Nazca Anime Review

Quick Review

• Reviewer: Marc
• Review Date: 2005-12-01 (updated 2013-12-21)
• 2.5 stars out of 5 (?)

Nazca is very nearly a melancholy, understated re-envisioning of a shounen action concept as a more adult character-driven drama about internal emotional struggle. Sadly, due to an apparent lack of confidence or vision in its direction, it fails to capitalize on its potential. It still manages deep, involving, and older-than-average characters, an unusually subtle emotional character, and some some very powerful dramatic scenes, but it jumps around at the beginning to get things going, then drags its feet waiting for the final episodes to roll around. It does fill space with some refined, impressively expressive character art and animation, a melancholy Andean musical score, and a rich, reserved set of Japanese performances, in particular Megumi Hayashibara's quiet, conflicted Yuka.

Those who appreciate subtle character drama or themes of reincarnation and the cruel hand of fate pitting friends against each other might well love this series. Otherwise, it's probably not worth the investment of time despite several quality chunks of drama.

Read the full-length review...

Full Review

• Reviewer: Marc
• Review Date: 2005-12-01 (updated 2013-12-21)
• 2.5 stars out of 5 (?)

Nazca has a lot going for it: An interesting premise, a diverse, atypical group of characters, and a healthy amount of surprisingly understated drama for what is superficially a traditional action show. Unfortunately, despite some very good moments it never manages to get comfortable or build up much momentum, resulting in an intriguing but disappointing series on balance.

The story is a good one. The narrative of the Inca warriors, their war, and their long-dead relationships unfolds in bits and pieces as an ongoing series of flashbacks, slowly revealing secrets of all sorts. This involving, semi-nonlinear style by turns mirrors modern events and reveals important details about why the characters stand where they do, maintaining an air of mystery throughout the series. The modern end follows up with a bit of a detective story as the heroes try to figure out what the villains are plotting and exactly what is going on.

At its heart, though, Nazca is a character-driven tale, and for the most part the plot takes a back seat to the understated emotional drama. Despite outward appearances, the characters are not the average shounen action show cast. Kyouji is both somewhat more mature and more soft-spoken than your average annoying high school kid. Kyouji's quiet friend Daimon has "eventual bad guy" written all over him, but also has an interesting and properly creepy air as well as internal turmoil about the decision to turn on his friend. The other villains are more simplistic but equally unsettling.

Yuka, though, particularly impressed me--she is very quiet, strong-willed, and considerably more mature than your average anime heroine. This creates an unusual dynamic between her, the equally mature but now evil Tate, and the significantly younger Kyouji, who had been a romantic rival in a past life and isn't entirely out of that realm in this one. This works as a low-key but very interesting love triangle the likes of which I haven't seen before. On another level, Kyouji and Yuka share the pain of trying to let go of their respective feelings for Tate in order to stop him, which is subtle and effective.

Emotional pain of that sort is not only the central theme of the story, it is where Nazca is at its most effective--several powerful, understated scenes involving Kyouji, Tate, and Yuka are more than anything what stuck in my mind after I finished watching. Had the entire series been as good as those few scenes, it would have been an impressive (if angst-soaked) drama. Sadly, it isn't that lucky.

Tate is one big issue. He's an engaging villain--soft-spoken yet amiable, intelligent, and there are hints that there's more to his madness than just a guy who feels like being bad. The problem is that hints are as much as we get. He keeps spouting quasi-deep nonsense about how he wants to wipe the slate clean and reconstruct the world in his image, but everyone, himself included, seems fully aware that his plan is more or less to just destroy everything. This is completely out of character, and his selfless determination is so important to the story that the implausible motive hurts a lot.

Nazca's real problem, though, is that the series just isn't put together well. Great scenes are separated by long stretches that are either simple and heavy-handedly dramatic, or a little too slow to be gripping. And, while it's not terribly episodic by TV standards, every time it starts to build toward a crescendo, be it emotional or physical, the story veers off-course and loses momentum.

Length seems to be the enemy, and there is no sense of confidence in the direction; it rushes through its introduction only to run out of material and drag its feet waiting for the conclusion. During the establishing episodes the reawakening of each Inca soul is a perfunctory process, and at a couple of points the characters take trips (a jaunt to South America, for example) that have no more sense of epic journey than a drive to the local library. Later, the intentionally unhurried pacing works very well to frame the characters' internal emotional torment, but everything in between feels like we (and the characters) are just waiting for something to happen. Even the eventual climax, while powerful and poignant, closes too abruptly. Perhaps a wise decision, but a bit unsatisfying.

Visually, Nazca is inexpensively produced but surprisingly appealing. The character designs are superb--angular, refined, realistically proportioned, and quite attractive. The beautiful, mature, sad-eyed Yuka is the most memorable, and she and others are given life through unusually subtle yet believable facial expressions. The backgrounds lack detail, but the rest of the art is very good--fine lines in the character art, and plenty of detail in the flashy, exotic Inca costumes. The series mitigates its limitations skillfully--the slower parts, which are numerous, compensate for lack of motion with expressive character animation and art, saving the more fluid animation for the few action scenes.

Sadly, the impressive art is marred by a smattering of computer work that doesn't mesh well with the non-digital cel art. I'm willing to forgive the few primitive 3D models, since they are entirely separate from the characters. However, the character art occasionally switches from attractively hand-painted cels to noticeably different and more simply penned computer-composited ones. While I could understand trading detailed art for smoother animation in the action sequences, these switches sometimes happen several times over the course of a single non-action scene, which is subtle but relatively jarring for no good reason. On more of a nit-picky realism level, it also bugged me that most of the characters wear the same outfit for almost the entire series.

One thing that is consistently good about Nazca is the music, right from the cool techno-choral adaptation of one of Bach's fugues that opens each episode. Tsuneyoshi Saito's background score ranges from other classically inspired pieces, to more standard, decently orchestrated dramatic themes, to eerie vocalizing, to pretty, mournful acoustic guitar and Andean pieces. Among those South American treats is a non-vocal end theme that perfectly captures the melancholy feel of the series at its best. There are some cheesily dramatic or more standard tunes, but by and large the music is different and effective.

The acting in Japanese is fittingly reserved and extremely good. Kenichi Suzumura as Kyouji, Takehito Koyasu as Tate, and Yuji Ueda as Daimon are all standouts, and a somewhat against-type Megumi Hayashibara perfectly brings the emotional complexity of the quiet, conflicted Yuka to just below the surface. The other characters are broader, but are still cast and acted quite well.

The English acting, based on a cursory examination, isn't bad, but the casting is poor. Yuka and Kyouji are fine (though Yuka's emotions are a little closer to the surface), but Daimon isn't nearly as creepy, and the gruff mountain man Dan sounds rather meek and younger than the high schoolers he's supposed to be teaching. Not a bad dub, but it feels as off as the rest of the production and lacks the depth of the Japanese version.

In the end, Nazca is disappointing for how much potential it fails to capitalize on. It has substantive characters, an unusually understated emotional character, and some some very powerful dramatic scenes, but due to an apparent lack of confidence or vision in its direction, it jumps around at the beginning to get things going, then shuffles its feet waiting for the final episodes to roll around. Those who appreciate subtle character drama or themes of reincarnation and the cruel hand of fate pitting friends against each other might well love this series. Otherwise, it's probably not worth the investment of time.

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Related Recommendations

A similar reincarnation theme is done in Please Save My Earth, although that story is more shoujo style, has a sci-fi framework, and is more romance-oriented. Unlike Nazca, Please Save My Earth is very good until the end, when it completely falls apart. The much newer Persona: Trinity Soul has a very different story, but similarly twists a shounen action framework into a story even more single-mindedly about inner turmoil. I'm not exactly sure why I think so, but Generator Gawl and 3x3 Eyes, though both involve more action and much more comedy, share some emotional character with Nazca. Finally, for stories with similarly understated emotions but a completely different plot, you might check out the sci-fi series Macross Plus, or the samurai dramas The Dagger of Kamui and the Rurouni Kenshin OAVs.