Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind Plot Summary

The very first official Studio Ghibli movie entitled Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is about an apocalyptic world with a toxic jungle and massive deadly insects. Nausicaä is a princess who lives in the valley near the sea where they get fresher air yet still get slowly sick from the spores that spread from the toxic jungle. Her father, the king, has been bedridden, so Nausicaä has taken it upon herself to look for a cure. The blind old lady of the valley also mentions a legend of a “man” clad in blue who will save them from this deadly, toxic jungle in fields of gold. A family friend arrives at the beginning of the story, Lord Yupa who is a master knife wielder, and helps Nausicaä defend her valley. Nausicaä must find a way to save her valley, the deadly insects, and herself as invading armies make living with nature more complicated.

Rhetorical Silence

Rhetorical silence is utilized in the very first scene of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. This intentional use of silence by the creators of Nausicaä can be explained as ma. In this context, "[s]ilence is a ceasing of participation, a discovery of self by cutting off external stimuli, whether the creation of a time for quiet, a spatial or temporal retreat, or particular venue in which to read, think or relax" (Glenn and Ratcliffe 118). Nausicaä uses her time of retreat to think and wonder while the audience gets time to understand her as a character.

The first scene, as seen at the top of the page, finds Princess Nausicaä in the toxic jungle. She is quietly searching and makes small comments about the toxic spores all around her, even collecting some. This area in the toxic jungle is just far enough from her village in the valley. Finally, she reaches a massive insect exoskeleton. She moves to sit on top of it and works to open the glass-like eyeball casing to sit under for a bit before taking it with her back home to the valley. When the spores start raining down on top of her, she lays down under the eyeball casing and simply watches them in her mask in silence.

“In its most moderate understanding, silence is seen as a basic withdrawal” (Glenn and Ratcliffe 118). This moment of silence is Miyazaki’s first use of ma to give the audience both an understanding of the character and a quick beat to witness the toxic jungle before the first action sequence takes place. Some more westernized movies like to toss its audience into a battle sequence right away for fear of them losing interest in the silence, but Miyazaki’s world building is so interesting and intentional that the audience strives to understand more of the story and witness even the smallest or quietest moments. An audience might also recognize Nausicaä's calm among this massive exoskeleton as strange considering her lack of fear. This prompted me to unearth her character a bit more.

In the next section, I wrote a short journal log from the perspective of Nausicaä as she rethinks this first scene and what it means in terms of her goals as a character. It was important to recognize Nausicaä's goals as well as her fears when writing this narrative. I also wanted to make a quick mention of her scientific curiosity and controversial enjoyment of the jungle.

The purpose for this quiet moment is character building for Nausicaä. This “'silence' of the wilderness, for example, is not really a literal quiet…it is a figurative slowing-down, an escape from the quotidian pressures of its imagined opposite, city or suburban life" (Glenn and Ratcliffe 118). Unafraid of the jungle and its insects, as well as curious and intelligent, she enjoys her time in the toxic jungle. Nausicaä proves to be even more comfortable here in nature than she is in the valley because she thrives among the insects and plants. This beginning scene foreshadows the bravery, curiosity, and intellect that becomes of the princess later in the story.

Disidentification

Another theory that becomes useful in analyzing the character of Nausicaä is disidentification. Disidentification is defined as “an intentional subversion of dominant expectations for being in the world” (Glenn 52). In this story, Nausicaä both identifies and disidentifies as a princess.

One way in which Nausicaä disidentifies as a princess is in her role as a scientist or more specifically as a botanist. The first scene of her trip to the toxic jungle where she can be seen methodically collecting samples to observe in her lab demonstrates her abilities and interests as a scientist. She could also be considered a warrior or soldier because of the previous scene. In the picture above, Nausicaä is in her lab, exhausted, after witnessing her father’s murder, killing a few of the murderers herself, dealing with the guilt that comes with taking a human life, and now realizing that all of her work might have been for naught. These are not the typical fears that one might assume a princess in a movie might have to deal with.

Some of the negative stereotypes that go along with the term “princess” might include being materialistic, overtly feminine, arrogant, judgmental, helpless, entitled, demanding, jealous, and the list goes on. Nausicaä identifies with none of these characteristics, and if someone were to look at a screenshot of her at any time throughout the movie, they would not recognize her as “princess,” as she typically dons clothing suited for flying in her glider along with a mask and tools for being among the insects.

However, there are also qualities of a good princess that go with Nausicaä that she identifies with, like her leadership, the love for and from her people, and even her self-sacrifice. Interestingly enough, Nausicaä’s identity does not come into conflict throughout her story. She never questions what it means to be the princess of the valley, and she never questions what she must do as the princess. The love shown to her by her people is never simply because she is of royal blood or for her beauty but because of her intellect, courage, and care for them.

Her righteousness is never questioned, and it is only a bit of a surprise when the old woman’s legend about the man coming to save them is actually about Nausicaä dressed in blue in the fields of gold among the Ohmu.