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Visualizing environmental costs of war in Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaä
- boxfire 1y agoNo one is really mentioning this article in from a highschooler. Awesome job! I'm happy to read this today and really hope she will continue to see such inspiring stories and maybe some day make some.
- YeGoblynQueenne 1y ago>> Giant warriors walking through a city in flames Huh. I never noticed this before but that scene is very much like ** SPOILERS ** SPOILERS ** SPOILERS ** SPOILERS ** SPOILERS ** the Rumbling in Attack on Titan, when the Colossal Titans are sent to destroy the world by Eren. ** SPOILERS ** SPOILERS ** SPOILERS ** SPOILERS ** SPOILERS ** Also see Figure 4, "Giant warrior falling apart while charging up to fire". Possible inspiration, maybe?
- tmtvl 1y agoAs the site is currently getting hugged I will say that Nausicaa didn't quite leave as much an impression on me as Grave of the Fireflies, but Miyazaki's environment design is always spot-on (the entirety of Farewell My Beloved Lupin, for example, improves on every rewatch as you notice more details).
- aitchnyu 1y agoIs it the source of movies where the protagonist narrates "This is the day I died"?
- randomNumber7 1y agoGrave of the Fireflies is the most emotionally disturbing movie I have ever watched (including non animes). It is a masterpiece but I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone.
- everybodyknows 1y agoEver seen "Threads"?
- iamwil 1y agoIt's the only movie that I liked that I'd only want to watch once.
- pchristensen 1y agoIt was definitely not a barrel of monkeys, but I think it is an important expression of the costs of war on the innocent, and the effects of societal inequality in general. It's powerful in a way that statistics cannot deliver. You'd also be hard pressed to find a better story of unconditional love, duty, sacrifice, and maturity.
- BriggyDwiggs42 1y agoOh I couldn’t remember what this was called. I watched it for a film class. Utterly devastating.
- khimaros 1y agotell me you haven't seen Old Boy without telling me you haven't seen Old Boy
- tialaramex 1y agoOldboy is fiction. The two children in Grave of the Fireflies are fictional, but they're standing in for a tremendous number of real Japanese civilians killed by these events - in some cases literally starved to death. The Americans really did drop incendiary devices on those cities to burn homes to the ground, in our real world. You can certainly make an argument that it was somehow "justified" but it's a terrible thing to have done even if you're quite sure that it wasn't a war crime (which I am not).
- upghost 1y agoDo yourself a flava and read the Manga. The movie ends before where the first volume ends, but the story goes in a completely different and much more interesting direction.
- HideousKojima 1y agoAlso the secret truth about the world in Nausicaa (not going to spoil it here) has been copied by several other animes and video games since, it's been very influential. Notably the anime Ergo Proxy and the video game Nier seem to take some significant inspiration from it.
- kibwen 1y agoWorth mentioning that the manga is itself drawn by Miyazaki, and that he originally stipulated that it should never be made into a film. Fully agreed that the manga is far more beautiful and complete than the film.
- KeepFlying 1y agoDon't forget how horribly the first English adaptation of the film went too.
- upghost 1y agoWas the plot completely butchered...? Yes. Were there gaping narrative discontinuities...? Certainly. But that 80s voice acting in the English dub... chef's kiss. The guy who voiced Milo("Asbel" in the movie) was the voice of Leonardo from Ninja Turtles and Kaneda from original dub of Akira!! (Cam Clark) If I watch any version, I watch Warriors of the Wind. It really is the "Hollywood version" of Nausicaa. Yeah, the newer one is better, but it doesn't hold a candle to the manga so give me that 80s synth and big hair voice acting any day. Also I was like 5 when I saw it so nostalgia goggles.
- frollogaston 1y agoDidn't even know about the old one. The newer one has 80s synth too, though.
- N_Lens 1y ago> When analyzing Miyazaki’s films, including Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, often the messages regarding warfare’s effects on the natural world focus more on the direct impacts rather than the indirect ones. Additionally, many researchers look at the film from a spiritual lens with DeWeese-Boyd (2009) believing Nausicaä serves as a Christ-like figure, while both Morgan (2015) and Nunes (2021) believe that Nausicaä serves as an example of how to restore balance between humans and nature. Despite that, these authors see her role in restoring balance differently. Nunes believes that Nausicaä gave herself to nature, sacrificing her free will in order to heal the earth without personal bias. On the other hand, Morgan believes that she serves as an example of how the fragmentation between the mind, body, spirit and nature can be restored through respect and care for the natural world. I never thought of the parallel with Christ in the numerous times I watched this film but I can understand why someone would make that connection given the final scenes.
- frollogaston 1y agoI thought this was intentional, cause she sacrifices herself then gets resurrected, also visuals like https://www.mother-god.com/images/nausicaa.jpg https://www.mother-god.com/images/nausicaa.jpg and https://beneaththetangles.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/5075881325_020dd250fa.jpg https://beneaththetangles.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/507... But she's definitely not the same throughout the movie, cause she kills 3 guys early on.
- mmustapic 1y agoThe visuals of her sacrifice and resurrection are very similar to Neo’s sacrifice in Matrix pt 3
- brazzy 1y agoThe messiah theme is much stronger in the manga. Not just the resurrection: she collects followers, at least one a converted enemy, by showing an all-encompassing love and helping those in need wherever she can. On at least one occasion someone explicitly addresses her as "you, who would be a messiah". And no, that's not a translation artifact; the word is 救世主. Of course, it is also subverted in some ways, most explicitly in the end, where Nausicaä destroys a plan for a new, better world, in favor of an escape from prophecies and grand plans.
- randomNumber7 1y ago> The paper will show that the visuals in the film are not simply aesthetic decisions, but a crucial narrative device to convey the effects of war on both people and nature. I don't need science to come to this conclusion.
- lazide 1y agoNothing about the paper is science hah. But it is a paper!
- snickerbockers 1y agoARE YOU DENYING THE SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL OF GEEK STUDIES?
- Isamu 1y agoFunny though that “paper” is not about paper anymore.
- tokai 1y agoThe rare skeuomorph synecdoche.
- ge96 1y agoMemories was a good one too https://blog.alltheanime.com/memories-cannon-fodder/ https://blog.alltheanime.com/memories-cannon-fodder/ Blue Gender also good for humanity losing to something
- FuriouslyAdrift 1y agoThe bigger short in "Memories", "Magnetic Rose", is one of my all time favorite stories (It's Satoshi Kon, Koji Morimoto, Katsuhiro Otomo, and Yoko Kanno !!!) https://animationobsessive.substack.com/p/the-secrets-of-magnetic-rose https://animationobsessive.substack.com/p/the-secrets-of-mag...
- ge96 1y agothe level of detail in older anime is just crazy like Roujin Z
- layer8 1y agoBlue Gender would really deserve a remake.
- feverzsj 1y agoLaughs in Anno Hideaki.
- _9ptr 1y agoLaughs in Hirohiko Araki.
- tokai 1y agoFor a contemporary example of the effects of war on nature the area around Bilohorivka in Ukraine is quite the eye opener. At least it was for me. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Bilohorivka,+Luhansk+oblast,+Ukraine,+93310/ https://www.google.com/maps/place/Bilohorivka,+Luhansk+oblas...
- popol12 1y agoWhat do we see here ? Artillery impacts ?
- monetus 1y agoAlmost entirely. On 20 September 2022, Luhansk Oblast governor Serhiy Haidai reported that Russian troops had "razed [Bilohorivka] to the ground" during their failed attempts to recapture it, stating that Ukrainian forces had full control of the town.[78] On 18 October, Russia attempted an assault with artillery support on Bilohorivka, but the attack was repulsed. Russian troops continued to shell liberated settlements. The armored vehicle assaults and drones destroy trenches and buildings, make craters too, but the sheer extent and size of those craters is from artillery. The tank battles weren't too destructive relatively IIRC
- frollogaston 1y agoI'm not into anime, but this is in my top 3 favorite movies. Aside from the sheer coolness, it's environmentalist but not in the typical annoying way like the blue people Avatar movie. It's more matter-of-fact, you won't win fighting against nature or against each other. And the main character has the right amount of flaws. Even though Nausicaa is totally against war by the second half, the movie shows that this is easier said than done. She has to reach that conclusion after taking part in the fighting herself, and even then she has to use warning shots from a machine gun. She's not invincible until the last scene.
- lubujackson 1y agoMiyazaki reportedly hated the ending and didn't want to have such a tidy solution, but needed material because he was greenlit for a movie and Nausicaa was all he had. The other 3 books from the manga go into much more depth politically and spiritually, with a lot more philosophy about ecology and even what it means to be human.
- frollogaston 1y agoThat makes sense, the ending was always my least favorite part too. It's too convenient.
- flakiness 1y agoYou should notice the shadow of the traumatic experience from atomic bombs that permeated into the Japanese society throughout the 20th century (vs. concerns around carbon emissions today.)
- ionwake 1y agoAbsolute masterpiece both the Anime and this blog entry. I remember as a skinny 80s kid, walking barefoot into a videostore near the beach in Spain where I lived. No internet, TV only had 4 channels, and aside from the gift of Dragon Ball on TV nothing else that interested or inspired me. Then out of hundreds of videos I saw this, I had no idea who Ghibli, anime, even was and had few friends as I was autistic. Yet I could tell from a couple of pictures on the cover it had themes of flying and war beautifully painted. I ended up watching that, in the late 80s on a crt , in my swim trunks, and although we had next to no money, and plastic furniture in the house ( ironically we lived in the spanish "malibu")... just my family were common workers... I ended up spending a couple of dollars to rent it out a number of times. Thank you Miyazaki and Studio Ghlibli for your work, it elevated souls in far reaches.
- upghost 1y agoI know. The cover art is great and makes no sense. Some dude with an assault rifle (I guess supposed to be Milo/Asbel) riding a sandworm along with his buddy Dr. Doom I guess, a squid guy with a lightsaber (firewarrior probably?) and there's a guy flying pegasus for some reason? [1] Truly iconic. Some of that is explainable but the pegasus, dude on the pegasus, and Dr Doom ... makes absolutely zero sense. I guess this is the rock opera version we never got. Maybe Dr Doom somehow sorta kinda was supposed to be Princess Kushana..?? I think the squid guy is a firewarrior, but so is the "sandworm" -- some kind of fever dream Ohm/Gorgon/Firewarrior mix. But why is a tiny adult fire warrior riding a baby giant fire warrior? lololol I can only imagine the requirements gathering session that lead to this debacle. Legendary. [1]: https://i.pinimg.com/736x/00/fe/12/00fe121ffa3600cfb14bbbe1cca106c9--wind-movie-studio-ghibli.jpg https://i.pinimg.com/736x/00/fe/12/00fe121ffa3600cfb14bbbe1c... Edit: Dear haters, I <3 <3 <3 Warriors of the Wind and all things Nausicaa, incl. the quirky cover. I even love your downvotes, it means you read this and cared enough to click the button, which hopefully means you are defending the cover. So I love you too!
- the_af 1y agoThanks for taking the time to write this! I'm... appalled by that cover. I wasn't familiar with it. It's bizarre how all the elements of Nausicaa are technically there, yet it looks completely different (in a bad way). Nothing at all like the actual artwork of the movie!
- mattlangston 1y ago"... Miyazaki warns against the dangers of harmful technology and the moral implications of its use." Apropos for current times.
- newsclues 1y agoWe have satellite footage of war zones in real life to visualize the environmental impacts with cameras from outer space
- aaron695 1y ago[dead]
- Hikikomori 1y agoIf you like nausicaä give scavengers reign a watch.
- andrei_says_ 1y agoOr if you like anything done by Moebius. The worldbuilding is breathtaking, and the art is magnificent.