A Memoir Blue

Lore & Background

A Memoir Blue began as Cloisters Interactive founder Shelley Chen's Master's degree thesis project. After a prototype was shown at IndieCade, Annapurna Interactive reached out to publish the project. The game was announced during the first Annapurna Interactive Showcase on July 29, 2021. Chen, who had previously worked on strategy and shooter games, was inspired to create a story-driven game that utilizes visuals and music to deliver the narrative after playing Journey. The story was initially based on her own childhood memories with her mother, and she describes the game as 'a way for [her] to thank [her mother].' After partnering with Annapurna Interactive, she shaped the story away from being solely based on her personal experiences to create 'something that everybody could relate to.' Chen cites animated films La Maison en Petits Cubes and Father and Daughter as inspirations, noting how both films share the theme of 'familial love' and evoke strong emotions despite their brief length.

Reader's Guide

A Memoir Blue received mixed or average reviews for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 according to Metacritic, while the Xbox Series X/S version received generally favorable reviews. Simon Parkin of The Guardian praised the game for feeling deeply personal, writing that it 'achieves that miraculous narrative trick of making the specific feel universally approachable.' John Friscia of The Escapist called it a 'finely crafted piece of art.' Ozzie Mejia of Shacknews gave the game a 7 out of 10, lauding its art style, narrative, and soundtrack while noting the story could have offered more and that puzzle design was overly simplistic. In a negative review, Stuart Gipp of Nintendo Life gave the game 4 stars out of 10, criticizing the unremarkable premise, unengaging gameplay, and lackluster story while commending its visuals. The game's significance lies in its personal origins as a thesis project and its use of a mixture of 2D and 3D animations to represent different time periods in the protagonist's life.

Did You Know?

• A Memoir Blue was originally Shelley Chen's Master's degree thesis project.
• The game uses 2D animation for childhood memories and 3D animation for present-day scenes.
• Annapurna Interactive reached out to publish the game after a prototype was shown at IndieCade.
• Chen cites Journey as an inspiration for creating a story-driven game using visuals and music.

From Miyazaki's Sketchbook to Gainax's Boardroom

The seeds of this series were planted far earlier than most fans realize. In the mid-1970s, Hayao Miyazaki was commissioned by Toho to develop a television property. Among his pitches was a Jules Verne–inspired adventure called "Around the World in 80 days by Sea," in which two orphaned children, pursued by villains, join forces with Captain Nemo aboard the Nautilus. Toho never greenlit the project but kept the story outline's rights, and Miyazaki later recycled fragments of that concept into Future Boy Conan and Castle in the Sky. Decades later, the idea resurfaced inside Gainax during a bitter internal power struggle between vice president Hiroaki Inoue and president Toshio Okada. When Group TAC asked for character designs and settings for an NHK pitch, Inoue sidestepped Okada and presented material secretly developed by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto and Mahiro Maeda. NHK selected Inoue's version. Sadamoto was initially tapped to direct but stepped back to focus on design work, and Hideaki Anno was brought in as his replacement. A handful of episodes were outsourced to Korean animation studios, and the finished show is peppered with playful nods to Space Battleship Yamato, Macross, and Time Bokan.

An Alternate 1889 and the Mystery of the Blue Water

The story is set in an alternate 1889, a world where Jules Verne–style adventure meets ancient mystery. At its heart are Nadia, a fourteen-year-old girl whose past is shrouded in secrecy, and Jean, a warm-hearted young French inventor. Their lives are upended when a crew of jewel thieves—Grandis Granva, Sanson, and Hanson—sets its sights on the blue jeweled pendant Nadia wears, known as the Blue Water. After a rescue by Captain Nemo and his submarine, the Nautilus, the unlikely group of protagonists and thieves must unite against a far greater threat: the Neo-Atlantean forces, a militaristic faction bent on world domination under the command of Gargoyle. As the adventure escalates, Nadia and Jean work to prevent violent global conquest, unravel the deeper mysteries surrounding the Blue Water's power, and gradually piece together Nadia's hidden family connections. The series ultimately peels back the layers of her secret origins, transforming a chase story into a sweeping saga of identity, heritage, and the weight of a legacy she never chose.

A Financial Wreck That Spawned a Masterpiece

The production of this series nearly broke Gainax. By the time the final episode wrapped, the studio had sunk ¥80 million into the project and, to make matters worse, held no ownership rights to the finished show. Their only consolation was a license to produce a video game, which went on to generate record-breaking revenue for the company. Group TAC, the production partner, later offered a ¥50 million advance to fund a Nadia feature film. Anno, who had initially refused the director's chair citing the exhaustion of the TV series, eventually agreed. Sadamoto returned to create character designs, and early production work got underway. But Gainax could not sustain the project and pulled out, spending the advance on preliminary work. The debt lingered until Neon Genesis Evangelion became a cultural phenomenon, at which point the studio finally repaid Group TAC. The most staggering footnote: Evangelion was originally conceived as a direct sequel to Nadia, following sixteen "Adams" who escaped the destruction of the Red Noah and triggered a cataclysm called the Dead Sea Evaporation Incident. All twenty-six planned scripts had to be scrapped when Gainax failed to secure Nadia's rights from NHK.

A Long Road to Global Shelves

The series' journey to international audiences was anything but straightforward. After its original NHK broadcast ran from April 1990 to April 1991 across 39 episodes, the first North American release came through Streamline Pictures, which dubbed and sold just the opening eight episodes on VHS between March 1992 and August 1993. Co-founder Carl Macek attempted to pitch those episodes for television airtime, hoping network funding would cover a full dub, but the deal fell through. Orion Home Video later repackaged the eight episodes on two tapes in January 1996. The complete series finally reached U.S. viewers in 2001–2002 when ADV Films distributed all thirty-nine episodes on DVD and VHS, with a broadcast slot on its Anime Network. After ADV shut down in 2009, Sentai Filmworks stepped in, re-licensing the property and issuing a Blu-ray and DVD box set in March 2014. The most recent chapter arrived in 2022, when GKIDS acquired the license and released a brand-new 4K restoration, ensuring the series would be experienced in the highest visual fidelity yet.

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