Proposing a Project

Research Log #3

Working Title

For my working title, I am considering something like "Where Nature is the Solution and Politics Fail in Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind: How Miyazaki encourages a world where humans acknowledge their entanglements with the environment and work together to undo the effects of the failed closed-minded approach of nations like post-war Japan." Obviously this is quite a long title.

Introduction to Topic

For Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, I'm leaning towards analyzing the different ideologies presented in the film and how they reflect failures or success in the real world. The film takes place in a post-apocalyptic future where natural environment has mutated to a point that is beyond the characters understanding, but the characters react to it in different ways, either trying to destroy it or work with it. Given that this is a Miyazaki film, there is a lot that I can draw from to understand the messages of the film and how it does it.

Humanistic Research Questions & Methods

Some of the questions I hope to answer is "What are the historical events that inspired Miyazaki when making this film?" and "how does Miyazaki make a statement about those events through this film?". My central question is something like "How does the film argue that political and economic systems have caused economic catastrophes?" I want to particularly focus on the film analysis techniques such as the editing, camera work, and sound. I also want to look at the specific actions and beliefs of the different characters and even the mutated animals. In reading my current secondary sources, I've found that I can make connections to Japan's nuclear and industrialization history, to catastrophic events like the Minamata Poisoning and the Tsuruga nuclear power plant accident, and to other medias like Akira or Godzilla. I've learned a lot of Japan's environmental degradation, both through my secondary sources and also in Dr. Pitt's lectures. I will also draw a lot on Miyazaki's statements about his works. However, I am struggling to find something that is completely new to talk about. My secondary sources so far haven't talked about these topics in a lot of depth however, and so I think that I can focus on a couple things to really get into in detail that'll be a significant contribution to the scholarly conversation. Particularly, focus on how the Sea of Corruption is a model for how different people misread environmental crises.

Interpretation

I argue that Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind frames environmental catastrophes as a failure of the government and society to understand things that seem to threaten them. Nausicaa discovers in the film that the nature itself is solving the problem that the humans had created, but the humans are only further contributing to the catastrophe by attacking the environment.

Works Cited

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Directed by Hayao Miyazaki, Studio Ghibli/Topcraft, 1984.
Nausicaa in the Botancial Lab: https://biblioklept.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/nausicaa-of-the-valley-of-the-wind-054.jpg
Miyazaki Interview: https://ekostories.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/miyazaki-reflections-2.jpg
Tsuruga Nuclear Power Plant: https://res.cloudinary.com/aenetworks/image/upload/c_fill,w_3840,h_2560,g_auto/dpr_auto/f_auto/q_auto:eco/v1/threemileisland?_a=BAVMn6DY0

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