I had the pleasure of watching Nadia and the Secret of Blue Water a couple of years back. I'm not making a comparison between the two simply because they have "Blue" and "Cerulean" in the title, but more because the series have decently similar premises. Both are adventure stories helmed by a young girl that involve a mix of sci-fi and fantasy elements. They take place in very different worlds, with this story taking place in our world and Nadia taking place in a very distinct one, and a lot of the direction and characters in the story are distinct. But that's part of theproblem: this story just lacks Nadia's swagger. It's got a decent enough adventure and as long as we left William out of it, I think it had some legs. The various vehicles we saw, the relationships they developed (even if they felt a bit dragged out), and the concept of the Floating Liquid was interesting enough to keep the series afloat for much of its run.

But William hung like a spectre over all of it, and from the beginning, it was obvious that he would be the main villain without ever justifying why. Setting aside that he was just absurdly, cartoonishly villainous for the reason that he had a complex after his mother died, which is already pretty weak, his actual plans were completely and utterly baffling.

That might not be enough to sink the show on its own, but the character writing in general left something to be desired. Jane is a pretty basic character who had glimmers of something more interesting as she struggled with the negative implications of technology and with her love for her family in the face of William's outrageous crimes. Those are both somehow quickly forgotten. George is somehow unknowingly a party to some pretty terrible shit, gets upset that he did that, and sacrifices himself for no reason. We get more interesting with some of the side characters, but even with someone like Barsac who presents a competing interest, he doesn't get an opportunity to act as a grey character, instead almost consistently acting in support of the central cast.

To its credit, this series doesn't go off on useless side-tracks like Nadia did for part of its run, but it's significantly less satisfying of a story overall and lacks the gravitas in its characters to carry the narrative. It's fine enough for what it is, but lacks the strength required for a recommendation.