Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) was the first of Hayao Miyazaki's personal animated features as writer-director, and has proven to be one of his most enduring works. The story is set in a post-apocalyptic world of the distant future in which the "Seven Days of Fire" have destroyed much of human civilization and the technology that supported it. Most of the land is covered by the Fukai, or Sea of Corruption - a fungus-like forest poisonous to humans and populated by vast populations of insect mutations. One small pocket of humanity exists in the Valley of the Wind, where the spores of the fukai cannot settle and grow. Here, a warrior princess named Nausicaa uses her natural empathic ability to communicate with the insect species of the fukai to protect the peaceful people of the Valley. Nausicaa is drawn into a massive struggle between two other people-states, Tolmekia and Pejite, over a giant bioweapon from the ancient war, called a God Warrior. More than just an environmentally-aware fantasy tale, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind touches on themes of responsibility and redemption, and contains elements that would become repeating motifs in all of Miyazaki's work: flying imagery, strong female characters, and variations on Japanese folklore.

Miyazaki borrowed the name Nausicaa from Homer's Odyssey, and the brave Greek princess who rescues Odysseus. Elements of Nausicaa's nature would be familiar to those aware of a traditional Japanese folk tale called The Princess Who Loved Insects, about a medieval girl who ignores her position, family, and duties because of a fascination with garden insects.

In her book Hayao Miyazaki: Master of Japanese Animation, Helen McCarthy describes the complicated trek that Miyazaki's story took in reaching the screen. In 1981, the editors of Animage, a magazine devoted to Japanese Animation, or anime, contacted Miyazaki to discuss his career - he had recently directed his first feature film, Castle of Cagliostro (1979), which was based on the popular Lupin comics and TV series. During the talks, the director showed drawings of several of his own film ideas. The parent company of Animage magazine was the production house Tokuma Shoten, who initially passed on the movie pitches. Most animated features in Japan at the time were based on pre-existing properties, especially comic books, or manga. The magazine then proposed that Miyazaki create manga for them. As McCarthy relates, "He agreed on the condition that he could do whatever he chose in the story, that he could suspend or end it whenever film work came up, and that the project would not be used as a starting point for animation. Perhaps with the latter condition in mind, Miyazaki created a world that was to prove very difficult to animate."

In 1982 Miyazaki's epic manga Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa began to be serialized in Animage; it shortly became a great hit with readers who, of course, demanded an animated version of the story. Though he never intended Nausicaa to be a movie, Miyazaki ultimately threw himself into the project, taking on the difficult task of condensing story elements and shifting emphasis to emerge with a workable storyline for a feature film. (The manga was eventually published in seven volumes; the movie covered roughly the first two volumes).

Work on Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind began in May 1983, and it was released in March, 1984. The greatest talents of Japanese animation were recruited to work on the project and the detail-oriented Miyazaki would often re-work drawings himself. The production base of operations was the studio called Topcraft, which had previously animated several American films for Rankin-Bass, such as The Hobbit (1977). The success of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind led directly to the formation of Studio Ghibli, whose founders included Miyazaki and fellow director Isao Takahata. The studio has been responsible for many important and successful animated features, including the Takahata films Grave of the Fireflies (1988) and Pom Poko (1994) and such Miyazaki classics as My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Princess Mononoke (1997), and Spirited Away (2001).

The first English-language version of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind was a New World Pictures release in 1986 under the title Warriors of the Wind. The distributor cut about 23 minutes of the film, leaving only action scenes and a garbled narrative. Miyazaki was aghast at the radical edit, and made certain that his subsequent films were not subject to re-editing. Disney Studios redubbed the uncut Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind in 2003 with such voice actors as Patrick Stewart and Uma Thurman.

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (JAPANESE VERSION)
Producer: Tohru Hara, Michio Kondo, Isao Takahata, Yasuyoshi Tokuma
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Screenplay: Hayao Miyazaki
Cinematography: Hideshi Kyonen
Film Editing: Naoki Kaneko, Tomoko Kida, Shiyoji Sakai
Art Direction: Mitsuki Nakamura
Music: Joe Hisaishi
Cast: Sumi Shimamoto (Nausicaa), Mahito Tsujimura (Jihl), Hisako Kyoda (Oh-Baba), Goro Naya (Yupa), Ichiro Nagai (Mito), Kohei Miyauchi (Goru).
C-116m. Letterboxed.

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (ENGLISH VERSION)
Producer: Tohru Hara, Michio Kondo, Isao Takahata, Yasuyoshi Tokuma
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Screenplay: Hayao Miyazaki
Cinematography: Mark Henley
Film Editing: Naoki Kaneko, Tomoko Kida, Shiyoji Sakai
Art Direction: Mitsuki Nakamura
Music: Joe Hisaishi
Cast: Alison Lohman (Nausicaa), Mark Silverman (Jihl), Mark Hamill (Mayor of Pejite), Cam Clarke (Prince Milo), Edward James Olmost (Mito), Uma Thurman (Kushana).
C-116m. Letterboxed.

by John M. Miller