Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water - The Motion Picturenote is a 1991 Anime Film and a sequel to Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water.
Three years have elapsed since the final, fiery confrontation between the N-Nautilus and Red Noah in the skies above Earth. While the final battle cost the life of Captain Nemo, our heroes ultimately succeeded in ending the threat posed by Gargoyle and the Neo-Atlantis organization.
In the aftermath, the surviving Nautilus crew, the Grandis Gang, and the Main Group have all gone their separate ways. In Nadia's case, she's now living in London and working as an aspiring journalist (and in her spare time penning memoirs of their adventures aboard the Nautilus). In Jean's case, he's returned to his family's home in Le Havre to continue inventing and to patiently await Nadia's homecoming.
However, their reunion is coming sooner than either of them anticipated.
Tensions are rising between global powers and a world war seems increasingly inevitable. What's stoking the tensions is the discovery that someone's been replacing key world leaders with robotic duplicates — and based on the technology and the targets, the implication is clear: Gargoyle may be dead and gone, but at least some Neo-Atlanteans survived and have revived the 'Take Over the World' plan.
Now, Jean, Nadia, and the Grandis Gang must get the band back together again to save the world one more time.
Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water - The Motion Picture contains the following movie-exclusive tropes:
- Art Evolution: Nadia and Jean's character models are tweaked to account for the Time Skip and now being in their late teens. Basically, the Movie's character models are a bridge between Jean and Nadia's TV series looks and their Distant Epilogue redesigns.
- Averted with the Grandis Gang's designs, which are basically unchanged from the show (and is justified due to Time Skip and them already being in adulthood).
- Call-Forward: The Distant Epilogue showed Jean was building rockets inspired by the old Nautilus design. Here, we see one of the early ones in action (though this one is modeled after the N-Nautilus.
- Clip Show: Nearly a third of the film's running time is reused footage from the series (with the framing device being Nadia working on her memoirs).
- Dramatic Irony: Giger's attempts (and ultimately failure) to start a World War. If the Nadia timeline follows the same course as ours, then the First World War is coming in 20 years.
- False Flag Operation: Giger's plan. He intends to start a World War using the robotic duplicates of key politicians he's inserted all over the globe. In the chaos and decimation, the Neo-Atlanteans will step in and 'save' the world (by taking it over).
- Flashback: Again, nearly a third of the film is one thanks to being a cinematic Clip Show.
- Foregone Conclusion: One of the many, many flaws of the film. Since it’s set during the 12-year gap between the ending of Episode 39 and its Distant Epilogue, it robs the film of any real dramatic tension. The audience knows going in that Jean, Nadia, and the Grandis Gang will all survive, that Geiger’s faction of Neo-Atlanteans won’t triumph, and that Jean won’t end up with Fuzzy because he and Nadia will canonically marry 4 years later.
- Grand Finale: Technically the final installment of the franchise. However, given the
Fanon Discontinuity arguments (and how unlike the TV show's Cult Classic status, the film's been all but forgotten in the 30 years since its release), most Nadia fans treat "Successor to the Stars..." as the true finale. - Interquel: The film is set in-between the climax of the final episode and the series finale's Distant Epilogue.
- Intrepid Reporter: Nadia has inexplicably decided to become one in the aftermath of Gargoyle's defeat.
- Mad Scientist: Geiger was one for Gargoyle.
- Private Detective: Having reformed during the series, the Grandis Gang have set themselves up as Private Detectives in the interim since Episode 39.
- Put on a Bus: Jean, Nadia, and the Grandis Gang are the only returning characters from the series to appear. The rest of the cast only appears in the aforementioned archival footage.
- Remember the New Guy?: Geiger is stated to have been one of Gargoyle's top scientists, but he was never mentioned in the series. Justified in-universe, though, as characters and viewers alike only saw Neo-Atlantis through the lens of Gargoyle himself and not through other global branches of the organization.
- The Remnant: Geiger and his faction of surviving Neo-Atlanteans.
- Revisiting the Roots: In terms of character focus, and as the franchise's final entry, the Movie does at least come full-circle with the early episodes by returning the focus to just Jean, Nadia, and the Grandis Gang (albeit badly).
- Saved by Canon: Jean, Nadia, and the Grandis Gang will all survive the events of the film due to the show's Distant Epilogue.
- Sequel Reset: The Grandis Gang gets hit with this bad, as they're back to not only being agents-for-hire, but are initially hostile to Jean (which completely ignores all the character development and relationships from the series).
- Speak Ill of the Dead: Despite having worked for Gargoyle, Geiger doesn't mourn his loss aboard Red Noah. On the contrary, Giger outright calls Gargoyle a loser and thinks his particular plan for world domination was stupid.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Given the global reach and membership of Neo-Atlantis, blowing up Red Noah at the end of the TV series would not automatically destroy the entire organization. It is completely realistic that there would be survivors who’d go underground either to protect themselves from Nemo's surviving allies and humanity, or who would carry on Gargoyle’s goals (or hijack them for their own ends).
- Time Skip: The film picks up 3 years after the series finale (though still 9 years before the Distant Epilogue).
