JTurner

I think the dubs of Miyazaki's films have been good over all. They're always brimming with top talent. However, I'll admit that I prefer Nausicaa's voice actress in Warriors of the Wind. Anna Paquin just didn't seem right to me - probably just bc I grew up w/ the voice of "Princess Zandra."

Wrong actress; Alison Lohman voiced Nausicaa. Anna Paquin played Sheeta in Castle in the Sky, interestingly she uses her New Zealand/Canada accent for the character, which I personally thought was a nice touch to the character.

Castle in the Sky for me. It's got everything: adventure, action, great characters, beautiful music, solid voice acting, and all in all a lot of fun. Best of all, it has Luke Skywalker as the central badguy.

Castle in the Sky(disney dub)

I disagree. I think the Disney dub of Castle in the Sky is fantastic and in many ways better than the Japanese version. Yes, the leads sound like teenagers and the dialogue is chattier than necessary at times, but all in all it works quite well. And sorry, but I thought Mark Hamill was perfect for the evil character; he really made the dub come alive. So did the rest of the cast. And despite the leads sounding like teens, they really weren't terrible at all. A bit green compared to their co-stars, perhaps. But they were nowhere near bad. The older '80s JAL dub of Castle in the Sky was much more lifeless—seriously, one listen to it and I knew right away that Disney's dub was better.

And sorry to whoever said it up there, but I also loved the Kiki's Delivery Service dub. I thought Kirsten did a fine job as Kiki, and Phil Hartman was a great compliment.

Neither of these dubs are perfect, but they are nowhere near terrible IMO. They're both awesome. Oh, and I also loved Record of Lodoss War OVA dubbed. Sure, it has its stiff and/or awkward moments, however the characters are generally well cast and it holds up fairly well for a 1996 CPM dub.

Thanks to everyone here for the info on the back-office production politics. I was always wondering why a good show turned ugly near the middle.

It started out as a fine turn of the century HG Wells 20,000 leagues under the sea type of story, and ended up badly.

As for the Tower of Babel becoming a superlaser tower, apparently the idea is not new. Microsoft Age of Empires 1 has that in the pc game too.

Is there any supporting legend for that idea? All I know is God decides that building a stupid tower to reach the sky is a waste of time and resources for humans, and decided there and then to make humans speak in different languages and go their own ways to do more productive things.

Yes, the second half of Nadia is truly terrible, but at least it DOES have a satisfying ending (35-39), and the two episodes that start the second half (21 and 22) are technically the conclusion of the superior first arc. I do think the show plays better overall when watched as 1-22, parts of 30, 31, and 35-39, because I think that's what Gainax had in mind when they decided to do this show.

I just wish Nadia had gotten the 4 brand new movie remake treatment instead of Eva, as Nadia really could have benefitted from story streamlining & updated animation.

Actually, I DID hear from another source that Anno DID have interest in doing a movie of Nadia in the similar vein that he's doing the Eva movies--in particular, he wanted to do a major cut/rework of the island/Africa filler sequence. Unfortunately, NHK wanted to tell an entirely new story. So it ended up being a very messy brawl that ultimately resulted with the movie being 1/3 recap (badly edited too) and 2/3 a new story with none of the depth of the series' central arc. The resulting movie, aka "Secret of Fuzzy" bombed, and Anno distanced himself from NHK after that... but not before making the Nautilus Story compilation I mentioned earlier. I can only wonder how the series would have turned out if Anno had more control over it... or better yet, if Hayao Miyazaki was in charge! Now THAT would be something to see.

-Jon T.

heh I kinda liked the one episode that was one character theme after another.

That episode in question I think was supposed to be something more ambitious, but due to budgetary problems, they couldn't produce what they wanted, hence the recapped footage. It's also the tail end of what I think is the lowest point of Nadia: the Africa sequence. There I felt all the characterizations were totally destroyed, and the animation and the dialogue were worse. Not only that, but the newer characters introduced were not even remotely INTERESTING; Grandis' ex-fiance was especially bad. Plus, considering that Nadia had admitted that Jean was more important to her than the Blue Water, and hey, rushed into his arms nude, you know that her sudden 180 turn in the subsequent episodes feels very out of place and doesn't make a whole lot of sense. (Not to mention totally out of character--the Island episodes were guilty of messing with her personality and relationships with her friends, but it is far, far worse.) Even for a character at odds with her own views of the world, it just didn't fit. Again, episode 35 disregards this substory and acts like it never existed.

All in all, NADIA is indeed a fine show, but it's too bad that it suffers from such a terrible filler arc. Even Hideaki Anno admitted to being dissastified with the final result. As a matter of fact, the closest to a streamlined version of NADIA that he came to was with "The Nautilus Story", where the island/Africa episodes are all but omitted save ep. 31, and the story concentrates more on the struggle between Nemo and Gargoyle. Pity that version's only available in Japan.

yeah that explains the bad chaterization but unless they wern't paying attention, they should know Nadia would know that Africa isn't her home.

That's just one of the many problems with these episodes; the characterizations are not consistent with the characters' personalities in episodes 1-22.

However, the filler episodes that really stink are Episode 26 (for not only having a stupid plot and characterizations, but also for wasting half of the episode with a dreadfully pointless dream sequence) and the Africa episodes -- 32 and 33 -- THOSE are the worst of the show. If you decide to sit through them, be warned--they are that painful.

-Jon T.

The movie is really,really,really, bad. Story and animation wise. The only thing good, was the flashbacks, and that was because they used recycled animation from the t.v series.

Again, the reason why the film was made was just to cash in on the show, just like those filler episodes. Obviously, it shows, due to the inconsistent characterizations and the subpar storylines and animation.

Why were those episodes made anyways? Trying to give the staff more time to cobble up a good ending? The island episodes were okay. Terrible compared to the rest of the show. It was those episodes that strated me hating Nadia, and the african one too, mad that emotion stronger. Luckly she redeemed herself to me in the final episodes.

The reason why those episodes were made was because the show was doing extremely well in Japan, so it was decided to extend the series. Unfortunately, NHK didn't provide Gainax enough time or money to produce them, so other animation studios in Japan and Korea were outsourced to make the animation. (This explains the awful animation quality.) Hideaki Anno and Gainax only outlined the specific parts of that sequence (Jean & Nadia reunited with their friends, relationship turns romantic, discovery of Red Noah) while the rest were pretty much tacked on without any thought or effort. FWIU, the Africa adventure, I think, was never supposed to happen, especially since Episode 35 quickly disregards it -- in addition to most of the other island episodes. Considering that the characters all act out of character in those two episodes (the Lincoln Island ones were similarly bad -- especially 26), it's hardly surprising that some merchandise books based on the show neglected that Africa arc and most of the Island eps.

Andd SkullLeaderVF-X, I really don't blame you for disliking Nadia during that portion of the show. In the opening 22 episodes she was portrayed as an imperfect but interesting "real" person, but the horrible episodes really destroyed her personality -- blame that on rushed scriptwriting. I think the final Island episode (#31) was the only one that had any actual value to the plot. Even Hideaki Anno admitted that he would have saved only that particular episode (in addition to #30) but completely leave out eps. 23-29 and 32-34 if he had more creative control over the plot. Considering the messy results of the second half, I honestly can't blame him. It's no wonder that most reviewers and fans suggest skipping past these episodes. As for the movie... Anno had nothing to do with it, just like those aforementioned filler episodes. That explains its quality.