Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

Miyazaki's movies all seem to match the same theme of "stop fighting and respect nature," and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is no exception. It is visually interesting, and you can't help but like Nausicaä, so I'd lean towards recommending it even though it's not exactly mind-blowing.

I'm pretty sure my college boyfriend liked Nausicaä, but it's been so long since I've thought about it that I could be totally wrong. I wanted to watch My Neighbor Totoro, which I haven't seen yet, but the plot was too simple for my company and they chose Nausicaä instead. It reminded me a lot of Princess Mononoke. I did like Nausicaä more, though. Except for the name. They pronounce it so weird, with an "sh" for the "s." I do like the animation style, although the hats were really distracting and weird.

Nausicaä herself was a cool character. I liked her outfit. You can't *not* like someone who's basically just nice to everyone/everyone's hero. Again the message is super heavy-handed, though. "Stop fighting and try to understand each other." Okay. I guess it's a good thing to tell kids.

It seemed really unnecessary of them to kill her father. I think the village would've surrendered, anyway. Their face masks were pretty funny. I liked how it made everyone look like they had a mustache. I kind of liked Princess Kushana. She had a clear motive for wanting to destroy the Sea, at least. It's nice that Miyazaki's movies always have strong women.

The Ohm were pretty weird, but their glowing tendril things were cool.  I think the people should've just gone to live under the Sea where it was safe. It was a striking image both times when Nausicaä went into her "pacifist pose," standing on the aircraft with her arms outstretched. Teto was cute. He looked a lot like a Pokemon.

The music didn't particularly stand out to me. I guess it was nice that the whole "peace and love" thing won out in the end.