Hayao Miyazaki’s 1984 animation feature film “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind”, which happens to be re-released in South Korean theaters a few days ago, is still a rich and enchanting work of awe, wonder, and interest. Although it was only his second animation feature film, the style, mood, and ideas observed from many of subsequent works from Miyazaki are already evident here this film, and it is all the more amazing to observe how much he has advanced from his first big break during last four decades.

Although the logo of the Studio Ghibli appears at the beginning of the film, “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind” is actually not the first official Ghibli animation film, though its commercial success contributed a lot to the subsequent foundation of the Studio Ghibli. After the disappointing local box office result of his first animation feature film “The Castle of Cagliostro” (1979), Miyazaki went through a brief period of professional slump, but, thanks to the encouragement from his future Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki, he began to write a manga series titled, yes, “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind” in 1981, and the following considerable success of this manga series eventually led to Miyazaki adapting it into an animation feature film. 

As revisiting the film at a local theater with a friend of mine yesterday, I was impressed a lot again by its bountiful imagination and ideas. While it looks like your average post-apocalyptic tale at first, its backgrounds and characters are presented with an ample amount of style and personality to observe, and even the sights of those vast and bleak landscapes in the film often shine with mood and details to notice. Furthermore, the film wisely takes its time for establishing not only the story and characters but also its alien but interesting post-apocalyptic background more, and we find ourselves already quite immersed in this strange but compelling world when it goes for more action later in the story.

The heroine of the story is Nausicaä (voiced by Sumi Shimamoto), the strong-willed princess of a little kingdom located in the Valley of the Wind. Around 1,000 years ago, the human civilization and the Earth were destroyed a lot by not only some big war but also environmental pollution, and the remaining humans have struggled a lot for their survival under a very harsh condition. The main obstacle for their survival is those big and wide fungi forests called the “sea of decay”, and the Valley of the Wind is one of a few places safe from the toxic gas and dangerous spores from the sea of decay, mainly thanks to the constant presence of wind.

While many others in her kingdom try to stay away from the sea of decay as much as possible, Nausicaä has been quite curious about whatever is living inside the sea of decay besides those gigantic mutant bugs which sometimes threaten the remaining human survivors. As a matter of fact, it subsequently turns out that she has steadily studied the ecology of the sea of decay, and we come to learn later that she actually discovered something important about this supposedly dangerous place.

Meanwhile, the situation becomes quite troublesome for Nausicaä and her little kingdom. Not long after a big aircraft crashes into the Valley of the Wind, she and many others in the kingdom are threatened by those fungi spores which came along with that crashed aircraft, and they also find themselves stuck in a very tricky position in the middle of the ongoing battle between two other kingdoms out there.

These two battling kingdoms are mainly represented by Asbel (voiced by Yōji Matsuda) and Kushana (voiced by Yoshiko Sakakibara), respectively. While both of them are fairly reasonable persons capable of following their better sides, they are also quite willing to stop each other by any means necessary, and the film does not hesitate to show or imply the devastating consequences of their violent actions committed along the story.

Eventually placed among these two conflicting groups and the giant mutant bugs also willing to do anything for protecting the sea of decay as well as themselves, Nausicaä, who is incidentally a strong female character which will make many Disney Princess characters look quite docile and passive to say the least, tries her best even though all seems lost for her and her people, and she adamantly follows her pacific belief as before. Her following actions of goodwill and courage are depicted with earnest poignancy to touch us, and you may also be reminded of why we should not stop caring at any chance even though things have become a lot grimmer and more pessimistic these days.

Although I place it one or two steps below the greatness of “My Neighbor Totoro” (1988) and “Spirited Away” (2001), “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind” is still one of the better Ghibli animation films, and I was often entertained as noticing more of how much it has subsequently influenced not only Miyazaki himself but also many other filmmakers out there. Many of its elements eventually became the recurring ideas and themes of his later works such as “Princess Mononoke” (1997), and those big alien creatures in Bong Joon-ho’s recent movie “Mickey 17” (2025) are clearly inspired by the huge mutant bugs in the film. In short, this is a lot more than a mere milestone in Miyazaki’s career, and I assure you that you will soon embrace its awe and wonder.