends that managed the studio from the business ends -- have treated the subject with discretion -- letting on very little about the reasons why Anno was in the mental state that he was in. While this will be discussed in further detail, it is worth noting for now that the events revolving around the end of the production of Nadia irrevocably changed Anno’s approach to making anime.

Introduction: The Difficulties in Assessing Nadia

It is difficult to do an encompassing study on Nadia. There is little in the way of promotional material, product merchandise, and overall care for the series. GAINAX’s only substantial merchandising effort seems to be a PC game of the same name, last published in the mid 1990s. It is even rumored that the original masters for several episodes are forever lost. This is itself mysterious -- if only because the series was successful and profitable enough to actually be re-aired on NHK. So the question arises -- why is the series so neglected?

The first key answer here is the fact that Nadia is not a GAINAX product in the way that Evangelion is. According to Michael House, an in house translator who worked for GAINAX during the production of Evangelion:

Michael House, in an interview with Gwern wrote:Yes, it was different because, to the best of my current knowledge, Gainax owns a piece of Evangelion, and that was the first time that happened. As I recall, all of Gainax’s work prior to Eva, at least, was strictly work-for-hire. Hence, Gainax has had that much more incentive to merchandise Eva in any and every way it can, and to keep doing so. Eva has been licensed for use in pachinko slot machines in recent years, among many other properties from many other sources, to cite just one example. I haven’t been paying attention, but if any other titles that Gainax has worked on have been so treated, I’m not aware of it. And then there was the theatrical revival of Eva a few years back, which is also unique to the best of my current knowledge. 1



f we understand that Nadia, whose rights are mainly owned by NHK and Toho, is low on GAINAX’s list of favored works, it can be seen why so little material regarding the series exists. Most information on its production, as opposed to being actively merchandised like Eva (the studio will sell everything from storyboard to episode script right down to film cells) -- there is little actual physical information that GAINAX can market. Most information about the series comes from the studio’s inner circle during production -- none of which is really marketable past the Notenki Memoirs, written by Yasuhiro Takeda, a work which this document will draw from heavily.

The aforementioned quotation also brings up the second problem in studying Nadia -- the fact that most evidence about the production of the series is anecdotal. While with Evangelion, we have materials readily available -- such as Evangelion’s first proposal, episode scripts and storyboards, production logs, et cetera (most of these are sold by GAINAX to their fans in publications) -- Nadia has none of these. Most real material relating to Nadia is actually seen via Eva products. In Evangelion manga writer and character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamot’s artbook, Der Mond, we see some initial designs for Nadia and various collected artworks. Occasionally other Evangelion texts will reference Shinji’s design as similar to Nadia’s. Comparisons between the two works Biblical references are sometimes seen. But past this superficial gloss, not much hard evidence exists past the anecdotal.

While most of the anecdotes are rather trustworthy -- I will be making use of a rather questionable one for argumentative purposes. A window into GAINAX’s production work at the time stems from an anonymous (and vitriolic) source none as the Kaibunsho Text, written by a somewhat disgruntled employee of the studio who the drew “fan-service” (mildly pornographic, hyper-sexualized) scenes of Evangelion’s nubile adolescents. He was unceremoniously let go from the company, as he puts it, and provides a tell-all account of his fellow employees. While most of the criticisms can be dismissed as biased, many of his statements on Anno’s work with his voice actresses have been at least partly corroborated by House, the GAINAX translator. These will be referenced in the segment dealing with the Kaibunsho document.

Part One: Who Directed What and the “Nautilus Cut”


When it is said that Anno “directed”, Nadia, this should be seen as a fundamentally nebulous term. Anno was indeed credited as “General Director” and is credited for personally directing twenty seven episodes, and writing twenty-nine. Nadia itself is thirty-nine episodes in length. The main question to be answered in this section is, of course, where do these other twelve episodes fall in terms of direction?

Shinji Suzuki receives credit as Second Unit Director.2 Supervision of the second unit is credited to Shinji Higuchi, especially as series progresses. While the second unit is nominally just a reserve team that works on what are generally considered unimportant scenes, it is commonly held that the second unit was itself in charge of Nadia’s “Island Arc” and “Africa Arc” -- episodes 24-34 of the series. These episodes, essentially demanded by NHK to increase the overall running time of the series, are generally deemed of poor quality by fans and by GAINAX alike. Most of these episodes were animated in Korean studios and peripherally managed by the second unit. Anno himself neither had nor wanted anything to do with the episodes, and effectively ignored them when he took the helm of the series back on Episode 35, creating even more confusion.

So the question arises -- what’s Anno’s in Nadia, really? Thankfully, we have an answer. There exists on laserdisc a definitive “Nautilus Story” cut designed by Anno to condense the series into what he considered it’s real presentation intent. In the Nautilus Story, Anno completely cuts episodes 23-28 -- leaving only segments of episodes 29-31 as the “island arc” where originally Jean and Nadia spend a long time stranded on the infamous “Lincoln Island”.

These episodes chronicle a budding romantic relationship between Jean and Nadia on the deserted island, but constantly undermine their narrative worth with hijinks and vaudeville that seem completely out of step with the original series. This is because of watered-down scripts sent to Korean animation studios to give the series a longer running time. Anno completely skips the infamous “Africa Arc”, in which, in a hilariously out-of-step move, Nadia, who has just admitted her feelings for Jean, attempts to win the heart of an African warlord. Contextually, these two episodes seem to ignore all attempts at character development throughout the series, and present ultra-cliched presentations of Africans that can only be seen as thinly veiled racism.

So, effectively, the Nautilus Cut keeps episodes 1-22 intact (with few questionable admissions), episode 31 completely intact, and finally episodes 35-39, the series finale. This accounts for a total of 27 episodes, which coincide with Anno’s “credit” of directing 27 total episodes, as evidenced by IMDB and many other cinema databases. Therefore, when speaking about Anno’s own creative “input” of the series, these are the episodes to keep in mind. When discussing the remainder of the episodes, the category “second unit episodes” will be favored. Anno’s feelings about these second unit episodes should by no means be discredited.

Part Two: The Nadia Feature Film Crisis


Yasuhiro Takeda in the Notenki Memoirs wrote:Group TAC had already been subcontracted by Toho to produce the film, so GAINAX’s position was something like sub-subcontractor. That being said, GAINAX still contributed many elements to the film, such as the story, the characters and so on. TAC had, as usual, secured a healthy budget for the project. I think their impetus for sending Nadia our way was to help us recoup the losses we incurred during production of the television series.

There was, however, one sticking point - Anno stated that he would not be involved with the project. Working as director on the original series had burned him out on all things Nadia. Luckily, a conversation with Okada and Mr. Tashiro from TAC changed his mind, and he agreed to come on board.
We came up with the basic plot, and Sadamoto designed some new characters, but at the actual production phase, things just weren’t happening.

Sawamura volunteered to step in and take over the project, but it was no good. Things continued to worsen, until finally we had to just apologize and tell them we couldn’t do it. We had already received a 50 million yen advance, however, so of course TAC’s first question to us was, “What about the money?” Our response:

“We’re sorry, but we don’t have it. We’ve already spent it all. Please forgive us.” And that was how we bailed out of the project. Our overall losses were in the neighborhood of 80 million yen, but thanks to the 50 million we received as advance payment, our actual total losses on Nadia were 30 million. Incidentally, TAC went on to complete the project relatively quickly and on a small budget.”3


The following quote, extracted in its entirety from Yasuhiro Takeda’s Notenki Memoirs, recounts the manifold issues regarding Anno’s work (or lack thereof) on the Nadia feature film. In a move that further alienated NHK, GAINAX, and Toho away from each other, the failures of the Nadia feature film are another “creative control issue” that hints at another cause of Hideaki Anno’s depression following the completion of the Nadia series. The film itself was belatedly saved by TAC, as Takeda recalls -- unfortunately the film has neither been received well by critics or fans of the series.

Little information past this account exists on the Nadia film -- most of the work was handled quickly and quietly by Group TAC, and following a transfer of finances -- GAINAX appears to have been kept out of the loop for most of the production. Incidentally, the TAC group utilized a great deal of GAINAX resources to complete the film project -- thirty minutes of the film consists of a flashback that utilizes much of GAINAX’s work throughout the series. It is most likely that the first third is reused footage to account for the loss of financing.

While the Island Episodes and Africa Arc were merely hiccups in an otherwise solid production -- the feature film version of Nadia represents Anno’s first real creative failure. This in concert with the the next event illuminated here was probably the proverbial “straw that broke the camel’s back”, as far as Anno’s psyche was concerned.


Part Three: The Kaibunsho Account


The Kaibunsho account presents many questions that raise an eye towards authenticity and intent. The “anonymous” rambling of one recently fired GAINAX employee to another, we’re presented with an extremely jaded view of GAINAX as a studio, that generalizes that much of the front office were lazy and incompetent, and that Anno himself was a tyrant prone to changes of fancy and verbally violent outbursts.

While the source itself claims personal anonymity, he(?) notes that his role at GAINAX was that of designing the fan-service elements of Evangelion and presumably, Nadia. Fan-service, to review, is a technique of anime that concerns itself with entreating the audience to seeing female naughty bits. Sometime following the completion of Evangelion (before mid-1996) he claims that he was fired by GAINAX in a large shuffling of employees following the tax evasion issues that the company was plagued with during Evangelion’s production. The Kaibunsho Account is really only reliable as far as other members of GAINAX are willing to corroborate.

While most of the account has been dismissed as slander -- one of the few elements in the article that has yet to be contradicted by GAINAX staff is Anno’s relationship with his voice actresses, or VAs. Anno reportedly pursued relationships with voice actress Yuko Miyamura during the production of Evangelion, and, during the production of Nadia, Noriko Hidaka. The Kaibunsho account attests:


And now we get to an interesting story. Anno said in some anime magazine that “Katsuragi Misato is modeled in part on my first love,” but do you know who he was talking about? It’s Hidaka Noriko, the voice actress for Jean in “Nadia and the Secret of Blue Water”. (laugh) When the TV version of “Nadia” launched, Anno confessed his feelings to Hidaka Noriko. This is a famous story in the industry. Apparently Anno told her that he “looked at her not as an object of adoration/longing, but as a serious love interest!” (ROTFL!) Apparently he was even seriously thinking of marriage.However, Hidaka Noriko refused him flatly, saying “I have no intention of marrying someone in the anime industry.” Wait, what? Don’t we know now that she was married to some anime-related producer at the time? (ROTFL!) But Anno would not give up, and told her, “Well, watch my next work, and then decide!” In other words Anno was proposing an affair to the already married Hidaka Noriko. (laugh) Anyway, Anno next work was “Evangelion”, so... Evangelion might be considered a work that embodies something of a stalker obsession. (laugh)4



Undoubtedly, this serves as a very damning report of Anno’s work. What’s more, it is corroborated by the in-house translator for GAINAX, Michael House, who stated when asked by gwern.net about the rumors regarding Anno’s relationship with the two VAs:

“I recall hearing some talk around Gainax at the time”5



Conclusions


With these three personal and professional crises in mind, it is not hard to understand what would have driven Anno into his four-year-long struggle with depression. A feeling of powerlessness in the face of GAINAX’s subservience to NHK, indecision and financial difficulties regarding the Nadia film, and being rejected by a woman he was chasing are three things that are hard enough to take in stride separately, let alone dealing with them all at once in a very short period of time following the production of Nadia, which itself carries a heavy load.

With the understanding of Anno as a fundamentally sensitive and modest person as projected in his public persona, it is understandable that few, if any, publicized reports exist about Anno’s problems. All we have are fragments of statements that are hinted at by more forthcoming members of the GAINAX front office. That being said, Anno was clearly troubled. In between the production of Nadia and Evangelion, it is said that he attempted suicide in the GAINAX office.

Kare Kano Promotional Site wrote:He tried to kill himself. In order not to kill himself, he had to live at the building of GAiNAX, Musashino-city, Tokyo.
But he lost his everything because he wasted out his all inside to make EVA.6


As such, we’re left with only fragments of a picture of a deeply troubled man. This article hopefully illuminated the cause of those troubles.
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Re: Towards A Critical Understanding of Nadia

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Postby JoeD80 » Wed Oct 03, 2012 11:49 am

View Original Postran1 wrote:If this sounds like more of a “Ghilbi” project than a “GAINAX” one, it should be understood that the concept itself was from Hayao Miyazaki’s dustbin, who had pitched the project to Toho prior to Laputa: Castle in the Sky.

Did Miyazaki come up with it? It's based on the concepts from the book "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea." Jules Verne has the 原案 credit.

View Original Postran1 wrote:Most information on its production, as opposed to being actively merchandised like Eva (the studio will sell everything from storyboard to episode script right down to film cells)

There is a book with the key artwork and it apparently has some commentary from Anno in the book:
http://www.gainax.co.jp/goods/nadia_g/index.html

View Original Postran1 wrote:Kaibunsho Text

I wouldn't trust a single word in that thing.

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Re: Towards A Critical Understanding of Nadia

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Postby ran1 » Wed Oct 03, 2012 12:18 pm

View Original PostJoeD80 wrote:Did Miyazaki come up with it? It's based on the concepts from the book "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea." Jules Verne has the 原案 credit.


Ghibli had worked with Toho on Laputa and apparently had given Toho the rights for some of the first episode drafts of Nadia. GAINAX followed up with the existing framework and animated it when for NHK when Toho and NHK were still working partners. The two companies went their separate ways as a direct result of the post-production fiascos caused by GAINAX's bungling of Nadia.

Ghibli had initially gotten the source material from Verne, obviously, like they do with a lot of Western Literature.

Kaibunsho Text


The guy's got an axe to grind, but GAINAX staff have corroborated a lot of the statements there, just in a more... polite fashion.

There is a book with the key artwork and it apparently has some commentary from Anno in the book:


Just ordered it off amazon.jp -- if there's anything that I can find using my meager translation skills, I'll add it in.

But here's a quote from Takeda regarding GAINAX's possession of Nadia rights, circa 2002, I guess:

We never did acquire any of the rights to the anime, but a point was made of letting us have the rights to the game adaptation, something for which we are still deeply grateful. The PC game, which we produced in-house, went on to set record earnings for us.
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Ran's persistent irony is a coping mechanism he uses to try and create some understanding of his paradoxical attraction to and disgust of the elitist bourgeois slaughterhouse in which he's forever trapped. --Muggy

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Postby Dream » Wed Oct 03, 2012 8:54 pm

In the end this seems to have more to do with Anno and GAINAX than Nadia, but it was a very good read. The kaibunsho section seems a bit sloppy to me and the evidence you presented in that part really doesn't seem convincing. But aside from that (and a few typos and errors here and there) it was very informative.
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Postby JTurner » Wed Oct 03, 2012 10:33 pm

Great article overall, but may I suggest a few corrections:

In the Nautilus Story, Anno completely cuts episodes 23-28 -- leaving only segments of episodes 29-31


Actually, there WAS a clip from Episode 23 used in the beginning of the island arc edit. It's when we see Jean and Nadia lie on the beach. Then the edit cuts to episode 28 where the children and the Grandis gang are seated around the fire. After that, we go to the last part of episode 30.

So in truth, it's basically a clip from 23, then some of 28, and then 30-31. Eps 24-27 and 29 are the ones that are skipped.

So, effectively, the Nautilus Cut keeps episodes 1-22 intact (with few questionable admissions), episode 31 completely intact, and finally episodes 35-39, the series finale.


Actually, episode 31 is cut down, too, by about 2/3. It only features the mostly important scenes where Nadia is talking with Red Noah and basically omits the island collapsing subplot. IOW, we cut back to Jean screaming Nadia's name as if he had been waiting there the whole time.

Episodes 35-39 have some occasional omissions, too; 35 loses Nadia ranting about her selfishness (and, unfortunately, her birthday discovery), as far as I know.

The whole thing about the Nadia movie is interesting; I had actually heard that Anno DID want to do a movie initially, just a four-part remake ala Rebuild of Evangelion (which he achieved with "The Nautilus Story"), while NHK wanted a new story. I could be mistaken, but I heard this from another account.


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