Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

How this film uses it

The Ohm are giant insects that humans fear and slaughter. They turn out to be the planet's immune system. Their violence is a response to human violence. The film's main point is that the non-human world has its own purposes, and humans mistake those purposes for hostility.

Where to see it

Nausicaä communicating with the Ohm. In this moment, 2 species understand each other. It changes how you see every earlier scene of the insects as a threat, and it reveals their anger as grief.

How this film uses it

Nausicaä is a complete protagonist: pilot, scientist, diplomat, warrior. Her gender never limits her and the story never treats it as an obstacle. Her authority is set in the opening scene, and nothing in how the film is built ever questions it.

Where to see it

Nausicaä's solo flight through the toxic jungle. It's the earliest point where the film shows she is fully capable in body and mind, in a world that requires both.

How this film uses it

You can see Miyazaki's own hand in much of the animation, like the glowing spores of the toxic forest, the alien shapes of the Sea of Decay and Nausicaä's glider in flight. Because it's drawn, the world feels strange and closely observed at the same time.

Where to see it

The toxic forest underground. You get the hand-drawn glow of the purified spores, the crystal formations and the silence. This world is healing in ways the surface can't see.

How this film uses it

Miyazaki sets up his post-apocalyptic world largely through visual detail (the patchwork kingdoms, the giant insects, the ecology of the toxic jungle). The film builds the world with images and explains little. You put the rules together from what you observe.

Where to see it

The film's opening tapestry sequence. It is a visual history of how the world collapsed and what state it's in now, told through woven images with a short narration. The world is set up before any character has spoken.