Critique: Nausicaa

            The crux of our discussion about critique is the notion that every previous category has involved some aspect of politicization. No media, whether it be for children or not, is infused with some kind of worldview, most obviously that of the creator. We looked into these political readings as early as our conversations on morality, when we looked into the allegorical nature of fairy and folk tales. Those stories were created with the conservative, likely-Christian values of the 16^th to 18^th centuries. Media is defined by its times, and as we saw in much of our viewing last week, the art created for children of the late 20^th century often had a decidedly environmental agenda.

            So when comparing Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind to something like Ferngully: The Last Rainforest, it’s important to investigate the respective motivations and ascertain meaning through tone and messaging. As we saw in class, Ferngully aspires to be a big animated musical, about the struggle between good and evil as depicted with fairies and a toxic sludge monster. We discussed the difficulty a child might have relating to a toxic sludge monster, given that there is no real-world analogue to the Tim Curry-voiced creature. In Nausicaa, the title character is not a fairy, or someone shrunk down to a tiny size, but rather a normal girl in a post-apocalyptic situation. She has a preternatural connection to the environment around her, and as a result is able to bond with the otherized Ohms. Rather than exploiting difference in a binary of good and evil like Ferngully, Nausicaa approaches its conflict from a position of empathy, and its politics are planted in finding common ground rather than defeating opposition.

            In a way, the best comparison for Nausicaa is the English version that was released in 1985 called Warriors of the Wind. The English movie positions that the world has been in a brutal war between people and the Ohmu for thousands of years, and turns the empathetic story into one of battle and conquest. On the VHS box art, Nausicaa herself is even relegated to the background in favor of a trio of warriors (who aren’t even in the movie).

 This more aggressive story is more endemic to the battle cartoons of the 1980s, but it does not reflect the humanity of Miyazaki’s work. When looking at Miyazaki’s oeuvre, his environmental themes are prevalent, yes, but more important is the focus on understanding and empathy. As our class discussion indicates, the politics of a work will always be present, but can shift greatly depending on a creator’s views. The differences between Ferngully and Nausicaa (and especially between the latter and its English dub) are proof that a compassionate messenger and method are paramount to making decent, humane art for children.