Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

by Hayao Miyazaki

Lowdown: Liked it. This seven volume, post-apocalyptic graphic novel is visually captivating, with a wonderful, strong female lead character, great art, and unique story. Well done.

A thousand years after mankind almost destroyed itself, the world as we know it is slowly being poisoned and replaced by a different ecology, dominated by fungus, mold, and giant insects. War has come to the Valley of the Wind, and Nausicaä, daughter of the king, must rise up to lead her people.

This is one of the most unique graphic novels I’ve ever read: from the setting to the technology to the creatures to the story and characters. The art definitely betrays its manga influence, but is distinct enough that it didn’t bother me.

It’s printed in dark-brown ink (like the original serialized story), and translated into english, except for the sound effects. (I didn’t realize how important sound effects were to graphic novels until I read this. There is a dictionary to look them up, but it was annoying to have to lookup each sound effect three or four times a page, so I stopped.)

Miyazaki creates very strong female characters, and Nausicaä is no different. She’s not someone’s love interest, or waiting to be rescued, or eye candy for the reader. She’s a strong leader and environmentalist. She fights. She’s modest, brave, and loyal. When my daughter gets older, I’ll probably buy her the set to help in my fight against traditional female gender roles forced on her by US culture.

I hope by then they’ve translated all the sound effects into english.