01.10
With the huge amount of animated shows that come out of Japan every year it’s natural that some are going to slip of the radar and end up in relative obscurity, even if they deserve to be more well known. The last anime I finished, a decade old shojo series titled Ashita no Nadja (Nadja of the Tomorrow/Tomorrow’s Nadja), is certainly one such show.
The story begins in England at the dawn of the 20th Century. It’s here that we meet our main character, Nadja, who has lived her whole life at the Applefield orphanage; her only memento of her parents being a brooch. At her thirteenth birthday, Nadja receives a trunk which contains a dress that once belonged to her mother, as well as a diary. Later at night, two thugs break into the orphanage and try to steal Nadja’s brooch. Nadja is saved by a mysterious man on a horse, but the orphanage is burned down. Convinced that her mother is still alive somewhere, Nadja joins a group of travelling performers: The Dandelion Troupe, to look for her.
Ashita no Nadja’s greatest strength lies undoubtedly in its cast of characters, starting with Nadja herself. Nadja could easily have become a bland and overly saccharine character, being sweet, good-natured and, aside from a certain naiveté, lacking any flaws of characters. However, as the show goes on Nadja’s continued bravery and determination not to mention her overall compassion makes her into a very engaging heroine.
The other members of the Dandelion Troupe are all good characters in their own way, with entertaining and distinct personalities. However, only two of them – Abel, the Pierrot and Rita, the mute lion-tamer receives any sort of backstory as to why they joined the troupe in the first place.
That said, my absolute favorite character must be Rosemary; Nadja’s childhood friend who eventually becomes a major obstacle in the way of our heroine. Rosemary’s skills as an actress combined with her penchant for manipulation makes her a splendid villain, probably the best example of a teen-age girl as an antagonist that I’ve seen since Azula (although, Rosemary anticipates the Firenation princess with a few years). She doesn’t appear all that much, but whenever she’s on screen, she steals the show.
All in all, the characterization of Nadja is of a consistently high quality and while there were certainly characters that I disliked (although those characters were not meant to be likable), I can’t think of a single character in the show that I found boring, which must certainly be among the worst sins a fictional character can be guilty of.
Ashita no Nadja’s greatest flaw lies in its pacing; after the initial episode the whole business about Nadja’s quest to find out where she comes from, who her mother is and why Rosso and Bianco keep chasing her, is put on the back-burner and instead a huge part of the series focuses on Nadja and her friends travelling around the world going on side-adventures and meeting various characters. In general these episodes are not bad and some of the characters introduced in them do get to return later on. However, I must confess that there were times when I found myself impatient, wondering when the narrative would get to the good stuff.
The long wait eventually pays off though, because once the plot kicks into high gear it never stops going and the latter part of the series is filled with sequences that are as suspenseful and gripping as anything I’ve seen in Anime, it’s just that it takes a lot of time for the show to actually get there.
In closure, I found Ashita no Nadja to be a very well-made and enjoyable series. If you’re in the mood for a good Shojo anime featuring likable characters, plenty of dramatic situations and, of course, some romance I recommend checking it out.
Just remember that patience is a virtue.