[Shadix]

I recently was watching the 1990s series Nadia: Secret of Blue Water, and, like many videogame franchises, it seems as though Sonic even gives nods to anime. Besides certain characters in the plot, something was urking me as the show reached its climax, and after a while I realized the show was following a similar trajectory to SA2's plot.

Note: Spoilers for anyone who hasnt seen this anime.


The enemy appears across the planet via projection telling the people to surrender to their ruling.


This ship is called Red Noah, which serves as Noah's ARK within the storyline. It also happens to be equipped with an extremely powerful laser. Here the villain demonstrates the cannons ability by shooting the laser around the planet and blowing a place up, telling the people that they have a finite time to surrender before they start blowing cities up. The ship is powered by magical crystals of immense power called The Blue Water.


The characters have a stand off with the main bad guy in this scene inside Red Noah. This scene very vaguely has commonalities with the scene where Eggman has a standoff with Amy, Tails, and Sonic on the bridge.


After defeating the villain, Red Noah is now on a crash course for earth.





Captain Nemo sacrifices himself and the ship.







There is an introspective scene with very similar tone (even musically) to SA2s ending where they honor Nemo's sacrifice and talk about going back home to Earth.

Scene in question: (jump to 21:30)


Other misc unrelated facts about the show:
*The protaganist Jean shares a lot in common with Tails, being a quirky boy inventor who works on planes
*The Egyptian trope is also present in SA2, and the center of the Ark is powered by ancient technology.
*The show coincidentally was advertised on the Sonic OVA (at least the VHS release I had growing up)

I seem to be finding more parallels as I go back through it. I'm curious what you guys think.

This post has been edited by Shadix: 21 July 2014 - 10:43 PM

[JaxTH]

Shadix, on 21 July 2014 - 03:54 AM, said:

Shadix, on 21 July 2014 - 03:54 AM, said:

*The show coincidentally was advertised on the Sonic OVA

The Japanese one or the English one?

[Shadix]

JaxTH, on 21 July 2014 - 04:26 AM, said:

Shadix, on 21 July 2014 - 03:54 AM, said:

*The show coincidentally was advertised on the Sonic OVA

The Japanese one or the English one?

English. The VHS version specifically, I havent seen the DVD. This show was fairly popular in japan but was pretty mute when it was localized, especially compared to Evangelion. Maybe it has to do with the shows strong religious themes.

Also, haha @ Kraz!

This post has been edited by Shadix: 21 July 2014 - 04:37 AM

[JaxTH]

Shadix, on 21 July 2014 - 04:33 AM, said:

English. The VHS version specifically, I havent seen the DVD.

Popped in my DVD. Doesn't seem to be there. The DVD has:

Tekken
Slayers
Legend of Crystania
Sonic the Hedgehog
Queen Emeraldas
Sakura Wars
Battle Angel
Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040
Burn Up W
Evangelion
Ninja Resurrection
Those Who Hunt Elves

[XCubed]

Last time I checked the entire series borrows from all over the place, the Death Egg, Super Sonic, and Monster-Of-The-Week are the biggest offenders.

[Jen]

Interesting stuff! It's nice to see where the inspration for Sonic Adventure 2's plot came from (there are too many similarities here for this to be put down to coincidence, I believe it must have been deliberate - wouldn't be the first time).

[nineko]

Oh wow, I always loved that anime, and I never noticed the similarities.

Then again I never played SA2.

But I did watch Sonic X.

I disappoint myself. And bravo to you.

[Flygon]

Excuse me for going a bit meta here, but the guy in the first capture seems to quite strongly resemble Atlas from the 1980s Astro Boy series. The cape's a different colour, and I can't find any screengrabs online that show the exact pose I'm thinking on here, but... well, I see it, at the very least.

[MastaSys]

Flygon, on 22 July 2014 - 08:54 PM, said:

(...) the guy in the first capture seems to quite strongly resemble Atlas from the 1980s Astro Boy series. (...)

http://images4.fanpo...389-583-425.png

I don't see much of a similarity outside of being both "intimidating men" er...

Spoiler

Robots?

In-Topic, while it does take some nods from "Blue Water" I don't see much of a similarity, it is as much Sonic 2 is like Star Wars, IMO.
If anything, on the meta-level, Sonic and Nadia are both two great series full of crappy filler.

This post has been edited by MastaSys: 23 July 2014 - 04:55 AM

[Flygon]

MastaSys, on 23 July 2014 - 04:53 AM, said:

Flygon, on 22 July 2014 - 08:54 PM, said:

(...) the guy in the first capture seems to quite strongly resemble Atlas from the 1980s Astro Boy series. (...)

http://images4.fanpo...389-583-425.png

I don't see much of a similarity outside of being both "intimidating men" er...

Spoiler

Robots?

Ah, alright. The closeup you've provided clears stuff up. Sorry for the confusion!

Spoiler

At least, Atlas is a robot. Don't know a thing about Mister Neo.

This post has been edited by Flygon: 23 July 2014 - 05:34 AM

[MastaSys]

Flygon, on 23 July 2014 - 05:30 AM, said:

Spoiler

At least, Atlas is a robot. Don't know a thing about Mister Neo.

!!!Secret of Blue Water MAJOR Spoilers!!!

Spoiler

Yes, he's also one. Or at least a cyborg.

This post has been edited by MastaSys: 23 July 2014 - 08:33 AM