Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)

• Year: 1984
• Released: 25 Nov 1987
• Country: Japan
• Adwords: 4 wins & 2 nominations
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087544/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/nausicaa_of_the_valley_of_the_wind
• Metacritics: https://www.metacritic.com/movie/nausicaa-of-the-valley-of-the-wind
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: Japanese
• MPA Rating: PG
• Genre: Animation, Adventure, Sci-Fi
• Runtime: 117 min
• Writer: Hayao Miyazaki, Cindy Davis, Donald H. Hewitt
• Director: Hayao Miyazaki
• Cast: Sumi Shimamoto, Mahito Tsujimura, Hisako Kyôda
• Keywords: duringcreditsstinger, anime, post-apocalyptic future, future, airplane,

	8.0/10
	86/100
	89% – Critics
	91% – Audience

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind Storyline

In the far future, a thousand years after a nuclear war left the Earth as a nuclear holocaust. The Valley of the Wind, a small kingdom ruled by King Jil struggles for survival as the community tries to defend the Valley from gigantic Ohmu and toxic plants that live beyond the Valley in the Sea of Decay, while Jil’s daughter and heiress to the throne, Princess Nausicaä tries to understand and feels it is wrong to destroy the toxic jungle. The Valley is attacked by the Tolmekian people who plan to destroy the Sea of Decay by using the greatest warriors that started the holocaust. After Nausicaä is taken prisoner, Nausicaä escapes and goes beneath the Sea of Decay where she discovers the toxic plants are not poisoning the air, and are purifying the world by draining the air of radiation and toxins. With everything at stake, Nausicaä unites with the Ohmus and set out to the Valley and foil the Tolmekians plan of unleashing the Great Warrior which will start another holocaust.

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Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind Movie Reviews

The first of the ‘canonical’ Miyazaki films.

The first thing to establish is that this is a science fiction epic. It has more in common with ‘Dune’ or any number of SF novels – Brian Aldiss’s ‘Hothouse’ springs to mind for one- than it does with a typical western animated children’s film. Therefore one’s expectations should be a little different, and ultimately it was the SF aspect which gave the movie such a high grade in my books. Whereas it didn’t have quite the emotional clout that I look for in an animated feature, it was a stupendously told SF story.

Technically not a Ghibli film (Miyazaki actually used the studio which did most of ‘The Last Unicorn’, and which more or less became Ghibli when ‘Laputa’ was made a couple of years later), ‘Nausicaa’ is a far-future SF story with a princess/warrior/nature-lover heroine and strong environmental themes. There’s also an opposing princess/leader trying to use technology to overcome the apparently hostile environment. If you’re starting to think ‘Princess Mononoke’, you’d be on the right track. In some ways ‘Nausicaa’ seems like an early stab in the direction of ‘Mononoke’, though the latter would delve far more into spirituality and mythology, eschewing the SF aspects.

There aren’t really any major weak points in Nausicaa – unless you count the frustrating 12 drawings per second animation which I constantly complain about in Japanese animation. The backgrounds aren’t as amazing and the animation not as good as the last few Ghibli films, but for 1984 it was plenty good enough. I have a fairly trivial complaint in that the character of Kuratowa is drawn in a slightly more ‘anime’ style, ala Lupin III, whereas all of the other characters are done in a realistic style. He just seems a little out of place, though he’s quite delightfully drawn.

The really strong points of the movie are its pacing (at least until the very end. Miyazaki was unhappy with the end too), its story telling, which manages to be sophisticated without being impossibly complex, its engrossing background drawings and settings, – and most of all in the amazing attention to detail in the fully realized post-apocalypse SF-fantasy world in which the story is set. Every little thing is worked out and placed such that you find yourself admiring inventions, ideas, structures, creatures, etc which don’t draw attention to themselves, but simply exist as part of the backdrop of the movie. Of course ‘Nausicaa’ had existed for several years as a serialised Manga, so Miyazaki no doubt knew its universe inside-out.

There’s a very clever plot, which I won’t give away, but which involves humanity’s relationship with the Earth and nature.

It’s the sort of movie which you can get thoroughly caught up in, and which will stand repeated viewings. It really is a film which is perfectly pitched at both a young and an adult audience. As Miyazaki’s second feature film it is also, rightly or wrongly, usually considered the start of Studio Ghibli, and is arguably worth watching for historical reasons, too.

Not the very best from Miyazaki or Ghibli, but an auspicious beginning.

PS, in case you didn’t know, there was a heavily butchered US version floating around called ‘Warriors of the Wind’, which is universally reviled as a disgrace. Just to make it confusing, some of the Japanese copies are also called ‘Warriors of the Wind’. The thing to look for is the 116 minute running length. If you get that, you’ve got the right one. At the moment the only way you can get the film is in Japanese dialog with English subtitles. Personally I’d go ahead and do that, rather than wait while Disney squats on the US distribution rights (Amazon gives it a release date of 2010 for God’s sake). You can always replace it later.

Good stuff.

“You have to save the people of the valley.”

I know there’s a huge fan base for anime movies like this, and especially for works by director Hayao Miyazaki, but I just couldn’t engage with this film after about a half hour. I’ve watched other films from Miyazaki and quite honestly, though they’re all beautifully rendered, they often seem disjointed continuity wise, and in some cases, quite difficult to follow. ‘Nausica’ by contrast was easy enough to follow, but after a while I just didn’t care. One thing that bothered me about the story was the idea that civilization was destroyed a thousand years ago, but it seemed like the toxic jungle taking over the world was a relatively recent phenomenon. A thousand years seemed like a pretty long time for humanity to make a comeback or be wiped out completely, so the idea that there were warring tribes threatening the Valley of the Wind seemed like a disconnect to me. Interestingly, the very last animated film I saw was “How to Train Your Dragon”, and it struck me how similar the basic plot of both movies seemed to be, In each one, opposing forces, human and animal, come to a realization that they were better off living with each other in harmony because they could help each other, rather than waste their energy and lives fighting at war. This film took a long time coming to that conclusion.

Breathtaking to watch and highly imaginative, yet another winner from Studio Ghibli

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind doesn’t quite make my top five favourite Ghiblis but it certainly makes my top 10. Why? Because it is a stunning film. The animation is absolutely breathtaking, the colours are gorgeous and the backgrounds are amazing. Another strength is the music which gives a sense of charm, quaintness and poignancy. The story is highly imaginative and simple, there is not a single wasted moment, and the film is well paced. The characters are wonderful too, the protagonist is very easy to relate to, and this is helped by the top notch voice acting. Overall, a wonderful film with stunning visuals and inspired imagination. 9/10 Bethany Cox