I didn't expect a masterpiece after checking out some of the mixed ratings on a few anime sites, but I loved director Anno's Evangelion and Gunbuster, so I had to check this one out too. I was not disappointed.
As far as the story goes, this series is basically Miyazaki's Laputa (Castle in the Sky) mixed with a bit of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. This makes sense because the original script was written by/for Miyazaki in the '70s even before the Laputa film.
The show starts out by introducing a genius 14 year old inventor, Jean, who happens upon a mysterious (and attractive) circus girl, Nadia. She is soon chased after a gang of Jewel thieves - the Grandis Gang: Sanson, Hanson, and The leader Senora Grandis - who are after her "blue water" stone. Eventually the whole gang befriends each other and joins forces with Captain Nemo of the Nautilus submarine and does battle with an absolutely terrifying villain named Gargoyle in order to save the world from destruction and slavery.
The story moves along at a nice brisk pace with lots action and humor. Perhaps the plot is a bit generic, however, Anno more than makes up for that with his signature character development and visual imagery; Shiro Sagisu's musical score works wonders as well, especially in that last episode. Finally, the show does contain some nudity, but it's nothing too objectionable staying in the PG-PG - 13 rating.
The only major problem with the entire series is the batch of episodes near the end, the infamous "Island" and "Africa" arcs consisting of episodes 23-34 which were animated in a different studio and directed by a different guy. I've seen numerous people recommend to just skip them all except 30-31 then just watch from 35, but I just watched them all anyway, just to make sure I wasn't missing anything. Here's my opinion of each of those episodes:
ep23: Skip, unless you absolutely need to know how the gang got to Lincoln Island (Nadia give it that name later, who knows why).
Ep24: This episode will make you Hate Nadia, and she doesn't deserve that; skip by all means.
Ep25: Watchable. There's some decent humor and an off screen kiss scene.
Ep26: There's another kiss which is sorta cute, but that's the only good thing in this episode; Skip.
Ep27-28: Watch if you want to know exactly how the Grandis gang and Ayerton got back into the picture.
Ep29: Hanson and Sanson duel against each other with robotic lions, WTH! There's a touching moment in the middle of the episode which explains why Nadia won't eat meat and can speak to animals though, so the episode isn't a total waste.
Ep30-31: Very good for the most part, don't skip!
Ep32-33: Skip. These are the two worst episodes in the show bar none.
Ep34: An episode where we get to hear the gang sing about their adventures. Nadia has a lovely singing voice in both English and Japanese.
After that it's five glorious episodes to the finale! Final rating 8/10
As far as the story goes, this series is basically Miyazaki's Laputa (Castle in the Sky) mixed with a bit of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. This makes sense because the original script was written by/for Miyazaki in the '70s even before the Laputa film.
The show starts out by introducing a genius 14 year old inventor, Jean, who happens upon a mysterious (and attractive) circus girl, Nadia. She is soon chased after a gang of Jewel thieves - the Grandis Gang: Sanson, Hanson, and The leader Senora Grandis - who are after her "blue water" stone. Eventually the whole gang befriends each other and joins forces with Captain Nemo of the Nautilus submarine and does battle with an absolutely terrifying villain named Gargoyle in order to save the world from destruction and slavery.
The story moves along at a nice brisk pace with lots action and humor. Perhaps the plot is a bit generic, however, Anno more than makes up for that with his signature character development and visual imagery; Shiro Sagisu's musical score works wonders as well, especially in that last episode. Finally, the show does contain some nudity, but it's nothing too objectionable staying in the PG-PG - 13 rating.
The only major problem with the entire series is the batch of episodes near the end, the infamous "Island" and "Africa" arcs consisting of episodes 23-34 which were animated in a different studio and directed by a different guy. I've seen numerous people recommend to just skip them all except 30-31 then just watch from 35, but I just watched them all anyway, just to make sure I wasn't missing anything. Here's my opinion of each of those episodes:
ep23: Skip, unless you absolutely need to know how the gang got to Lincoln Island (Nadia give it that name later, who knows why).
Ep24: This episode will make you Hate Nadia, and she doesn't deserve that; skip by all means.
Ep25: Watchable. There's some decent humor and an off screen kiss scene.
Ep26: There's another kiss which is sorta cute, but that's the only good thing in this episode; Skip.
Ep27-28: Watch if you want to know exactly how the Grandis gang and Ayerton got back into the picture.
Ep29: Hanson and Sanson duel against each other with robotic lions, WTH! There's a touching moment in the middle of the episode which explains why Nadia won't eat meat and can speak to animals though, so the episode isn't a total waste.
Ep30-31: Very good for the most part, don't skip!
Ep32-33: Skip. These are the two worst episodes in the show bar none.
Ep34: An episode where we get to hear the gang sing about their adventures. Nadia has a lovely singing voice in both English and Japanese.
After that it's five glorious episodes to the finale! Final rating 8/10