A thousand years after a global war, a seaside kingdom known as the Valley Of The Wind remains one of
only a few areas still populated. Led by the courageous Princess Nausicaä, the people of the
Valley are engaged in a constant struggle with powerful insects called ohmu, who guard a poisonous
jungle that is spreading across the Earth. Nausicaä and her brave companions, together with the
people of the Valley, strive to restore the bond between humanity and the Earth.
(Source: Disney)
_Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind_ is one of my favorite movies. I can always throw it into my Blu-ray player after a crappy day and come away satisfied after each viewing. Hayao Miyazaki has lovingly crafted an uplifting, poignant, and emotionally satisfying film, a film that examines the human condition at both its best and its worst, both the compassion and selflessness we're capable of and the anger and arrogance that cause some of us to commit the worst acts against our fellow man. On top of this, it's all so very relevant some 35 years (whoa!) after the film first arrived in Japanese theaters. img800(https://cdni.fancaps.net/file/fancaps-movieimages/600475.jpg) 1,000 years after the Seven Days of Fire, a world war that destroyed much of the Earth, the fast-spreading Toxic Jungle threatens the lives of the last of the human race. Nausicaä (Alison Lohman in the 2005 Disney dub, Sumi Shimamoto in Japanese), who is a natural with animals, including the Ohm, giant insects that guard the Toxic Jungle, and Teto, a fox-squirrel that becomes her pet, is the 16-year-old princess of the Valley of the Wind, one of the only countries left in the world whose people live in peace. Nausicaä's father is King Jihl (Mark Silverman, Mahito Tsujimura) who has recently taken ill. Mito (Edward James Olmos, Ichiro Nagai) is the Valley's sergeant-at-arms who tends to worry himself sick for Nausicaä's safety, namely because she tends to explore the Toxic Jungle. One day, Lord Yupa (Patrick Stewart, Goro Naya), the greatest swordsman in the land, returns home after visiting other kingdoms where Obaba (Tress MacNeille, Hisako Kyoda), the Valley's wise-woman, claims he is searching for the mythical Man in Blue, who some believe will restore mankind's connection with the Earth. That night, a Tolmekian airship crashes in the Valley despite Nausicaä's attempts to save it. In the aftermath, Nausicaä finds that the Tolmekians flying this airship had abducted Lastelle (Emily Bauer, Miina Tominaga), the princess of Pejite who pleads with her to “burn the cargo” before succumbing to her injuries. The next day, Princess Kushana (Uma Thurman, Yoshiko Sakakibara) of Tolmekia invades the Valley of the Wind with the Tolmekian military who, led by staff officer Kurotowa (Chris Sarandon, Iemasa Kayumi), assassinate King Jihl. After Nausicaä single-handedly takes out a good many of her father's killers, which she subsequently feels guilty for unlike the Tolmekians, Kushana begins the rites of subjugating the Valley and claims to be able to set fire to the Toxic Jungle and eliminate the Ohm while capturing the cargo from the airship, which Lord Yupa suspects is one of the Giant Warriors that destroyed the Earth in the Seven Days of Fire. While traveling, Nausicaä, Kushana, and Mito get caught in a firefight with Pejite and after she gets separated from the others, Nausicaä meets Asbel (Shia LaBeouf, Yoji Matsuda), Lastelle's twin brother and the teenage prince of Pejite, who soon joins her cause to end the murder and strife before it's too late. img800(https://cdni.fancaps.net/file/fancaps-movieimages/600527.jpg) Basing the film on his own manga that he created to trick the studio into seeing how good it would be as a film, and fresh off of _The Castle of Cagliostro_, Miyazaki stuffs _Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind_ to the gills with so much depth and meaning that I'm not even sure how to begin to unpack all of it. There's enough here that viewers will pick up on more and more with repeated viewings. Miyazaki and co-writer Kazunori Ito, the latter of whom would go on to write Mamoru Oshii's _Ghost in the Shell_, explore anger and arrogance as well as the dangers they pose. When Nausicaä's anger drives her to kill, she immediately recognizes the danger anger poses and makes no excuses for her actions even though she was arguably in the right. Similarly, even though Asbel was arguably justified in his anger against the Tolmekians for abducting his twin sister, he still feels remorse for shooting down the Tolmekian ship Nausicaä was aboard after learning that she comforted Lastelle in her last moments. This also shows how violence wreaks not only physical havoc on the victim but also spiritual havoc on the person committing the act. For example, the Tolmekian soldiers seen in the film have enacted so much violence against their fellow human beings that they've become desensitized and all but lost their humanity, the only emotions they have left anger and arrogance. This arrogance is on full display when several of them face off against Lord Yupa in battle, only to face sound defeat. Miyazaki also shows how fear often causes a person to take leave of his or her senses. Kushana's fear of the Ohm, along with her anger against them, is what causes her to hate the Ohm and want to destroy them while her arrogance leads her to think she can destroy both the Ohm and the Toxic Jungle so easily. With that said, Miyazaki portrays the character as flawed but not evil and as the film progresses, we learn that she has well-founded reasons for feeling this way. Contrast this with Nausicaä who exemplifies selflessness and courage under fire. She refuses to let fear or anger consume her and she makes a valiant effort to end the burgeoning war so that no one else has to die a senseless death the way her father did. Much like Ashitaka later does in Miyazaki's equally excellent _Princess Mononoke_, Nausicaä offers a balanced view of the conflict between Pejite and Tolmekia, able to see where both parties went wrong. On one occasion, for instance, she, rather bluntly, informs Asbel's father that he and his advisers are “savages” who are “just as bad as the Tolmekians” for what he plans to do in the Valley. The film also shows where man's pollution of the environment can lead if unchecked, which also doubles for the fact that Nausicaä is trying to heal a broken world, both the humans who live there and the environment they inhabit. Underneath the violence and acts of ugliness seen in the film, _Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind_ is a love letter to compassion and selflessness, highlighting how these two traits will almost always win the day in the end, and perhaps no scene better demonstrates this than its endgame that proves both triumphant and poignant. All things considered, its story is a timeless one, every bit as relevant today as it was 35 years ago. img800(https://cdni.fancaps.net/file/fancaps-movieimages/602037.jpg) The animation is, as you'd expect of a Miyazaki film, absolutely stunning. Even though _Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind_ arrived before Miyazaki and producer Isao Takahata founded Studio Ghibli, it matches up to the iconic studio's standards in every possible way I can think of. Its colors are stunning, namely the reds and blues. Its character designs are well-proportioned and realistic and clothing is believable for the world its characters inhabit. The Ohm and other insects have very intricate designs that match flawlessly what a giant insect would probably look like. The locations are also truly amazing, with everything from the grass and hills of the Valley of the Wind to the sandy dunes of the deserts to the (albeit poisonous) nature wonderland of the Toxic Jungle displaying an arresting amount of detail. Vehicles like Nausicaä's glider and the various airships follow suit. Last, but certainly not least, future _Neon Genesis Evangelion_ creator Hideaki Anno's work on the Giant Warrior scenes is absolutely mesmerizing, the icing on the cake that is the amazing animation job on this lovingly crafted film. img800(https://cdni.fancaps.net/file/fancaps-movieimages/603287.jpg) Performances and dialogue can make or break a film, so I'm glad to say _Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind_ is well-acted and well-scripted in both English and Japanese. Lohman and Shimamoto are perfect as Nausicaä, the titular princess and protagonist, both perfectly capturing the character's personality and each giving her a smooth, calming voice that perfectly matches that personality. Stewart and Naya are also excellent as Lord Yupa, the master swordsman who serves as a mentor to Nausicaä after King Jihl's assassination, each offering a voice that is both commanding and comforting in the way a father's or grandfather's might be. LaBeouf and Matsuda are also first-class as Asbel, the teenage prince of Pejite who quickly befriends Nausicaä even after firing on the Tolmekian airship she was aboard, each molding him into a likable character with aplomb. Thurman and Sakakibara are more than adequate as Kushana, the Tolmekian princess who has “chosen the bloody path,” portraying her as flawed but not evil. Olmos and Nagai are marvelous as Mito, one of Nausicaä's allies, perfectly capturing not only his tough and gruff exterior, but the kind and selfless heart that lies beneath it. Sarandon and Kayumi knock it out of the park as Kurotowa, the Tolmekian military's sardonic staff officer whose face is almost always twisted into a smirk, perfectly capturing the character's wry and wisecracking nature. MacNeille and Kyoda are terrific as Obaba, each completely convincing as a wise old lady whose words carry serious weight and are not to take lightly. The dub also includes a haunting opening narration by Tony Jay that sets the tone for the entire film when viewed in English. All in all, this is a film full of life, character depth, and purpose in both English and Japanese so watch it both ways and enjoy both for what they bring to the table. img800(https://cdni.fancaps.net/file/fancaps-movieimages/600615.jpg) _Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind_ marks Miyazaki's first collaboration with musical scoring master Joe Hisaishi. While some have criticized this score, and someone even dubbed _Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind_ Miyazaki's “worst” film based on it, I for one love it and it is very clear to me what Miyazaki saw in Hisaishi and why he would use him for each of his subsequent films. From the opening credits accompanied by images of the Giant Warriors during the Seven Days of Fire to the very last frame, Hisaishi makes it feel like we're watching an epic even though the film runs just a little under two hours in length. The piano pieces such as _The Legend of the Wind_ and its variations send a chill down the spine every time. The synthesizer pieces like _Stampede of the Ohm_ generate serious thrills. _The Battle Between Mehve and Corvette_ is genuinely thrilling with its mix of piano, drums, and other instruments. The chanting pieces like _Nausicaä Requiem_ are hauntingly beautiful. Overall, it's a great score and it's a perfect fit for the film. An excellent sound design also serves to make the stampede scenes and battle scenes that much more visceral. img800(https://cdni.fancaps.net/file/fancaps-movieimages/603350.jpg) For my money, _Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind_ really is above reproach as a film. It is my favorite film directed by the legendary Hayao Miyazaki and my second favorite anime, just behind Katsuhiro Otomo's _Akira_. Having decided at age 14 that I absolutely had to see it, I finally blind bought the Blu-ray at 19 and seeing it is something I have no regrets about. I've kept coming back to it and it never ceases to amaze me. Films like _Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind_ represent not only the zenith of anime but the zenith of cinema in general. _Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind_ is a timeless classic, every bit as relevant and engrossing now (if not more so) as it was when it first arrived in Japanese theaters 35 years ago. The studio didn't want it made, but they changed their minds once Miyazaki created the manga and Miyazaki got the chance to make his masterpiece. New World butchered it by leaving more than 20 minutes on the cutting room floor in 1985, but Disney rescued it 20 years later with a proper English dub and proper subtitles to translate the Japanese dialogue and now it's widely available in its uncut form, _Warriors of the Wind_ all but forgotten. The film is often ignored because it came before Ghibli, but without it, there wouldn't *be* a Studio Ghibli. The film's success is what helped Studio Ghibli's formation. Simply put, it's still an important piece of Ghibli's history and any fan of Miyazaki who hasn't owes it to themself to see this film. Anyone who simply allows themself to be transported to the world the film creates will be amazed. Its characters are easy to get invested in, its themes hold much weight even today, Hisaishi's musical score truly is a masterpiece despite what some say, its animation is absolutely amazing to look at, performances are excellent in both English and Japanese, and Miyazaki's vision is clear. It is thought-provoking, uplifting, poignant, emotionally satisfying, and absolutely unforgettable. _Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind_ also repays repeated viewings and if I had to guess, many seeing it for the first time will probably want to return to it repeatedly as I have. With all that said, it probably goes without saying at this point that I hold no qualms whatsoever about awarding _Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind_ __my highest recommendation.__
Nausicaa of the Valley of the wind is one of those movies. I’m talking a movie so famous & renowned that practically everyone has seen, or at least heard of this movie. I won’t waste time talking about the impact it left, how it basically kick-started Hayao Miyazaki’s career, & all that jazz, I’m just gonna get straight into it. Story: The story of Nausicaa follows our titular protagonist on a journey to try & save The valley of the wind. We first meet Nausicaa going to the sea of decay to try & recover an ohm shell. We then are taken to the valley of the wind where we’re introduced to the villagers. Hours later a ship comes by carrying with it spores that end up infecting the valley of the wind. The next day some airships operated by the kingdom of Tolmekia comes to the valley of the wind in order to try & recover a fire god creature to use it to burn the sea of decay in order to unite humanity. From there on out it’s about Nausicaa’s journey to try & save the valley of the wind. The story of Nausicaa is excellent. It has a grand scale attached to it & the stakes are high. The villains also aren’t just hate filled & evil for the sake of being evil. The villains of Nausicaa are fleshed out entities with their own personality traits & charism to all of them. They feel burning down the sea of decay will be for the greater good of all humanity & their motivations come off as believable. It’s also a very balanced story, as it has enough complexity to it to be grab people looking for more involved stories, but it’s simple enough to where the average movie goer can follow along just fine. The world of Nausicaa is also a very realized world. From the sea of decay itself, to the underground of the sea of decay, to the valley of the wind, to the destroyed kingdom of pejite, every frame of the movie has a distinct landmark about it. Characters: The characters in Nausicaa are excellent. All of them have great characterization, good charisma, motivations that actually make sense & reasons to act the way they do. Nausicaa isn’t just an environmentalist for the sake of one, as a traumatizing event from her childhood (watching a baby ohm taken away from her after she tried to protect it to then be presumably killed off screen) & the sand from beneath the sea of decay being able to be used as a purifier causes her to act this way. On the other end Kushana, ruler of the tolmekian’s believes that destroying the sea of decay will benefit the environment & open up the possibility to not only expand her empire, but create more livable environments for the humans. Most importantly of all, she doesn’t act like an asshole about any of this, in fact she not only lets Obaba speak but she orders her soldiers to stop firing at the villagers from the valley of the wind near the end of the movie after they have a misunderstanding. Safe to say the main villain of this movie isn’t just a “big bad villain” & is actually a well thought out, written character with believable motivations & a good personality to match. Art & Sound It’s studio ghibli, do I really need to say this movie looks excellent? Backgrounds are beautiful, landscapes are lush, colors are vibrant, it’s an all around excellent production. The animation is also really good & still holds up to this day, it has great flow, there’s never really a moment where the animators get lazy, it stays consistently fluid. Character & Mechanical designs are also well made, character art remains on model & mechanical things such as the weapons, tanks, aircraft, all look great & very distinctive. Music is phenomenal & dare I say it, Joe Hisashi’s best score, the pieces have great variety, match the tone, create great atmosphere and emotion, the pieces used match their scenes perfectly, it’s almost as if the movie was built around the music it matches so well. Voice acting is also supherb. Sumi Shimaoto as Nausicaa, Yoshiko Sakakibara as Kushana, Gorou Naya as Yupa, it’s all great stuff. Even the minor characters have great performances. Overall: Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind is one of the all time greatest things ever conceived by mankind. From it’s excellent storytelling, brillant characters, lush world, god-tier OST, phenomenal voice acting, & all the little things that add up into an amalgamation of one of the greatest movies ever made, wow. This was only Hayao Miyazaki’s 2nd full feature length film & he hit it out of the park with this one. This is his masterpiece & a movie that him and his team should feel very proud of. This movie created a juggernaut studio that would bring us over 3 decades of entertainment, really put Hayao Miyazaki on the map, & made anime so, so much better. Unsurprisingly, this movie gets the full 10 out of 10. This is my favorite movie of all time, & I don’t see anything topping it.
~~~img550(https://i.imgur.com/0fFx0Dz.jpg)~~~ Writing a review of _Nausicaä_ is like writing a review of _Star Wars: A New Hope_. Where do you even begin with a film this foundational and influential? Should you watch it? Absolutely! Not only is it a tightly written, riveting action-adventure, you’ll recognize shades of its imaginative post-apocalyptic world in dozens of other anime titles and Japanese video games. It’s also a vivid portrait of its creator — Hayao Miyazaki circa 1984 — and his interests in flight, pacifism, Marxism and industry, presented with the emotional impact of a “kamikaze attack”, as his friend and peer [Mamoru Oshii once put it.](http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/interviews/oshii_on_mt.html) To limit the size and scope of this review, I will be focusing on the film’s relation to Miyazaki’s worldview. (This review will describe numerous plot events.) ~~~img440(https://i.imgur.com/OJyzej1.jpg)~~~ Through unfortunate happenstance, the idyllic farmland of the Valley of Wind, a pocket of civilization in an otherwise uninhabitable world of poisonous fungal forests and giant killer insects, comes into possession of an ancient weapon of mass destruction. A formation of immense airships from a distant empire descends from above, deploying a small army of imperial soldiers who storm the castle and slay the local lord. Princess Nausicaä, the heir apparent, submits to the occupying forces to prevent further bloodshed. The Valley soon finds itself caught between two great, hostile powers, thus setting the Princess off on a quest to save her home. Miyazaki, like several other notable names in his generation of anime creators, is a child of the war and the [leftist, anti-war and anti-occupation protest movement](https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/japan-crossroads-anpo-treaty-nick-kapur-book-review/). As the war ended with an atomic bang, Japan became a pawn in the subsequent Cold War. The parallels in _Nausicaä_ are apparent, but the film is more than an allegory for American occupation. ~~~img440(https://i.imgur.com/nrxRO9K.jpg)~~~ While resembling something of a religious epic with the messianic journey of Princess Nausicaä to discover the meaning of the toxic forest, the film also translates the creation myth of communism into genre. With their farming tools, the proud working class of the Valley of Wind rise up against the dopey imperials in a humorous action setpiece. Miyazaki’s feelings on industry and pacifism are encoded into the film. The occupying empire’s chunky airships and armors are crude and dehumanizing, while the Valley’s modest assets, made from super-strong materials harvested from the toxic forest, exude personality and dependable craftsmanship. The Valley itself, as with many charismatic locales in [numerous Ghibli films](https://anilist.co/review/6695), exists in harmony with nature. However, the imperial warmongers seek to destroy the forest with the WMDs of old to dominate the natural world once again. ~~~img440(https://i.imgur.com/3KYvAev.jpg)~~~ Princess Nausicaä, being something of an _insect whisperer_, continually defuses conflicts between the monstrous creatures of the wasteland and the panicked imperials. With her penchant for pacifism, she journeys deep into the toxic forest and prophetically returns to her people with the means to salvation. Likewise, when the WMDs of the great powers threaten to destroy the Valley, she [throws herself onto the gears](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Savio#%22Bodies_upon_the_gears%22_speech) of war in a desperate attempt to stop it. In _Nausicaä_, industry is a slippery slope to violence against nature and against one another. Harmony with nature and with mankind form a unified, pacifist ideal embodied in Miyazaki’s titular champion. Over time, Miyazaki’s belief in Marxism would fade, and likewise the impact of anti-war messages in a significantly advanced, postwar consumer economy. His subsequent films would shift emphasis and tone away from the heroic bombast of _Nausicaä_. But anime is a medium for the senses, and _Nausicaä_ remains his most sensational film for its passionately believed ideals and its madly designed fungal wilderness and fantasy airships. It remains my favorite Miyazaki flick because it is _the most Miyazaki flick_. ~~~img550(https://i.imgur.com/slSxieR.jpg)~~~ - [Comment on this review](https://anilist.co/activity/103787313)
~~~__Heya there! This is my review of Nausicaä of The Valley of the Wind, and if you don’t like it that’s alright! Regardless I hope you’ll enjoy this review. //TW + CW Blood mention + Spoilers__~~~ ~~~ I remember watching this film all the way back in March, in my ELA class for environmental topics. And wow, even in my first watch, I just knew this movie was incredible, and the themes had me hooked till the very end. I overall think this is one of Miyazaki’s greatest films, and if I could I’d watch it time and time again. img220(https://64.media.tumblr.com/33ccfd9505ec1ded6368b5a9fe602e6a/tumblr_ocdy4kP7Ip1sc3c65o1_640.png) So basically, after an apocalyptic conflict that devastated much of the world's ecosystem, the few surviving humans lived in scattered semi‑hospitable environments within what has formed into “toxic jungles”. Young Nausicaä lives in the Valley of the Wind and can communicate with the massive insects that populate these areas, and trouble arises when the Tolmekia kingdom’s cargo ship crashes, killing everyone in it besides the princess, who told Nausicaä to get rid of the cargo, and shortly dies as well. Soon after, Tolmekia troops invade The Valley of the Wind, led by Princess Kushana, and leads up to a pretty fierce battle between these two forces. Kushana had this huge goal of destroying the Toxic Jungle by maturing the Giant Warrior that inhabits it, going against Nausicaä’s view of restoring peace and rebuilding it. Later on, Kushana and the Tolmekia troops take Nausicaä and five others as hostages, but later crash into a jungle after being shot by a Pejite (enemy) ship. During the trip in the jungle, she calms down a Ohm, and even forms a friendship with Asbel, the sister of the deceased princess and a Pejite pilot. In the end, Nausicaä liberates the baby Ohm and gains its trust, and even though she and the Ohm were ran over by the herd, the Ohms calm down and use their golden tentacles to resuscitate her. And as she stands before them, dress drenched in the blue blood of Ohms, walks over and fulfilled the prophecy of her world, and herself, as the toxic jungle rebuilds itself. img220(https://filmschoolrejects.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Nausica%C3%A4-of-the-Valley-of-the-Wind-1280x720.jpg) I obviously love the plot and themes and how they intertwine with each other seemlesly throughout the movie! Of course, the main theme of this film is the Enviornment and how important it is to maintain it, and it’s shown in how Nausicaä wants to restore the Toxic Jungle, and technically achieves it in the end when non-toxic sprouts start to grow. It’s a new beginning for The Valley, and it leads the imagination on what will happen next! Now for the charecters, Nausicaä I can safely say is a very likeable protagonist, and I never got bored or annoyed by her in any way! I love how she always has faith and hope in the people she meets, like her people, Asbel, and even Princess Kushana when they worked together at one point. For Asbel, his relationship with Nausicaä was great overall, and I liked the trust they had in eachother, such as Nausicaä helping out a Pejite ship full of people or when she worked together with him till the end. As for Kushana, I thought she was pretty good for the most part! She was still so tied with her reasons in the end, thinking killing all the Ohms and causing destruction was the way to go. It’s a bit concerning that she wasn’t really influenced by Nausicaä at all, but it’s alright. img220(https://noirencyclopedia.files.wordpress.com/2016/08/nausicaa-22-asbel-explains-to-nausicaa-what-hes-been-up-to-as-she-slept.png) Again, Nausicaä of The Valley of the Wind is overall a beautiful masterpiece, and one of the highlights of Miyazaki’s films. And for being his first film is amazing! I would obviously love to watch the movie again when I have the time to. Besides that, this was my review on the film, and I hoped you like it! ~~~
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, a story about a girl in a post-apocalyptic world slowly being consumed by the Sea of Corruption, with extreme attention to detail and visuals. The reason I highlight the visuals is that other than those, the movie doesn't have _that_ much to offer. The world Nausicaä is set in is absolutely amazing, beautiful, but ultimately unexplored due to it being a two hour movie. This is more of a criticism of its formatting, Nausicaä was a visually amazing movie, **especially** for it's time being from 1984 and still holding up visually to anime released today. The effort put into animating some of the ohms and the titan is absurd, especially it all being hand drawn, while something like it would be heavily CGI nowadays. Nausicaä serves as less of a traditional story and world, but more as examples and possibilities; the main themes of the movie being how issues are best handled by pacifism and diplomacy as well as the respect of nature. My first and lesser critique of this movie is how the main character feels less like a real human, but more of a one dimensional role model. She serves as a very good role model, but as a character there isn't much depth to her or really any of the other characters in the movie, as we are just thrown into this world with its characters. This being a movie, the lack of depth and exploration is reasonable, although. Now onto my critique of the world and the story in general, I think given a TV format would've benefitted the story immensely. The world of Nausicaä is vastly unexplored, and I think given a series it could've had amazing worldbuilding and more exploration of the forests in general. We only get a small glimpse into the history of the world of Nausicaä, even though it has so much that could've been explored there. This is reasonably natural although, it is a movie after all. I think by this point you can tell my main critiques and issues with the movie lie in its un-used potential and opportunity that could've been with different formatting. The story *could* have been an amazing saga or journey if given different formatting, more development, exploration of the world and worldbuilding. Despite have immense missed potential and opportunity, the movie was still good at what it *did* do, but very lacking where it did not focus. The overall movie is a good one, it has fantastic visuals and a nice soundtrack, with a little over-usage of a few songs at times. It does have its flaws. I would still recommend the movie even with its flaws, it's an old and ahead of it's time classic that is still aesthetically holding up extremely well even today.
#In a Shellnut It's been a thousand years since the Earth was engulfed in the Seven Days of Fire. Humans live in a technological backwater compared to what once was, and the Sea of Decay takes more and more land everyday, spreading toxins and hostile insects that threaten the extinction of mankind as a whole. The Valley of the Wind remains one of the last few peaceful places in the world, detached from politics and shielded mostly from the Sea of Decay. However, when a foreign power brings back a weapon from millennia past, Nausicaä and the people of the village find their peace rapidly fleeting. #Strong Points Supreme audiovisual design that has aged like fine wine. The world building is interesting and well communicated. #Weak Points Being a show destined to be watched by children, the story is somewhat simplistic. # Similar Shows Any movie from studio Ghibli, There are a variety of topics, but their style has remained somewhat consistent through it all. Castle in the Sky by studio Ghibli, This one is remarkably similar, so I mention it apart. #Elaboration This movie is pretty good. It's very much designed for children, so perhaps an adult audience might not find it quite as interesting as someone younger, but it still has enough substance to entice me to watch it twice. The main character is pretty much your standard Disney-esque princess character. She is loved by all, loves all, and wants nothing more than for everyone to live in peace and co-exist with nature. This, however, does not stop her from being an absolute badass sometimes. The social commentary is somewhat on the nose. Anyone who watches will easily notice it and you get the usual "humans have polluted the earth and now we reap the bitter seeds we have sown", but it is perfectly adequate for a children's show. #Spoiler Section ~!Nuclear imagery is something that I notice much more in Japanese films. Massive explosions are all well and good to a western audience, but to the Japanese not 40 years after they were nuked, I imagine that such things hold much more import. Indeed, I doubt anyone watching it at the time had any trouble believing that it was nukes that turned this fictional world to dust. I actually quite like the world building. The setting is interesting and the idea of nature adapting to the pollution and even slowly filtering it out over the course of thousands of years is really very cool. The bugs remind me a lot of the video game Factorio, which takes a, ahem, different stance one how one should best treat bugs, but overall it's quite similar. Even in this post apocalyptic hellscape, people are waging technological wars that seem to destroy much more than they gain. It's a very fitting show of human nature, I think.!~
Nausicaa is a pretty interesting experience for the way it so clearly feels like an incredibly early Ghibli film while still immediately bringing a very strong artistic voice to the forefront, with a lot of elements present here being ones that would go on to form the backbone of even stronger movies later down the line. I think that one especially interesting aspect of this is the way that the setting feels considerably less lush and whimsical than the vast majority of the studio's output feels, there's no sense of beauty in a lot of the small aspects as much as this looming sense of dread in this dreary world that is being slowly overrun by a horrible decay. Even most of the kinder locations still feel closer to a refuge from the inhospitable wastelands that have ravaged the Earth, and I think this is definitely the strongest part of the narrative, and makes those few moments of natural beauty that end up appearing later on feel all the more impactful. This is further all reinforced by the large insect creatures crafting an atmosphere that feels considerably more alien and hostile due to the inherently far less emotive nature of these giant hulking exoskeleton beasts. Unfortunately, while the setting is incredibly evocative, I feel like Nausicaa suffers a bit from biting off more than it could chew and being left with a lot of ideas that could've used a bit more time to really flesh out. The whole environmentalism and pacifism stance that the film delved into felt a bit rough with how many different motives seemed to be brought up throughout without spending all that much time on any of them. While one possible take that you could have on this is that it represents the seemingly infinite reasons why war leads to destruction and misery, but on the other hand, I just don't feel like even this is developed that much either, instead usually favouring clunky and very heavy handed dialogue that often feels like it just keeps repeating some variation of "don't kill each other" over and over. It doesn't really kill the film since there is still such strong storytelling from other avenues that make for an awe inspiring journey nonetheless. The final 10 minutes are especially great from a visual perspective, with the encroaching chaos and hopelessness from all sides being one of Ghibli's finest moments in general. All in all I feel like despite how great this really feels, it would have been elevated if the pacing was either taken up a notch, or the film was longer to further complement the slower nature of the bulk of its runtime, which would've turned this great movie into a potential masterpiece. Still very worth checking out on its own merits as well as being an interesting starting point for one of the greatest animation studios out there.
####This review contains spoilers. --- The year is 1981. There is no Studio Ghibli, just yet. Hayao Miyazaki has directed one film, _[The Castle of Cagliostro](https://anilist.co/anime/1430/Lupin-The-3rd-The-Castle-of-Cagliostro/)_. It won an award but failed to do well at the box office. Miyazaki, however, is approached by Toshio Suzuki, editor of the _Animage_ magazine, with an offer to write a manga: _Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind_. He would be inspired by an event 25 years before… The year is 1956. In a small coastal town in the south of Japan, something strange is happening. Residents of Minamata notice local cats acting strange, spinning in circles and falling into the sea. Residents called it a dance. But they were convulsions. The death throes of a poising caused by an environmental disaster. For the past 24 years, the Chisso Corporation’s chemical factory had been dumping industrial wastewater in the bay. The mercury present in the waste entered into the fish and shellfish. And what started with the cats, soon spread to the people of the town. Over 2000 people died of what would become known as [Minamata disease](https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/science-diction/articles/mercury-how-it-made-cats-dance). The environment’s twisted way of fighting back against the damage done to it. Jumping back forward; the year is 1980. Ronald Reagan has just won the presidential election in the US. His politics would reshape the fabric of America. Two years later, Yasuhiro Nakasone would become the Prime Minister of Japan. The two men would share a close relationship, deepened by their very similar strain of politics. Nakasone would revitalise Japanese nationalism, seeking to position the formally pacifist country as a bulwark against communism. To the cries from his critics who labelled him a dangerous militarist he responded “a nation must shed any sense of ignominy and move forward seeking glory.” The year is 1983. Miyazaki is permitted to direct an adaption of his manga. Working with Isao Takahata, the film would take nine months to complete. In 1984 it is released to enormous critical acclaim. And the year after that Miyazaki, Takahata and Suzuki found Studio Ghibli. In this context, _Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind_ stands as an incredibly important film. Its environmentalist and anti-war themes yell loudly into a world that was angry and afraid. --- _Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind_ presents a world a thousand years after it was ravaged by industrialism and war. The remains of this period have manifested a hostile scourge to the remaining humanity; the Sea of Decay. Despite it being the great threat to the people of this world, Miyazaki immediately shows us the Sea of Decay through the eyes of Nausicaä, who with fascination and admiration explores the alien jungle. Miyazaki uses giant insects for the monsters of this forest - evoking a repulsion from us that is quickly subdued as Nausicaä is enamoured by their beauty. No longer frightened of the giant cicada-like shell of the Ohm, we understand the Sea of Decay from the eyes of Nausicaä. It may be a threat, but it is not evil. It is only after this that we are shown how the Sea of Decay is dangerous. An Ohm, literally red with rage, charges on a lone rider (who we later learn is Yupa). Fearing for his life he fires upon it. Yet Nausicaä, unafraid of the creature, is able to calm the beast. Through this, we are immediately introduced to a recurring and important theme of the film, the power of fear and anger. The theme is repeated with our introduction to the little fox-squirrel, Toeto, who bites Nausicaä out of fear, but calms when it realises she is not a danger. And this theme is reinforced further still following the Torumekian invasion. Seeing her father dead, Nausicaä attacks the Torumekian soldiers and is only stopped when she stabs Yupa. As his blood drips down her blade she realises what she has done in her rage. Miyazaki presents this fear and anger, again and again, not just to show their power, but to tell us that humans are not above nature: we too are driven by these emotions. The red of the Ohm’s eyes and the red that runs down Nausicaä’s sword are one and the same. In fact, every conflict in this film is driven by fear or anger. The Torumekians fear the power of the Great Warrior in the hands of the People of Pejite, so they invade and steal it. They fear the spores of the wasteland, so they rebuild the very creatures that destroyed this world. Yet just like the fox-squirrel who licked Nausicaä’s hand, the Sea of Decay is a force for good beneath the surface; purifying the water and cleansing the soil. We learn that the wasteland is twisted by the pollution of humanity. We’re shown that it is only driven to rage by the aggression of mankind. Miyazaki presents a form of nature that has teeth that bite back at humanity’s hubris. Yet he doesn’t suggest for a moment that nature is evil, he shows how reliant the people of the world are on it, while never letting us forget the damage they have done to it. His response, then, to his prime minister, who was beating the drums of war, and to the industrialists, who poisoned Japan’s bays, is to present a hero who is not afraid and is not angry. She does not fight against the warmongers. She looks for peace. She looks for harmony. --- The legacy of this film is enormous. With the creation of Studio Ghibli the following year, three men and a team of animators would go on to create some of the greatest animations ever made. _Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind_ also began Miyazaki’s relationship with composer Joe Hisaishi, whose spectacular mix of synthesiser and classical orchestration here made for an unforgettable soundtrack. Quite unlike his later work for Ghibli, which I would describe as more timeless, the score for this film feels very of its day, but not for worse at all. In 1997, Miyazaki would revisit the themes of this film in _Princess Mononoke_. In my eyes, he masters them there too, providing for a much more compelling and exhilarating story. But that is a topic for another time. Instead, I will conclude with a very depressing last piece of history. Two years after this film’s release, in 1986, the Chernobyl disaster occurred in Ukraine. The parallels between the imagery of this film and the scenes of Chernobyl are hard to ignore. From the masks worn by the characters to the snow-like toxins falling from the sky like fallout. And now, as we approach the film’s 40th anniversary, we are still facing an environmental disaster of an unfathomable magnitude. Bush fires ravage countrysides. Floods leave thousands stranded. Droughts threaten the lives of many more. It will only get worse. Because we are yet to understand our own hubris. We can all learn from the compassion and bravery of Nausicaä, the Princess of the Valley of the Wind.
On June 15th 1985, a group of middle-aged men formed an animation studio that succeeded in shaking the world through its works. These include My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Grave of the Fireflies (1988), Princess Mononoke (1997), and Spirited Away (2001). The latter film managed to win Best Animation at the Oscars in 2002. Since its birth, Ghibli has quickly become the only Japanese animation studio whose work is admired domestically and internationally, from anime fans, film lovers, to even ordinary audiences. But for all of Ghibli's success, it wouldn't be wise to forget where it all came from. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) or simply Nausicaä is Ghibli's first film. Even though it was released a year before the birth of Studio Ghibli, this film is considered the first film because it was the reason why the initiating fathers were able to gather. Nausicaä was also an early milestone in which the characteristics of animated films produced by Ghibli/Miyazaki were established, starting from the use of the main character strong and independent women to the theme of human relations with nature. Nausicaä has an epic story about human conflict with nature. Adapted from a manga series written and drawn by Miyazaki, Nausicaä tells the story of a dystopian world in the future. So the story goes, almost the entire world has been filled with Toxic Forests as a result of an all-out war between humans. Called "The Seven Days of Fire", this war wiped out most of humanity and left behind deadly pollution that can kill. This pollution comes from spores which can also turn insects into giant mutants. One of the famous insects is the Ohmu, a giant snail-like insect with an indestructible shell. The last remnants of human civilization are divided into several villages, one of which is home to Nausicaä. Nausicaä's name actually means "princess" in Greek, but she prefers to go on adventures through the Toxic Forest by glider or light plane to study various species of insects. Even though she is a nature lover, Nausicaä then has to be faced with a dilemmatic decision when the Tolmekian Kingdom tries to use ancient powers, to eradicate the Toxic Forest. Which side will she choose? Man or nature?. Nausicaä opens with a sequence of her flying with the glider through the desert and landing on the edge of the Toxic Forest. She walked through a magnificent cave filled with strange plants. Nausicaä is overjoyed after finding the shell of a dead Ohmu giant. This one sequence immediately shows how serious it is Ghibli in shaping the audience's perception of the world in which this film takes place. In an era where other animated films compete to create cute and cartoony characters, Nausicaä uses its opening sequence to show an imaginative and visually rich world. Not only visually, the background music from Joe Hisaishi also arouses emotions. These first few minutes of Nausicaä demonstrate an important process behind other Ghibli films: the worldbuilding. With this process, we are invited to understand and observe how the world of this film works, Nausicaä fascinates the audience as if they have entered the story. And from these few minutes, we can also know that the Toxic Forest and Ohmu are part of nature that cannot be disturbed by any human efforts to defeat them. The theme of human relations with nature, such as Nausicaä, is widely applied in later Ghibli films, especially those directed by Miyazaki afterwards. Princess Mononoke (1997), Ponyo (2008), and Castle in the Sky (1986) are strong examples. It turns out that the environmental theme in Nausicaä is not just Miyazaki's work. He admitted that he was inspired by the Minamata Bay disaster in Japan. Thousands of people have died over decades because their water was contaminated with chemical waste from factories. After fishermen avoided Minamata waters because they were poisonous, the fish population there strangely increased drastically. Miyazaki shuddered when he heard the news and was amazed at the concept that nature could absorb poison and still survive. This is what he brought into the Toxic Forest. The forest, along with the insects in it, turns out to be a natural mechanism for repurifying the Earth after being damaged by humans. So when the Tolmekia Kingdom, with all the ignorance of humans in general, tries to destroy the Toxic Forest with weapons of mass destruction, the conflict then becomes ironic so that it provokes sympathy. Baiting for sympathy because the Tolmekia Kingdom, which was initially depicted as evil, was actually not as evil as the antagonists in general. They have good intentions, it's just that they don't do it right. Moral ambiguity, not being clear about who is bad and who is good, is a case of characterization that is unique in works of fiction, but common in Ghibli's works, which later became Miyazaki's trademark. Unlike conventional films, Ghibli with the main character Miyazaki portrays morality as not just a dichotomy or separation of good versus evil. Each character shows elements of gentleness (good) as well as cruelty (evil) in a complex manner. Apart from Tolmekia Kingdom who shows their ambiguity, Nausicaä is also like that. Nausicaä is described as a teenage girl who is intelligent, independent, and has wisdom beyond her years. We see her several times as a role model for characters who are even older than her. Even though she was created as a charming character, Nausicaä is also has her own flaws. In an emotional scene, she is shown almost going berserk with a look on his face that wants to kill and take revenge. In sharp contrast to Nausicaä, who is depicted as very gentle and friendly at the beginning of the film. What's interesting then, instead of throwing a tantrum, Nausicaä shows her empathy by restraining herself and trying to understand the situation. In another context, when she encounters insects, Nausicaä shows her softer side by trying to communicate with the insects of the Toxic Forest. Nausicaä's depiction reflects an element of the human self: imperfection. Don't just say because she is a heroine, she is absolutely perfect. Viewers cannot feel connected to characters who are portrayed as perfect, because none of us are perfect. By creating imperfect characters and emphasizing elements from our lives that are similar, Nausicaä and the other characters become like humans, no longer just cartoons. And this effort to humanize animation is Miyazaki's way of creating a bond between the audience and the characters in the film. Apart from humanizing animation, Miyazaki through Nausicaä also tells stories about humanity. In this film, human civilization is helpless in front of nature. Nausicaä, who is in the middle trying to maintain her identity as a human who has desires and is also part of nature, it is also not depicted as winning because that is not important. What is most important in this story of human conflict with nature is not who wins and who loses, but rather how we humans as intelligent creatures adapt to nature where we live. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is not only a debut that determines what kind of films Ghibli's works are, but is also one of the most influential animated films for the Japanese animation industry to this day. Nausicaä teaches audiences how to protect nature without trying to patronize it. This film is like a showcase that reminds us of the position of humans in their surrounding environment. However, it does not necessarily become a frightening warning, but Nausicaä spreads a spirit of optimism to care for the Earth, that living in harmony side by side with nature is the world we have dreamed of for a long time, just like the Valley of the Wind. And we are his Nausicaä.