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Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (film)

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Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (film)
File:Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.jpg
cover of Disney 2005 DVD release
GenreSci-fi, Fantasy
Created byHayao Miyazaki
Anime
Directed byHayao Miyazaki
Produced byTohru Hara
Michio Kondô
Isao Takahata
Yasuyoshi Tokuma
StudioTopcraft

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (風の谷のナウシカ Kaze no tani no Naushika) is a graphic novel (manga) and 1984 film by Japanese writer, illustrator, and filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki. The movie has an environmentalist undertone and was presented by the World Wildlife Fund when it was released in 1984.

The Nausicaä manga is published in English by VIZ Media, and a DVD of the anime with English audio and subtitles by Disney. Earlier editions of the English manga and fan translations often used the title Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind, omitting the definite article.

Movie

Synopsis

Template:Spoiler

The story takes place a thousand years after the "Seven Days of Fire" destroyed human civilization and most of the Earth's original ecosystem. Scattered human settlements survive—isolated from one another by the "Sea of Corruption" (fukai, sea of rot/fungus in Japanese), a lethally toxic jungle of fungus swarming with giant insects—which come together only to wage war.

The title character, Nausicaä (Naushika transliterated into Japanese) is a young princess of the peaceful Valley of the Wind. Her name comes from the princess in the Odyssey who assisted Odysseus, and part of her character comes from a Japanese legend of "the princess who loved insects". Although a skillful fighter, she is normally humane, charismatic, and peace-loving. She has unusual gifts of telepathy; of empathy toward animals, humans, and other beings; and of "windriding", a sort of natural piloting talent which permits her to fly a mehve, an advanced mini-hang glider with a jet assist.

Nausicaä flying her Mehve over the Valley of Wind

The Valley of the Wind becomes threatened when another state, Pejite, unearths a "God Warrior" (kyoshinhei), which is then stolen by a more powerful state, Tolmekia. The "God Warrior" is one of the lethal giant bioweapons used in the ancient war which they hope to use against each other and (ultimately) against the Sea of Corruption.

The situation deteriorates as the fight to possess the God Warrior escalates out of control, and as the inimical fukai strikes back against those who attack it. But this is not a simple story. Even the "monsters" may be working toward some secret harmony, the lethal mutant fungi seems to have a vital role in Earth's new dominant ecosystem, and today's allies may be tomorrow's enemies—or vice-versa.

As she is forced to aid prisoners, villagers, enemies, mutant insects, and artificial bioweapons, Princess Nausicaä increasingly becomes a Joan of Arc figure—a warrior maiden inspired by a supermundane vision to defend all life against destruction.

Releases

A heavily edited and English-dubbed version of the film was distributed and shown on HBO in the 1980s as Warriors of the Wind. According to Nausicaa.net, the voice actors and actresses were not even informed of the film's plotline, and the film itself was so badly mauled by the edits that it ran only about an hour (less than two-thirds of the original), with much of the storyline and plot lost. Most fans of Nausicaä and Miyazaki himself dislike that version; Studio Ghibli has asked fans to forget its existence, and this version also persuaded the studio to adopt a strict "no-edits" clause for future foreign (non-Japanese) releases of its films. A new re-dubbed version from Disney, more faithful to the original film than the previous English-dubbed version, was released on DVD on February 22, 2005. The DVD also includes the Japanese audio track with subtitles.

Cast

The movie stars the following voice actors (listed in English version/Japanese version format):

Manga

Manga
Written byHayao Miyazaki
Published byTokuma Shoten

Miyazaki's manga version of Nausicaä was written over a period of 13 years, with breaks taken to work on Studio Ghibli movies. Serialized in Tokuma Shoten's Animage magazine, the first chapter was published in February 1982, and the last chapter in March 1994.

As can be expected, the manga is far more complicated than the movie. The story depicted in the movie roughly corresponds to only the first quarter of the manga, with significant differences in plot. There are more cultures (e.g., Doroks, Forest People). There are many more characters and they can probably be characterized as less one-dimensional. In the movie, the main villain is arguably Princess Kushana, while in the manga, she and Nausicaä form an alliance, she is given a much deeper character, and generally plays a rather large part in the story; the god-warrior in the manga fights not against Nausicaä, but with her. The environmentalist tone in the manga is more sophisticated than that of the movie: it is similar to the complicated worldview of Princess Mononoke.

Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind Perfect Collection from VIZ Media (Also 7-volume "Graphic Novel" and "Editor's Choice" editions)

  • Volume 1, ISBN 1-56931-096-3
  • Volume 2, ISBN 1-56931-087-4
  • Volume 3, ISBN 1-56931-111-0
  • Volume 4, ISBN 1-56931-211-7
Wikiquote has quotations related to Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (film).
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