Beyond the Drawings
Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind

an essay by Gildas Jaffrennou

A cult work
Here is a comic strip really unlike the others. One has to concede that
Nausicaa is not easy reading, because the author uses 10 to 12 panels per
page while most of the mangakas only use 4 or 5 of them. Miyazaki admitedly
has created a manga that is difficult to read.

But once you're deep into the history and into the world of Nausicaa, you
will discover why this only-seven-volume series should be counted among the
major works of the comic book world.

The line is fine and meticulous; you will seldom see backgrounds so full of
details in a manga. All those details, combined with the number of boxes per
board, obliges you to spend a certain time on each page. In the French
edition the paper is of medium quality and the impression sometimes a
little light, but without publishing the entire series in very large size,
this is the best compromise to preserve  legibility. For purists, it is the
same format as the Japanese edition, and reads in the same direction. This
format has been reduced a little compared to that of the first edition in
the Animage magazine, which used the A4 format.

"Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind" is not only a story, but also an entire
universe, like Frank Herbert's "Dune", Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings", Hugo
Pratt's "Corto Maltese" or "ElfQuest" by Richard and Wendy Pini, and
Moëbius' "The world of Edena". It is the kind of work which never completely
leaves the reader.

Story Context
--------------
A thousand years ago, the war of the "Seven Days of Fire" had put an end to
the age of industrial gigantism. A strange forest of toxic giant moulds,
inhabited by monstrous mutant insects, has spread on the planet since then,
gradually destroying the remaining cultivable lands.

For the survivors which live next to this forest - the Fukai - it means both
life and death. The dead shell of the insects is used as raw material to
manufacture tools, weapons, and various objects, but masks are necessary to
protect the human inhabitants from the deadly spores exhaled by the
vegetation.

Nausicaa is the only survivor of the 11 children of Lord Jill of the Valley
of the Wind. Her mother died while Nausicaa was only a child.

Protected from the toxins of the forest by a very regular sea breeze, the
Valley of the Wind is a peaceful place, a small kingdom of hardly 500 souls
but a relatively good place to live in the devastated world.

Like the other small neighbouring kingdoms, it has an old flying combat
machine called Gunship, which it must place at the disposal of the powerful
Tolmec Empire when the latter requires it, under the terms of a very old
treaty. Indeed, the Valley of the Wind is one of a collection of small
nations called 'Outer Kingdoms', which border the North-western frontier of
the Tolmec Empire. The Tolmecs are at war against the Dorok Empire in the
south-west, and in the middle is the toxic forest separating the two Empires.

In the North of the Valley, in the city of Pejite, a terrifying old secret
was exhumed, threatening the return of the Days of Fire.

The Omus, immense insects protecting the forest, are restless, and have started a vast migration to the south.

On the order of Vu, the Tolmec Emperor, the Valley of the Wind is mobilized.
Nausicaa must take the command of the Gunship in place of her father,
paralysed by the poison of the forest, and rally to the squadron of the
princess Kushana, the fourth daughter of the Emperor.

A girl of the Wind
------------------
Nausicaa is a 16 year old girl. With an extraordinary sensitivity (an
empathic quasi-supernatural capacity), she feels the emotions of the other
living beings, and can enter their minds. A fantastic gift, but one which is
absolutely not made for the War.

She feels a great love for her people, but also for the insects of the
Forest. Her compassion for life is more than a principle, it is one
fundamental trait of her personality... but that does not prevent her from
using violence when anger takes over her (only once in the entire manga).

But she hates this empathic part of herself which frightens her, and during
the war and the massacres, she fights without respite to save and protect
those surrounding her, whoever they are, sometimes at the price of cruel
compromises.

However, Nausicaa is not only pure empathy. She is of those whose gaze looks
beyond the horizon. Thus she wants to understand the enigma of the toxic
forest which invades the Earth, and the secrets of the Old Days which
brought the world to its knees. This quest will have her go throught
extremely testing situations, and meet a multitude of characters, humans and
otherwise, who will make her reflect a lot.

She will then have to make choices on which the future of the planet and the
mankind depend.

What makes Nausicaa a very lovable character is that she remains deeply
human in spite of her great charisma. Human, and therefore failible; but
despite these errors, she remains true to herself. Her quest will have her
evolve, but not change. She learns from her errors, makes new ones, but she
never strays from the values she believes in.

All along the saga, she will be pressed, tested, hurt, challenged - and the
Nausicaa in the end of the story won't be the same one as the Nausicaa of
the beginning.

The Hero Dressed in Blue
------------------------
In every kingdom, there is a different version from the same legend. A
Chosen One will come one day, to free the people and save them. In the Outer
Territories, it goes like this:

"The Chosen One, dressed in Blue, will come towards us on a field of gold,
to bring back the bond, once lost, with the Earth and to guide us in a Pure
World."

True or not, Nausicaa will be regarded as a Messiah by many people who will
give all their support in her search for Truth. Nausicaa will carry upon her
shoulders all the hope of the world, while following her own path. This
burden will almost break her on several occasions. It is only because of all
those she helped herself that she will make it to the end of her journey.

Indeed, Nausicaa crosses many deeply hurt people, like Asbel wanting to
avenge Péjite or Kushana chased by her family, the Worm Masters despised by
all, the oppressed Dorks or the corrupted Emperors. Every time, her
uprightness and her charisma will have them lining up at her sides. In the
end it is all of them who will together help her by spreading her message
where she is not.


A new Messiah? 
--------------
The Messiah theme is a central element in Nausicaa, like Herbert's "Dune" or
"Stranger in a Strange Land" from Robert Heinlein. The Messiah is the one
who brings men the divine word, a new way to look at the world and to live
the relationship among themselves and with God. But "God" does not have the
same meaning for Europeans as for the Japanese Miyazaki. Therefore, Nausicaa
does not show any particular piety. She just appeals to the Gods of the Wind
when she tries something difficult. All the manga has a strong Shintoist
resonance, a religion that is animist rather than theistic : the Gods here
are not 'Omnipotent' nor 'Masters of the Creation'.

It is the planet itself and all the lifeforms which acquire a spiritual
status through the books. But this "Divine" status does not lead to worship
nor to dogmatism. It is, much more simply, a call for respect.

Thus "Nausicaa" - the book - succeeds in bearing the messianic theme, while
avoiding the dangerous pitfall of the system of belief. As a result, it is
possible to surpass the icon of a "perfect Nausicaa" to reach the supremely
sensitive girl who keeps on acting in spite of her doubts and despair.

Power, for what?

----------------
Among the characters who play a role in this saga, there are Emperors,
Generals, pilots, monks... In a recurrent pattern, those with power and
means (mostly military means) are brought to wage war, to torture and
massacre in the name of their ideals.

Many scenes describe the death and desolation caused sometimes by Tolmecs,
sometimes by Dorks, the Insects of the Fukai or by Nausicaa herself...
Miyazaki did not spare any means to mark the message; volumes are soaked in
rivers of blood.

Most of the horrors are consequences of the decisions of the powers that be,
whether it is Dork or Tolmec. The point of view of the emperors and their
families is richly developed, and we get to see both sides of their power:
their mistakes, their contradictions, and their lost hopes.

There is no complacency in the vision of humanity which Miyazaki depicts for
us: the desire for domination, greed, and the lust for power constitute a
spiral which leads straight to nothing. Much worse, even the characters with
the highest ideals and the noblest intentions share the same fate.
Nausicaa's hands are also covered with blood...

This is one of the crucial questions of the last volume, undoubtedly the
most powerful in its dramatic progression: How to use Power without becoming
enslaved to it, avoiding committing the worst things in the name of
allegedly higher interests?

Miyazaki, without any doubt, is not opposed to the exercise of power. We
just have to look at how Kushana, Nausicaa, or the Venerable can have a
positive impact on those they lead, to understand that power is a necessary
thing for society. But it also shows us how monstruous it can become, almost
leading humanity to its end.

Nausicaa's response to this problem will haunt the readers well after they
finish the last book. Maybe it can push us to question ourselves a bit more,
every day.


A dense, complex, and progressive work
--------------------------------------
Writing about "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind" is a difficult exercise.
Initially, because it is a manga, and traditionally, this medium did not
receive good press, being underestimated and too often casually dismissed.
Add to that a post-apocalyptic epic setup, and you get a genre that for a
long time has been a black sheep in literature: science fiction. But bring
to the final mix Hayao Miyazaki, and you get a graphic novel that stands out
among the manga written in the last twenty-five years.

Specifically, the first seven volumes of the saga spread over fourteen
years, which contrasts sharply with the usual pace of publication in Japan.
Over those fourteen years, Miyazaki had plenty of time to change - when he
began "Nausicaa", he was a 40 year old director stuck in a dead end of
sorts, without any ongoing production. Then, his own films took precedence
over "Nausicaa", and he had to put the manga on hold several times, only to
put the final touch in 1995, right before starting "Princess Mononoke".

This long maturing period allowed the author to carry out a particularly
deep work of reflection, approaching difficult topics such as politics, war,
religion, philosophy, and beyond that, spirituality.

Method of writing
-----------------
As confirmed by Miyazaki himself there was no preliminary plan for the
construction of "Nausicaa". The evolution of the characters, the political
and military events, and even the tone of the work follow a slow maturation
process over the pages, mirroring at the same time the transformations of
the author, and of our own world. When he finished the pages of volume 6, he
did not know yet what would occur exactly in the 7th book.

One of the questions that arise about this way of working, and asked by
several fans, is how he manages to keep such continuity and a remarkable
coherence when in fact the history was - in a certain way - invented as it
was drawn. This enigma finds an answer in the way Miyazaki works out his
stories. He never knows in advance how the story will finish. He will
imagine a situation, plant some characters, establish the relations between
them, and pit a problem to be solved... from there, he lets go.

As long as there is an answer to the question "what interesting event will
happen now?", the story continues. The scenes are connected not according to
scenarios and suspense, but almost according to the choices and actions of
the characters. Once Miyazaki decided what his characters do and how they do
it, then the work of mise en scene and layout begins for him. While in
development, small details will appear, possibly affecting the final
situation of a scene. As a result, it becomes difficult to plan several
scenes ahead, because the characters take a life of their own, dictating
their own pace and evolution, not necessarily planned and foretold.

Finally, this is a writing style which mirrors what happens in real life.
Life is not a scenario depending on a director for it to happen. It is a
succession of situations we react to according to our own personal
experiences, our emotional state, and without foresight of the repercussions
in the rest of our existence.

Thus Miyazaki confers on his heroine Nausicaa one of her most human and most
touching feature: her spontaneity.

Thanks to this very open-ended writing method, the history finally unfolds
with a great depth, with the evolution of the vision of the world, the
evolution of an engagement and even a spiritual dimension, as we shall see
later.

A vision of the world where humanity is not any more the dominant species on
the planet.

The evolution of an idealist who sees his ideals collapse, and decides to
live without them.

A spirituality based on a particular perception of the link between humans
and their environment, strongly tied to Shintoism, a Japanese traditional
religion.


Initiatic
----------------
There are several initiations in "Nausicaa". These may reflect the evolution
of Miyazaki himself, on which you only can speculate, without analysing his
work much more broadly. But this very evolution is indeed present throughout
the whole manga.

Of course, Princess Nausicaa herself has to take a new look at herself and
must assume many choices during her journey. Each time, she learns a little
more about herself, about people who cross her path, and about her
devastated world which is also ours.

Besides, the story comes to an end only when Nausicaa is at the end of
herself - concerning both the mysteries to solve and the actions to be
carried out.

However, Nausicaa is not the only character to change in depth. That is also
the case for Yupa, Asbel, Kecha, Chikuku, Kurotowa, and Selm, to cite only
some of them.

In the 3rd volume, Asbel asks Master Yupa, the best swordmaster of the Outer
Territories, if he is Nausicaa's tutor. And Yupa answers with a small
laughter that truth to be told, he's slowly becoming the pupil... Yupa
undoubtedly exaggerates, but it is a fact: Nausicaa brings those whom she
encounters to think, to question themselves and to change gradually, just
like she changes herself in contact with the others.

Notably, even the extremely antipathic characters change as the story goes
by, more or less marked by Nausicaa as much as by the events which they
cross. The most remarkable case, Lady Kushana, appears at the beginning of
the story a dangerous, cold, and haughty woman, that nothing seems to be
able to to move. But this appearance she uses to secure her role as a
commander hides a sensitive personality. The trials which she underwent
forced her to protect herself behind this hard shell. Nausicaa's strength
will be to lead Kushana to go beyond the past and the hatred, so as to
become an extraordinary person.

Thus, the multitude of fates which mesh and evolve in constant interaction,
the attention to detail for even the less lovable characters, and finally
the rich set of themes of the work, offer the potential for spiritual
development for the readers themselves...


Japanese spirituality
---------------------
Understanding the richness of "Nausicaa" is easier with some notions of
Japanese spirituality. It impregnates the way of living and of thinking of
the Japanese, even for those with no "regular" religious practice. In our
part of the world, it is the Judeo-Christian doctrine which modeled our
culture and our vision of the world. However, even if one does not adhere to
a theist religion, a Westerner will almost unconsciously interpret the acts
and the situations of "Nausicaa" through that filter, and may find a meaning
which may not exist in the intention of the author.

The situation gets even more complicated when one knows that Miyazaki read
much Western literature (in particular English and American), and picked up
some ideas.

In Japan, two religions marked the spiritual history of the country.

Shinto is the older, the local form of animism, whose origin is lost in the
mists of time.

Shintoism sees in all the manifestations of Nature the presence of mind
called Kami or Gami. These Gami animate the wind, the clouds, the mountains,
the animals, the plants, the human beings; in short, all that surrounds us.
In the Shintoist vision of the world, Gami are equipped with will and
emotions. They can be merry or sad, serene or irrascible, and even sometimes
of changing mood. They influence one another and men; and of course men
influence them as well.

Thus, a logger who cuts a tree risks suffering the revenge of the "Tree
Gami" of the tree which he killed. This is a very simplistic example,
because Shinto does not place all Gami on an equal level either. Some are
weak, the others are very powerful. Some are benevolent, others neutral,
others very evil. If somebody has problems, he or she will have to find
which Gami they offended, and how to be forgiven, by offerings or other
actions.

The intervention of a priest may make it possible to communicate with the
Gami. Even today, many Japanese traditional festivals are still organized in
the honor of the divinities of Nature, and mark the passage of the seasons.
In Japan, most of the events related to fertility, revival, or simply to
agriculture are all varieties of Shinto ceremonies. Overall, the concept of
purity is very important in Shinto. That goes from simple and daily things
such as personal hygiene to social behavior. Dirtiness, blood, diseases are
all things a Shintoist must avoid touching under penalty of tsumi
(imperfectly translated by sin or fault).

Besides, it is noteworthy that the same word, kega, designates both a wound
and a stain. Insults, disrespect, and in a general sense immoral life are
also regarded as tsumi. The Shinto doctrines could almost be summarized by
saying that it is simply a question of carrying out a pure life and
respecting Gami. Any follower undergoing a tsumi must practise a ritual of
purification.

When questionned about his faith, Miyazaki says he's a Shintoist, which
matches the "ecologist" label that was a little hastily pinned to him.
Because in Japan, half of people say they're Shintoists... and yet the
"Green" political parties are far from being strong.

Shinto is a way of seeing the world, which implies a respect of all that
exists, from the blade of grass to the tadpole in the brook. A Shintoist who
attends a sunrise will join hands and salute it, as one would salute an
eminent member of the community. After having killed his prey, a Shintoist
hunter makes a prayer so that the Gami of the creature which he killed is
not upset with him, and he explains to it that he did so not for hatred but
only to feed. Even gathering fruit on a tree requires a Shintoist thank the
tree for having given him food. There is a concept of interdependence in
Shinto which you can also find in the other great Japanese religion:
Buddhism.

Buddhism propagated in the 5th century B.C. in India. Arrived in Japan a few
centuries later, this doctrine was integrated into the Shintoist vision by a
slow phenomenon of osmosis of which only the Japanese have the secret. The
buddhist vision of the world holds that all living beings are connected to
each other by the law of Causality (Karma). According to the actions which
one undertakes, one can cause evil or good, but sooner or later, any action
ends up producing a consequence upon the one who initiated the chain of
causality. A great number of consequences of Karma are impossible to avoid:
old age, certain illnesses and death. On the other hand, one can avoid the
sufferings related to existence. That's why compassion is in the center of
Buddhist practice. The Buddhists cultivate 8 virtues, considered as the 8
ways of the eightfold path: the right action, the right meditation, the
right word, the right means of existence, the right thought, the right
understanding, the right effort, and the right attention.

The central idea is that a perfect comprehension of the law of causality can
make it possible for the enlightened spirit to no longer produce suffering,
and consequently, to no longer undergo its effects. This extreme state of
enlightenment bears the name of Awakening. 'Bouddha' literally means
'awaken'. In Japan, many schools grew concurrently, all claiming to teach
the way of the Awakening. Japanese Buddhism is also called Zen Buddhism, in
reference to Zazen, a type of meditation practiced in a sitting position,
motionless and in the greatest silence.

As of today, the two religions are distinct, but they have been mixed
together for a long time in Japan to form during several centuries a more or
less coherent unit. Thus, one should not be astonished to find in some Zen
rituals a Shinto influence and vice versa, to read Zen texts subtly adapted
to integrate Shintoist concepts.

Thus, in spite of the existence of a Christian minority in Japan (2% of the
population), traditional Japanese culture posits none of an omnipotent and
omniscient single god, a lost paradise from which mankind would have been
driven out, a Messiah whose death would atone for Men's sins, or Last
Judgement. According to the Japanese, these are 'exotic' concepts. Of
course, most of them know Christianity, but it is a superficial knowledge,
similar, for example, to what the French know about Orthodox religion.

The concepts of Sin, Redemption, or Absolution thus have in Japan a very
different flavor. To use them to explain the evolution of the characters in
"Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind" is therefore very risky. On the other
hand, the Shinto idea of purity takes a particular meaning in the
post-apocalyptic world of Nausicaa. This world itself is soiled by a tsumi,
because of the actions of humans in the past. The toxic forest is in
addition described on several occasions as the consequence of the karma of
the men of the past who destroyed civilization. The Buddhist vision meets
the Shintoist vision.


The place of women in Japanese society
--------------------------------------
When Miyazaki wrote Nausicaa, the least that one can say is that women in
Japan were implicitly regarded as inferior. It also can be said that
Japanese men tend to treat women like maidservants or slaves.
That doesn't mean that all the Japanese are like that of course, but still
today, in a vast majority of homes, a good wife is considered one who is
submissive to her husband, full stop.

To give you an idea of the force of this tradition, consider the novelist
Mishima. In one of his short stories, he tells of a soldier who commits
"seppuku" following a shameful event. As a good wife, his wife opens her
belly too a few minutes to later to follow him to the kingdom of the dead.
This history takes as a starting point a real fact... Fortunately Japan is
an evolving country - but like anywhere else, mentalities are slow to
change, sadly.

Thus this theme of Japanese woman subjected to men and to tradition does not
correspond obviously to Miyazaki's ideals. But instead of militating in an
anonymous feminist movement, he promotes his values - all the positive ways
he perceives women - through his female characters in his works, whether
they be film or manga.

There is Nausicaa of course, so brave and so pure that she becomes an icon.
But also Kushana, the Tolmec princess: her men are ready to die for her, and
the royal family fears her cunning and her talent so much that her own
father organizes a trap to kill her.

And then we have the Elder of the Valley of the Wind, guardian of knowledge;
Kecha, the young Dork person who finally helps Asbel and Mito; the Dork
woman who adopts the children saved by Nausicaa; the young Tepa of the
Valley of the Wind; the maidservant of the inn-keeper of the city of Sem
which takes care of Kui...

All these women are more than cameos. They all have a very important
presence, role and purpose in the story. They impose or inspire respect in
one way or another.


Beyond the drawings - Nausicaa, the Revolutionary Princess
----------------------------------------------------------
When one knows more about Japanese society and spirituality, one understands
much better why the character of Nausicaa marked the minds of a whole
generation, why the work became an essential classic, and not only in the
field of manga.

Here is a highborn, pretty, energetic, sensitive and intelligent girl who is
plunged in terrible situations. And instead of fleeing them, protecting
herself from them, and staying serene and pure, she takes her fate in her
own hands, achieves feat after feat and risks her life to defend the humans,
the Omus and her values. Refusing the constraints of conventions of the past
and desiring to create a new balance for the others and for herself is a
deeply revolutionary step, in the original sense of the word.

The Princess of the Valley of the Wind represents in a certain way the
Marxist ideal by which Miyazaki lived when he began his manga. However right
from the first part of the story, Nausicaa herself is unsatisfied with her
prowess. She doesn't manage to prevent the ship of the Pejite refugees from
being crushed. She lets herself be provoked by the Tolmecs and fights in a
combat that is as violent as tragically useless. Thus, although she managed
alone to understand one of the secrets of the Sea of Decomposition, she is
very quickly put in doubt.

Miyazaki turns the traditional vision of the Japanese woman onto its head.
But he has the genius to make his heroine be both gifted and fallible which
summons the admiration of the reader while still maintaining enough
vulnerability to make identification and sympathy possible. It creates in
fact the very type of female lead character whom no Japanese artists had
conceived before him.

Moreover, when you remember that in Shinto, any contact with blood,
dirtiness, illness or death is regarded as a stain, certain scenes take an
absolutely terrible dimension.

When Nausicaa saves a seriously wounded young Omu, and gets soaked by the
blood of the animal, she breaks a major Shintoist taboo. In the same way
when she sucks with her mouth the soiled blood from the throat of a
Tolmec... Inflicting on herself such tsumis, she destroys her own purity,
but as she saves lives by her actions, she gains respect and even love from
all, Insects and Human.

This sacrifice of her own purity for the benefit of others is unambiguously
the Shintoist transcription of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. In
Japan, to give one's life for a cause is a very old tradition, which removes
much significance from the concept of Martyr. On the other hand, being soiled
by a tsumi is a terrible thing, perhaps even worse than death for a Japanese.
That Nausicaa acts with a genuine generosity and only the desire to preserve
life places her beyond the usual human concerns.

However, she does not become a two-dementionnal super-hero like the American
ones, because of the richness of the world created by Miyazaki, and because
the complexity of the situations Nausicaa must face never call for obvious
answers. The more the story unfolds, the more Nausicaa is brought to
questionable actions, to make choices and concessions which feeds a
throbbing doubt in the reader's mind. And what if she sacrificed her purity
to an wrong cause? Isn't the Messianic role that she is credited with by
everybody the worst trap of them all?

The question arises after the battle of Sapata, during which many Tolmec
knights die by protecting Nausicaa with their own bodies. Following this
particularly bloody episode, she decides to leave Kushana's group to continue
her journey alone.

However, the consequences of her action will be enormous: Kushana will agree
to release the Dork prisoners, sparing them an otherwise certain death, and
the bonze Chalka (Charuka in the English edition) will understand that
Nausicaa is not inevitably his enemy, which will be crucial for their next
meeting.

But the episode of Sapata strongly marks Nausicaa, who wants no one else to
die because of her.

Her doubts appear in the dreams she has in the fifth volume, when she
sees the holy monk of a forgotten monastery under the skeletal features of
personified Nothing. She becomes aware of deaths she caused, and of the
alarming tsumis which hang over her. These dreams, which come again and
again throughout the volume, will even push her to give up fighting and
choosing to share the disastrous destiny of the Omus.

First the Omus themselves, and then Selm, the man of the forest, come
to help her. One finds there once again the very Shintoist idea of
interdependence between all that is alive. All the beginning of the sixth
volume is an oniric journey in the Nausicaa's mind, a Spiritual journey in
the truest and noblest sense of the word. Selm will lead Nausicaa to a new
vision of the future, which will give her confidence and hope again. This
passage marks not only acceptance by Nausicaa of the hidden part of
herself (symbolized by the phantom of Miralupa), but also the adoption of a
new vision of the world. A less hasty, less categorical and short-term
vision. By reducing the weight which hung over Nausicaa's shoulders, Selm
enables her to finally pause and comtemplate all that she experienced so
far without ever taking the time to stop and think. It is a page of History
which is turned, because the ideal that Nausicaa is chasing is projected in
a distant future. From this moment she will take the initiative and will
lead men.

She agrees to be the guide that those who surround her wait for, but she
refuses to be deified by the Worm-handlers. Her new goal is to preserve this
future which she saw in her vision, this world which is barely begining to
purify.

However, deep, completely unexpected questions await Nausicaa at the end
of her quest.


The end of all the dreams
-------------------------
The least one can say about the last two volumes is that they leave the
reader both amazed and disabled.

The first surprise is the God-warrior, who appears to be a creature gifted
with reason. Its cadaveric and putrescent aspect and its very infantile
reactions makes it both an alarming and touching creature. It is a Gami,
undoubtedly the most powerful of all, and yet it seems condemned to a slow
decomposition. But this Gami is not natural. It was created by the men of
old times. Its putrescence would be then the mark of the tsumi of those who
destroyed the old civilization... Instead of fleeing it, Nausicaa will
look after it and use it. She will even try to teach the giant a sense of
responsibility, and the danger of too great a power. By giving it a name,
and by accepting that it regards her as its "small mother", she evokes not
only its intelligence, but also its sensitivity. Thus even this monstrous
creature, with terrible power of destruction, is finally going to find peace
at the end of a dreadful anguish, and to become, according to its own words,
a "good person".

While agreeing to use this monster and to be transported by it, Nausicaa
suffers mortal poisoning from the emanating radiation of its enormous
body (radioactivity?). Amongst all the creatures she likes, it is the most
innocent which will be the first victim. It is in truth one of her oldest
nightmares which comes true...

Is this a way to show that the abuse of power corrodes those who use it? 

However, Nausicaa then rests in one of the most amazing locations of her
long journey: the Cemetery of Shuwa. There, she is treated and even purified
by a bath of medicinal plants (the purifying bath is a very old tradition,
not only in Japan). She discovers a kind of Conservatory of the
World before the 7 Days of Fire. The guardian of the place teaches her the
whole truth about the origin of the toxic forest, and about the destiny
which awaits humanity when the planet is purified. The shock is enormous,
and fortunately Selm supports Nausicaa by telepathic contact. She also
learns that others before her tried to guide men to build a better
world, by using the knowledge hidden in the vault of Shuwa. All failed and
finally became tyrants. As if the destiny of any power were to finish
corrupted.  For Miyazaki, it seems impossible to hold power for a long time
without suffering from its "kega", the stain.

However Nausicaa continues her journey towards the Dork capital, with Oma
the God-warrior preceeding her, and for the first time, she lies to the
Worm-handlers which accompany her. The truth would be too difficult for them
to accept. But from this moment, Nausicaa follows a way which she will not be
able to leave anymore, although she knows its dangers, and nothing will
again shake her determination. The power which the vault of Shuwa
conceals is too terrible to be left in the hands of anybody. She does
not even trust herself, and prefers to try to seal this vault from which all
the weapons which devastated the Dorks grounds came.

The ultimate episode of the saga plunged the readers in an abyss of
questions. Nausicaa intervenes while the Emperor Vu is about to obtain from
the Master of the Tomb what he seeks: the secrets of the past which will
give him absolute power, and perhaps even eternal life.

By her questionning, Nausicaa pushes the Master to reveal his goal: recreate
a new humanity to replace current mankind, once that the world has
been purified. The drama which awaits all people is then clear: to
disappear in a too pure world to which their bodies are not adapted. It
would be a total change of fauna, flora and population. This evolution seems
inescapable, and the only concession which the Master can offer, is to
rehabilitate the bodies of human at the proper time to avoid their death.

A new golden age thus seems to await a new humanity... but Nausicaa cannot
accept what she knows to be a lie, for she used it herself.

Her diatribe against the Master of the Tomb overthrows the ideal of the
former scientists who conceived it. She is better placed than anyone to know
where ideals can lead. Desiring to shape the world according to one's
ideas, as so many people tried to do it during the history of humanity,
is to deny the miracle of the life itself. This life which can be born from
Nothing, but which can also be created artificially, deserves respect in all
cases.

When the Master claims that he is the only light in this world of darkness,
Nausicaa contradicts him at once: the light which shines in darkness is
not this sinister artificial creature, whose duplicity with the Dork
emperors caused so many deaths and destruction. The only light that Nausicaa
acknoledges is Life itself. Life in the Shintoist sense where all the
living beings mix, help each other, clash and devour each other for better
reappearing. Life is to be born, to grow, fight to survive and to stay
before returning to Nothing. This Nothing, which frightened Nausicaa so much
in her dream, forms part of this major cycle of life, where everything comes
from and where everything goes back sooner or later. The Buddhists call this
cycle "the Wheel of Life".

However, the creatures created with the technology of the Tomb of Shuwa,
either the Heedras or the Master himself, these beings are not bound to the
Wheel of Life, and in a certain way they cheat it. Thus, the great project
embodied by the Master of the Tomb is nothing but the replacement of a Wheel
by another.

What leads Nausicaa to destroy the Tomb is not nihilism at all, but on the
contrary love and respect for Life with all its suffering and difficulties.
It is no longer a question for her of belief in an ideal. What she
experienced, which she understood, what she feels, all that makes her
consider all ideals like as many possible sources of tsumis...

And so is the dream of the builders of the Tomb: they thought they were
sowing the seeds of a better future world. But while being focused on their
only goal, regardless of all the inflicted sufferings, it turned into only
wars and pollution for most of the Dork lands. Moreover, this pollution
also formed part of the plan of purification...

Nausicaa thus orders the God-warrior to destroy the tomb, knowing
perfectly well that it wouldn't stop the already-started process of
purification.

She explains to the Master: To live is to change, to evolve, to adapt. The
empathic power of the Omus was certainly not created by the scientists. Even
an ecosystem created from nothing, with a goal which implies its future
destruction, even such an ecosystem randomly evolves by itself. The law of
Life can seem cruel, but to deny it is to deny Life itself. The fact that
Nausicaa is the only surviving one out of a 11-children family made her
understand very quickly that death is neither a curse nor a blessing, just
the inevitable result of any existence.

Thus she knows that when the world is purified, many people will die, their
lungs will not be able to support an air completely deprived of miasmas. It
will be perhaps the end of humanity. But she also knows how Life is tough
and persistent. The purification will last generations, and perhaps the
humans will be able to adapt gradually to the new living conditions of their
planet. It will be certainly at the price of many sufferings, and many
deaths, but that's the price that all the living beings always paid during
the evolution of the species... Darwin called that "the survival of the
fittest".

By refusing the plans of the Master of the Tomb, Nausicaa agrees to assume
all the immense forthcoming sufferings which will rise from her decision.
Then she leaves it to Life itself. When she's talking about "trusting the
planet" she simply lets Nature take back its rights again, to cease trying
to control it.

The Emperor Vu, filled with wonder by Nausicaa's perspicacity, will even
shield her with his own body when the Master tries to kill her in an
ultimate attempt.

When Kushana bends on her father dying at the end, it is to hear his warning
against the spiral of revenge and blood. No doubt however that's a lesson
that Kushana already understood by herself, through the tests she had to pass.

The only thing which remains to be done, as Nausicaa says, is TO LIVE. She puts
in these words all the hope that remains in herself. One can think then of
the situation of Japan right after the capitulation in 1945, but also of
those of Germany or France at the end of World War II. Miyazaki confronts us
with the universality of this situation where to live is at the same time
the strongest and the most difficult thing to do.

The Dork lands are only ruins now, and a terrible fight for survival will
start.

Humanity cannot count anymore on anthing but itself, and whether it will
disappear or  survive is not the problem of anybody any more. The Wheel of
Life will keep on turning anyway, with or without humanity on Earth.

In a certain way, the world was indeed purified by the choices and the
actions of Nausicaa. The Tomb disintegrated in a nauseous organic mass. The
God-warrior died. The power of the tyrants was reduced to nothing.

Chalka the bonze then notices the gilded light of the setting sun which
reflects on the ground, that was vitrified by the explosions. He sees
Nausicaa's figure standing out there, her dress tinted dark blue by
the blood of the tomb. He suddenly understands that the prophecy was
actually carried out. The pure world is a world delivered from the dream of
the idealists of the past. And the lost bond, established again with
the Earth, is to accept to live on this planet by respecting it, and by
respecting all living creatures without wanting to control them or to
transform them.

There is still so much to say about Nausicaa. But better to stop here... at
this point where the words seem to become quite insipid considering what the
manga itself makes it possible to feel.

Gildas Jaffrennou

December 28, 2002

[translated by : Guillaume NOYER]
[adapted and corrected by David SAUVE]
[edited by Michael WOJCIK]


Thanks to :

Michel Galle
Andrew Osmond
Bruno Pham
François Leiber
Xavier Michaut
All the Buta-Connected
You can contact the author gildas.jaffrennou@free.fr
or visit his site http://gildas.jaffrennou.free.fr.