Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (film)

Did You Know?

• Miyazaki's work on Nausicaä was inspired by 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.
• The protagonist's glider is called Möwe, the German word for gull, with an approximate wingspan of 5.8 meters and a mass of only 12 kg.
• Miyazaki's imagination was sparked by the mercury poisoning of Minamata Bay and how nature responded in a poisoned environment.

Plot

One thousand years after the Seven Days of Fire destroyed civilization and created the Toxic Jungle, a poisonous forest swarming with giant mutant insects, the Valley of the Wind awaits a savior. Princess Nausicaä, the 16-year-old pacifist princess, explores the jungle and communicates with its creatures, including the giant trilobite-like Ohm, hoping to find a way for humans and the jungle to coexist. A Tolmekian cargo aircraft crashes in the Valley; its sole survivor, Princess Lastelle of Pejite, asks Nausicaä to destroy the cargo—an embryo of a Giant Warrior, a bioweapon from the war.

Tolmekian soldiers under Princess Kushana invade the Valley, kill Nausicaä's father Jihl, and seize the embryo to mature and burn the Toxic Jungle. The wise woman Obaba warns that many have tried to destroy the forest, but the Ohm have attacked and destroyed cities. Yupa, the swordsmaster, discovers a secret garden where Nausicaä has grown jungle plants in clean soil and water, revealing that the jungle's toxicity comes from polluted soil, not the plants themselves.

Releases

Toei Company released the film in Japan on 11 March 1984 on a double bill with a compilation of Sherlock Hound episodes. The World Wide Fund for Nature gave it a recommendation. Tokuma Shoten's Animage Video imprint released it on VHS on 21 March 1984 and on Laserdisc on 25 April 1984. A subtitled version screened at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London on 30 July 1995 as part of the Building Bridges film festival marking the fiftieth anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The film appeared on the Ghibli ga Ippai: Studio Ghibli Complete LD Collection boxset in August 1996. Buena Vista Home Entertainment Japan reissued the VHS on 19 September 1997 and released three DVD sets in 2003. By 2003, Nausicaä had sold 1.77 million VHS and DVD units in Japan. Walt Disney Studios Japan released a Blu-ray on 14 July 2010.

An English-dubbed adaptation titled Warriors of the Wind, heavily cut by about 22 minutes, was released theatrically in the United States by New World Pictures beginning 14 June 1985 in Florida, followed by a VHS release in November 1985. Vestron Video released it in the UK in 1986, and First Independent Video re-released it in 1993. The cut simplified environmentalist themes and omitted Nausicaä's childhood connection to the Ohm; most characters' names were changed, including the protagonist becoming Princess Zandra.

Reception

In Japan, the film grossed a certain amount at the box office, earning distributor rental income; its 2020 re-release added $6,393,174. Overseas, it grossed $1,720,214 from seven countries between 2006 and 2017, including $1,521,343 in France. The film sold 914,767 tickets in Japan up until 2006 and 342,235 tickets in Europe. Nausicaä received critical acclaim and is ranked among the best animated films ever made, seen as a seminal influence on anime development.

Terry Lawson of Dayton Daily News praised its character designs, allegorical themes, Miyazaki's direction, and Hisaishi's score. Theron Martin of Anime News Network said it deserves a place on any short list of all-time classic anime movies. Common Sense Media rated it positively, citing good role models and positive messages while cautioning about dramatic setting and violent scenes. At Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 86 out of 100 based on 7 critics, indicating universal acclaim.

Helen McCarthy in 500 Essential Anime Movies praised the script and soundtrack. Sega's Yukio Futatsugi cited the film as inspiration for Panzer Dragoon. Numerous games have used Ohm-like creatures, and Megan Peters of Comic Book Resources identified elements in Star Wars: The Force Awakens that resemble Nausicaä.

Other media

Miyazaki's original manga version of Nausicaä was serialized in Tokuma Shoten's Animage magazine from February 1982 to March 1994, with breaks for Studio Ghibli films. Only sixteen chapters existed at the time of the film's production; the manga continued until the seventh and final book was released on 15 January 1995. The English localization was initially done by Toren Smith and Dana Lewis of Studio Proteus; after Miyazaki resumed the manga, Viz Media chose a new translation team.

Three video games based on the manga and film were developed and published by Technopolis Soft in 1984 for Japanese computer systems: Nausicaä's Close Call for the NEC PC-6001, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (an adventure game) for the NEC PC-8801, and Never Forget to Nausicaä Game Forever for the MSX, which has been frequently and erroneously referred to as a game where the player kills the Ohmu. These games signaled the end of video game adaptations for Miyazaki's films; the only other games based on his films were two based on The Castle of Cagliostro, which Luke Plunkett describes as two awful adaptations that Miyazaki cites as the reason he does not allow further video game adaptations.