Animals, Literature, & Culture Final Presentation: Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind
Slide One (cover): “Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind” is a breathtaking film animated in March of 1989 by Japanese film producer Hayao Miyazaki famous for founding the animation studio Ghibli with notable films like “My Neighbor Totoro,” “Howl’s Moving Castle,” and “Spirited Away.” It’s set in a post-apocalyptic, sci-fi environment.
Slide Two: The film is an anime, a Japanese animated film, following a princess with her heart set on stopping the political wars raging around her, purifying the polluted ecosystems her Earth has been ravaged by, and saving the many animals and people residing in these toxic ecosystems. Though it’s an anime which are usually known by western audiences to cater to younger children or teenagers, I would say it’s geared towards an older audience because of its themes and violence. “Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind” is a film of coexistence that highlights the effects that human driven war and human driven pollution has on the Earth’s animal and plant life.
Slide Three: Throughout “Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind,” environmentalism and the effects of war are two of the biggest driving factors of the film. Miyazaki’s hatred for war is prevalent and noticeable as Nausicaa is thrown into the midst of it and an enemy captures her home land, making her go on an adventure in which she gets swept up into saving the many insect mixed up in the war. “Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind” shows the dangers of animals and why we should be compassionate to all walks of life because they have also been born on Earth, whether they’re scary or not. Nausicaa is also a complex female character, like many of the heroines in Miyazaki’s films. She demonstrates a leadership through her ability of respect towards all walks of life, both human and non human.
Slide Four: Throughout the movie, Nausicaa is seen over and over again protecting many different animal lives, specifically the giant insect ones that live all over her Earth. Over five different times throughout the movie she is seen gaining their trust in order to help them and bring them back to their natural habitats. She protects them from her own villagers and eventually from both sides of the political war that rages throughout the movie. She also has a smaller companion, a fox squirrel, that she gets to trust her after its own habitat was destroyed by humans so it had nothing to return to.
Slide Five: I feel that a gap that this film covers that we haven’t in a class setting would definitely be, as I mentioned earlier, how Miyazaki views war as consequential and idiotic through his movie. The director grew up in the midst of World War II and you can see the resemblance in this movie and a lot of his other works, as well. I think that a text that we’ve read that relates to this movie would have to be Ted Chiang’s “The Great Silence” since both explore animal consciousness and the impact of human actions on the natural world which prompts the reconsideration of our relationships with animals and the environment. I also think that this film has great representation of young, feminine leadership- as most of Miyazaki’s works do. “Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind” is also an anime, which I haven’t seen at all in class yet; giving a new light on different forms of media from other parts of the world.
Slide Six (End): Thank you!
