Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

Burke, Jonathan (2025). Hidden archives: An exploration of Miyazaki’s Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.
In Carrie Kay Syma, Robert G. Weiner, & Donnell Calender (eds.). Drawn to the Stacks: Essays on Libraries, Librarians and Archives in Comics and Graphic Novels (pp. 13-21). Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co.

Rosenbaum, Roman (2024). Miyazaki Hayao's eco-disasters in Japanese cinema: Rereading Nausicaa.
In Rachel DiNitto (ed.). Eco-Disasters in Japanese Cinema (pp. 89-104). New York: Columbia University Press.

Ghosal Anindita & Modak Arindam (2024). Visualising entangled Gaia in eco-dystopian graphic narratives Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and The Snake and the Lotus. Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics (forthcoming).

"The Anthropocene epoch, characterised by human-induced ecological crisis and precarious future, calls for a paradigm shift in our popular narratives to re-evaluate our relationship with the earth (Gaia). Transcending conventional logocentric narratives, the paper aims to theorise eco-dystopias by dissecting the recurrent trope of entanglement prevalent in eco-dystopian graphic narratives, envisaging how it provides an apocalyptic counter-spectacle of nature. The paper focuses on two graphic narratives, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1995) by Hayao Miyazaki and The Snake and the Lotus (2018) by Appupen, to investigate their passionate plea to subvert instrumentalisation of nature and hierarchisation of humans over other species, towards garnering an ontological humility. By highlighting the agential understanding of nature, the narratives show how the porous and corporeal existence of human subjectivity smoothly permeates into the more-than-human world, thereby fostering a more (w)holistic understanding of our interconnectedness amongst various actants of Gaia. Furthermore, the paper showcases how eco-dystopias can best be captured in the framework of visual-verbal narratology and underscores the dialectical relationship between present and future (dystopias), word and picture (graphic narratives), and literature and environment (ecocriticism)."

Fornia, Dalila (2023). Solarpunk visions in youth fiction. The pedagogical utopia of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Education Sciences & Society, 14(2).

"The essay examines the traits and pedagogical potential of the solarpunk artistic and narrative movement by analyzing the specific case study of Hayao Miyazaki's animated film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984). The article first presents solarpunk and its association with environmental themes and successively applies the genre’s theoretical framework to the case study, as Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind shares some of the movement’s approaches and aesthetics in relation to sustainability. The essay concludes with a pedagogical reflection on the potential of solarpunk to imagine and create sustainable worlds. Although this artistic movement is not explicitly aimed at a young audience, solarpunk stories (or a solarpunk reading of different narratives) could lead to a new understanding of the ongoing climate change and to a constructive call for environmental responsibility starting from a young age."

Komatsubara, Orika (2023). Pop culture as environmental education in Japan: The case of Hayao Miyazaki’s Kaze-no-tani-no-Naushika.
In David R. Goyes (ed.). Green crime in the Global South: Essays on Southern green criminology (pp. 243-260). Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.

"This chapter explores the possibility of encouraging a deeper level of education in environmental harm prevention through manga. This art form, part of Japanese pop culture, can address readers’ sensibilities by illustrating the seriousness of environmental harm and the ethical realm of the human condition. In this way, manga can be instrumental in environmental education. The author focuses on the work of Hayao Miyazaki, who created a serial manga on the theme of environmental destruction, Kaze no Tani no Naushika (KTN), which ran from 1982 to 1994. The author shows how KTN, which uses non-verbal and verbal expressions to convey Miyazaki’s original ideas on environmental destruction, can be used as material for environmental education." 

Giddens, Thomas (2017). Justice in the sea of corruption: Nausicaa as ecological jurisprudence.
In Ashley Pearson, Thomas Giddens, & Kieran Tranter (Eds.), Law and justice in Japanese popular culture: From crime fighting robots to duelling Pocket Monsters (pp. 58-74). Abingdon, UK: Routledge.

"In a few short centuries, industrial civilization had spread from the western fringes of Eurasia to sprawl across the face of the planet – plundering the soil of its riches, fouling the air, and remolding life-forms at will. Just a thousand years after its foundation this gargantuan industrial society had already peaked; ahead lay abrupt and violent decline. The cities burned, welling up as clouds of poison in the war remembered as the Seven Days of Fire. The complex and sophisticated technological superstructure was lost, and almost all the surface of the Earth was transformed into a sterile wasteland. Industrial civilization was never rebuilt as mankind lived on through the long twilight years."

Mahmutovic, Adnan, & Nunes, Denise (2017). Maxime miranda in minimis: Swarm consciousness in Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. ImageTexT: Interdisciplinary Comics Studies, 9(1).

Theisen, Nicholas (2016) (Un)reading The Odyssey in Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind..
In George Covacs & C.W Marshall (eds.). Son of Classics and Comics (pp. 79-93). New York: Oxford University Press.

Heggins Bryant, Nathaniel (2015). Neutering the monster, pruning the green: The ecological evolutions of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. Resilience: A Journal of the Environmental Humanities, 2(3), 120-126.

Akimoto, Daisuke (2014). Learning peace and coexistence with nature through animation: Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. Ritsumeikan Journal of Asia-Pacific Studies, 33, 54-63.

Bryce, Mio & Plumb, Amy (2012). Mushishi: Post modern representation of otherness in and outside human bodies. International Journal of the Humanities, 9(11), 111-119.

"Recent decades have witnessed a resurgence of fantasies in novels, films as well as manga and anime, reflecting our ambivalent feelings (fear and hope) towards techno–scientific advancements spreading through everyday life. These hybrid fantasies are largely genre–hybrids and incorporate traditional folklore, combining magic and psychic powers with information and biotechnologies. Urushibara Yuki’s manga and anime, Mushishi (1999–2008) introduces a number of invisible, shapeless, or shape–shifting mushi (spirits). They are generally parasitical, attaching to human bodies and things. When they cause suffering to their human hosts, they are often removed by the main protagonist, Mushishi (lit., Mushi Master), Ginko. Mushi, however, are neither intrinsically good nor evil. What do such mushi represent? Do they manifest our anxieties about invisible threats caused by infectious viruses, pollutants, genetic manipulations, biochemical weapons, or radiation? Or do they represent the invasive use of information technology in our everyday life and living spaces? Is cyberspace, with its elusive connectedness, an analogue of the world with mushi? Is the world of Mushishi a metaphor for our environment?

This paper will discuss human’s ambiguous visions of life, bodies, and co–existence through the characterisations of parasitical mushi in Urushibara’s Mushishi in comparison with Miyazaki Hayao’s Kaze no tani no Nausicaä (Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind)."

Haas, Daniel (2010). Why nice princesses don't always finish last.
In Joseph Steiff & Tristan Tamplin (eds.). Anime and Philosophy: Wide Eyed Wonder (pp. 121-130). Chicago: Open Court Press

Hairston, Marc (2010). The reluctant messiah: Miyazaki Hayao's Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind manga.
In Toni Johnson-Woods (ed.). Manga: An Anthology of Global and Cultural Perspectives (pp. 173-186). New York: Continuum Publishing.

Ogihara-Schuck, Eriko (2010). The Christianizing of animism in manga and anime: American translations of Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.
In A. David Lewis and Christine Hoff Kraemer (eds.). Graven Images: Religion in Comic Books and Graphic Novels (pp.133-148). New York: Continuum.

Odin, Steve (2010). Down the abyss. In Joseph Steiff & Adam Barkman (eds.)..
Manga and Philosophy: Fullmetal Metaphysician (pp. 253-266). Chicago: Open Court Publishing.

Paik, Peter (2010). The saintly politics of catastrophe: Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.
In From Utopia to Apocalypse: Science Fiction and the Politics of Catastrophe (pp. 93-122). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

DeWeese-Boyd, Ian (2009). Shojo savior: Princess Nausicaä, ecological pacifism, and the green gospel. Journal of Religion and Popular Culture, 21(2).

"In the distant future, a thousand years after “The Seven Days of Fire”—the holocaust that rapacious industrialization spawned—the earth is a wasteland of sterile deserts and toxic jungles that threaten the survival of the few remaining human beings. This is the world of Hayao Miyazaki’s film, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. In this film, Miyazaki offers a vision of an alternative to the violent quest for dominion that has brought about this environmental degradation, through the struggle of the young princess of the Valley of the Wind, Nausicaä. As a messianic figure, I contend the shojo Nausicaä offers a beneficial estrangement from common conceptions of the gospel and opens up the ecological significance of Christ’s message of non-violence. Exploring the ecological and pacific aspects of the gospel through this figure, I argue, may provide a helpful lens for examining our own distorting visions in this age of war and environmental crisis. "

Stokrocki, Mary & Delahunt, Michael. (2008). Empowering elementary students’ ecological thinking through discussing the animé Nausicaa and constructing super bugs. Journal for Learning Through the Arts, 4(1).

Bryce, Mio & Stephens, John. (2003). Japanese popular culture and character fashioning: The quest for subjective agency in the animated films, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and Perfect Blue. International Journal of the Humanities, 1, 311-321.

Lane, Michael. (2003, January). A comic book that moveth to tears. Triumph of the Past.

Inaga, Shigemi. (1999). Miyazaki Hayao's epic comic series: Nausicaa in the Valley of the Wind: An attempt at interpretation. Japan Review, 11, 113-128.

Osmond, Andrew. (1998). Nausicaa and the fantasy of Hayao Miyazaki. Foundations: The International Review of Science Fiction, 72, 57-81.