Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
"Kaze no tani no Naushika" (original title)

Warrior/pacifist Princess Nausicaä desperately struggles to prevent two warring nations from destroying themselves and their dying planet.

Director:

Hayao Miyazaki

Writers:

Hayao Miyazaki (comic), Hayao Miyazaki (screenplay)

Stars:

Sumi Shimamoto, Mahito Tsujimura, Hisako Kyôda

Top 250 #234 | 3 wins.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Sumi Shimamoto	...	Nausicaä (voice)
Mahito Tsujimura	...	Jihl (voice)
Hisako Kyôda	...	Oh-Baba (voice)
Gorô Naya	...	Yupa (voice)
Ichirô Nagai	...	Mito (voice)
Kôhei Miyauchi	...	Goru (voice)
Jôji Yanami	...	Gikkuri (voice)
Minoru Yada	...	Niga (voice)
Rihoko Yoshida	...	Teto / Girl C (voice)
Masako Sugaya	...	Girl A (voice)
Takako Sasuga	...	Girl B (voice)
Chika Sakamoto	...	Boy A (voice)
Tarako	...	Boy B (voice)
Yôji Matsuda	...	Asbel (voice)
Mîna Tominaga	...	Rastel (voice)

Storyline

In the far future, man has destroyed the Earth in the "Seven Days of Fire". Now, there are small pockets of humanity that survive. One pocket is the Valley of Wind where a princess named Nausicaä tries to understand, rather than destroy the Toxic Jungle. Note that the old US release titled Warriors of the Wind is an entirely kiddiefied version which edits the original movie heavily, thus creating an entirely different story. -Andre

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Plot Keywords:

valley | wind | princess | future | far future | 

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Taglines:

Miyazaki's epic masterpiece (2005 Disney release)

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Genres:

Animation | Action | Adventure | Fantasy | Sci-Fi

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for violence

Details

Official Sites:

Disney [us] Official site

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

11 March 1984 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Warriors of the Wind

Company Credits

Production Co:

Hakuhodo, Nibariki, Tokuma Shoten

Technical Specs

Runtime:

117 min 95 min (1985) (edited)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The climatic God Soldier scene was animated by Hideaki Anno, who would soon go on to make a name for himself at the Gainax studio.

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Goofs

When Nausicaa is underneath the toxic jungle, and she goes under a hole through which the sand passes, Teto disappear from her shoulder, and then in the next shot, he reappears on her.

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Quotes

Yupa: I suggest you surrender. There is no ship coming to rescue you.
Commando: This guy is tough...

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Crazy Credits

As the credits roll we see life returning to normal in the valley: Kushana, Kurotowa and the Tolmekian fleet leave peacefully, after Nausicaä has unheard words for Kushana. The denizens of the Valley of the Wind replant trees in the burned-down forest. Lord Yupa and Asbel ride Yupa's beasts to the Toxic Jungle and explore it. When the text "The End" appears on screen we see Nausicaa's discarded helmet in the forest, alongside a green, non-Toxic Jungle sapling.

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Connections

Referenced in Castle in the Sky (1986)
The small yellow-and-brown animals that play on the robot are exactly the same as Nausicaä's pet fox-squirrel.

User 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.