is a 1984 Japanese animated post-apocalyptic fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, based on his 1982 manga of the same name. It was produced by Topcraft and distributed by Toei Company. Joe Hisaishi, in his first collaboration with Miyazaki, composed the score. The film stars the voices of Sumi Shimamoto, Gorō Naya, Yōji Matsuda, Yoshiko Sakakibara, and Iemasa Kayumi."". bcdb.com, 13 May 2012 Set in a post-nuclear futuristic world, it tells the story of Nausicaä (Shimamoto), the pacifist teenage princess of the Valley of the Wind who becomes embroiled in a struggle with Tolmekia, an empire that attempts to use an ancient weapon to eradicate a jungle populated by oversized, mutant insects.
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind was released in Japan on 11 March 1984. The film received critical acclaim, with praise being directed at the story, themes, characters and animation. It is commonly regarded as one of the greatest animated films, and was the second-highest-ranked animation in a poll conducted by Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs in 2006. Though it was released before Studio Ghibli was founded, it is often considered a Ghibli work due to its themes, and is usually released as part of DVD and Blu-ray collections of Ghibli work.
A heavily edited version of the film commissioned by Manson International, titled Warriors of the Wind, was released in the United States and other markets throughout the mid-to-late 1980s. The Manson cut was derided by Miyazaki, and prompted Ghibli to establish a policy prohibiting future international licensors from editing its films for foreign release. It was eventually replaced in circulation by an uncut, redubbed version produced by Walt Disney Studios in 2005.
Plot
One thousand years have passed since the Seven Days of Fire, an apocalyptic war that destroyed civilization and caused an ecocide, creating the vast Toxic Jungle, a poisonous forest swarming with giant mutant insects. In the kingdom of the Valley of the Wind, a prophecy predicts a savior "clothed in a blue robe, descending onto a golden field". The Valley's 16-year-old princess Nausicaä explores the jungle and communicates with its creatures, including the gigantic, trilobite-like armored Ohm. She hopes to understand the jungle and find a way for it and humans to coexist.
One morning, a massive cargo aircraft from the militaristic Empire of Tolmekia crashes in the Valley despite Nausicaä's efforts to save it. Its sole survivor, Princess Lastelle of Pejite, asks Nausicaä to destroy the cargo before she dies. The cargo is an embryo of a Giant Warrior, one of the lethal, gargantuan humanoid bioweapons that caused the Seven Days of Fire. Tolmekia seized the embryo and Lastelle from Pejite, but their plane was unable to support the embryo's weight and landed in the forest, causing the insects to attack. One of the insects emerges wounded from the wreckage and poises to attack, but Nausicaä uses a bullroarer to calm it and guides it away from the village.
Soon after, Tolmekian soldiers under the command of Princess Kushana invade the Valley and kill Nausicaä's father, Jihl. Nausicaä briefly fights the Tolmekians, but the Valley's elderly swordsmaster, Yupa, intervenes and ushers both Nausicaä and the Tolmekians to stand down. Kushana, having retrieved the Giant Warrior's embryo, plans to mature and use the bioweapon to burn the Toxic Jungle. The valley's wise woman, Obaba, warns that such a feat cannot be done as many have tried to destroy the forest before, but the Ohm have attacked and destroyed many cities and killed thousands of people. Yupa discovers a secret garden of jungle plants that had been cared for by Nausicaä; according to her findings, plants that grow in clean soil and water are not toxic, but the jungle's soil has been tainted by pollution.
Kushana leaves for Tolmekian-occupied Pejite with Nausicaä and five hostages from the Valley, but a Pejite interceptor shoots down the Tolmekian airships carrying them. Nausicaä, Kushana and the hostages crash-land in the jungle, disturbing several Ohm, which Nausicaä soothes. She leaves to rescue the interceptor's pilot, who turns out to be Princess Lastelle's twin brother, Asbel, but both crash through a stratum of quicksand into a non-toxic area below the Toxic Jungle. Nausicaä realizes that the jungle plants purify the polluted topsoil, producing clean water and soil underground.
Nausicaä and Asbel reach Pejite but find it ravaged by insects. They learn that the local survivors lured the insects to eradicate the Tolmekians, and are doing the same to the Valley. Nausicaä is taken prisoner, but escapes with the help of a group of Pejite sympathizers, including Asbel and his mother. She soon discovers two Pejite soldiers using a wounded baby Ohm to lure thousands of Ohm into the Valley. As the Tolmekians fight against the Ohm, the Giant Warrior, having hatched prematurely, disintegrates after killing a fraction of the Ohm.
Meanwhile, Nausicaä fights the Pejite soldiers and liberates the baby Ohm, but the pink dress she received from Asbel's mother is drenched in the Ohm's blue blood. Nausicaä and the Ohm return to the Valley and stand before the herd but are run over. The Ohm calm down and resuscitate her with their golden antennae resembling vines. Nausicaä walks atop the vines as though golden fields, fulfilling the savior prophecy. With the Valley saved, the Ohm and Tolmekians leave as the Pejites remain with the Valley people, helping them rebuild. Deep underneath the Toxic Jungle, a non-toxic tree sprouts.
Voice cast
Character nameVoice actor Japanese/English Disney dub English Manson dub Japanese English(Manson/Showmen, Inc., 1985) (Disney, 2005)Princess ZandraSumi ShimamotoSusan DavisAlison LohmanLord YupaGorō NayaHal SmithPatrick StewartPrince MiloYōji MatsudaCam ClarkeShia LaBeoufQueen SelenaYoshiko SakakibaraLinda GaryUma ThurmanGeneral RoganIemasa KayumiChris SarandonAxelIchirō NagaiHal SmithEdward James OlmosOld LadyHisako KyōdaLinda GaryTress MacNeilleGolKōhei MiyauchiFrank WelkerGikuriJōji YanamiRiley JacksonJeff BennettNigaMinoru Yada rowspan="2" Mark SilvermanKing ZealMahito TsujimuraMuzuRiley JacksonJames Arnold TaylorListelleMiina Tominaga rowspan="2" Emily BauerMayor of PlacidaMakoto TeradaMark HamillMilo and Listelle's motherAkiko TsuboiLinda GaryJodi BensonFoxy Rihoko YoshidaCommandoTetsuo Mizutorirowspan="1" Placida girlTakako ŌtaSusan DavisAshley Rose OrrNarratorHal SmithTony Jay
Production
Hayao Miyazaki made his feature directorial debut in 1979 with Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro, a film which went on to receive the Ōfuji Noburō Award at the 1979 Mainichi Film Awards. Miyazaki had previously co-directed episodes of the television series Lupin The Third Part I with Isao Takahata. Although The Castle of Cagliostro was not a box office success, Toshio Suzuki, editor of the magazine Animage, was impressed by the film and encouraged Miyazaki to produce works for Animage publisher Tokuma Shoten. Miyazaki began writing the manga Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind in 1981, and it quickly became Animage most popular feature. Toshio Suzuki and the magazine's other editors encouraged Miyazaki to work on a film adaptation. Miyazaki initially refused, as he had a deal with Tokuma to never adapt the manga into a film, but agreed on the condition that he could direct.
In the early stages, Isao Takahata, credited as executive producer, reluctantly joined the project even before the animation studio was chosen. An outside studio to produce the film was needed because Tokuma Shoten did not own an animation studio: Miyazaki and Takahata chose the minor studio Topcraft. The production studio's work was known to both Miyazaki and Takahata and was chosen because its artistic talent could transpose the sophisticated atmosphere of the manga to the film. On 31 May 1983, work began on the pre-production of the film. With at that point only sixteen chapters of the manga to work with, Miyazaki encountered difficulties in creating the screenplay. He ended up taking elements of the story and refocusing the narrative and characters on the Tolmekian invasion of Nausicaä's homeland. Takahata enlisted the experimental and minimalist composer Joe Hisaishi to compose the film's score.
The film was made on a production schedule of only nine months and with a budget equivalent to . Animation work began in August 1983, produced by animators who were paid by the frame.Studio Ghibli, The Birth of Studio Ghibli video, (included on UK Nausicaä DVD) One notable animator was Hideaki Anno, a founding member of Gainax, who among later works wrote and directed the acclaimed series Neon Genesis Evangelion. Anno was assigned to draw the challenging Giant Warrior's attack sequence, which according to Toshio Suzuki, is a "high point in the film". Anno considers Evangelion a continuation of Nausicaä, done in his own way.
Influences and themes Miyazaki's work on Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind was inspired by a range of works, including Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea, Brian Aldiss's Hothouse, Isaac Asimov's Nightfall, and J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Miyazaki also says he took possible inspiration from The Lady who Loved Insects Japanese folktale. Protagonist Nausicaä was inspired in name and personality by Homer's Phaeacian princess in the Odyssey. According to a number of reviewers, Frank Herbert's science fiction novel Dune was one of the inspirations for the film's post-apocalyptic world. Some online commentators have dubbed it "anime's answer to Dune". Miyazaki's imagination was sparked by the mercury poisoning of Minamata Bay and how nature responded and thrived in a poisoned environment, using it to create the polluted world depicted in the film. Kyle Anderson of Nerdist describes the film's setting as a steampunk post-apocalypse, while Philip Boyes of Eurogamer describes the technology in Nausicaä and Castle in the Sky as dieselpunk.
The most prominent themes in the film are centered around its anti-war and environmental focus. Nausicaä believes in the value of life, regardless of its form, and through her actions stops a war. Loy and Goodhew state there is no evil portrayed in the film, but the Buddhist roots of evil: greed, ill will and delusion. Fear is what drives the conflicts, the fear of the poisoned forest results in greed and resentment. Nausicaä, in addition to being a transformative force, leads people to understand and respect nature, which is portrayed as welcoming, spiritual, and restorative for those who enter it peacefully. Ian DeWeese-Boyd agrees, "Her commitment to love and understanding—even to the point of death—transforms the very nature of the conflict around her and begins to dispel the distorting visions that have brought it about."
Releases The film was released by Toei Company on 11 March 1984 on a double bill with a compilation film of the Italian-Japanese anime television series Sherlock Hound episodes "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" and "Treasure Under the Sea". Upon the film's 1984 release, it received a recommendation from the World Wide Fund for Nature.
On home video, the film was released on VHS on 21 March 1984 and on Laserdisc on 25 April 1984 by Tokuma Shoten's "Animage Video" imprint.
On 30 July 1995, a subtitled version of the film was screened at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, as part of the "Building Bridges" film festival, marking the fiftieth anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Nausicaä was also included on the Ghibli ga Ippai: Studio Ghibli Complete LD Collection boxset, released by Tokuma Shoten in August 1996. The VHS was reissued as the third volume of Buena Vista Home Entertainment Japan's "Ghibli ga Ippai" imprint, on 19 September 1997.