Review of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

Coming out just before the creation of Studio Ghibli, Hayo Miyazaki wrote and directed this masterpiece. This film is considered to be the start of Studio Ghibli. Before this was to be made, Miyazaki initially refused, but later agreed, as long as he was the director. The story follows Nausicaa , a princess of the people of the valley. Set in a post-apocalyptic world about a thousand years after a global war burned the Earth. The world is now taken over by nature in the form of forests with toxic gases and the massive insects that resides within. With only a few safe places left onEarth, the people in the valley live in peace for the time being.

It is a story of nature vs man, but at the same time nature with man. How nature can look and be so dangerous, yet so beautiful at the same time is just one wonder this film is successful in. Nausicaa as a lead character comes across as both powerful and gentile, much like how Conan in Future Boy Conan made the audience entranced in their world. Unlike Miyazaki’s post-apocalypic world in Future Boy Conan, Nausicaa’s world focuses solely on man and nature as opposed to Conan’s world of Man and machine.

The art is all there and more. At any point, the film could be paused and it would look like a painting that could go up on display. Subtle movements in the insect’s bodies to how Nausicaa sores through the air like a bird are mesmerizing. Even the music hits all the right notes, and not a surprise coming from Joe Hisaishi (other Ghibli films and Mospeada).

There is nothing bad to think of after watching Nausicaa. It is a powerful film and more words cannot describe how great an animated piece this is. Coming out in 1984, this is the best work of animation seen to date. Watch this anime at all costs. It is a guaranteed masterpiece.