While I feel like selecting both, I am somewhat reserved in my selection of NADIA. It IS a well-constructed, richly complex, intriguing series overall, but I was very disappointed in the filler arc in the second half (so uncharacteristically cartoonish and mindnumbingly stupid, plus the awful character derailments--it just didn't feel like the same show anymore). Had the show been 12 episodes shorter and its heroine more consistent (the writers seemed to have a hard time knowing what to do with her character during the filler arc--her doings in those episodes contradict both her personality in the canonical episodes and, frankly, don't fit into the story at all), it would have been much better. I'm more in favor of Anno's own "director's cut", THE NAUTILUS STORY. Granted, it DOES omit some of the better episodes on the show, but at least it cuts out the worst episodes of the show, which makes it much tighter and more consistent. |