Recap / Nadia The Secret Of Blue Water E 38 To The Sky

Hideaki Anno really has a thing for destroying Paris, doesn't he?

Tropes in this episode:

• All for Nothing: Nadia's defiance all throughout last episode and refusing to give into Gargoyle's arguments and ideology. When she wouldn't comply, he simply suppressed her consciousness and mind-ontrolled her with Atlantean technology.
• Animation Bump: The aerial dogfight between Red Noah and the N-Nautilus is stunning (especially for early 1990s-era anime) and is easily on par with the final battle of the original Nautilus during Episode 21.
• Anyone Can Die: Kinda. Given the Gratan has become just as much of a character as Nadia, Jean, or the others, its destruction is the first major casualty of the show's climax and establishes that nobody is safe.
• Batman Grabs a Gun:
  • Acting on Nemo's orders to shoot Nadia and Neo, Jean wields a firearm for the first and only time in the series.
  • Similarly to Jean, the preceding moment of a brainwashed Nadia wielding a gun to shoot Nemo. While she's not in control of her actions, it's still nonetheless shocking to actually see her using a firearm.
• Battering Ram: This is basically the crux of the 'Insert the Gratan Inside Red Noah' plan. The N-Nautilus doesn't have to (nor can it) bring down Gargoyle's entire Barrier. They merely need to punch a hole in it and thus the ship's bow serves as a de-facto battering ram. It works, too.
• Boarding Party: The Grandis Gang and the Gratan serve this role when they're inserted into Red Noah. Nemo, Jean, and Electra also count later when they go to rescue Nadia and confront Gargoyle.
• Boarding Pod: The N-Nautilus itself *literally* becomes this when it charges and rams Red Noah in the climax of the space battle.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: Gargoyle ignoring the Grandis Gang during their boarding of Red Noah. By this point in the show, the Gang's more than proven they can be a legitimate threat and shouldn’t be underestimated. But Gargoyle not only ignores them, he doesn’t even dispatch security forces to halt their advance inside Red Noah — at least not until after they've taken out the main reactor. Hell, Hanson even lampshades the lack of a counterattack (with Sanson bitterly pointing out that the Gargoyle and his men justifiably, if arrogantly, don’t fear a tiny mecha like the Gratan.
• Bookends:
  • The final battle of the series is the same as the first: Jean having to rescue a kidnapped Nadia from a technologically superior foe in the skies above Paris.
  • The Grandis Gang's final mission as allies of the Nautilus is the same as their first in Episode 10. The Gang once more pilots a now-modified Gratan on a risky operation to save the ship and its crew from Gargoyle.
    • Likewise, the Gang's final battle against Neo-Atlantis sees them once again sabotaging the enemey's power grid (just as Hanson did on Cape Verde in Episode 08).
• Cliffhanger: Will Jean shoot Nadia?
• Captive Audience: The Grandis Gang is captured and serves as 'witnesses' during Gargoyle's Kangaroo Court.
• Convection, Schmonvection: When the N-Nautilus is trying to break through Red Noah's Barrier, it's reported the friction is turning the surrounding atmosphere to plasma and that external temperatures have exceeded 60,000 degrees. That's hotter than the surface of Earth's Sun about 7 times over. With that kind of intense heat, Paris should be reduced to a scorched wasteland, but it's fine and intact.
• Conveniently Empty Building: Large chunks of Paris are laid to waste during the firefight between Gargoyle and Nemo, yet there are (apparently) no causalities. This can be justified, though, as the ending of the previous episode showed most, if not all of Paris' population fled town after Red Noah appeared in the skies.
• Crazy Enough to Work: The Gang using the Gratan to physically block Red Noah's reactor from supplying power to the Tower of Babel. It single-handedly turns the tide of the space-battle in favor of the N-Nautilus.
• David Versus Goliath: The N-Nautilus vs. Red Noah. Even with Atlantean technology and weaponry at their disposal, the N-Nautilus is still ultimately a cruiser up against the full weight and might of one of the ancient Atlantean Arkships. So Nemo and company are outgunned in a straight-up fight and have to rely on alternate tactics to take down Gargoyle's flagship (like getting the Gratan past their Barrier).
• Deflector Shields: Both Red Noah and the N-Nautilus are equipped with Atlantean Barriers (and gives both parties advantages and disadvantages).
• Disc-One Final Boss: Red Noah more or less fulfills this role. While it's still technically in play by the end of the episode, the vessel's been crippled thanks to the Grandis Gang's sabotage of the main reactor. More, whatever tactical and technological advantages it had against the N-Nautilus have also been nullified by Team Nemo literally boarding their opponent. From hereon out, Gargoyle is the Final Boss.
• Dramatic Irony: The Chief Engineer's prediction that mankind will make it into space on its own wit and ingenuity at some point in the next century. The audience, of course, knows he is right and that manned spaceflight is 70 years away from the time of this episode.
• Drives Like Crazy: As the final battle's the Gratan's swansong, Sanson gets to be a madman behind the wheels one last time.
• Drunk on the Dark Side: Following on the from the initial shift last episode, Gargoyle has again gone from taking generous sips from the chalice to full-on roaring drunk.
• "Eureka!" Moment: The Grandis Gang has less than a minute until Red Noah's reactor destroys the N-Nautilus with its Tower of Babel. But the Gang also depleted their armaments getting to the heart of the ship and they're out of ideas and time. It's Hanson, studying the reactor, who realizes their solution: They can't destroy the Reactor, but they can block the main connection bolt. Doing that will prevent the Neo-Atlantean command crew from transferring the necessary power for the Tower of Babel's discharge. Sanson picks up the thread of thought from Hanson and realizes how they can do this: Use the Gratan itself to physically block the connection.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: The Grandis Gang gets a back-to-back negative and positive version of this when the N-Nautilus is seemingly destroyed (and when it's revealed to have survived). Since the Gang can't see what's going on outside, Sanson and Grandis react initially in alarm to Hanson's explanation of the weapons discharge...and then with pure joy when the realize the Tower recharging means their friends are still alive.
• Foreshadowing: The brainwashing of Nadia and her suppression of her consciousness all but confirms Gargoyle's done the same to her brother.
• Gilligan Cut: Jean and the others wonder why they haven't heard from the Gratan and what the hell is going on aboard Red Noah. We then instantly cut to the Gratan'and discover they're not exactly in trouble....but they have gotten lost because Grandis wanted to take that shortcut.
• A God Am I: Gargoyle's been invoking this since the Cape Verde episodes, but the Kangaroo Court in the climax really underscores how recovering Red Noah and the Blue Waters has catapulted his megalomania to unprecedented heights.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • Nemo nearly attempts this when it becomes clear they can't beat Red Noah and it seems the Gratan has failed its infiltration mission. Thankfully, it proves unnecessary.
  • The Grandis Gang sacrifices the Gratan in a desperate, last-ditch attempt to knock out Red Noah’s Tower of Babel. Hanson’s heartbreak at destroying his beloved tank is a Tearjerker, but the sacrifice isn’t in vain as it turns the tide of the space battle in the favor of the N-Nautilus.
• Hypocrite: Gargoyle denounces Nemo as a traitor for turning his back on the Atlantean legacy and siding with humanity over his own kind 13 years ago. And yet, Gargoyle’s the one who committed treason first by orchestrating the coup against the Tartessos monarchy, killing the Queen, and forcing Nemo’s abdication – all of which ironically helped push Nemo into siding with humanity in the first place.
• The Last Dance: For the Gratan, which goes out the way it 'lived': As a crazy awesome Mini-Mecha.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Grandis when the Gratan infiltrates Red Noah. Rather than stick to the planned route to getting to the main reactor, she impulsively decides to take a shortcut instead. Hanson and Sanson, caught up in the heat of battle, follow her lead...and the Gang promptly gets lost fast. Their delay sets off a chain of events that nearly gets the N-Nautilius destroyed and forces the Gang to sacrifice their mecha to complete their objective.
• Kangaroo Court: Gargoyle throws a show trial for Nemo to 'welcome' him aboard Red Noah and to punish him for betraying the Atlantean legacy. Quite naturally, Judge Gargoyle will not allow any lawyers to speak for the defense in his Courtroom; God (i.e. him) sees through all defenses, after all. The Grandis Gang are also conscripted as the Witnesses and the brainwashed Nadia and Neo serve as Gargoyle's Executors of the Judgment.
• Killed Off for Real: The Grandis Gang self-destructs the Gratan to take out Red Noah's Tower of Babel.
• Mind Control: Nadia, to the point this staunch pacifist *shoots her own father*.
• Monumental Damage: The Eiffel Tower is destroyed between the N-Nautilus crashing into it and subsequent weapons fire from Red Noah.
  • According to the Nadia's Omake Theater, it was rebuilt on 1895.
• Never My Fault: Played for black comedy after the Grandis Gang gets lost inside Red Noah. Grandis naturally refuses to take any responsibility for ordering them to take a shortcut, but that doesn't mean Sanson and Hanson are blameless either. They're also at fault, because they only put up a token resistance to deviating from the plan...and they instead try to pin all the blame on Grandis.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Grandis' aforementioned Leroy Jenkins stunt. Thanks to the time wasted by the Gratan getting lost, the N-Nautilus is nearly destroyed before they're able to take out the Main Reactor. And even when they do, they're forced to destroy the Gratan due to having expended the tank laser's battery. This leaves the Gang without their big guns and thus easily captured off-screen by Gargoyle's forces.
• No Endor Holocaust: Played straight, as there are no on-screen Parsisian casualties from the air battle between Nemo and Gargoyle (and again justified in-universe by the Screw This, I'm Out of Here! at the end of last episode).
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Downplayed, but one can imagine the Grandis Gang did not go quietly when they were taken prisoner by Gargoyle's forces off-screen.
• Race Traitor: There have been hints of it here and there from Gargoyle before the in-story reveal that Nemo was an Atlantean. Now, though, Gargoyle finally explicitly and openly accuses Nemo of being one and for siding with 'base creatures' like humans rather than his fellow Atlanteans.
• Ramming Always Works: The N-Nautilus goes for the hat trick against Red Noah. The first time fails due to Red Noah getting its Barrier up in time. The second time's to use their own Barrier to punch a hole in Gargoyle's so they can deploy the Gratan. The third time is for the N-Nautilus itself to *literally* board Red Noah itself.
  • And then Gargoyle tries to do it right back at Nemo during the third attempt (only to fail when the N-Nautilus weapons systems come back online).
• Rule of Symbolism: The destruction of the Eiffel Tower during the aerial battle between Red Noah and the N-Nautilius. It’s where Jean (and the Grandis Gang) first met Nadia in the Pilot and where Jean pledged to help Nadia travel the world to uncover her origins. Now, 37 episodes later, the Tower’s destruction symbolizes how that quest has opened a can of worms Jean never could’ve imagined a year earlier. And now those dremas are crashing and burning as Gargoyle lays waste to the City of Lights.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: Once the Grandis Gang takes out Red Noah's main reactor, their role and comic relief in the show's climax is basically over (as they're captured off-screen and are out commission for most of Episode 39). All focus shifts now to the final dramatic confrontation between Nemo and Gargoyle.
• Shout-Out: The N-Nautilus' homing lasers are an homage to Anno's GunBuster.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • The Gratan isn't enough to physically block the connection bolt to the Tower of Babel. The reactor's hydraulics slowly begin crushing the tank and it takes Hanson activating the self destruct charges to complete their mission.
  • Once the Gratan is blown up, the Gang loses their primary tactical advantage and means of mobility inside Red Noah. Armed with only what they were able to grab, they're easily taken prisoner off-screen by the Neo-Atlantean security forces (who are now finally going after them after they blew up the reactor).
• Taking You with Me: When the space battle against Red Noah seems lost, Nemo is prepared to finally do a kamikaze run to destroy Gargoyle along with themselves. Thankfully, it proves unnecessary after the Grandis Gang completes their mission and the tide of battle turns back in Nemo's favor.
• Vestigial Empire: During the show trial, this is revealed to be one of the reasons why Nemo rejected Gargoyle's Atlantean supremacy ideology and sided with humanity. Unlike Gargoyle, Nemo understands and accepts that Atlantis's time has come and gone and that the Earth now belongs to humanity.
• The Voiceless: Nadia for this episode (and the first half of next episode) due to Gargoyle's mind-control. This also ironically makes this the only episode of the entire series where the eponymous protagonist doesn't actually 'appear' or have any speaking lines.
• Wham Line: Gargyole and Nemo's first face-to-face reunion in 13 years, which reveals their true Atlantean names: Eleusis La Arwall and Nemesis La Algol respectively. The reveal that Gargoyle was the Prime Minister of Old Tartessos also instantly and finally clarifies details about his history with Nemo, how he was able to rally political and military support to stage the coup, and how he knew all the great secrets of ancient Atlantis.
• Wham Shot:
  • Played for comedy when Jean wonders where the hell the Gratan is up to over on Red Noah...and we see Grandis reading a map and trying to figure out where the hell they are inside the ship.
  • A literal Wham Shot occurs in the climax when Electra shoots Gargoyle's mask with her sidearm...and manages to shatter part of it, finally revealing Gargoyle's face (or at least part of it) for the first time in the Present Day.
• Where's the Kaboom?: The Neo-Atlantean reaction when they attempt to destroy N-Nautilus with their Tower of Babel...and nothing happens, because the Gratan is physically blocking the firing mechanism's main connection bolt.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!:
  • Sanson's reaction upon realizing the fate of the N-Nautilus is dependent upon their successful infiltration of Red Noah...and they're lost because they went 'off-road' and took Grandis' shortcut.
  • Nemo's reaction to Gargoyle's Kangaroo Court and proclaiming himself to be God. Look at it from Nemo's perspective: The N-Nautilus just punched a giant hole in Gargoyle's hull and they've been literally boarded by Nemo's ship...and instead Gargoyle's priority is this? It's just another sign of how badly Gargoyle's been consumed by his megalomania.