An epic fantasy tale written and illustrated by the legendary director Hayao Miyazaki!
In a long-ago war, humankind set off a devastating ecological disaster. Thriving indistrial societies disappeared. The earth is slowly submerging beneath the expanding Sea of Corruption, an enormous toxic forest that creates mutant insects and releases a miasma of poisonous spores into the air.At the periphery of the sea, tiny kingdoms are scattered on tiny parcels of land. Here lies the Valley of the Wind, a kingdom of barely 500 citizens; a nation given fragile protection from the decaying sea's poisons by the ocean breezes; and home to Nausicaä.
Nausicaä, a young princess, has an empathic bond with the giant Ohmu insects and animals of every creed. She fights to create tolerance, understanding and patience among empires that are fighting over the world's remaining precious natural resources.
Nausicaä is a whimsical story of a girl who lives in a hostile world filled with deadly spores and giant insects, but who sees the goodness and beauty in all of it. From reading other reviews I was afraid it might be too tree-huggery for me, but I think Miyazaki never once strayed into kitschy territory. The worldbuilding so far has been fascinating. On one hand there are minutely drawn nature scenes and wonderfully detailed creepy-crawlies, which contrast so well with the gunships and medievalish dress of the humans. Am looking forward to see how Nausicaä and the other people around her will fare in the next volumes.
