With having now watched Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind, I am now up to seven Hayao Miyazaki films in my mental catalogue. Which is to say: a fair amount, but not nearly enough!

Nausicaa is a strange one. It technically pre-dates Studio Ghibli, but it is often shown at Ghibli based viewings and festivals. It’s the pre-cursor to the studio, and the film helped get it off the ground. So I guess that is fair. For me, it leaves me a bit confused. Do I count it as a Studio Ghibli movie or not?

Regardless, it’s easy to just refer to Miyazaki movies I have seen now and avoid the whole debate. And to that point… like I said: seven! I’ve got to start lining up my next few!

Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind is the story of the titular character, Princess Nausicaa. She is royalty in the Valley, one of the few places left on Earth not poisoned by an ancient war that has left much of the planet uninhabitable. In the poisoned regions, giant, deadly insects rule.

Nausicaa has the heart of an explorer, though, and she is not afraid of these deadly regions. She frequently visits and takes samples, and she seems obsessed with helping regrow the vegetation in these areas without the poison infecting them and turning them lethal.

One day in her village, an airship from another kingdom crashes down, and their cargo is a strange organic orb with a heart-like beat. Soon, the village is set upon by the warlike Tolkmekians, and they announce their plan to use the orb as a weapon against the plague of the insects and the poison.

Nausicaa is taken with a flight of Tolmekians to another kingdom, Pejite, but on the way there, they are shot down by a Pejite fighter! Will Nausicaa survive being stranded so far from home, and will she be able to quell the coming war?

TWO UPS AND TWO DOWNS

+ The story is very in-depth, and I like that there are essentially four factions (if you count the insects) all in conflict with one another. It feels like a full, lived-in world. Of course, that’s because it’s been created by Hayao Miyazaki–more on him in a second–and he doesn’t half-do anything he creates.

The viewer is immediately drawn into the universe created here. Nausicaa is a compelling and fun protagonist who goes through some early growth. The different factions remind us of the world we currently live in where there is so little in black and white, and multiple different people can see the same thing and glean different things from it. And we also see the sometimes the innocent people under a regime don’t always necessarily like or condone what their leaders do.

And all the while, there are the insects, too. A force of nature, but not honestly either good or bad. Just powerful and a force to be reckoned with. They influence just about everything going on in the world, but they just want to go about their lives.

It’s all so realistic and fulfilling!

+ As with everything Studio Ghibli and Miyazaki touches, this picture is wildly imaginative and brilliant. The poisoned forest and the acid lake and the airships and the gunships. The different cultures and the little creatures and the dangerous insects and the weapon Nausicaa uses. It’s all a Miyazaki special here.

The guy simply has imagination that would put the most dreamy of children to shame. He clearly never lost the sense of wonder that he grew up with, and the way he looks at the world is the way in which we all should. We would be so lucky to have a little Miyazaki inside each of us, because he is one of the most talented artists and dreamers that has ever lived.

– Tato, the little Pikachu thing that Nausicaa collects early on when she meets Lord Yupa, is cute and all, but it’s also completely irrelevant to the plot. I kept waiting for it to matter or do something, but… nope. It just kind of hangs out with Nausicaa and runs around her shoulders as she does things. It doesn’t even ever face any peril that could inconvenience her to save it! What is the point of this thing?

Well, it’s cute, and it might have moved some toy units. So there is that.

– The Ohm suddenly having healing/resurrection powers at the end of the movie is kind of a cheap out to bring Nausicaa back after she sacrifices herself to save everyone. It would have been a better ending if she had passed away and everyone had to come to a peaceful arrangement to honor her memory.

To be clear: this healing/resurrection ability used by the Ohm is not something they use or even hint at earlier in the movie; it is exclusively used at the end to revive Nausicaa. It’s very deus ex machina in that way, and it spoils the big emotional hit of the film. I get that this is a kid’s picture so maybe you don’t want to go TOO dark, but hell… in a few years, Miyazaki would release Grave Of The Fireflies, so he clearly had some darkness to spare!

OVERALL

Nausicaa reminds me why I always need to be searching out more Ghibli and Miyazaki works. It’s a wonderful story full of wholly realized world-building and detail. The characters have depth to them, and the universe is comforting to visit–even if it’s full of poison and war! It’s, quite simply, another great success.