Review of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

As I'm new to anime, I was very interested in watching a Studio Ghibli film. I figured there would be no better place to start than what was essentially Ghibli's first film: Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. I had no idea of what to expect going into this, and the first initial surprise was the gorgeous visual presentation. The hand-painted backgrounds are a sight to behold, making the world of Nausicaä one of the most beautiful wastelands I think I've ever laid eyes on in a piece of media. This particular world is also home to all manner of insects, which are both drawnand animated with such care that you really do feel jittery as they fly by.

While visuals are great, a film isn't often all that much without a compelling story, and does Nausicaä provide such a thing? I would say so. The story is large in scale but simple in its execution. It delivers a potent, albeit not all that subtle message, providing an interesting perspective on humanity's relationship with the world we inhabit. Nausicaä doesn't bring much different in terms of viewpoints, but it's how the message is delivered here that is so special.

While I certainly wish I could go on praising Nausicaä, it doesn't come without its flaws, the biggest of which, in my personal opinion, being the music. While it is of a high quality, and more often than not fits the tone of the scene, there weren't any pieces that I would say stood out. It served the purpose it was there for but beyond that never felt as though it enhanced any of the scenes, allowing the impressive visuals to handle most of the heavy lifting.

The sound in general was lacklustre. While I had no problem with the voice actors in the film, many of the scenes were rather devoid of sound, which was clearly the intention in places, I know, but others felt particularly jarring to me when the silence didn't fit the mood or work with the location.

Overall, Nausicaä is definitely worth a watch to anyone interested in Studio Ghibli, or a film with impressive art direction that doesn't expect too much from its audience. It's simplistic, sometimes to a fault, but that didn't stop me from enjoying it and I look forward to watching more films from Hayao Miyazaki to see how his directing improved over time.