Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

AUTHOR: Miyazaki, Hayao

ARTIST: Hayao Miyazaki (illustrator);

Walden Wong (letterer)

PUBLISHER: Tokuma Shoten (Japanese); VIZ Media (English)

FIRST SERIAL PUBLICATION:Kaze no tani no Naushika, 1982-1994 (English translation, 1988-1996)

FIRST BOOK PUBLICATION: 1982-1995 (English translation, 1990-1997)

Publication History

Hayao Miyazaki spent almost thirteen years on the Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind series, which was first published by Tokuma Shoten in monthly installments in Japan’s Animage magazine beginning in 1982. The broad appeal of the film based on the manga led to the establishment of a new animation studio, Studio Ghibli, which Miyazaki founded with Isao Takahata.

Miyazaki had been fascinated for many years by the Nausicaä character in Greek mythology. Nausicaä was the daughter of the Phaeacian king Alcinoös and Queen Arete from Homer’s Odyssey. Nausicaä comforts Odysseus when he shows up nearly drowned on the shore of her island after he is shipwrecked by Poseidon. When Miyazaki read the description of Nausicaä in a Japanese translation of a reference work on Greek mythology, he was captivated by the heroine’s qualities: She is beautiful, sensitive, attuned to animals and the natural world, quick on her feet, and loves playing her harp and singing more than she likes seeking attention from boys. She composes a song specifically for Odysseus when he departs. She occupies a special place in the heart of the great voyager even after he returns home to Ithaca and his wife Penelope. While her father offers Nausicaä’s hand in marriage to Odysseus if he would stay in Phaeacia, Nausicaä never marries but travels from court to court as the first female minstrel, singing songs about the Trojan War.

The character of Nausicaä reminded Miyazaki of a Japanese heroine from the Heian era called “the princess who loved insects.” She was considered an eccentric in the formal, aristocratic world of ninth century Japan. She did not dye her teeth black, shave off her eyebrows, or stay indoors, as was the custom.

Plot

On the simplest level, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is about the invasion of the kingdom of Dorok by the kingdom of Torumekia. With its military background, the story resembles Homer’s Iliad, the ancient Greek epic about the Trojan War.

The story begins one thousand years after a massive conflagration called the Seven Days of Fire, during which the God Soldiers annihilated the human population and pollution destroyed the natural environment. A highly complex, industrial civilization had spread from Western Eurasia to cover the planet. As Earth became increasingly polluted, huge cities began to deteriorate, expelling clouds of toxic smoke into the air and spewing waste and chemical contaminants in every direction. High technology and urban infrastructure collapsed, and Earth was transformed into a wasteland covered by the Sea of Corruption, a mysterious toxic soup made of fumes, fungi, spores, and giant plants, constantly growing and changing shape. It was populated by giant insects, including the fourteen-eyed caterpillar-like Ohmu and other mutated species. Surviving humans fought over the small patches of inhabitable land remaining around the fringes of the Sea of Corruption.

Nausicaä is a skilled fighter, but she hates to kill sentient creatures and is attuned to the needs of people and even ugly insects. Her primary challenge is to solve the mystery of the Sea of Corruption and to lead her kingdom toward the “Pure Blue Land,” where people might live free from war and pollution.

Nausicaä is the daughter of King Jhil, leader of a 500 person kingdom called the Valley of the Wind, located on the edge of the frontier. The Valley of the Wind is constantly buffeted by the Sea of Corruption. Two powerful nations, the Kingdom of Torumekia and the Dorok Empire, are about to go to war. The Valley of the Wind has managed to remain independent. Both Pejite City and the Valley of the Wind are allies of Torumekia. King Jhil dies as a result of inhaling the contaminated air, prompting Nausicaä and her soldiers to join the Torumekians, as the two groups are obligated by an ancient treaty to help each other. Jhil had hoped for a son as his heir because there was no record of a woman ever becoming chieftain.

One day, Nausicaä sees a discarded shell of an Ohmu in the jungle, and she speculates on how the insects survived in such a hostile environment. Nausicaä saves Master Yupa from an approaching Ohmu. Her former teacher marvels at what a skilled rider she has become. Like Nausicaä, Yupa wants to solve the mystery of the Sea of Corruption and figure out a way for civilization to survive. According to a prophecy, a person wearing blue and standing in a golden field would heal the bond between humans and Earth and save the world.

Back at the castle of the Valley of the Wind, Uncle Mito helps Nausicaä get her gunship ready to fly. Mito and Nausicaä travel to Pejite City, where they find corpses and devastation because the kingdom has been covered by the Sea of Corruption. Prince Rastel gives Nausicaä a secret stone for safekeeping and tells her that the emperor of Torumekia must never have it.

Torumekian soldiers invade the Valley of the Wind, searching for the stone that is the key to awakening one of the Giant Soldiers that destroyed the world one thousand years ago. Kushana, the Princess of Torumekia, attempts to get the Torumekian throne by reviving the Giant Soldier with the help of the secret stone. Princess Kushana and her nefarious chief of staff, Kurotowa, attempt to enslave the citizens of the Valley of the Wind in their quest to conquer the kingdom of Dorok and subdue the Sea of Corruption.

Nausicaä engages in several battles on the Torumekian side, but her gunship is brought down by Asbel, the last survivor of Pejite City, who despises Kushana and all Torumekians. Nausicaä rescues Asbel from an attack of the giant insects, and they escape together; however, they are taken prisoner by warriors of the Dorok Empire. The Dorok Empire is a theocracy ruled by two monks, Miralupa and Namulis, the sons of the First Holy Emperor.

Nausicaä escapes again and travels south because the Ohmu are stampeding in a daikaisho, or tidal wave, and she needs to determine the reason. Nausicaä lands in a small lake and meets The Holy One of Mani, a monk who believes that the Seven Days of Fire are inspired by some divine force. The Holy One thinks that Nausicaä might be the fabled savior in blue.

Nausicaä discovers that the Dorok ships are emitting toxins released by a mutant fungus engineered to control the Sea of Corruption. The Dorokians are attempting to use the poison fungus to gain the upper hand in the war with Torumekia. Charuka, the commander of the Dorokian army, tries to destroy his battleship because he can no longer control the fungus. Charuka gives up trying to employ this ultimate weapon when he realizes the fungus would kill everyone’s soldiers. Charuka is persuaded that Nausicaä is not the enemy, and she helps him to rescue his soldiers. The mutant fungus keeps growing and expanding; Nausicaä worries that Earth is nearing total devastation. She wonders if the destruction might signal a new birth and purification through death.

Nausicaä starts a quest to find the Crypts of Shuwa to unlock the secret of the fungus and the Sea of Corruption. She wants to seal the doors for eternity to stop future war and destruction. She enlists the help of the revived God Warrior, whom she names “Ohma.” Ohma thinks Nausicaä is his mother. The God Warrior gives off a poisonous light that kills everything in its path, and he begins to assume the role of dispenser of justice. Nausicaä, Yupa, and Ohma race to the Crypts of Shuwa against King Vu of Torumekia and his armies.

Meanwhile, the Dorok Council of Priests starts several stampedes of giant forest insects in an attempt to defeat Torumekia through their genetically engineered strain of forest mold. Yupa dies in a battle between the clashing armies. Nausicaä learns from the Master of the Garden that at the time of Earth’s destruction, a group of scientists engineered human beings, plants, and creatures such as the Ohmu and Heedra in a desperate plan to survive. The Sea of Corruption is actually attempting to resuscitate a barren Earth. The deadly gases and spores are the forest’s attempt to cleanse Earth of its toxins and to recreate a new pure planet.

The story ends with the death of the Torumekian King Vu, but Princess Kushana refuses to assume the throne. Nausicaä lives with the Dorok people and does not return to the Valley of the Wind. Many see Nausicaä as the fulfillment of the prophecy about a person dressed in blue standing in a golden field who saved the world.

Volumes

• Kaze no tani no Naushika, 1 (1982). This tells the beginning of the story of the Valley of the Wind and Nausicaä’s relationship with Jhil.

• Kaze no tani no Naushika, 2 (1983). Features the death of Jhil and Nausicaä’s learning about the Torumekians and Kushana.

• Kaze no tani no Naushika, 3 (1984). Highlights rising tides of battle between Dorok and Torumekia, with Nausicaä finding ways she can help Kushana.

• Kaze no tani no Naushika, 4 (1987). Features much political intrigue within Torumekia about succession and rule.

• Kaze no tani no Naushika, 5 (1991). Nausicaä meets the “Holy One of Mani,” who gives her a new idea about the state of the world and how it might revive itself.

• Kaze no tani no Naushika, 6 (1993). Nausicaä continues her search for the purpose of the Sea of Corruption.

• Kaze no tani no Naushika, 7 (1995). Yupa dies in battle. The revived God Soldier begins his work to end the war. At the end of the story, King Vu is killed, and Nausicaä goes to live with the Dorok people.

Characters

• Nausicaä, the protagonist, is the daughter of King Jhil, the leader of a small fiefdom called the Valley of the Wind. She flies around on a glider with a jet engine to survey the conditions of the environment, people, and insects. She tries to solve the mystery of the Sea of Corruption by learning from the giant insects, including the Ohmu.

• King Jhil, the king of the Valley of the Wind. He succumbs to poisonous gases and dies in bed after a final conversation with his daughter and Yupa, his closest adviser. He worries that no woman has ever become monarch and does not know if Nausicaä is up to the task.

• Master Yupa, Nausicaä’s instructor and the confidante of Jhil. He is regarded as the most skilled warrior in the Valley of the Wind, able to handle all kinds of combat with short and long swords and daggers. Like Nausicaä, he is on a mission to discover the secret of the Sea of Corruption.

• Mito is the most important of the castle guards and is the field marshal for the Valley of the Wind army. He is the copilot of the Valley of the Wind gunship and loyal to Nausicaä.

• Kushana is the fourth princess of Torumekia. She is the only princess of Torumekia who is biologically related to King Vu, and she quarrels with her brothers and father about proper rule and succession. She is emotionally fragile but a gifted military leader. She asks for Nausicaä’s help in the war against Dorok.

• Kurotawa is Kushana’s chief of staff. He is not related to the royal family and has a secret mision given to him by King Vu. He provides offbeat comments and comic quips during moments of tension, and he is weaker by nature than Kushana.

• King Vu is the evil king of Torumekia who desires to conquer the world and destroy Dorok. He dies at the end of the story and attempts to give the throne to Kushana, who will not accept it because of her father’s corruption.

• Namulis is the purported emperor of Dorok and the older brother of Miralupa. He desires to conquer the world by harnessing the powers of the Giant Soldier and the Heedra monsters, but he lacks any psychic ability and has been a prisoner in his own palace for one hundred years. He loses ruling power to his brother.

• Miralupa is Namulis’s younger brother and the actual ruler of the Dorok Empire. He has strong psychic powers and is feared by the people, who think he is merciless and bloodthirsty.

• Charuka is the commander of the Dorokian army and leader of Dorok’s religious practices. He was an adviser to the power-hungry Miralupa, but after Nausicaä saved him, he changed his mind about her and helped her to save his people and to solve the mystery of the fungus.

Artistic Style

Miyazaki’s artistry is unmistakable. Nausicaä’s seven volumes show Miyazaki’s trademark style: epic storytelling, detailed facial expressions, and dynamic transitions between cells. Many great battle scenes, aerial combat maneuvers, flyovers, and interactions among mysterious animals and people highlight the central narrative of Nausicaä’s quest to solve the riddle of the Sea of Corruption.

Miyazaki employs movement, subtle shading, and careful character development through close-ups on individual faces. There is no color, just the informationalally simple Japanese pen-and-ink style, with its precise modeling and subtle shading of faces, landscapes, castles, and battle scenes. Over the length of the series, major characters such as King Vu of Torumekia and Charuka of Dorok gradually reveal their qualities of either hidden evil or benign intentions that are capable of change.

Arguably the greatest Artistic accomplishment of the Nausicaä series is the revived God Warrior, whom Nausicaä names Ohma. Once part of an invincible force of destructive giants engineered to destroy the world, Ohma emerges from the pages as still formidable, mysterious, huge, but also curiously sensitive and shy, like a wounded child whom Nausicaä takes under her wing to comfort and transform into an agent of justice.

All of Miyazaki’s skills are employed in the development of Nausicaä, one of the first great female action heroes of the manga genre. A highlight of the Artistic style is the detailed backgrounds. Miyazaki handles deftly the depiction of the degraded natural world of the postapocalypse and the hope for some future solution. The empires of Dorok and Torumekia and the small community of the Valley of the Wind are skillfully contrasted through panoramic scenes and smaller portraits of lesser citizens. Miyazaki adds depth to the cultural differences between Torumekia and Dorok in the way he illustrates the major characters: the militaristic castles and large armies of Torumekia versus the individual tribes and mystical religious practices of the monks who rule over Dorok. Not to be overlooked is the style Miyazaki uses in creating the ominous Sea of Corruption, a stew of poisonous gasses and effluents, and the bizarre assortment of creatures that live in it, such as the Ohmu, the worm handlers, and the forest people.

Themes

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind concerns the inevitable follies that come from one person trying to control others, which are compounded in a world that verges on environmental destruction. Miyazaki writes about the outcomes of war, good and evil, and the loss of a clear distinction between the two. Dorok did not incite the invasion by Torumekia, but ethically its counterattack is no better than the action of the aggressors.

Set against the worst possible background of political scheming, Nausicaä displays the best qualities of human nature. She is self-confident, proud, and a good leader, and she cares deeply for the decaying world. She carries on the legacies of her father, King Jhil, and her teacher, Master Yupa, as she finds out the true reasons behind Torumekian aggression.

Earth has become an impossibly polluted and corrupt place, yet Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind holds out hope for the human race. Though in general the leaders are driven by a quest for power and the societies are rife with politics, there are people who will aid one another unconditionally and look for solutions to end senseless violence. The fact that Earth is resilient and able to withstand the most horrific mutant life-forms and biological warfare is evidence that Miyazaki aims for a message of hope.

Nausicaä shows all of the best attributes of the Heian character known as “the princess who loved insects.” She refused to follow conventions and remains true to her ethics of integrity and respect for all living things, even those defaced and malformed through human bioengineering. Nausicaä earns the trust of everyone she meets, orchestrates an end to the war, and fulfills the prophecy about the person dressed in blue who would be the savior of the world.

Impact

The film based on Miyazaki’s manga series Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind routinely shows up in lists of the ten best animated films of all time, so it is not surprising that the graphic novel series is regarded as a classic. Miyazaki worked on the series for almost ten years after the film was released, enriching and deepening the mythology of the characters. Nausicaä made a tremendous impact on the reading public because Miyazaki showed the length and depth to which he could develop an important female hero against the backdrop of global catastrophe and war.

The sales of the manga generated so much interest in the film that Miyazaki knew the story needed to go deeper. There are many characters in the manga, such as Namulis, Miralupa, and Charuka, that never made it into the film. The story is so complex that it comes close to collapsing under its own weight, yet the Nausicaä character provides the resiliency and warmth that carries reader’s interest and keeps the story moving toward its conclusion. Miyazaki demonstrated how much emotional depth and variety a manga series was capable of supporting, and the finished work is breathtaking in its scope. This long-running series captured the imagination of readers worldwide. The Nausicaä series sold more than ten million books in Japan alone and became one of the most admired manga fantasy stories of all time.

Films

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Topcraft, 1984. The film was made

because of the success of the manga. Its popular acclaim and high ticket sales led to the establishment of Studio Ghibli, for which Miyazaki directed five feature-length films and produced another three films in the years between 1986 and 1997. Many of Miyazaki’s adaptations produced box-office success and critical accolades.

Further Reading

Nakazawa, Keiji. Barefoot Gen: A Cartoon of Hiroshima (2004).

Otomo, Katsuhiro. Akira (2000).

Samura, Hiroaki. Blade of the Immortal (1995).

Bibliography

Drazen, Patrick. Anime Explosion! The What? Why? and Wow! of Japanese Animation. Berkeley, Calif.: Stone Bridge Press, 2002.

McCarthy, Helen. Hayao Miyazaki: Master of Japanese Animation. Berkeley, Calif.: Stone Bridge Press, 2002.

Napier, Susan J. Anime from “Akira” to “Howl’s Moving Castle”: Experiencing Contemporary Japanese Animation. New York: Macmillan, 2005.

Scott, A.O. “Where the Wild Things Are: The Miyazaki Menagerie.” The New York Times, June 12, 2005.