Firstly, the art direction is something I’ve never seen before in a non-Ghibli movie (with the primary example for me being Castles in the Sky) and even then none come anywhere close to the extent that Nausicaä implements it. The mix of past and future is so fitting for this post-apocalyptic world, with armies consisting of armoured, sword-bearing knights alongside tanks and rifles. A simple village nestled in a valley relying on windmills for energy contrasts brilliantly with the modern, and in some cases futuristic, looking planes and the subsequent invasion of the army mentioned before. The mere fact that jet-powered gliders and guns exist in a medieval-styled world makes this film incredibly interesting to me on a visual level, and I would love to find other anime that use a style similar to this.
As with most Ghibli movies, delivering an impressive visual experience is the primary goal and Nausicaä is no different. In fact, I’d say it’s one of the most visually stunning movies I’ve ever seen. The art is incredibly clean and the animation is smooth and fluid. What appealed to me the most were the flying scenes on Nausicaä’s glider, which were always immersive and created a sense of freedom and adventure. Due to all of this, I watched the film dubbed and I must say it was, in my mind, a near-perfect dub. However take that with a grain of salt since I haven’t seen the sub. Whether the voices stayed faithful to the characters aside, there were very few lines that sounded off or unnatural (an example of one being Nausicaä’s “I’ll kill you” line). Her voice in particular I felt fit the character perfectly, being able to switch from fun and bubbly to angry and emotional with ease.
The characters in the movie were good overall, especially Nausicaä and her struggle to come to terms with killing another person and her resulting pacifism when trying to deal with any threat, be it human or insects. While I enjoyed the personalities of the other characters like Lord Yupa, the only two that had any particular depth to them were Nausicaä herself and Kushana. While Nausicaä’s arc and development were handled well, Kushana and her story definitely lacked development. The film aimed to present no single person or group as the ‘bad guy/s’, and I’d say it succeeded in this to a degree. While the Tolmekian’s had legitimate motivations for what they were doing, their leader Kushana definitely needed more backstory and emotion to convince me that she was truly dedicated to what she believed was a righteous goal. We get a glimpse into what the insects have done to her through her missing arm, although there is no urgency, passion, or drive she shows for her goal of eradicating the jungle. She was willing to sacrifice people of the Valley of the Wind for the purpose of saving humanity from the insects, but this was never convincing. While understandable, she came off as overly calm and cold, which didn’t give the Tolmekians the image of anything other than the ‘bad guys’.
The amount of imagination put into this film is staggering. The flat and barren landscape of the world creates a haunting and disturbing atmosphere that I’ve never encountered before, and the toxic jungle is filled with colour and detail. The image of thousands of stampeding ohms in particular was on such a massive scale that it really made me fear for everyone in the Valley. From the planes to the insects, everything has its own unique design which all contribute to the interesting world building of this desolate setting we are presented with. While Nausicaä and Kushana both have great character designs, the rest of the cast look very basic and uninspired. The women all wear the same headdress and clothing regardless of which kingdom they come from, and every man in the Valley of the Wind can only be distinguished by a single feature (Yupa has a hat, Mito has an eye patch, King Jihl has a scar).
The soundtrack is, once again, incredibly unique. Despite being set in a medieval-style world, the music incorporates a heavy amount of synth into a lot of the tracks. Personally I found this very jarring at first, with one of the first tracks in the film being a high tempo mix of synth and orchestral sounds. However as the film progressed I got used this, with the mix of classic and futuristic sounds complementing the similar mix between old and new that makes up the world of Nausicaä. Overall the soundtrack has a very appropriate grand feel, with the latter half reverting to a more traditional Ghibli sound, while still feeling unique to the film.
Nausicaä has been described as one of Ghibli’s darker films and, while that might be true, it honestly didn’t feel dark enough. In terms of violence, the film was very tame, which was very detrimental in some areas. When Nausicaä went into a rage and attacked the Tolmekian soldiers, I had no idea that she had actually killed any of them until it was outright told to the audience. This is such an important moment in Nausicaä’s arc and it had no impact whatsoever. What was supposed to be a rage-fueled murderous rampage instead looked like an angry girl repeatedly smacking some guys with a stick. Other than that, the revival of Nausicaä at the end of the film felt very forced, as we had never seen the ohms perform anything like this until now. Now I have no idea if the film would turn out too dark in Nausicaä died at the end, but it would definitely feel more natural. To me at least.
Aside from the visuals, one of the film’s strongest aspects is its themes. While most Ghibli films contain ideas of animism and humanity’s connection to nature, Nausicaä contains some of the stronger realisations of these in the catalogue. Nausicaä herself specifically embodies these concepts as a lover of all life and strives for humans to live in harmony with nature. Additonally, the themes of pollution and technology versus nature are communicated through the toxic jungle and the Giant Warrior respectively. One complaint I can give is that the inner workings of the toxic jungle felt very rushed in its presentation, with only about 10 minute in total given throughout to explain the origin of the jungle and the reason for the toxic pollution. This doesn’t help with the communication of themes as I didn’t really understand how the jungle worked and thus the meaning behind the theme of pollution was dampened. Lastly, another thing that felt rushed and unnecessary was the prophecy spoken by Ohbaba. Basically it was only ever mentioned at the beginning when we were told about it and at the end when it comes true, with no buildup and appearing as only an afterthought. Similar to Akira, the problem of elements, characters, and plot feeling rushed could be contributed to the condensation of a long manga story into a single film. However that’s all speculation as I haven’t read Miyazaki’s original Nausicaä manga.
Nausicaä is one of the great anime films, combining stunning animation with likable characters and an interesting, immersive, and oftentimes haunting world. The concepts presented within this post-apocalyptic world are thoughtful and ever relevant. I haven’t seen every Ghibli film yet, but this is definitely a new favourite and will be hard to dethrone. Despite not being perfect, containing various elements that feel rushed and underdeveloped, Nausicaä comes closer than a lot of other anime films I’ve seen. I’ll be re-watching this one for a long time to come.
(kurotawa is the best character)
