The Environmentalism in Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (Hayao Miyazaki)

Note: This is a script from a public video you can watch now, or feel free to read and enjoy!

This month I had the pleasure of watching one of the very first movies Hayao Miyazaki ever directed. This was the movie that was essentially the backbone in allowing Studio Ghibli to be created. And I had never seen it before.

So here’s what I wrote about it, I hope you enjoy.

The Environmentalism in Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (Hayao Miyazaki)

Background

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind is a long-named, action packed story gushing with life and dangerous creatures. We follow the Princess of Wind Valley Nausicaa in her valiant fight against those who threaten everything she loves, and just so happens to save the world at same time (whoops). It takes place 1000 years after the collapse of industrialized civilization, it having been destroyed in noxious warfare against giant God Warriors (yes, God Warriors, pretty badass I know)

Humanity is threatened to go extinct after the poisonous jungle that plagues the land, and it’s people, begins to grow uncontrollably.

This toxin-ridden forest is home to thousands of insects who protect the land and anger when humans disturb or destroy the jungle. An elder of the name Obaba tells the story of how once when humans tried to burn the jungle down, the Ohmu (which are giant, armored pill worms with disturbing tentacle mouths) quite literally trampled humanity and spread the jungle even further after their deaths. So, the plan of “let’s just burn it all down!” didn’t turn out so well.

These insects and this jungle are natural enemies to humans, and society now has to find a way to defeat them, live with them or be wiped out entirely. (all fun options if I’m being honest)

Nausicaa the Environmentalist

At the start of the film, Nausicaa quite literally watches the world through the eye of an insect. This scene is what I like to call “foreshadowing”. This depicts exactly how Nausicaa comes to save humanity: By looking outside of herself and instead of claiming the insects as enemies, tries to understand them and the jungle that they protect. She asks questions that no one else has dared to explore; What is the purpose of the jungle, and why are the insects protecting it from humans?

She discovers that in fact, the jungle itself is essential to life on earth. The trees that live there purify the water and soil that allows life to continue to live. This could be related to how in our world, plants and trees are the only naturally occurring way to clean up carbon dioxide, which in excess causes warming of the globe, commonly know as global warming. You might have heard of it.

So in fact, the source that the humans so desperately want gone is exactly the source keeping them alive. The toxins and insects were an evolutionary development of the environment to keep humans away from the jungle so it can peacefully continue its purification process.

Again there are parallels to our life. Deforestation is a huge problem and people often overlook it’s effects on our environment. Except our forests don’t have toxic spores or monstrous insects to protect themselves from us.

Nausicaa is living in a biosphere that humans no longer control. The environment and the insects are what run the planet, more specifically the spores that stem from the jungle. As the spores spread, they take up more and more land, making it uninhabitable for people. Eventually the entire world will be taken up by these spores, if they continue as is, humans will go extinct. Sound familiar? Global warming? Death to all species as we know it within the next century?

How Miyazaki makes you care

One thing we can all agree on is the backgrounds and landscapes in Miyazaki films are gorgeous. I can then infer that he has them drawn this way not only to make the movie a beautiful experience but as well to make the viewer care about the environmental concerns that the movies include. For Nausicaa, the jungle has a diverse and alluring draw to it, though poisonous to humans.

Often Miyazaki has these beautiful landscapes destroyed. In Princess Mononoke for example, the habitat of the Forest God, one that is so serene and stunning, is, in peak conflict destroyed by humans. The same case can be found multiple times in this movie. A good example is the Valley of the Wind itself being guttered to pieces, both when the Talmekians (one of the three main kingdoms shown in the movie) invade and at the end of the movie when the Ohmus stampeded.

There could be many reasons Miyazaki does this, I think it’s a representation of humans effect on environment, and the repercussions of such actions. Losing your home and the people you love. Often we see in our world, beautiful ecosystems destroyed, a good example is the Amazon Rainforest being torn down for more farmland, animals fleeing from their once homes. Instead in Nausicaa, the species fleeing from their homes are giant destructive beetles that have the power to destroy that which they please. A power the sloths do not have.

Miyazaki likes to create child-like wonder around themes he is passionate about. Yet his messages are so often incredibly powerful. It doesn’t feel right to call Nausicaa a movie for kids and I don’t think it is. It’s certainly suitable for a child to watch, mostly, but the themes of Nausicaa can be better understood by a more mature audience who have the worldly insight that children lack.

All in all, the environmentalism in Nausicaa is easily apparent, and I believe this film is the peak of Miyazaki’s beliefs represented in a story. Besides maybe Mononoke, I don’t think another one of his films have been so environmentally intrusive. Which is what I love a lot about Miyazaki, call it repetition if you want but this man has had his passions for issues revolving around the environment and his denouncement of war from day 1. He’s carried the burden of trying to express that to as much people as he can, admittedly with great success. This expression is part of the reason I love his movies. Nausicaa was seriously a great watch and I’m so happy I finally got to see it.

As a soon to be scientist myself, I love a protagonist that doubles as a scientific genius and lovable Princess. If that doesn’t convince you to watch this I don’t know what will. I was going to write a second half discussing the Ideology of Pacifism in this film, however if I did, this would be quite long. Maybe that’s something I’ll explore in the future.

Thanks so much for watching, I had a lot of fun writing this so I hope you enjoyed and got some good stuff out of it. Have a great day and with that, that’s all I wanted to say.