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Siren Visual Licenses RahXephon and Nadia: Secret of the Blue Water
posted on by Jon Hayward
Siren Visual made both classic title announcements via their facebook page (Nadia here and RahXephon here) earlier today.
Nadia - The Secret of Blue Water is of particular importance as this will be the first time the series has been released in Australia. Siren Visual apologized that the complete release will not include Nadia - The Secret of Blue Water: The Motion Picture and that they cannot confirm releasing the series on Blu-ray until next year.
Both Nadia - The Secret of Blue Water and RahXephon will be released as complete collections on DVD in January 2015.
Nadia - The Secret of Blue Water
In 1889 the world is on the pinnacle of great technical discoveries, however its the secrets of the past that hold the most value. When young circus acrobat Nadia is pursued by thieves Grandis she runs into young inventor Jean Ratlique, together they escape the thieving trio and after a series of mis-adventures end up crossing paths with Captain Nemo and his submarine Nautilus. Nadia and Jean soon discover that they must join with Nemo to fight against the Neo-Atlantean forces that threaten the world, discover Nadia's true history and the secret of Blue Water.
Nadia - The Secret of Blue Water has an interesting history, the series is based on a original concept created by Hayao Miyazaki for TOHO based on Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The concept was kept on ice until the early 90's where Group TAC pitched the idea for the series to NHK with work from Gainax. NHK accepted the pitch but original director Hiroaki Inoue was forced to leave the company due to an internal power struggle within Gainax. Hideaki Anno was then chosen to direct the series alongside animation director Shunji Suzuki (Brave Story, Evangelion: 1.0 You Are [Not] Alone) who also worked on character designs with Yoshiyuki Sadamoto (FLCL, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Wolf Children).
The series originally screened on NHK from April in 1990 and ran for 39 episodes. Nadia went on to be screened in France and Germany and dubs in Korean, Spanish, Italian and Arabic have been produced. In North America the first ten episodes of the series was dubbed and released on VHS by Streamline in 1992, then Orion Home Video re-released the ten episodes in 1996 over two VHS tapes. The series then languished until 2001 when ADV Films dubbed and released all 39 episodes over ten DVDs and VHS. And most recently in 2014 Sentai Filmworks re-re-released the series as a complete collection on DVD and Blu-ray.
Siren Visual's release of Nadia - The Secret of Blue Water will be the first to ever hit Australian shores. All 39 episodes will be collected onto 8 DVDs and released in January 2015. We have yet to confirm if this release will be similar to Sentai's with both the English dub and Japanese audio and English dub.
The sequel movie, Nadia - The Secret of Blue Water: The Motion Picture has not been licensed for Australia at this stage.
RahXephon
In a world where time passes at a crawl and the blood of your neighbor runs blue, 17 year old high school student Ayato Kamina goes about his daily life within Tokyo Jupiter oblivious to the world around him, having been educated with the fact that all civilization but Tokyo has been destroyed. But all that changes when the mysterious civilization "MU" invades his home, raining destruction down from the sky in the form of strange monsters called Dolems. The events that occur next will lead Ayato to the mysterious woman named Reika Mishima, to the truth of their existence, the discovery of what and who he is and to the powerful angelic robot RahXephon.
Running for 26 episodes, this 2002 series was created and directed by Yutaka Izubuchi (Gundam mecha designer, Patlabor the Mobile Police) at Studio BONES for Fuji TV. He was joined by art director Junichi Higashi (Cowboy Bebop, SaiKano) character designer Akihiro Yamada (Twelve Kingdoms) and music composer Ichiko Hashimoto (Code Geass: Akito the Exiled).
RahXephon went onto spawn a OAV, manga and theatrical length remix titled RahXephon: Pluralitas Concentio.
The series was released by ADV Film in North America with English dub in March 2003 and as a complete collection in 2005. Since then the series has not since been reissued in North America but in August 2013, 101 Films re-released the series and film as a complete collection on DVD in the United Kingdom.
Madman Entertainment originally released RahXephon in Australia and New Zealand over seven volumes from May 2003 and as a complete collection in February 2005.
Siren Visual's release will be over 7 DVDs from January 2015 and they have not mentioned the movie being included with the set. We are seeking further clarification.
