Somebody Call Nausicaä

So, a few years back, my wife and I worked our way through a good chunk of the Studio Ghibli catalog. Then we hit a stumbling block—

We weren’t sure if the rest of the movies were sad ones.

Well, this weekend we gave Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind a shot. I’d actually seen most of it twenty years ago, and I guess somewhere in the back of my head I thought Young Calvin was disappointed by a lack of fighting scenes.

Which, if it was true, was a WILD take. Keeping spoilers to a minimum, this movie has open warfare, revolution, and giant explosions.

It’s a great movie, truly. And one thing that really struck me all these years later is what a role model Nausicaä is. Antimonarchist though I am, she’s a kind and active princess in her kingdom. She’s a genius aviator, because it’s a Ghibli movie. She believes in conservation, even for some of the ugliest insects I’ve ever seen on screen. She’s a scholar who tries to leverage knowledge of science and history to make life better for her people. She can also throw down with a sword when she needs to, and, even more importantly, she knows when she doesn’t need to.

The pro-environmentalist, anti-fascist messages of the film are less prescient on Miyazaki’s part than they are proof that all of our current problems have been apparent for decades. But living in difficult times, it is kind of comforting to see inspirational characters dealing with the same issues. So, by all means, send in the princesses. We could use some help.