Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind GN 1-7

If one were to search, they'd be hard-pressed to find an anime fan who hasn't seen Hayao Miyazaki's classic film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, but fans who haven't read the manga are without question missing a lot. The film is like an appetizer, if you will - it readies the palate in preparation for the main course. Of course, one doesn't have to see the movie first to fully appreciate the manga, but the manga certainly shines better if the movie is seen first. Just like how an appetizer enhances the flavor of the main course.

The storyline in the film basically only covers events from the first couple of volumes. Though it incorporates the same environment message and themes, the manga is far more fleshed out, more sprawling environment epic. Plus, the film had to remove certain subplots that had yet to be fully realized in the manga at the time. Basically, Miyazaki tweaked his unfinished story quite a bit when he adapted into an animated film. If he had waited until the 1990s to adapt Nausicaä, he certainly would have needed to make more than one film, since condensing the story at that point would have been impractical, as the story spans 900-plus pages in seven oversized volumes.

From the perspective of the film's ending, that was really only the beginning as far as the manga is concerned. It really begins to take off there as Nausicaä moves on to investigate the meaning behind the message of the Ohmu. There's plenty more to be encountered. Immortals, political upheaval, astral projection, a failed experiment with mold takes a shocking turn for the worst, a child-like God Warrior, etc. Miyazaki's creative vision is fully realized here, and his cautionary message is certainly thought-provoking. It's a bit grim when it all comes down to it, but all the more uplifting when one digs deep and fully realizes the layer of hope underneath.

One can criticize Miyazaki's artwork as being a bit odd, since it takes a some time to get used to. Seeing him depict things using still frames versus animation takes a bit of an adjustment, and sometimes the panel-to-panel flow can be a little awkward in the early volumes. Eventually, though, Miyazaki was able to improve his paneling to the point where it's much more straightfoward and easier to read. This then causes the artwork to shine more brightly. Speaking of which, his art itself is certainly gorgeous to look at, as it is lavishly detailed, but sometimes it gets bogged down in its own detail. Many times there's a so much happening in a panel that it becomes difficult to distinguish what exactly is going on. This is a problem many manga artists face, and seeing even the great Miyazaki struggle with it is somewhat refreshing. Also, the art gets obstructed by word bubbles quite often when there's a lot of expository dialogue, but this is something that one will find in just about any comic. To really delve any deeper would be to nitpick. As a whole, the book is a feast for the eyes from start to finish.

Nausicaä is Miyazaki's finest work -- his life's greatest masterpiece -- be it print on animation in every way imaginable. It's a darn shame that the film doesn't do the manga justice. Still, if one considers that it took Miyazaki over 12 years to complete the story and then reminicises on the strengths of the film -- such as its ending -- it's easier to appriecate the film for what it is. That doesn't change the fact that reading the manga is an absolute necessity if one wants the fully realized tale.

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