Adapted from a student paper by Katrina Jaffe at Haverford
College
Introduction
In the 1980s Miyazaki Hayao began drawing a manga called Kaze no Tani no
Naushikaa. The complexity of the story drew in many fans and the popularity
of the story urged Miyazaki to create an anime film version of the manga. In
1984 Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (Kaze no Tani no Naushika) was released
and it has since been heralded as one of the greatest anime of all time. Nausicaa
is a beloved anime character and the film has a very strong cult following.
Miyazaki has a clear message to give the Japanese and world audiences. The message
itself is simple yet the
way in which he tells his audience is truly spectacular. The animation is breathtaking,
the story is both
intellectually and emotionally challenging.
Nausicaa has many dichotomies in its rich and complex story: humans vs. nature,
pollution vs. purity, red vs. blue, control vs. destiny. Miyazaki intertwines
all of these ideas in a post-apocalyptic world where humans are, in a sense,
given a second chance. How humanity addresses the challenge of life in a hostile
environment creates the story line of the film and the heroine Nausicaa will
eventually triumph, bringing humanity to new level of understanding.
The Story
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind takes place in the very distant future, 1000
years after a highly industrial civilization was destroyed in the Seven Days
of Fire. The civilization that existed was so technologically advanced that
humans built ships that could fly to the stars. They also created artificial
life form soldiers of mass destruction called God Soldiers. The God Soldiers
were used in war and were the cause of the complete destruction. The earth was
left barren, covered with "ceramic and dust" and the remaining human
race lived in small feudal enclaves, in constant fear of the Fukai (lit., corrupt
sea). The Fukai is filled with fungi that emit dangerous vapors (miasma) and
is inhabited by huge insects. The chief guardians of the Sea of Corruption are
the Ohmu, literally king of insects.
Nausicaa is the princess of the Valley of the Wind, a small society that is
protected from the Fukai by the
winds of the ocean. Nausicaa is very skilled at reading the wind and flies an
amazing glider, Mehve. Nausicaa also has a special empathy with the insects,
especially the Ohmu. Nausicaa makes frequent journeys into the Fukai knowing
somehow that it is not just a place of corruption and danger.
The movie begins with the great master Yupa traveling through the earth and
finding that more and more
countries are being overtaken by the Fukai. When he accidentally angers an Ohmu,
Nausicaa is there to save him by calming the Ohmu with light bombs and a wind
whistle. Yupa is very impressed by both Nausicaa's ability to read the wind
and her understanding of the Ohmu. Nausicaa urges Yupa to return with her to
the Valley of the Wind and hearing that the King, Nausicaa's father, is very
sick, Yupa quickly complies and returns with Nausicaa to the Valley of the Wind.
Yupa tells Jihl, Nausicaa's father, of his travels. He sees the Fukai expanding
and most countries are plagued by warfare and hunger. It is Yupa's destiny to
search the land and try to solve the mystery of the Fukai. Nausicaa then hears
again about the ancient legend: "That one, wearing a robe of blue, shall
descend onto a golden field to forge once again the lost bond with the land
and lead everyone, at last, to a land of blue purity. . ."
That night a plane from the Torumekian kingdom crashes in the Valley. The Princess
of Pejite was held captive and was killed in the crash. The plane was attacked
by insects for it had been flying over the Fukai and angered the insects. The
people of the Valley burn the spores that the ship has brought from the Fukai
but they notice that there is one thing that will not burn in the fire. Yupa
recognizes the large red mass as an undeveloped God Soldier. He had heard a
rumor that one God Soldier was alive and able to survive by sleeping underground
for a thousand years. The kingdom of Pejite had dug it up and the Torumekians
then tried to steel it from them.
The next day the Torumekians come and invade the Valley, killing Jihl and taking
control of the Valley. The Torumekian forces are commanded by Kushana, a princess
who is in fourth in line for ascension to the throne.
The Torumekians want the God Soldier and Kushana decides to develop it in the
Valley rather than taking it
back to Torumekia. Kushana declares that the God Soldier is going to be used
to burn the Fukai and take back the world for humans. She is warned by the Wise
Woman that many humans have tried to harm the Fukai and a herd of Ohmu, maddened
with anger, converged to become a giant wave that covered the land and came
as a flood, destroying countries, swallowing cities. . ." Of course, Kushana
and the rest of the Torumekians do not take the Wise Woman's warning seriously
and Kushana decides to attack Pejite.
Kushana takes Nausicaa and a few other hostages from the Valley to Pejite. While
they are flying over the
Fukai, the Torumekian ships are attacked by a lone gunship. The gunship destroys
all of the ships except the one that Nausicaa is in and she an the other Valley
are able to escape into the Fukai. At the last minute Nausicaa allows Kushana
to escape with them. When Nausicaa and the others land in the Fukai they are
met by two Ohmu.
The two Ohmu use their golden feelers to reach out to Nausicaa and she has a
brief flashback of a scene from her childhood. Nausicaa sees that the insects
are very angry and then discovers that the one in the gunship is still alive.
She leaves to go rescue him instructing the others to go back to the Valley
if she does not return quickly.
Nausicaa saves the pilot of the gunship, Asbel of Pejite, from the jaws of a
flying insect and they both fall
through some quicksand at the bottom of the Fukai. Nausicaa and Asbel find themselves
below the Fukai in a mysterious place. The air is clean and they can breathe
without their masks. Nausicaa discovers that "the trees of the Fukai were
born to clean this world that humans have polluted. They take the earth's poison
into themselves, turn it into clean crystals, then die and become sands. This
underground cavern was created in that way. The insects are protecting that
forest." Nausicaa had a secret room in the castle were she raised spores
that she collected from her Fukai expeditions with clean water. She discovered
that if the water was clean, not polluted, then the fungi would not give off
dangerous vapors. It was humans that polluted the water thereby causing the
Fukai to be poisonous.
Asbel and Nausicaa decide to fly to Pejite but when they arrive they see that
Pejite has been decimated and
there are dead insects everywhere. Soon they see a Pejite brig. The brig lands
and the leader tells Asbel that
the God Soldier is being revived in the Valley of the Wind. Nausicaa then learns
that the Pejite are making the insects attack, starting a stampede towards the
Valley. Pejite originally dug up the God Soldier to kill the insects and burn
the Fukai themselves. Nausicaa tries to tell the Pejites the real purpose of
the Fukai and warn the Valley but she held back and Asbel is unable to help
her and they are taken into the brig. Eventually Asbel and his mother help Nausicaa
escape just as the a Torumekian ship attacks the brig.
Nausicaa flies towards the valley and runs into a Valley gunship. Together they
discover the cause of the Ohmu stampede. The Pejites have captured a young Ohmu,
stuck it with metal rods and are carrying it in the direction of the Valley.
The young Ohmu is calling the others for help. Nausicaa knows that she must
somehow stop the herd and the only way to do that is to take the young Ohmu
back to the herd herself. When she tries to talk to the Pejites carrying the
Ohmu they shoot Nausicaa down. She is badly hurt but still apologizes to the
Ohmu for the cruelty. Her dress is soaked by the blue blood of the Ohmu. The
herd of Ohmu have forgotten themselves in anger and still rush towards the Valley.
Meanwhile the Valley people have left the Valley to escape the Torumekians and
are hiding in an ancient
starship by the Acid Sea. They see that the Ohmu are coming and brace themselves.
The Torumekians have
prepared themselves but the soldiers begin to lose heart when they see the Ohmu
approaching. Just when they are all about the desert, Kushana brings the God
Soldier. Although the God Soldier was not quite ready it shoots at the Ohmu
and there are tremendous explosions. The God Soldier begins to disintegrate
and dies, leaving the Torumekians without any defense against the Ohmu.
All of a sudden Nausicaa and the young Ohmu appear. The Pejites have dropped
them off in front of the oncoming herd. The stampede sends Nausicaa flying through
the air. Soon the Ohmu stop their charge, the anger leaves the atmosphere, and
Nausicaa appears dead on the ground. The Ohmu pick her up with their golden
feelers and heal her wounds. They lift her high up into the air until she is
supported by thousands of golden feelers, creating a golden field. She awakens
and the Valley people rejoice. The Wise Woman realizes that Nausicaa is the
one in blue descending onto the golden field. The Ohmu return to the Fukai,
the Torumekians leave and the Valley begins to rebuild itself.
The Corruption of Humanity : The Seven Days of Fire
Nausicaa begins with the image of an inhospitable earth, one in which human
survival is a constant struggle.
The great industrial civilization was the peak of humanity. Their great technological
advancements took
humanity beyond the confines of their world, all the way to the stars. Humanity
dared to defy the earth by
claiming to have power over it. Humans even tried to create their own life forms
but those creations were used for destruction, the anti-thesis of their natural
humanity. Humanity became so engrossed by its own power that it could not foresee
its own demise. Humanity became so corrupt that it destroyed itself.
Nausicaa describes an apocalypse and then the post-apocalyptic society that
must deal with all of the
ramifications of that kind of mass destruction. The destruction created by the
God Soldiers is reminiscent of bombings and ultimately the atomic bombings.
The pollution can be symbol of the radiation poisoning which affected Japan
long after the war ended.
The post-apocalyptic society has reverted back to a kind of feudalism with the
human race living in small
inlets in constant fear of the Fukai. Most countries are militaristic, plotting
the destruction of the Fukai and
each other. Only the Valley of the Wind respects the Fukai and the insects.
Through their own legends they
understand the importance of fate and destiny and somehow know that the insects
are an important part of the earth. The other countries have tried to replicate
the technologies of the ancient industrial civilization and are in war with
each other. Torumekia and Pejite both feel that the Fukai will eventually kill
off humanity and therefore the Fukai must be burned and the insects killed.
Even though humanity has suffered through the apocalypse, it is still corrupt
and still strives towards the same goals that destroyed them a thousand yearsago.
Corruption of Nature : The Fukai
In the first scene in Nausicaa, Yupa finds another village dead, taken over
by the Fukai. Because of this
scene, the Fukai is first associated with death and as a great danger to humanity.
The Fukai is a forest made of fungi, not trees, and that in itself is very different
than human expectations of a wooden forest, a place that can sustain human life.
The fungi give of dangerous vapors and many people become sick by living in
close proximity to the Fukai. Jihl is sick with the disease of the Fukai and
is bedridden. Many other older men from the Valley will also share the same
diseased fate as Jihl for they have been exposed to the Fukai too much.
The Fukai also is expanding as more and more countries die out. When insects
die outside of the Fukai, the
spores use their bodies as seed beds and new fungi grow, making the inhabitable
area for humans smaller.
Outside of the Fukai the earth is barren, the soil and water polluted. There
is even an Acid Sea near the Valley. The Acid Sea reminds one of the acid rain
produced by industrial pollution. Humans can only find fresh water in wells
dug deep below the earth's surface and there they can find clean sand to support
basic kinds of agriculture.
The insect inhabitants of the Fukai are like strange monsters to most humans.
They are huge and powerful, and if maddened, will attack humans. Humans then
only perceive the insects as enemies against humanity so they try to fight the
insects and only anger them further. Most humans still feel that the earth belongs
to them and it is their "destiny" to regain control of the earth from
the insects. The Valley people, as warned by the Wise Woman, understand that
earth's destiny is expressed the insects and especially the Ohmu. When the Ohmu
are stampeding towards the Valley, the Wise Woman says, "The anger of the
Ohmu is the anger of the earth." The earth has been corrupted by humanity's
own corruption.
Revival of Nature: The Fukai
Nausicaa has a secret room in the castle where she grows the spores she collected
from her Fukai trips. She
uses the clean water and sand from the well and discovers that these fungi do
not give off dangerous vapors as they do in the Fukai. She realizes that the
fungi in and of themselves are not toxic but because the water and soil are
so polluted, the fungi become toxic. Nausicaa wants to grow all of the fungi
so she can find a cure for her father's disease, the disease of the Fukai. Nausicaa
understands that the reason the Fukai's fungi are poisonous is because of all
of the pollution created by the great industrial civilization.
Nausicaa then discovers that the Fukai is actually healing the earth by taking
in the toxins, "turn it into clean crystals, then [the plants] die and
become sands." The underground cavern in which Nausicaa and Asbel fall
into was created that way. The trees in the cavern, although dead, continue
to conduct water. The insects are there to protect the forest and ensure the
renewal of the earth. The Ohmu, especially, are sympathetic creatures and act
as guardians of all the insects and of the Fukai. In the beginning of the movie
it seems as the Ohmu are aggressors, by the end of the film it is clear that
they are defenders, even if that means fighting against humanity.
Nature is divine in Nausicaa and nature's will and survival take precedent over
humanity and all it's human
flaws. Once humans honor that and allow nature to revive and repair itself,
then humans will be able to revive themselves.
Revival of Humanity : Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind
As the old legend states, a messianic figure will save humanity and lead them
to a land where they can live in harmony with nature. Nausicaa is very clearly
that messiah. In the opening credits of the film a tapestry
explains the story of the Seven Days of Fire, the birth of the Fukai, and then
shows a girl, dressed in blue, with wings, coming to save her people. The next
scene is Nausicaa flying on her Mehve glider, dressed in blue.
Nausicaa, despite her youth, has great physical strength, can read the wind,
and does not fear the Fukai but
instead sees the beauty of it. Miyazaki based Nausicaa on the brave princess
in the Odyssey who save Odysseus and on a story of a Japanese princess who loves
insects.
The Valley of the Wind is a peaceful community that is protected by divine nature.
The Valley is kept safe from the poisons of the Fukai by the Lord Wind and therefore
has been blessed. The people of the Valley are willing to subjugate their fate
to nature but they still understand the divinity present in the valley. The
Valley people are the only humans that can come close to an ideal humanity in
which humans and nature become beneficiaries to each other. It is also their
role to teach that humanity to the other humans and Nausicaa eventually fills
that role.
When Nausicaa sacrifices herself for the Valley, she is killed then is resurrected
by the Ohmu, in true
messianic style. Nature resurrects her because she recognizes the divinity of
nature and nature recognizes
Nausicaa's own divinity.
The Land of Blue Purity
The animism and purification ideologies of Shinto plays an important part in
the story. The earth is trying the purify itself through the Fukai, although
humans give the Fukai a name signifying pollution, and nature is given more
importance than humanity. The land that the people of the Valley are waiting
to reach is a land where those principles of Shinto can exist without conflict.
That is the Land of Blue Purity.
The color blue is a constant motif in Nausicaa. The Ohmu's eyes are blue when
they are peaceful, the messiah will be dressed in a robe of blue, and Nausicaa's
dress is dyed blue by the blue blood of the injured Ohmu. In trying to figure
out the significance of the color blue, I though first of the color of the ocean,
of clean water, of a clean sky. All of those images bring about the ideal of
purity so a land of Blue Purity would be a land truly pure. Blue is also sometimes
interchangeable with the color green so perhaps blue is also a symbol of green
nature. Red, which is the anti-thesis of blue in the story, means destruction,
anger, human blood and suffering.
The Ohmu's eyes turn red when they are angry.
Conclusion: Can this Land of Blue Purity Exist?
The closing credits of the film show the people of the Valley replanting a forest,
Nausicaa teaching young
children to "read the wind," and a new tree growing beneath the Fukai
beside Nausicaa's mask. If the legend is true then Nausicaa has already begun
to lead her people to the Land of Blue Purity. Miyazaki is not explicit on what
exactly the Land of Blue Purity is but it is clear from his message what the
Land must consist of.
Nausicaa has taken a very important step in enlightening humanity by exposing
the truth of the Fukai. She
showed that nature is intrinsically good and that humans and their technology
were the cause of all their
suffering. Humanity must always strive for purity, understanding, and must use
technology for progress, not destruction.
If Miyazaki believes that this land can exist is still undetermined. The manga
series which recently ended is
far more complex than the film and Miyazaki had more room to explore other issues.
The manga's message is also not nearly as clear-cut as the film. Because of
the existence of the manga, I think that Miyazaki does not believe in his own
Land of Blue Purity and that humanity has much to learn before finding it.
---Katrina Jaffe