An Ecocritical Reading of Hayao Miyazaki’s Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind: Territory, Toxicity, and Animals

Abstract

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984) is an animation written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Set in the future a thousand years from now, the story deals with the struggle of a princess of the Valley of the Wind to maintain the peace and livelihood of her homeland against the invading nation Torumekia and the expansion of the lethal Toxic Jungle. Yet beyond the fantastic encounters with giant insects in the Jungle and an adventure in a glider and fighter aircraft there are profound ecological messages that expose the vulnerability of the natural world as much as of its human habitats. This article scrutinizes the film with respect to the four main areas central to ecocritics’ concerns:    (1) the concept of landscape, involving the depiction of pastoralism, wilderness, and sublime spaces and their implications; (2) the question of land entitlement; (3) toxicity and toxic discourse; (4) animals, especially insects, as these species are threatened by toxicity through insecticides. The article both engages with and relies on several fundamental sources in environmental criticism, most notably Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962), Lawrence Buell’s “Toxic Discourse” (1998), and Greg Garrard’s Ecocriticism (2012). Before closing, the article attempts to critique the film as a quintessential ecological masterpiece and explains how this fictional anime could still be extremely relevant to the current global environmental crisis even though three decades have elapsed since its production and its first screening.