Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

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all fans of "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind" are welcome to join~!!
feel free to invite your friends!

also known as the following:
風の谷のナウシカ
Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
Nausica of the Valley of the Wind
Warriors of the Wind

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MOVIE SUMMARY

copied from wikipedia

The story takes place 1,000 years after the "Seven Days of Fire", an event which destroyed human civilization and most of the Earth's original ecosystem. Scattered human settlements survive, isolated from one another by the Sea of Decay (腐海, fukai?). Literally translated as the Rotting Sea, Sea of Fungus, Sea of Corruption or Toxic jungle in the English version, the Sea of Decay is a jungle of giant plants and fungi swarming with giant insects, which seem to come together only to wage war. Everything in the Sea of Decay, including the air, is lethally toxic.

The main protagonist, Nausicaä, is a charismatic young princess of the peaceful Valley of the Wind. Although a skillful fighter, Miyazaki's Nausicaä is humane and peace-loving. She has an unusual gift for communicating with the giant insects (particularly with the Ohmu, gigantic, armored, caterpillar- or isopod-like insects who are the most intelligent creatures in the Sea of Decay. Their eyes turn red with rage and blue when calm). She is also noted for her empathy toward animals, humans, and other beings. An intelligent girl, and inspired by the mentor figure Yupa, a wandering samurai type possessed of great wisdom, Nausicaä frequently explores the Sea of Decay and conducts scientific experiments in an attempt to define the true nature and origins of the toxic world in which she lives. Her explorations are facilitated by her skill at "windriding"; flying with an advanced jet assisted glider craft. Yupa is searching for the mythological man in blue who, according to the legend, will appear surrounded by a sea of gold and reunite the people and nature.

One day, an airship crashes onto the cliffs near the Valley of the Wind. Nausicaä tries to rescue a shackled girl of her age from the burning wreck, but the girl dies after revealing that she is Princess Lastelle from the kingdom Pejite and that the cargo of the airship must be destroyed. The airship is from Tolmekia and the cargo turns out to be the embryo of a kyoshinhei (Giant Warrior in the English version), one of the lethal, giant biological weapons used in the ancient war.

It is later revealed that the Warrior embryo was unearthed by Pejite, but it was stolen by the more powerful state of Tolmekia (Torumekia in the manga). While transporting the Warrior and Lastelle (as a hostage) back to their realm, the Tolmekians were attacked by insects and later crash-land in the Valley. The next day, the Tolmekians, under the leadership of princess Kushana, invade the Valley to kill the Valley king and to secure and revive the Warrior. Kushana explains that the God Warrior will be used to burn the Sea of Decay, although Obaba, a blind elder Valley woman, warns that attempting so will only anger the Ohmu and lead to more deaths and turn the valley into part of the Sea of Decay.

Kushana attempts to return to Tolmekia, with Nausicaä and several others as hostages. Before their departure, Nausicaä reveals to Yupa a hidden garden of jungle plants which are not toxic because they are growing in sand and water from a deep, untainted well. Nausicaä explains that the jungle is only toxic due to the toxic soil that covers the surface of the earth, even in the Valley; she has been trying to find the cause and a possible cure for her people, including her now-dead father. Since she has to depart, however, she has shut down the water flows which keep the plants alive.

The airships are attacked by a Pejitan gunship and several of the ships are destroyed. Nausicaä and another hostage make their way to a gunship that the Tolmekians took, but before they can leave, Kushana joins them. They are forced to make an emergency landing in the Sea of Decay. There, Nausicaä communicates with several Ohmus and discovers that the pilot of the Pejitan gunship is still alive. With the help of her glider, Nausicaä rescues the pilot from a swarm of enraged insects. However, the plane crashes and, along with Nausicaä and the Pegitan pilot, ends up in a strange, non-toxic world that is below the Sea of Decay. Nausicaä realizes the plants in the Sea of Decay purify the polluted topsoil, producing clean water and sand which remains hidden in the underground world. The pilot reveals that he is Asbel of Pejite, the twin brother of princess Lastelle.

Meanwhile, the people of the Valley of the Wind request weapons from the occupying Tolmekians to destroy toxic spores, which have infested the valley's forest. Enraged that they have had to burn their forest because of the Tolmekians, the citizens revolt, attacking the Tolmekians who have taken over the castle. The Tolmekians counter, forcing the valley residents to flee to an ancient ship on the shore of the acid lake, with the Tolmekians in pursuit.

Nausicaä and Asbel return to Pejite, which is devastated after the Pejite people lured the insects from the Sea of Decay into their town in order to kill the occupying Tolmekian forces. The Pejite people reveal that they will do the same thing to the Valley of the Wind to recapture the Warrior. To prevent Nausicaä from alerting the Tolmekians, they capture her, but she escapes with the help of Asbel and his mother. With her glider, she heads to the Valley, but along the way she encounters an enormous herd of enraged Ohmus who are following an injured baby Ohmu being used by the Pejite people to lure the Ohmus to the Valley. Nausicaä releases the baby Ohmu and gains its trust.

Meanwhile, the Tolmekians attempt to stop the herd with their armored vehicles but fail. Kushana, who had escaped from the hostages, arrives with the God Warrior to stop the Ohmu herd. The Warrior fires several beams from its mouth which on impact cause nuclear-like explosions, killing hundreds of Ohmu in each blast, but this only serves to enrage the insects more. The Warrior attempts to continue fighting the Ohmu, but because it was awakened too early (before it could finish growing), it collapses and dies. However, Nausicaä and the baby Ohmu are finally able to stop the Ohmu herd, but she is mortally wounded in the process. In front of the Valley people and the Tolmekian forces, the Ohmus use their gold-colored tentacles to heal Nausicaä's injuries. Nausicaä's dress is then seen by all her village as now being of blue color, stained by the blood of the baby Ohmu she rescued; thus Nausicaä turns out to be the mythological "man" in blue mentioned in the beginning. The film ends with scenes of the future, where people and insects live in peace with each other.

MANGA SUMMARY

copied from wikipedia

The story is set in the future 1000 years after the “Seven Days of Fire”, a cataclysm brought on by the excessive industrialisation that mankind has undergone. It utterly destroyed industrial civilisation approximately a millennium after it began to flourish (probably sometime in the 2700s). Although humanity survived, the land surface of the Earth has become heavily polluted and the seas are poisonous. Most of the world is covered by the “Sea of Corruption”, a toxic forest of fungal plants which is steadily encroaching on the remaining open land. It is protected by large insects, including the huge Ohmu. Humanity clings on to survival in the polluted lands beyond the forest, periodically engaging in bouts of internecine fighting for the scarce resources that remain.
The Dorok prophecy: "And that one shall come to you garbed in raiment of blue and descending upon a field of gold..."

Nausicaä is the princess of the Valley of the Wind, a state on the periphery of what was once known as Eftal, a kingdom destroyed by the Sea of Corruption 300 years before the story begins. The leaders of the Periphery states are now vassals to the Torumekian Emperor and are obliged to send their forces to help when he decides to invade the neighboring Dorok lands. The Torumekians have a strong conventional military, but the Doroks have developed a genetically modified version of a mould from the Sea of Corruption to overwhelm the invaders. But when the Doroks introduce this mould into battle, its multiplication and mutation result in a "daikaisho" which floods across the land and draws the insects into the battle, killing as many Doroks as it does Torumekians. In doing so, the Sea of Corruption spreads across most of the Dorok nation, uprooting or killing vast numbers of civilians and rendering most of the land uninhabitable.

The Ohmu and other forest insects respond to this development and sacrifice themselves to pacify the rampant mould. However, the fact that the fungus can be manipulated and used as a weapon disturbs Nausicaä. Her trips into the forest have already taught her that the Sea of Corruption is actually purifying the polluted land. The Forest People, humans who have learned to live in harmony with the Sea of Corruption, confirm this is the purpose of the Sea of Corruption and show Nausicaä a vision of the restored Earth at the centre of the forest. Making friends of her enemies, Nausicaä travels deeper into Dorok territory to seek those responsible for manipulating the fungus, recruiting a God Warrior found in Pejite to muscle past both the Torumekian and Dorok armies.

Despite the loss of some of her companions, she is eventually able to reach Shuwa, the Holy City of the Doroks, and enters the Crypt, a giant monolithic construct from before the Seven Days of Fire. Nausicaä learns that the last scientists of the industrial era had foreseen the end of their civilisation. They created the mould and the Sea of Corruption to clean the land, altered human genes to cope with the pollution, stored their own personalities inside the Crypt, and waited for the day when they could re-emerge. However, their continual manipulation of the population is at odds with Nausicaä's belief in the natural order and has led to the cycles of violence which have plagued the world for a thousand years. She orders the God-Warrior to destroy its progenitors, giving humanity the opportunity to live or die without the benefit of the old society's technology.

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Club Discussion

	to start off, what do you like about the movie? GenieGin13	2 replies	by Luthimal »» 07-08-11, 12:57 AM
	Add characters GenieGin13	1 replies	by MaedhrostheTall »» 04-04-11, 7:02 PM

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Club Comments

Luthimal | 07-08-11, 12:47 AM

@MaedhrostheTall I liked Asbel and Ketcha too, as supporting characters. I was hoping they would pair up just so Selm wouldn't have competition.
He's only developed a little and has basically no flaws, so I'm a little guilty liking him so much. Can't resist admiring a Ghibli hero I guess

MaedhrostheTall | 04-04-11, 6:58 PM

Nausicaa IS definitely a masterpiece of a manga. I love how Usually-Makes-Movies-Miyazaki was just "I think i'll write a manga." and just pulled this out of his ass.

He deserves his title of master storyteller.

Was anyone else a big fan of Asbel and Ketcha as a couple in the manga? i was in the Nausicaa and Asbel wagon until (Selm showed up and) i started to notice that Ketcha liked Asbel.

kusushi | 10-21-10, 12:36 AM

Manga of the Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is a masterpiece. I recommend everyone to check not only movie, but also this manga. The one thing I have surprised is that Kushana is not so bad person in manga. In the movie, she looks like a villain.

lifeaspect | 10-17-10, 3:05 PM

Joined this club, it's rather sad this club isn't more popular...Nausicaa must be my fav (anime) movie of all time (I actually imported the bururei from Japan). Although the manga is superior in some way, the movie's amazing ost is something I really missed @ reading the manga.

TurnipKing | 09-13-10, 1:49 AM

So I watched it again last weekend with a group of people who haven't seen it. Easily the best thing we saw that weekend.

The other things was Eiken which was fantasticly horrible and some Swedish vampire movie that was ok.

TurnipKing | 07-05-10, 3:24 PM

Joining your ranks.

japonecka | 05-01-10, 1:57 PM

Hey there everyone,
I´m glad I found this club (I´m rather a fan of the manga than a movie). I would like to add few characters: Guardian of the Garden (my most favourite character in Nausicaa), Miralupa, Ketcha, Namulis, Charuka, Selm or Chikuku.
Thanks a lot!