From the very beginning, Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water finds ways to surprise and delight. The setting of 1889 France is unique, vibrant and entrancing, with circuses, bicycles and many, many failed attempts at manned flight. The first arc has a real Pokemon-like vibe, as plucky protagonists Jean, Nadia and her pet baby lion King are chased by the colorful and charismatic villains Grandis, Hanson and Sanson (serving as clear inspiration for Jessie and James of Team Rocket...with a similar success rate). After running into an even bigger bad, they soon come around to the hero team, a welcome addition as they are extremely fun whenever they show up on screen.

That bigger bad is Gargoyle and the Neo Atlanteans, who are after a special pendant of Nadia's, the titular Blue Water. After a run in with the Neo Atlanteans, Marie, an orphaned four-year-old joins the good guys. The little kid tag-along trope is historically hit or miss in anime, but Marie is a generally strong addition who brings the heightened and unrefined emotions you'd expect of a child, while also finding genuine semblances of maturity, as well as precocious scheming. She alone is responsible for numerous laugh-out-loud moments, and became a real favorite over the course of the show.

Nadia and Jean's relationship however can be annoyingly frustrating. There's a lot of "will they/won't they" that's cute at first as things kindle, but gets tiresome when things regress, often for no reason at all. The creators seem to find any and every excuse for these two to not be together, even though we all know they're going to get together in the end, leading to a lot of the drama between them feeling like a distraction.

The plot really starts to cook when we board the Nautilus, a beyond-human-technology submarine dead set on stopping Neo Atlantis. There's lots of intriguing mysteries and exciting underwater battles, all culminating in a fantastic 22nd episode where nearly every main character gets a big, emotion-filled climactic moment.

And then it all goes to hell.

While the original director, Hideaki Anno (Evangelion, Gunbuster), took a break from the gruelling production to focus on the final arc of episodes, a substitute director comes in and...well, everything just sort of stops. Jean, Nadia, Marie and King get stranded on a deserted island and the plot screeches to a halt for about 11 episodes. Nadia and Jean fight about the same things over and over and over again. They move to a second island that thankfully adds back in the Grandis team, but not even they can save things or get the plot going again. The production values also takes a nosedive in this set of episodes, dipping into the Hanna-Barbera-esque pool. There's nothing wrong with that style of cartoon, but it's a far cry from the lavishly detailed animation Nadia showcases up to this point. It's truly a slog of episodes to get through, and while there are a couple of standout moments and plot-relevant details within them, they mostly disappoint until you finally can push past.

One clip/recap episode later, and we're onto the final arc, where things pick right back up and it's the incredible show you remember it being. The production values are back, all your favorite characters are back and the action is extremely back. It's a wild ride the rest of the way through. Beautiful stuff. And then there's a little 12-year timeskip epilogue that gives us a nice send off for all the characters: Here's who got together, here's who started a successful business, hey look, the baby lion grew up and had cubs. Very sweet. And then you learn the four-year-old (now 16) married the 27-year-old (now 39) and is pregnant...woof. Gainax stays Gainaxing, I suppose.

But barring the gross-out of the epilogue, it's still hard to confidently rate Nadia. From episode 1-22, and 35-39, it's an all-timer, with characters you'll fall in love with and moments that will leave you breathless. But when nearly a third of the series is a nigh-unwatchable mess, it puts a real damper on the whole experience. Unlike some in the fandom, I don't think you can just skip these episodes. We can't pick and choose what is the show vs. what is not. It's all the show, even its flaws.

But those flaws, while glaring and excruciating in the moment, cannot dull the raw joy and giddiness I had while watching Nadia perform at its best. It will live on as one of my favorites, and yet, there will always be that little mental asterisk nagging at me about how much better it could've been...