The Art Of Nausicaä Of The Valley Of The Wind
Author Metcalfe
Nausica (ナウシカ Naushika, pronounced [na.uɕika]) [1] is the princess of the Valley of the Wind. She is the eleventh child of King Jhil, and the only one to live to maturity. She is rarely seen without her Mehve or her companion, Teto the fox-squirrel. Some believe her to be "The Blue Clad One" from Dorok legends.
Eventually, Nausica starts training to fly her Mehve, which she becomes very good at. She also spends a lot of time in the Sea of Corruption and experiments with its plants to find out why Jhil's health is suffering. As part of this, she secretly grows forest plants in uncorrupted soil, discovering that it is not deadly.
On one of her expeditions into the Rotwood, Nausica discoveres the shell of an Ohmu. These are very valuable as building material as they are extremely hard and durable. After retrieving the eye-shell, she feels the anger of the forest creatures and hears a gunshot in the distance. When she investigates, she finds Lord Yupa being chased by several forest creatures, including the Ohmu that had shed its shell, but she manages to calm the Ohmu with flash grenades and an insect charm. Nausica then leads Yupa to the valley, where he reports on the situation in the world abroad.
Nausica goes on patrol with the Valley Gunship, newly refitted with the Ohmu eye-piece, but once again feels the forest's anger. This time it is a brig from Pejite. The brig crash-lands, killing everyone except for princess Rastel. Rastel gives Nausica a stone before she dies, though Nausica is not aware of the stone's significance. She warns Nausica that Torumekia invaded Pejitei, even though they are formally allied, and that the Torumekians want the stone.
Shortly after Nausica and the Valley's inhabitants have time to ponder the meaning of Rastel's arrival, Kushana and her Torumekian soldiers arrive. Kushana asks for the stone, but Nausica wants her to leave the valley and Kushana eventually relents. Nausica is forced to burn part of their fields, as the Torumekians contaminated it by bringing miasma.
Soon, the Torumekians went to war against the Dorok principalities. Kushana called for the States of the Periphery to follow the ancient treaties and assemble at an aerial rendevouz point. Jhil is confined to his bed from the poisoning, so he talks to Nausica and decide she should go in his stead. This worries Lord Yupa, but even Yupa realizes this is the only option. Nausica leaves with Mito and the Valley Gunship and they travel to the rendevouz point on the edge of the Sea of Corruption. On the way they meet people from other periphery states.
At the rendevouz point, Kushana takes control and starts heading across the Sea of Corruption. They are soon attacked by Asbel of Pejite, however, who destroys several ships and seperates the Valley gunship from the brig. Nausica wants to rescue the other people from her valley and follows them into the Sea of Corruption. There they land in an Ohmu nest, but she manages to calm and communicate with them. She has the barge reconnected, but wants to head out to rescue Asbel, who has enraged the insects. She takes her Mehve and finds him in deep cavities under the forest.
Asbel discoveres her identity and takes the control stone, which Nausica had been carrying. Nausica wakes up, discovers the petrified forest and guesses that the Sea of Corruption exists to clense the lands of human pollution. Asbel and Nausica escape, only to be captured by Doroks of the Mani tribe.
Nausica meets the Holy One, leader of the Mani Tribe, and Ketcha, who speaks the common tongue. She realizes that Kushana has been betrayed and begs to be able to negotiate a peaceful solution. The Holy One disagrees and Nausica tries to escape. Asbel decides to stay behind to enable Nausica to travel faster. Nausica joins the Valley Gunship and alerts them of the impending destruction through the herd of Ohmu. The gunship goes to warn Kushana's army, while Nausica decides to take on the Dorok flying jar that is baiting the Ohmu herd with a wounded Ohmu.
Nausica confronts the Dorok soldiers and forces them to drop the Ohmu larvae on an island in the acid lake. She communicates with the Ohmu and tries to ease its pain. Meanwhile, the Ohmu herd crushes Kushana's army and several groups of Mani Tribe warriors and only Kushana's ship manages to escape. The Holy One is appalled at this massacre. Nausica begs Kushana to take the Ohmu larvae to the herd and Kushana relents, since Nausica knows the location of the control stone. Nausica communicates with the Ohmu herd and they depart for the "Southern Forest", which they believe is in need of them. The Holy One is reminded of a pre-Holy Empire prophecy by the scene, believing Nausica to be a savior that restores balance between humanity and the nature.
Kushana's Corvette reaches Dorok, which is in a state of war. They discover a village being burned by Torumekian troops. Landing, they discover the entire population dead of miasma inhalation except for two babies. Nausica rescues them (over Kurotowa's objections). The town well had been occupied by Hamushi, attracted by miasma. Although the insect takes Nausica into its mouth, the Ohmu blood that stains her clothes protects her from being eaten.
Travelling further from the Sea of Corruption they reach the city of Sapata, a Dorok town, occupied by the Torumekian third army, but besieged by Dorok infantry and artillery. The third army is loyal to Kushana, but is being poorly led by her older brother. Kushana breaks the siege, to fly into to city to take command. Inside, Nausica discovers the Dorok townspeople are being held captive, to be sold as slaves. She asks Kushana for their release. Kushana agrees only on the condition that Nausica fights alongside her.
Meanwhile Miralupa the brother of the Dorok Emperor has joined the besieging troops but must bath to repair his skin. A skilful warrior monk named Charuka tends to him. Kushana plans to break out from the city, destroy the Dorok artillery and buy time for an escape to be made from the city. Nausica rides with her as promised, and displays her usefulness in war by using siren shells to panic the Dorok War beasts used as cavellry. Nausica's horseclaw, Kai, is mortally wounded, by troops lead by Charuka. Both Charuka and Miralupa believe Nausica to be the "blue-clad one" of prophesy.
Having secured the release of the Dorok prisoners, Nausica leaves Sapata and heads deeper into Dorok territory, coming to a temple by an oasis. A small boy appears. The boy, Chikuku leads Nausica to a tomb in which the bodies of many monks are sitting as if in meditation. One monk is still alive and communicates telepathically with Nausica. He tells her of the prophesy of the blue-clad one, and of the secrets stored in the crypts of Shuwa. He foretells the destructions and purification of the world. Nausica refuses to give up, believing that life is worth saving. A Hebikera flies overhead, and Nausica realises that the oasis will soon be overcome by miasma. Returning to the tomb she finds the monk dead. She leaves on Mehve with Chikuku.
Airborne, she discovers a Dorok ship being overcome by fungus. The fungus is different from the forest trees. In fact it has been bred by Doroks to use as a weapon. But spores became unstable, and are consuming the ship which was carrying them. This ship also holds Miralupa and Charuka. Nausica lands on the upper deck, and once again does battle with the disembodied spirit of Miralupa. The battle is ended inconclusively by the attack of insects, and Miralupa is able to escape. Nausica joins Charuka battling the mutant mould. However the ship is lost and Nausica, Chikuku and Charuka flee on Mehve. The suriving mould reaches the ground and starts to spread.
Charuka debates with himself on whether to kill Nausica, but she is protected by Chikuku. When a Dorok Flying Jar happens to pass, Charuka takes Nausica and Chikuku up with him to a Dorok flying fortress, that also is carrying fungal spores.Knowing them fungus not to be stable, Nausicaa drops the reactivating fungal mass out the window. Charuka is now convinced that Miralupa's plan to use forest fungus as a weapon is fundamentally insecure, and decides to support Nausica's plan and stay to defend the people.
Nausica is voiced in Japanese by Sumi Shimamoto, who got the part after having played Clarisse in Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro and impressed Hayao Miyazaki. Patrick Drazen praised Shimamoto's acting in a scene where Nausica stops an insect from diving into an acidic pool by getting in its way. She is burned by the acid and she screams. Her English-language voice was performed by Alison Lohman.
Nausica is the beloved Princess of the Valley of the Wind. Despite being a young adult, her wisdom is far beyond her young age. She has dedicated herself to help her people, including trying to find a cure for the miasma poison that so many suffer from. She is brave, courageous, wise, intelligent, loyal, honest, kind, compassionate, and everything that one looks for in a true heroine. She stands tall against all adversaries and is willing to sacrifice her life in order to save those around her. Her fencing and flight maneuvering ability exceeds that of the enemy forces. Throughout the movie, she manifests the ability to wield a variety of weapons including a dagger, a sword, a rifle, and explosives used when extracting an Ohmu eye.
Nausica has psychic powers, abilities which include telepathy [2] , psychic force, when she repulses the slugworms [3], and communication with plants, when she talks to the Oldest Tree in the Valley [4]. After being saved by Ohmu after aiding Asbel, Nausica dreams of childhood when she tried to save a Ohmu larvae [5]. Nausica gives the control stone over to Asbel [6].
Nausica's name comes from the princess Nausicaa in the Odyssey who assisted Odysseus. In English, the Greek name is normally pronounced /nɔːˈsɪkeɪ.ə/, but in the soundtrack for the film it is /ˈnɔːsɨkə/. Part of her character comes from a Japanese folk hero known as The Princess Who Loved Insects (虫めづる姫君Mushi mezuru himegimi?), whose story appeared in the Tsutsumi Chūnagon Monogatari while another part was inspired by the writings of Bernard Evslin, as he had written a more in-depth extrapolation of the Odyssey's Nausicaa.
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