Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind: Miyazaki May

Here we go again. Bug girls rejoice. It's time to get compassionate.

Well, here we go! Listen. It was not exactly my intent to stack a lot of theme months one after another and if you're tired, I understand. But I adore alliteration and Miyazaki May was too good to pass up. 

Something I've discovered in my time as "the girl people go to for anime recommendations" is that people are either all in on Ghibli or pretty surface level. I've got a great Kiki's Delivery Service bootleg sweatshirt (another Super Unofficial gem, baby) that is always a great conversation starter when I wear it, including to the gynecologist recently when I got my IUD. It ends up Doctor Robert has seen the standards, Mononoke, Totoro, but when you get into the weeds with stuff like Ocean Waves and Pom Poko, he hadn't heard of them which is a shame because all Ghibli films are gems. I have to say that my favorites tend to be Takahata's films. If, gun to my head, you made me choose one Ghibli film, I might say Only Yesterday. But that's a subject for another week. This is Miyazaki May. So let's tackle four of his lesser watched properties. No Kiki. No Totoro. No Howl. In fact, fuck Howl. He's a dumb ass bitch who gets away with fuck boy behavior because of he's pretty. You read my Paradise Kiss newsletter. You know how I feel about fuck boys. This is a Howl Free Zone!

Let's start Miyazaki May with Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind.

So is Nausicaa the first Ghibli movie? Well, that's the line, right? Made by the studio that would basically go on to become Ghibli, with most of the same staff that would end up becoming the core team of Ghibli for many projects, Nausicaa is basically the first Ghibli film. We do also have to keep in mind Miyazaki's directorial debut though, the previously discussed Castle of Cagliostro, where he ended up honing a lot of the Ghibli tropes that we saw all the way up through The Wind Rises. Am I nitpicking or being a contrarian here by trying to say "Well, actually…"? Maybe. Amber Audra: Contrarian by birth, anime fan by choice.

Some other Nausicaa fun facts are that it was based on a manga written by Miyazaki himself, though he doesn't fancy himself much of a mangaka, not shockingly as his standards for his own work are very, very high. Also, none other than Hideaki Anno of Evangelion fame was a key animator on some sick Nausicaa action scenes. Play your cards right and the next theme month we're getting is Neon Genesis EvanJULYion. 

Alright. There's your history lesson. Now let's talk bugs. So I'm a bug girl. I love bugs. I admit I kill stink bugs, they're an invasive species and the reason fruit crops in my state are being completely decimated. But I go out of my way to be a friend to bugs. Bugs are animals and it's not their fault they are small and have their skeleton on the outside. They don't want to hurt you. Even the scariest looking ones like centipedes are friends. In fact, a good centipede in the house is a blessing - and I know this is controversial, people HATE centipedes but the worst they'll do is spook you when you turn on your light. They will keep your house safe from every bad bug that would attempt to bite you in the night. So as a certified bug girl, having a movie where the princess loves, tames and rides giant bugs? Oh boy, let me at it.

I truly think compassion for animals, especially bugs, ESPECIALLY the ugly bugs, is a special thing. If anyone can watch Nausicaa and think twice next time they want to crush a bug, that's a blessing. It only takes a few extra minutes to scoop that bug up and take it outside!

Do it for her.

People constantly put certain Disney Princesses up on a pedestal as beacons of feminism, the Get You A Girl Who Can Do Both of animation. But I'm sorry to Belle and Elsa and Moana. Nausicaa is peak Princess. She protects the forest, she makes a water irrigation system in a secret room in the castle, she tames all kinds of wild animals, and she basically flies. Get you a girl who can let a rabid little squirrel bite her and survive in a toxic jungle.

Nausicaa's story is your fairly standard Ghibli movie fare. Nature, romance, conflict. The scenery is beautiful. It's always hard to say which Miyazaki movie is my favorite but the jungle scenes in this are so breathtaking and carefully crafted, it's easy to see why this movie ended up spawning an empire. I would, of course, be a criminal if I didn't mention the score by Joe Hisaishi. He has never composed a clunker but the pure funk of this one makes it a cut above for me. The Nausicaa theme is a beaut and when it gets down? Oh, you know you're in for it.

One of the best themes in Ghibli movies, for me, as a woman who has regularly cried about deforestation since I was a small child, is the idea that we are temporary and the earth is forever and we need to care for it. It's a theme hammered home in Totoro, Pom Poko, Only Yesterday, Princess Mononoke, and is particularly poignant here. It's nothing I need to preach about. If you're here, you probably share a lot of my ideals. If you don't recycle, maybe think about taking it up. It doesn't take much effort. If you can take any extra steps in your life to make your existence a little more low waste, consider it. It would mean a lot to not just me, but the ever disappointed in humanity Hayao Miyazaki. Maybe one day you can write him a card and tell him Nausicaa inspired you to live more green. He probably would have wished you saved the paper though.

Next week, we are going to get into one of my favorite Ghibli romances - Porco Rosso! Not a romance, you say? Well, I agree!  It's not!  But let's talk about that ending and why it's so great!