Nausicaä - Prinzessin aus dem Tal der Winde

Princess Nausicaa has to convince her people to rise up, and defend their world a destructive force, that threatens to strip their planet of its natural resources.

There is a charm about this film that just resonates, I first saw this in a history class, a teacher that always loved to put on Japanese films, I have fond memories of this one, and whilst I don't think it's quite as good as the incredible Princess Mononoke that would come years later, it's still a fine film.

Somehow my eyes are telling me that it's a film from the 1980's, but my brain is telling me that it's a film that's just been made, how much more of a relevance does this film have in 2023 than it did back in 1984, to think of the damage that man has done to the planet, it's just extraordinary.

I tried watching it with English dubbing, I couldn't, fortunately though it is on Netflix in its original form, well worth seeing in its original Japanese.

The animation holds up quite well, I thought those opening snow covered scenes looked very beautiful, the following crafts, action scenes and characters also looked very nice.

Powerful.

8/10.

This was the film which introduced me (and many others in the 1980s) to Miyazake, and even in the form of a poor quality VHS on an ordinary TV, it was amazing. By 1984 Miyazake was already well known in Japan for his anime work in film, TV, and for the comic strip that this film was based upon.

In this early full length film he really got to spread his wings. There are fantastic aerial sequences like the jet-glider evading the flying snakes, which (this predates computed 3D, and aerial sequences are present in most of his work) are just a tour-de-force of imagination and geometry. And yet this is a world that feels very organic, not geometric, with a cast of characters drawn in a unique cross between hobo, samurai, and pirate - totally blending in to an imaginary post apocalyptic world where humans scratch out a precarious life in villages hidden in the few green valleys left in a world of desert, where the only remaining resources are wind, sunlight, and humans.

But it is also a world of enormous dangers, including airborne bandits and the strange, mutated creatures that have evolved to control the barren and scarred earth. When our heroine's valley home is attacked by raiders, she embarks on an adventure against them that will lead her, and some unlikely allies found along the way, to an eventual confrontation combining warring armies of bandits, ancient machines of infernal destruction, and the implacable, mysterious, threatening beasts which roam the badlands. The pace is swashbuckling - if this were a book, it would be one you could not stop reading.

It has the feel of the original comic books, but plays out wonderfully on the screen - you don't need to know the comics. The style is very unique. Even though it is very stylized (no photorealism here), you immediately get the feeling of the world and the characters. The story works for children of all ages (mine both first saw this before they were 6, and have memorized it long since), and combined with the wonderful visuals it is a treat for adults too. As a genre I would classify it as soft (no attempt at scientific correctness) sci-fi rather than fantasy, though some might think it more a work of fantasy. It is fascinating partly because its roots in style and action are unexpected for a western viewer. Japanese manga and stories had evolved in their own way, and although this is early Miyazake, it is already a product of that mature and distinct art form.

As always with Miyazake - if you haven't seen his work, well you haven't seen anything like it, and it is time you did.

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.

... and it's only got angrier since this epic critique of the damage and destruction the human race affects against the flora and fauna of the place we call home, as well as upon itself. Visionary, prophetic, disturbing and heartbreaking, often concurrently, a testament to future generations that we were fully aware of our impact and neglect, that we chose to do very little about it and that what we did do was long after the horse, the fish, the insects (especially the bees) had bolted.

Now that everyone knows Miyazaki is a great talent and he has been doing many great stuff, his earlier works are internationally popular. After Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi, Miyazaki's well deserved fame got huge. Since his fame increased, his older works has been taken from the drawers to upper shelves and this is leading to discussions of which of his works are better than which. Kaze no tani no Naushika has been compared many times with his Mononoke - hime, however regarding how Naushika formed a perfect background for the further works of Miyazaki, this comparison is not very fair. Kaze no tani no Naushika is the basis of Miyazaki's charming mastery which becomes more and more apparent in 1990s. It features one of the greatest heroines in anime history in an unusual sci-fi environment. The story of the film shows us how resourceful human imagination can be. What makes Naushika a cornerstone is not only this efficient story telling but also the visual fiesta that it has been presented in. So lose no time in comparing this film to another, instead savor it again and again.