Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind - Critique

Miyazaki's Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) is interesting as a critical film, because instead of seeing the process of environmental pollution, we only see the result. The film starts in the "new normal" achieved after some previous crisis that is mentioned but not fully expounded upon in the film. Instead teaching children how to prevent pollution, the film teaches them how to live in an already polluted world, and how to fix it. By framing the plot this way, Miyazaki is politically preparing his viewers to inherit a broken world and gives them a heroine to emulate in order to begin to heal it. From the beginning of the film, children are encouraged to stretch their critical analysis muscles and ask, “why the world like this?”

Nausicaä also portrays a critical view of history and society because of its alternate Earth setting. The deliberate selection of certain World War II era design choices voice a political opinion—the German-like gas masks, airplanes, and military uniforms visually reminds the viewer of the Nazis and their totalitarian regime, coloring the Tolmekians and their princess as extremists. The Tolmekians also echo World War II not just in design, but in actions too. They’re plan to destroy the Sea of Decay is to awaken a great monster that has a weapon very similar to an atomic bomb.  By designing the Tolmekians and their Great Warrior to echo that of the Nazis and atomic warfare, the film encourages children to make connections between the destruction of war and the destruction of the environment.

 

In contrast, Nausicaä is clothed in blues and whites, pleading for a stop to the violence. This film preaches nonviolence, with Nausicaä leading the way after her own commitment to the ideal after her father’s death. Although the Sea of Decay is spreading and destroying towns, it’s the Ohms that pose the immediate threat in the film. Ohms react violently to any damage humans do to the Sea of Decay, making it not pollution that angers the earth, but violence itself. Nausicaä’s gentle treatment of the spores leads her to discover how to grow them purely, while the Tolmekians’ desire to destroy the plague leads to a deadly rampage of thousands of Ohms. Even with the squirrel-fox Nausicaä practices nonviolence, allowing it to bite her out of fear and realize on its own that there is no threat.

 

 Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind uses a double pronged strategy, advocating both environmental preservation and nonviolence. It communicates these political views through design, color, and (most importantly) story. The film’s ending also encourages active hope in the viewers, as Nuasicaä succeeds in ending the war and finding a cure to the Sea of Decay, but the world is still polluted.