Nausicaa - of the Valley of the Wind is another anime movie by Studio Ghibli, directed by Hayao Miyazaki. It tells the story of our planet a thousand years from now, with life for humans a constant struggle against the toxic jungles which the last great war created. The people live in an uneasy truce with the giant insects of the jungle including the massive “ohmu”. The toxic jungle is closing in on the people of the world including those living in The Valley of the Wind - but if the humans push back too hard, it just makes things worse.

To top everything pesky Tolmekians who have more advanced technology and are planning on “unifying” the whole world - a nicer term than conquering, but the meaning is evidently the same. They seem to have some great plan to take back the planet, but time is needed before they will be in a position to do so. Thrust into this tumultuous situation is the young Princess Nausicaa, who is beloved by all of her people and seems to have a special relationship with the insects in the forest. Seemingly helpless against the military might of the Tolmekians, she maintains an almost insane purity and helps even those who try to harm her. Still, even a purer-than-pure Princess can be pushed only so far…

Other characters in the film include Master Yupa, the world’s best swordsman and loyal to the Princess; Asbel, a young Prince of Pejites, a kingdom also under attack by the Tolmekians; Kushana, head of the Tolmekians army and intent on world domination (I kind of saw her as a female Ming the Merciless!!); Kuratowa, her second in command and rather weary of the whole business; Nausicaa’s grandmother, who is blind but can sense more of what’s truly happening than anyone who can see… Also not to be forgotten is Teto, a strange little creature (a squirrel-fox) who never leaves Nausicaa’s side. Some of Nausicaa’s comrades throughout the movie reminded me rather of the three stooges, though they looked like three of the seven dwarves! So, a motley crew of rogues and scoundrels indeed…

The movie can pretty neatly be divided into aspects I did and didn’t like. So here’s what I liked:

The visuals were superb and the quality of animation was sometimes stunning.

The story itself, despite a certain heavy-handedness in the eco-friendly message, was very interestingly developed overall - not without its problems perhaps, but certainly its strengths far outweighed its weaknesses.

Some of the action sequences were truly impressive.

Most of the voice-acting was very good. Patrick Stewart in particular was excellent. But then… when isn’t he?!?!

The post-apocalyptic world was portrayed very well and contained a lot of interesting features. It came across as fully realised, too - not as though someone had just come up with a basic idea and thrown a few elements into it, but really well thought through.


Now, here’s what I didn’t like:

I can only speak for the English version, but the dialogue - especially Nausea’s - was pretty terrible. The opening sequence in particular, showing Nausicaa wind-boarding around and exploring a cave for goodies to take home, consisted of her at talking to herself and thus explaining what was going on as though to a complete idiot. It did get better on the whole, but then the opening dialogue was so atrocious that they couldn’t have kept it up. I haven’t watched the subtitles because on the whole, I haven’t found the translation of subtitles in anime to be very good. I’ll update this if I watch it again with subtitles - which is quite likely at some point.

I found Alison Lohman’s voicing of Nausicaa irritating - really irritating. She was far too gushing and to me that character’s speech lost all sincerity - probably because she was trying to sound too since and “butter wouldn’t melt” pure and nice. The combination of bad dialogue and Lohman’s voice acting was enough to considerably reduce my enjoyment of this film.

Some parts just felt a little laborious - as when they had crash-landed and it seemed like forever was spent showing swarming insects/

Nausicaa herself was a little difficult to believe in - especially near the end, when after sustaining a couple of direct gunshot wounds and having burned her feet in a pool of acid, was still smiling happily when a weird insect was friendly towards her. Er… what happened to the blinding pain of a moment before? Perhaps I’m getting too cynical in my old age… :-d

Finally, the music, though good at times, often seemed out of place. It wasn't exactly bad, more unsuitable - and sounded like it would have been more at home in a freeware role playing game!

Overall

I really liked the story of Nausicaa and many elements of the movie, but put it altogether and it just didn’t really work for me as well as other anime movies I’ve seen. I’ve seen comments that complain it was actually too short (it’s 116 minutes, though according to IMDB the US release was only 84 minutes?!), and I think this may be true. There was obviously a lot of back-story to be investigated here (and this from someone who’s never seen the manga book of Nausicaa), and it could have done with time to explore its epic nature. With the problems I had as listed above though, I feel I can only give this 3 stars. If you’re happy with subtitles or can understand Japanese, you can probably upgrade it for 4 stars. If you really love anime (I’m still a relative beginner to it but quite expecting to really love it soon!), maybe you can go for all 5 stars.

I’m not convinced by the quality of this DVD print. Though the visuals are still very striking, the colour richness doesn’t seem to be there, and an example of the poor colour quality is the fact that Nausicaa looks to be wearing a short skirt with nothing underneath in the opening sequence. Before anyone cries out in appalled shock and horror, here’s the reason (taken verbatim - complete with the horrible American spelling for colour :-D - from IMDB’s FAQ for the movie!):

Is Nausicaä naked under her skirt?

“No. On certain versions of the film, poor color transfer has made the color of her leggings, which are actually a cream color, appear similar to the color of her skin. In addition, what may appear to be a skirt is actually the bottom portion of her coat beneath her belt. “

So now you know, and can breathe a sigh of relief - our incredibly pure, brave and noble Princess was not in fact going commando. Sadly this means that the UK release seems to be based on a bad print. Oh well, that seals it - I was still tempted to give this 4 stars because of the many good things about the movie, but I’m sticking with a 3. Which unfortunately means it doesn’t qualify for my Good Movies Write Off - but never fear, I’ve already reviewed three anime movies for that, and hopefully more to come from me & possibly others.


Voice Cast

Nausicaa - Alison Lohman, Sumi Shimamoto
Lord Yupa - Patrick Stewart, Goro Naya
Kushana - Uma Thurman, Yoshiko Sakakibara
Kurotowa - Chris Sarandon, Iemasa Kayumi
Asbel - Shia LaBeouf, Yoji Matsuda
Mito - Edward James Olmos, Ichiro Nagai
Mayor of Pejite - Mark Hamill, Makoto "Mugihito" Terada
Gikkuri - Jeff Bennett, Joji Yanami
Obaba - Tress MacNeille, Hisako Kyoda

Other Details

Year of release: 1984
Rating: PG
Japanese titel: “Kaze no tani no Naushika”


UK DVD Release of “Nausicaa - of the Valley of the Wind” and DVD Extras

Unlike the US release it is released by Optimum Releasing here in the UK. (I presume the English dubbing is the same as for the US version.) Optimum’s releases don’t mess about with the originals in any way apart from having the option of the original Japanese or dubbed English soundtracks, and all have full storyboards for those who are interested. Nausicaa has another very good feature on the DVD extras - a short documentary on the birth and development of Studio Ghibli, with interviews with Hayao Miyazaki and Producer Toshio Suzuki (who, ironically, didn’t produce this film - Isao Takahata did). It details the initial concept, the problems overcome, and the philosophy of the studio. The origin of the word “Ghibli” is explained, along with the slight faux-pas Miyazaki made in its pronunciation. It’s all in Japanese with subtitles, though sometimes the sound bafflingly disappears. Still, it’s very interesting and a nice addition to the DVD. There are also some trailers for other Studio Ghibli films.


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More Anime Movies


Isao Takahata moved into the Director’s Chair for Grave of the Fireflies

Hayao Miyazaki also directed: Spirited Away and Kiki's Delivery Service


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD