Week 4: Nausicaa Manga Thoughts

 I've always been amazed by the film Nausicaa's incredible detail in it's inner workings of the plants of the world as well as the socio-economic inner workings of its people and the manga has gone above and beyond all of my expectations with these.

      In the manga there are covers, pauses in the chapters, and little side sketches that depict how the insects and fungi of the Forest of Corruption work- from the steps of how they grow to the insects locations in relation to the humans. The Manga is certainly a bit more deep than the movie - not only because of the physical details of the world around the characters, but also in the situations that the characters are put through. Nausicaa committing murder in the very beginning was a quick signifier that this was going to be a different story. This story does not end so completely and so happily as the film. The difference that I found most interesting is this concept of finality/loss and how a ruler has to interpret them to their people. Nausicaa's pet Teto dies, her "son" the giant warrior from the 7 days of fire slowly kills himself at the behest of Nausicaa, she is forced to tell a lie that the forest is cleaning the world and humans will all be fine with the new world- but the one I found most interesting is when she is told that her leaving of the Shuwa Gardens is most likely a repetition of the last time a great war was waged, and still she goes.  Throughout the piece she certainly struggles with being a proper ruler and making decisions that are the best for her people. I also expected the ohmu, blind with rage, to become a serious problem like it was in the film and it never happened. They were angry at the beginning and also when they were lead to the lake of acid but they never made as big an impact as I imagined.

    

   Another note I wanted to make was all of the similarities to other Ghibli films that are within this Manga but not in the film. Nausicaa is often drawn riding the wind with Teto in such a way that she resembles the witch in Kiki's delivery service. The boy from the forest with seeming magical powers reminds me very much of Howl's design. The Tumakian King bears a striking resemblance to Yubaba in Spirited Away. The elk like animals that are found in the garden of Shuwa are extremely similar to the one Prince Ashitaka rides in Princess Mononoke. Also, the wise Ohmu blind with rage is also very similar to the Boar spirits of the mountain blind with rage in Mononoke. Whether these are simply stylistic attributes to Miazaki's story writing, or if they're little easter eggs- I found some of them very charming and interesting.