I'm a huge Miyazaki fan and out of all his films Nausicaa is one of my favorites. I kind of knew in the back of my mind that there was a manga for Nausicaa, but I thought of it simply as the anime movie in another format and never really bothered with it until recently. Once I found out (online) that the manga contains a lot more detail than the anime I knew I had to get my hands on it. It is absolutely epic!
I know my world-building meter at the side of this blog only goes up to Awesome, but this deserves a bit more - the world-building was rich and detailed, the plot was at the same time thought-provoking and very exciting and fast-paced. It was an overall amazing read and I wish there was more of it to enjoy!
The Nausicaa Manga and Anime start off almost identical and for the first couple of volumes of the Manga there are all kinds of little extra details, but they feel like just that - extra details to enhance the story - until you hit the point when the main events of the anime are over and there are still about four and half volumes left to read and the story of the manga takes off from there in amazingly unexpected ways. New layers of depth keep being added to the manga's story and world so that it turns into something far beyond what you could have ever expected from watching the anime.
The anime's story is a small localized tale of princess Nausicaa doing the best for her people and exploring the secrets of the toxic jungle, but in the anime she moves far beyond her home in the valley of the wind and gets entangled in epic events involving two warring kingdoms: the Torumekians and the Doroks(who didn't even exist in the anime). She discovers secrets that have to do with the origin of the toxic jungle, battles against not just physical foes, but against pessimism and entire philosophies.
In the end the tale is about human life, its meaning, its importance, its origins, purity vs corruption, authority vs dignity, and what it really means to be human and to be alive. The ending leaves so much more to think about and imagine, but while I do wish for a bit more to read and enjoy I feel that Miyazaki picked the perfect place to stop. He had resolved Nausicaa's questions about the forest and her moral and philosophical struggles and all that remains was to imagine the future and what it would be like after she had made her choice. It's great. Miyazaki isn't concerned with who ends up marrying who or anything like that, and Nausicaa was never about that, so the ending lacks any "pandering to favorite ships" or any of that usual nonsense. It's a deep philosophical tale about epic situations and questions and that's what he resolves in the end.
If you liked the Nausicaa film or any of Miyazaki's works you have to check this manga out! Now please excuse me while I go back to read all 7 volumes again!
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