Review by C.J. Bunce
When you’re comparing something to the likes of Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, or My Neighbor Totoro and calling it the winner, that’s really saying something. Hayao Miyazaki’s 1984 film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind from Studio Ghibli is one of the best epic fantasy films ever made, the kind of great cinema that established Miyazaki as the very best storyteller filmmaker. As anime fans return to theaters this week for the film’s return thanks to Fathom Events, fans of Miyazaki can revisit the awe and fantastic journey in the Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind Picture Book, a large-sized hardcover storybook from VIZ Media that makes the perfect supplement, souvenir, or introduction to the stories of Hayao Miyazaki. It’s available now here at VIZ Media and here at Amazon–perfect to celebrate the film’s 40th anniversary.
The screenplay and artistry of Miyazaki’s sometimes beautiful, sometimes horrific, post-apocalyptic tale is reproduced into a narrative in full color, complete with character synopses and a guide to the aircraft in the story as a foreword.
Nausicaä is chillingly timeless and current. The consequences of unchecked technological advances, the price of decades of polluting the environment, the likely outcome of warring nations bent on total destruction of the other, the results of failing to take responsibility for the animal kingdom–it all would be adapted later by the likes of James Cameron in his Avatar films and Luc Besson in Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, his spin on Pierre Christin and artist Jean-Claude Mézières’ Valérian and Laureline. Miyazaki combined more compelling and important drama in one film than many top directors have created in the entirety of their careers and that translates into an exciting, readable storybook kids of all ages will embrace.
Action and daring adventure of the fantastical variety collides with the science fiction, not only because of its dystopian vision of the future, but it’s reliance on scientific principles to solve problems and attempt to improve the planet. Set one thousand years into the future, the world was once ravaged, and cities destroyed, by mutated insects and beasts created by humans as bioweapons that laid waste to everything like military tanks, all during the horrible Seven Days of Fire.
But over the centuries a balance has formed between the Toxic Jungle, humans, and the animal world. A young woman named Nausicaä, a princess of the Valley of the Wind, is praised and respected by her people. She studies the forest, its creatures, the dangerous spores of the jungle, and the environmental responses, all in secret, searching for anything to help her preserve the progress that has been made. Her world is soon upset by the people of Tomekia, militant humans led by Princess Kushana bent on destroying the insects and sending the world out of balance.
Princess Nausicaä is the best kind of heroine, one who rises above adversity and sacrifices all for what she believes in. From the very beginning she emerges as a great leader, clever and resourceful, never hesitating to protect the people and things she cares about. And the plot threads are entirely unpredictable–Miyazaki’s entire grasp of fantasy ssuck us down into the quicksand with Nausicaä and a boy named Asbel. Miyazaki created a flying contraption for our heroine, a glider so wonderfully conceptualized it has become iconic in the past 40 years. And the enormous multi-eyed Ohms may not feel as ominous and threatening as on the big screen, but their story is just as compelling in book form. With the uninformed complaining about the great return of the wondrous cicadas this summer, this is the kind of story that can help parents teach children about the wonders and importance of insects to the planet, too. And don’t forget Teto, the great tortoiseshell fox squirrel who accompanies our heroine on her journey.
Don’t miss this great storybook. If you grew up with Disney storybooks based on its fairytale adaptations, you’ll love this book. Order Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind Picture Book now here at VIZ Media and here at Amazon. Enjoy it before or after the film, now streaming on Disney+.
