| 1 | %% Image kept on page per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1623854158040301400 |
| 2 | %% Please do not replace or remove without starting a new thread. |
| 3 | %% |
| 4 | [[quoteright:349:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nausica2.png]] |
| 5 | [[caption-width-right:350:''"And that one shall come to you garbed in raiment of blue, descending upon a field of gold... to forge anew our ties with the lost land."'']] |
| 6 | %% |
| 7 | -> 1,000 years after the collapse of industrial civilization,\ |
| 8 | the Sea of Corruption, a swamp exuding toxic vapors,\ |
| 9 | covered an earth strewn with rusting ruins,\ |
| 10 | threatening human survival. |
| 11 | -->-- '''Opening text of the film'''. |
| 12 | |
| 13 | ''Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind'' (風の谷のナウシカ, ''Kaze no Tani no Naushika'') is a [[AfterTheEnd post-apocalyptic]] ScienceFantasy manga [[SelfAdaptation and animated movie]] by Creator/HayaoMiyazaki. {{In a world}} dominated by a caustic forest full of colossal and deadly arthropods, one of the few places left habitable is the Valley of the Wind--a place where toxic spores produced by the forest are kept from settling by the constant ocean breeze. The crash of a gigantic airplane and subsequent incursion into the Valley by [[TheEmpire Torumekia]] leads to the revelation of a secret that could destroy what's left of humanity, if not the world... |
| 14 | |
| 15 | Visually inventive and gripping, the heroine--the eponymous Nausicaä--eventually learns a GreenAesop about living in harmony with Gaia. |
| 16 | |
| 17 | The success of the movie--Miyazaki's first independent work[[note]]the ''first'' film he directed was 1979's ''Anime/TheCastleOfCagliostro'', which he did at Studio Telecom for [[Creator/TMSEntertainment Tokyo Movie Shinsha]][[/note]]--led directly to the founding of Creator/StudioGhibli and inspired [[Franchise/FinalFantasy Chocobos]]; it's also where Creator/HideakiAnno got the prototype for the [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Evas]] (since Anno was handpicked by Miyazaki to be the lead animator for the inspiring scene). Anno would later produce a short tokusatsu film spin-off featuring a live-action version of the creature entitled ''Giant God Warrior Appears in Tokyo''. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | Since Miyazaki's only directorial credits up to that point ([[Anime/TheCastleOfCagliostro with one exception]]) [[Anime/LupinIIIPart1 were]] [[Anime/WorldMasterpieceTheater the television]] [[Anime/FutureBoyConan shows]] [[Anime/SherlockHound that]] he'd worked on with Creator/IsaoTakahata-- all adaptations of proven popular works-- publisher Tokuma Shoten was not willing to give him financial backing for his proposed anime projects (''Warring States Demon Castle'' (戦国魔城, Sengoku Ma-Jō), to be set in the Sengoku period, and an adaptation of Richard Corben comic ''Rowlf''), as they were not based on existing manga. An agreement was reached that Miyazaki could start developing his sketches and ideas into a manga with the proviso that it would never be made into a film. So he did, publishing ''Nausicaä'' in Tokuma Shoten's monthly ''Magazine/{{Animage}}'' magazine beginning in 1982. But it quickly became ''Animage'''s most popular feature, and Tokuma Shoten encouraged Miyazaki to work on a film adaptation, which eventually came out in 1984. Even after the film's success, he continued to occasionally put out new manga chapters in between working on his later movies, finally finishing the story in 1994, just in time for the film's tenth anniversary. |
| 20 | |
| 21 | It is worth noting that the manga diverges significantly from the animated version. For one, the manga's story is ''much'' more vast--introducing settings, important characters, and even entire races of people that are never mentioned in the movie (which is understandable for the ¾ of the manga made after it). The result is two very different takes on the same basic concept, both by the same man. |
| 22 | |
| 23 | The combined whole, meanwhile -- film and manga both -- ended up becoming one of the most influential fantasy works in modern Japanese pop culture and its influence is felt keenly even in the 21st century. Never mind the horseclaws, ''Nausicaä'' made popular the idea of an AfterTheEnd setting with a major technological past that still influences the present, Nausicaä herself paved the way for generations of anime ''leading'' heroines, and the visual design of the Sea of Corruption and the flying ships has influenced media Japan-wide for decades. Works like ''VideoGame/GranblueFantasy'' owe a huge debt to it, ''VideoGame/FinalFantasy'' as a whole likely wouldn't be what it is without it, and ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' owes its entire ''existence'' to Creator/HideakiAnno's work in some sections of the movie and was massively inspired by parts of it. And these are just a few examples. |
| 24 | %%It however, is now best known for at least inspiring the Franchise/StarWars sequel trilogy, as Rey and Nausicaä both have similar personalities and designs. |
| 25 | |
| 26 | Just one year after its Japanese theatrical premiere, the ''Nausicaä'' movie gained the distinction of being the first Miyazaki work to see a North American release, even if said release was, erm... ''[[{{Macekre}} less than faithful]]'' to the original version, putting it in the lightest terms possible.[[note]]22 minutes from the original 117-minute film were cut, to be exact.[[/note]] This newly-cut film, now retitled ''Warriors of the Wind'', appalled Miyazaki & co. so much that it led directly to Studio Ghibli's now-famous policy of not allowing international distributors to cut or alter even a single frame of the animation, aside from translating the credits and title logo (and, resultingly, led to a decade-long export freeze of Miyazaki films). It took about two decades for ''Nausicaä'' to return to America, but the current English version, produced in 2005 by Ghibli's longtime partner Creator/{{Disney}} and approved by Miyazaki himself, is completely uncut and uncensored. |
| 27 | |
| 28 | Three video game adaptations of ''Nausicaä'' were released for the Platform/{{MSX}}; two were top-down shooters but where Nausicaä does negotiations with human villages to prevent war and drops stun bombs (NOT regular bombs) on Ohmus as a strict self-defense measure. They were, however, mediocre in their gameplay, and flopped. As a result, not counting ''Anime/FutureBoyConan'' videogame adaptations, no further games based on Studio Ghibli works were produced (not that it kept the studio from doing the art direction for other games, like ''VideoGame/MagicPengel'' for the [[Platform/PlayStation PS2]], among others). A very common UrbanLegend has it that those games greatly offended Miyazaki, based on the wrong assumption that the games openly subverted the message of his film. Interviews following ''VideoGame/NiNoKuni''[='=]s release, and an actual look on those rare games by Website/HardcoreGaming101, debunked these rumors, with Studio Ghibli even being open to a ''Castle in the Sky'' adaptation. |
| 29 | |
| 30 | ---- |
| 31 | !!This series provides examples of: |
| 32 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 33 | |
| 34 | [[folder:General]] |
| 35 | * AcePilot: |
| 36 | ** Nausicaä, of course. Also Asbel, impersonating the [[Film/TheRedBaron Red Baron]]. |
| 37 | ** [[spoiler:Kurotowa]] shows his skills in the manga, revealing himself to be more than the silly dandy he comes off as. |
| 38 | * AdventurerArchaeologist: Nausicaä spends much of her time exploring the poisonous and giant insect-infested forests. She also takes part in several battles and more than holds her own. |
| 39 | * AfterTheEnd: The post-apocalyptic story is set a millennium after the global catastrophe called the Seven Days of Fire. |
| 40 | * AirborneAircraftCarrier: Every significant faction has one, save the Worm-Handlers. They generally feel cramped and patched together, like most technology since the remaining people no longer have the ability to construct new ones. |
| 41 | * AirVentPassageway: Lord Yupa uses one to overhear the conversation in the lab where the Giant Warrior is incubated. |
| 42 | * AlienBlood: |
| 43 | ** The Ohmu have blue blood. This becomes relevant during the climax of the film, where Nausicaä's blouse turns blue because of the blood from the infant Ohmu, and early in the manga. |
| 44 | ** Later on, the blue blood of [[spoiler:the Crypt of Shuwa]] becomes just as significant. |
| 45 | * AllAnimalsAreDogs: Variation. The Squirrel-fox behaves like a cat, even purring. |
| 46 | * AlmostDeadGuy: [[spoiler:Princess Lastel]]. She could only deliver a few lines before dying. |
| 47 | * AnachronismStew: |
| 48 | ** A sword-swinging cavalry charge is usually backed up with machine gun fire from levitating "bell jars". The Torumekian gunship pilot uniform consists of full medieval-style plate armor complete with a conical visor helmet. In general, this is ascribed to the great height that human civilization reached before it fell hard, with every succeeding wave of civilization reaching lesser height before collapsing in war and leaving its weapons to be employed by the next rise. |
| 49 | ** There are scenes in the manga where the characters make a point to salvage ship engines, with one character remarking that the whole plane could be reconstructed around the salvaged engines. In addition, most armor and swords are stated to be ceramic, containing futuristic metallic composite, or made from Ohmu shell (which is supposedly the hardest substance available and acts like a bulletproof ferro-ceramic composite, making the plate and scale armors of the comic a sensible retro-modern adaptation). There is even a mine centered around a downed starship[[labelnote:*]] (meant to be the Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato in a classic Miyazaki antiwar TakeThat)[[/labelnote]] that harvests the superhard ceramic and metal of the ship for armor and blades. |
| 50 | * AndroclesLion: First played straight then subverted in the movie, where Nausicaä prevents a baby Ohmu from drowning in acid (using its feelers to realize her HeroicSacrifice), but then subverted when [[spoiler:the enraged Ohmu ignore Nausicaä ''and'' the baby Ohmu in their stampede. However, they soon realize what they did and stop stampeding]]. That same scene is played straight in the manga. |
| 51 | * AnimalCompanion: Teto, Nausicaä's fox-squirrel. |
| 52 | * ApocalypseHow: Class 2 disaster, threatens to become a Class 3. Industrial civilization has obliterated itself from the world. The remaining kingdoms and empires are busily destroying each other through war, and the ever-expanding [[GardenOfEvil Sea of Corruption]] is making large areas completely uninhabitable to all animals except its own giant insects. |
| 53 | * AppliedPhlebotinum: Nothing is revealed about what fuels the engines used in all the various aircraft, and there's never any concerns mentioned about running out of fuel. Best guess is that all the engines left behind by the ancient industrial civilizations, and that are now so treasured by everyone, all have their own internal power source. |
| 54 | * AristocratsAreEvil: |
| 55 | ** The Torumekian nobility usually combines this with VillainousGlutton and maybe DirtyCoward. |
| 56 | ** As much as they can be considered nobility, the Dorok Council of Monks qualifies. The Emperor and his younger brother ''definitely'' qualify. |
| 57 | * ArmiesAreEvil: |
| 58 | ** Played straight in the movie with the Tolmekians. [[spoiler:The Pejiteians aren't much better.]] |
| 59 | ** Much more nuanced in the manga, as we get to spend a lot of time with the Torumekian military. Despite their {{jerkass}} tendencies early on (and the fact that Torumekia started the war), some of them [[spoiler:sacrifice their lives to protect Nausicaä]]. The Dorok army more directly fits this trope. |
| 60 | * ArtisticLicenseBiology: |
| 61 | ** Even if they are [[spoiler:bio-engineered]], [[SquareCubeLaw arthropods simply cannot get that big]]; and even if they could, it's unlikely that they would have blue blood since hemocyanin is far too inefficient at conducting oxygen for such massive creatures. |
| 62 | ** Zig-zagged examples regarding the "vegetation" of the Sea of Corruption. If fungi replaced plants as the dominant ground cover, there simply wouldn't be enough oxygen around for the giant arthropods or the humans to breathe. Fungi, unlike plants, ''consume oxygen without creating any''. That said, most of the larger plants in the Sea of Corruption are, in fact, plants despite their names -- breadfungus is shown to actually be a mutated tree, while the top canopy is largely Mushigo Palms (basically giant ferns). [[spoiler:It also helps that the entire thing is engineered, so fungi-plants that produce oxygen on top of their conversion of toxins in soil isn't completely implausible.]] |
| 63 | * AuthorAppeal: Flying machines and an anti-war message -- both became recognizable staples of Miyazaki's work. Same for environmentalism and strong female characters with short hair (to the point that a number of Ghibli heroines are said to be copies of Nausicaa). |
| 64 | * BadassPacifist: Master Yupa, who will go to great lengths to not have unnecessary bloodshed, even against marauding enemies. Heck, the only blood shed in Barehanded Blade Block below was ''his own''. |
| 65 | * BarehandedBladeBlock: In both manga and film, Yupa does this to prevent a slaughter in the Valley, taking Nausicaä's sword ''point-first'', through his forearm. Even though Yupa keeps his calm, Nausicaä notices the blood dripping down her sword and his shudder of pain. It shows early on just how far he is willing to go to keep the peace and keep Nausicaä from doing something she'll regret. |
| 66 | * BewareTheNiceOnes: |
| 67 | ** In the film, all semblance of the compassionate, loving, and unconditionally kind Nausicaä gets ripped away when her father is murdered. In her place emerges [[UnstoppableRage a rampaging beast in the guise of a Princess]], who proceeds to ''[[FoeTossingCharge slaughter]]'' the soldiers responsible in a matter of seconds. |
| 68 | ** This is even more pronounced in the manga, where Nausicaä's father dies later of natural causes, and she flies off the handle simply because the soldiers were trespassing in her valley and getting spores everywhere... and she noticed one of the Worm-Handlers had desecrated Lastel's grave... and their slugworms were physically violating her... so in retrospect she definitely had reason to lose her cool. But in this version she only kills one guy, and he challenged her to a duel. |
| 69 | * {{BFG}}: Averted, for the most part. A notable exception is when Nausicaä briefly hefts a heavy machine gun to enforce compliance. It's a good bet that the thing weighs only a little less than ''she'' does. |
| 70 | ** Honorable mention goes to the Valley's gunship, which is less a fighter plane and more a derringer on wings that fires artillery shells for bullets. |
| 71 | ** [[spoiler:The Giant Warrior (i.e. Ohma)]] has one built into its gullet as a primary weapon -- some kind of disintegration or mass conversion cannon. |
| 72 | * BigCreepyCrawlies: The various arthropods that populate and defend the Sea of Corruption are all vastly larger than common insectoid lifeforms. The absolute smallest infant larvae are still larger than a human infant, while adult specimens of the largest variety dwarf multi-story buildings and can easily level entire cities in a charge. |
| 73 | * BigDamnHeroes: |
| 74 | ** In the movie, the people of Pejitei are trapped on the aircraft, waiting to be slaughtered by the Tolmekian troops. Cue Lord Yupa who drops in through the roof hatch and [[OneManArmy singlehandedly takes out]] all the Tolmekians. |
| 75 | ** Far too many instances to count in the manga, but the scene where Yupa destroys a secret Dorok lab all by himself ''and'' takes out several dozen Worm-Handlers in the process is a good contender. |
| 76 | * BigOlEyebrows: Very common among the male population of the Valley of the Wind. Usually dwarfed by their even more imposing mustaches (or beard in the case of Mito and Yupa). |
| 77 | * BlindedByTheLight: |
| 78 | ** Nausicaä uses flash grenades to stun an Ohmu and convince it to leave an unlucky traveller (Yupa) alone, since she's not willing to kill them. It works much better than trying to do so anyway. |
| 79 | ** Later on in the film, the people of the Valley use them against the Torumekians and capture a {{tank|Goodness}}. |
| 80 | ** Discussed late in the manga regarding [[spoiler:Ohma]], several characters mentioning how they have to look away. |
| 81 | * BodyHorror: In both manga and film, the Giant/God-Warrior is awakened before it has finished incubating. |
| 82 | ** In the manga, it slowly breaks down and loses its teeth as it flies across the land, but manages to survive long enough to [[spoiler:destroy the Heart of the Crypt]]. |
| 83 | ** In the anime, it begins to '''''melt''''' as soon as it appears in the climax, ribs exposed and all. |
| 84 | * BreathWeapon: The God Warriors' primary weapon is a Casaba Howitzer mounted inside their mouths. |
| 85 | * ButtMonkey: Kurotowa early in the story. Whenever things seem to go his way or he gets a good line, something blows up. Usually right beside him. In the manga, he ends up in traction around the halfway point (he gets better though). |
| 86 | * CactusPerson: The Heedra are mutated warriors resembling humanoid cacti, equipped with three eyes and an extreme capacity for regeneration, who serve as the guardians of the Crypt of Shuwa. |
| 87 | * CallASmeerpARabbit: |
| 88 | ** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fennec_fox Fox]]-Squirrel, or striped chihuahua-cat-rat life form. |
| 89 | ** Giant ratite-style birds utilized for transport are called "Horseclaws". |
| 90 | ** The humans refer to the Ohmu and other Forest creatures as "insects", but almost none of them fit the definition[[labelnote:*]] (triple-segmented body and three pairs of legs)[[/labelnote]]. They ''are'' undeniably arthropods (which insects also are), and it is revealed late in the manga that [[spoiler:they are artificially bio-engineered life forms]]. |
| 91 | * CharmPerson: Nausicaä, which is why the Ohmu listen to her and no other human. |
| 92 | * ChildNamingRequest: Given by a villager to Lord Yupa. We never find out what name he chose. |
| 93 | * TheChosenOne: Nausicaä, as foretold by the prophecy of "The Blue-Clad One". |
| 94 | * CoatHatMask: Master Yupa wears an outfit like this when Nausicaä first meets him, which makes sense since humans have to wear gas masks at all times to protect themselves from the Sea Of Corruption / Toxic Jungle. |
| 95 | * ColorCodedForYourConvenience: If you see [[RedEyesTakeWarning red insect eyes]] of any kind, ''someone'' is going to get screwed. If they're blue, your quest just got a lot easier. |
| 96 | * ConvectionSchmonvection: Heat doesn't seem to impress our Princess much. Early on we see Nausicaä jump around the burning inferno of the airship that crashed into the valley. And again, when she and Mito are surrounded by a wall-o'-fire on the airship that was intercepted by Asbel. |
| 97 | * CoolOldGuy: Master Yupa, in times of peace. He's seen as a wise and experienced mentor whose advice everyone seeks, from mothers who want to name their babies to kings and chieftains older than he is. |
| 98 | * CoolPlane: What else would you ''expect'' from Miyazaki? |
| 99 | ** Nausicaä's Mehve/Möwe, a one-person flying wing that goes everywhere. |
| 100 | ** The Valley's Gunship gets its own share of the spotlight, too. |
| 101 | ** More generally, everyone uses aircraft with many engines and lots of guns that go from small "corvettes" to flying battleships and transports big enough to hold a large part of a tribe. |
| 102 | * CryIntoChest: |
| 103 | ** Nausicaä cries in Lord Yupa's chest after making her decision to shut down her hidden garden. |
| 104 | ** In the manga, Ketcha also cries in Yupa's chest after the death of The Holy One. At the very end of the story, she does it again, crying into [[spoiler:Asbel's]] chest when she [[spoiler:sees he survived the Battle of Shuwa]]. |
| 105 | * DaddysGirl: Nausicaä appears to take after her father quite a bit, which is why she flies into such a rage when he's [[spoiler:murdered by the Torumekians in the movie.]] This is at least partly due to the fact that her mother was very distant while she was still alive. She was probably averse to getting attached since all her other children died from pollution diseases in infancy. |
| 106 | * DaysOfFuturePast: Of the FeudalFuture variety. |
| 107 | * DoomedHometown: Pejitei. ''How'' it's doomed depends on which version – in the movie, [[spoiler:the Pejiteans lure several dozen spore-carrying Ohmu into the heart of their own city to drive out the Tolmekians]]; in the manga, [[spoiler:the Torumekians simply show up one night and slaughter everyone except for Lastel's refugee ship, which got away but crashed in the Sea Of Corruption after someone onboard angered the insects]]. |
| 108 | * DragonWithAnAgenda: Subverted by Kurotowa. While he's ecstatic to be in charge when it seems Kushana has been killed, when she shows up he sighs and gives up the position quickly and continues being her toadie. |
| 109 | * DressingAsTheEnemy: Happens with Nausicaä in both the film and the manga – same dress – but the circumstances differ. |
| 110 | ** In the movie, an unnamed Pejite girl[[labelnote:*]] (she looks like Ketcha, a Dorok girl who was introduced in the corresponding scene in the manga)[[/labelnote]] swaps clothes with her to allow her to move about the ship freely and escape. |
| 111 | ** In the manga, a sympathetic old Dorok woman gives Nausicaä her dead daughter's old dress (which Ketcha admits she wanted, but Nausicaä looked like the daughter). This nearly comes back to bite Nausicaä when she returns to the Torumekians and Kushana recognizes the symbol on the dress and tries to use it as a reason to not help her. |
| 112 | * DualWielding: A preferred style of Master Yupa, usually wielding a full or short sword and an off-hand ''main-gauche'', or parrying dagger. |
| 113 | * EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The God Warrior wreckage Nausicaa climbs through at the very beginning has a cockpit inside its head with buttons and joysticks. No mention of any God Warriors having human pilots rather than being living creatures made of genetically engineered flesh grown over a mechanical endoskeleton is ever made again. This is probably all to the good, given that if the manned versions had the same weapons loadout as the autonomous units, the pilot would be sitting right on top of a nuclear shaped charge, not to mention underneath a pair of high-powered X-ray emitters. Given Miyazaki's fondness for historical airplanes, it's not hard to imagine him picturing the Me-163 Comet while working on that one. |
| 114 | * EmergencyCargoDump: An engine-less cargo barge from the Valley gets detached from the Gunship during an enemy attack and starts to tank towards the ground where dangerous monster insects are located. In order to stop the sinking the crew start dumping all cargo from the barge. |
| 115 | * EmpathicEnvironment: Thanks to the Ohmu, the Forest is this. If you hurt the insects, the ''entire Forest'' will amass just to '''''end''''' you. |
| 116 | * EstablishingCharacterMoment: When we first see Nausicaä rescuing Master Yupa from a Ohmu, she doesn't kill it, she only stuns it. [[AllLovingHero Because she loves even giant deadly arthropods]]. And immediately after that, when meeting the feral Squirrel-fox rescued by Master Yupa, the animal immediately bites Nausicaä's finger. While she shows on her face the pain this causes she doesn't flinch and lets the animal gnaw at her, all the while talking soothingly to it until its anger abates. |
| 117 | * EvilCounterpart: Particularly in the movie, Kushana to Nausicaä. Both are princesses, but the former is scheming and ambitious while the latter is entirely selfless. Much more nuanced in the manga, where Kushana isn't an outright antagonist and Nausicaä, while still fundamentally good, isn't quite as selfless as she pretends. They ''are'' still, as Miyazaki himself said, "two sides of the same coin". |
| 118 | * EvilIsVisceral: The Giant Warrior in the film is very much this. Subverted with the rest of the creatures, when it turns out that humans can live together with them peacefully. [[spoiler:Even the God Warrior's evilness is subverted in the manga. It's not so much evil as it is a child, and its death from its own radiation (and being revived while incomplete) while Nausicaä comforts it is one of the sadder moments of the story.]] |
| 119 | * ExactEavesdropping: |
| 120 | ** Through an AirVentPassageway, Lord Yupa is able to overhear a conversation that's going on in the lab where the Giant Warrior is incubated. He learns all he needs to know about the crashed aircrafts. |
| 121 | ** Kurotowa does this in the manga when Nausicaä returns to the Imperial Corvette and has a brief conversation with Kushana. Amusingly, Kushana knows he's listening and calls him out on it. |
| 122 | * {{Expy}}: |
| 123 | ** Nausicaä is one of Maki Oyamada, a character in the final episode of ''Anime/LupinIIIPartII'', "Aloha Lupin". She even shares the same voice actor, Creator/SumiShimamoto. Of course, that episode was made by Hayao Miyazaki. She also bears a visual resemblance to Clarisse from ''Anime/TheCastleOfCagliostro'', another princess in a Miyazaki work voiced by Shimamoto. |
| 124 | ** Yupa is one of Gandalf, as ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' was one of the works which inspired Miyazaki. |
| 125 | * EyepatchOfPower: Mito has one. |
| 126 | * FacelessGoons: |
| 127 | ** The Torumekian soldiers, whose helmets cover everything from the neck up. |
| 128 | ** Whilst almost any "generic enemy" is faceless behind their masks or armor, the amount of headgear (or lack thereof) that they wear in more casual situations is pretty much inversely proportionate to how [[HeelFaceTurn friendly]] they are with Nausicaä. [[spoiler:Including a Torumekian princess, a Dorok high priest... hell, even a small unit of Worm-Handlers.]] |
| 129 | * FamedInStory: Everyone, repeat ''everyone'', has heard of Lord Yupa. |
| 130 | * FantasticNuke: The God Warriors, especially their mouth beams. Millenia ago, these giant, biomechanical beings were responsible for the Seven Days of Fire that destroyed the civilization of their creators, the Ancients, and nearly the entire world, with the Sea of Corruption appearing not long after this apocalypse. The God Warriors were able to fly and fire devastating energy beams. They were also fueled by atomic power and contact with them caused radiation poisoning. An unfinished God Warrior is discovered in Pejite shortly before the story begins. Its appearance arouses the envy and interest of Pejite's neighboring kingdoms and beyond because it inspires within them the hope of finally destroying the deadly Sea of Corruption and, for the more ruthless kingdoms such as Torumekia, the chance to conquer and expand into more fertile territories. |
| 131 | * FoeTossingCharge: Do ''not'' stand in front of a red-eyed Ohmu. Seriously. Master Yupa explicitly alludes to this when Nausicaä, consumed by rage, takes on the exact same attitude as an angry Ohmu. |
| 132 | * FriendToAllLivingThings: Nausicaä takes this much further than most. She's able to calm the rage of rampaging giant insects in addition to being able to befriend cute-looking animals. It becomes a ChekhovsGun when her charity is witnessed by one of the largest Ohmu; [[spoiler:it's likely said Ohmu belatedly recognized who she was after the stampede.]] |
| 133 | * FriendToBugs: Nausicaä is sympathetic toward the giant insects of the poisonous forest, particularly the dinosaur-sized Ohmu. In a flashback scene, she's shown trying to keep a tiny Ohmu as a pet as a small child and to hide it from adults (she failed). |
| 134 | * FrontlineGeneral: Kushana is a general who leads from the front and tends to be right in the middle of the hardest fighting. |
| 135 | * FungusHumongous: The Sea of Corruption. |
| 136 | * GaiasLament: The Earth has been devastated by what appears to be a nuclear war and remains heavily polluted and almost uninhabitable. The humans' inability to get along with the Ohmu (attempting to destroy them or their home) leads to... |
| 137 | * GaiasVengeance: It's described but not named in the movie. In the manga it's called the ''Daikaisho''[[labelnote:*]] (in "the tongue of the ancients" [that is, Japanese], it means "Great Sea Wave")[[/labelnote]] -- wherein human malice causes the forest to have a collective fit, with Ohmu stampeding en masse until they die of hunger, then the spores they carry on them sprout into a brand new forest. It is stated early in the manga that this has happened three times since the Seven Days of Fire... and a fourth is on the way. |
| 138 | * GardenOfEvil: |
| 139 | ** The Sea of Corruption, [[spoiler: at least at first]]. |
| 140 | ** In the manga, Nausicaä considers [[spoiler:the Hidden Garden]] to be uncomfortably close to this. |
| 141 | * GhibliHills: The Valley. The rest of the world, though, tends to SceneryGorn more often than not. |
| 142 | * GoThroughMe: It seems to be a CentralTheme in which characters will harm themselves to prevent others from being harmed, such as Nausicaä allowing her ''wounded foot'' to be soaked deep in an ''acid lake'' to prevent a baby Ohmu from blinding heading into it to rejoin its herd. |
| 143 | * HappyFlashback: Played straight when an Ohmu taps Nausicaä's memory via TouchTelepathy and we see a flashback of her as a happy child in a field of gold, singing a simple melody. |
| 144 | ** Subverted later when we return to that flashback in Nausicaä's dream. [[OnceMoreWithClarity Here we learn the true nature of that memory.]] It was about Nausicaä trying to save an Ohmu larva from being killed by her people. She failed. |
| 145 | * HeavenlyBlue: The "Blue-Clad One" |
| 146 | * HeroicSacrifice: |
| 147 | ** In the movie, Nausicaä tries to stop the Ohmu from attacking the Valley but instead is [[spoiler:killed in the stampede. She gets better, though.]] |
| 148 | ** In the manga, the Holy One sacrifices himself to buy his tribe some time to escape from Miralupa's guards (and also to shield Nausicaä from Miralupa's evil telepathy). [[spoiler:Yupa]] dies in a similar way much later on to protect [[spoiler:Kushana]]. At the very end, [[spoiler:the Vai Emperor]] is mortally wounded shielding Nausicaä from [[spoiler:the Crypt's dying light]]. [[spoiler:Nausicaä tries to invoke this on herself when she finds the epicentre of the soon-to-happen Daikaisho and declares she will "become Forest". However, the Ohmu immediately ensure she stays alive.]] |
| 149 | * HorseOfADifferentColor: Horseclaws, genetically reconstituted domesticated prehistoric flightless birds, serve as the primary mount of the Torumekians and most of the Periphery Tribes. |
| 150 | ** They helped inspire Chocobos in ''Franchise/FinalFantasy''. |
| 151 | ** The Doroks use creatures known as "Warbeasts" or "long-haired cattle", which look like gigantic Irish Setters with horns and lizard feet. |
| 152 | * HumansAreBastards: Played with. It's more "Humans ''were'' Bastards" and "''Most'' Humans Are Bastards". Even the Doroks have people on their side who aren't bastards. |
| 153 | * HumongousMecha: The God Warriors qualify as much as the [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Evangelions]] do (and in fact, Creator/HideakiAnno worked on both). |
| 154 | * ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: |
| 155 | ** The Torumekian pilots trying to hit Nausicaä on her glider but failing miserably. |
| 156 | ** The Doroks, who excel at melee combat, aren't much better (though they do have a sharpshooter that manages to pick off several of Kushana's men ''and'' Nausicaä's Horseclaw). For the most part, the only decent shots are people from the Periphery. |
| 157 | * ImplacableMan: Any [[RedEyesTakeWarning enraged Ohmu]]. Actually used as part of a plot to spread the Sea of Corruption on an enemy country. |
| 158 | * ImprobableAimingSkills: Again, Nausicaä, oh so much. She doesn't carry a rifle in her glider for ''ballast''. One early example: shooting a rope hanging from a moving vehicle with a pistol while flying a glider at high speeds with the other hand. |
| 159 | * ImprobablePilotingSkills: Who else? Nausicaä's mastery of the winds lets her do things with her glider, even when its engine breaks down, that people in jet engine gunships can only ''dream'' of doing. |
| 160 | * InconsistentDub: There are several examples of the manga and anime's English translations interpreting terminology differently. |
| 161 | ** The fungus forest, which is always called ''Fukai'' ("sea of rot") in Japanese, goes by various names in the English translations. The manga alternates between "Sea of Corruption" and "Rotwood", but in a way that implies these are simply two common names as opposed to the translation being internally inconsistent. The official English release of the film soundtrack also uses the former, but the English-dubbed film itself uses "Toxic Jungle". |
| 162 | ** ''Torumekia'' uses the Japanese spelling in the English manga but is slightly streamlined to Tolmekia in the anime. |
| 163 | ** ''Pejite'' becomes Pejitei in the English manga, possibly to clarify the pronunciation of the final syllable, while the anime's English dub pronounces it as "Peh-jyte". |
| 164 | * TheIngenue: Nausicaä, sort of. She's kind, gentle, and forgiving, but instead of child-like innocence it underscores her maturity instead. She's also much more physically inclined than the traditional ingenue. |
| 165 | * JustPlaneWrong: Some airplanes are flown by pilots from standing positions, which is physically impossible, like as if they're piloting boats instead of planes. |
| 166 | * KillItWithFire: |
| 167 | ** How the people of the Valley deal with the spores. The difference is that they only do this when their own trees have been infested, whereas the film's Torumekians want to burn down ''the entire Forest''. |
| 168 | ** In the manga, the Doroks' first resort is to use this against their [[GoneHorriblyRight genetically-engineered]] [[BlobMonster super-mold]] that escaped their floating laboratory. It doesn't quite work. |
| 169 | * LadyOfWar: |
| 170 | ** Princess Kushana. |
| 171 | ** Nausicaä really does '''''not''''' want to be one, but ends up striking a balance between this and straight up CuteBruiser. |
| 172 | * LastFertileRegion: The Valley of the Wind is one of only a few left. |
| 173 | * LostSuperweapon: The God Warriors. |
| 174 | * LostTechnology: Pretty much all the technology, actually, including the God Warriors and the Mehve/Möwe: light enough to be carried, strong enough to survive hundred-foot drops, and apparently runs on Aether. Not much for safety, though. Its fuel consumption is also probably quite low, as it only fires its thruster in short, periodic bursts for acceleration and takeoff. |
| 175 | * LoyalAnimalCompanion: |
| 176 | ** Teto to Nausicaä. |
| 177 | ** Kai and Kui also sometimes act like this towards Nausicaä and Master Yupa. |
| 178 | * MadeOfExplodium: The airships, especially when they crash. Justified for Torumekian Bumblecrows and Corvettes and the Dorok Monitors, as those are military ships filled with artillery. |
| 179 | * MagicCountdown: When their airship gets hit by Asbel and starts to tank, Nausicaä, Mito, and Kushana have plenty of time [[TalkingIsAFreeAction to talk]] and sort out the glider in the cargo area before they finally manage to [[OutrunTheFireball escape the exploding ship]]. |
| 180 | * MartialPacifist: Nausicaä, and all the people of the Valley. |
| 181 | * MasterSwordsman: Nausicaä. Whether wielding an {{ancestral|Weapon}} {{BFS}} longer than she is tall, or her signature Ohmu-shell blade, she's a whirlwind of destruction all on her own. Only Master Yupa stands above her -- and who do you think taught her? |
| 182 | * MeaningfulName: The kanji in ''Ohmu'' translate to "king insect" – not too far off given their size, position in the Sea Of Corruption, and NighInvulnerability. The name also sounds like the sacred mantra '''Ohm''' (or '''Aum'''[[labelnote:*]] though that spelling is banned in Japan for very good reason[[/labelnote]]) found in multiple Indian religions. |
| 183 | * MedievalStasis: Zig-zagged. The Valley Of The Wind looks and is run like a tiny Renaissance duchy, and in the manga it is heavily implied that most settlements which aren't either capitals or mining colonies are like this. Tolas and Shuwa are both noticeably more modern-looking, though. [[spoiler:And the now-buried-by-forest Kingdom of Eftal (of which the Valley and Pejitei are two of the last remnants) was downright futuristic.]] |
| 184 | * MissingMom: Nausicaä's mother appears in a flashback, but at the time of the story in both manga and film only her father is alive. [[spoiler:And not for long, either.]] |
| 185 | * ModestRoyalty: Nausicaä is a princess, but you'd never know it by looking at her. Keep in mind that Nausicaä is princess for a kingdom of less than a thousand people. If Eftal still existed, she'd only be the equivalent of a petty noble with a small fief, and not living that much above the means of the common folk anyway. |
| 186 | * AMotherToHerMen: Kushana to the Third Army, especially in the manga. |
| 187 | * MsExposition: |
| 188 | ** The blind old woman, Obaba, has a lot to tell about the history of the clan. |
| 189 | ** In the manga, the Matriarch (a different, even older, blind woman) is brought in to explain to the assembled chieftains exactly what the Daikaisho is and what happened to Eftal. |
| 190 | * MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Quite a bit of it in both versions. One seen in each is Nausicaä's reaction near the beginning when she realizes [[spoiler:she's killed a man (or men) and wounded Yupa]]. |
| 191 | ** In the film, [[spoiler:Kurotowa instantly regrets using the God Warrior, even if it had worked.]] |
| 192 | ** In the manga, ''lots'' of people have this reaction. For example, [[spoiler:Charuka when he realizes what a stupid idea it is to weaponize the Sea Of Corruption and does a HeelFaceTurn to help Nausicaä]]. Nausicaä spends almost the entire last third of the story like this, for... multiple reasons, really. |
| 193 | * NamedAfterSomebodyFamous: Nausicaä is also the name of a character in ''Literature/TheOdyssey''. |
| 194 | * NewEden: Mild subversion; the New Eden scenario is only beginning to happen. [[spoiler:And in the manga, Nausicaä intentionally scuttles the second half of the process.]] |
| 195 | * NoOSHACompliance: Justified in that anything resembling OSHA died out along with Industrialized Civilization. The Pejite excavation is really ''not'' safe and has a ''lot'' of accidents, including one of Kurotowa's soldiers falling a hundred or so feet to his death in front of him (guy ''did'' try to push Kurotowa though). |
| 196 | * OldSchoolDogfight: The airships engage in plenty of them. See CoolPlane. |
| 197 | * OrganicTechnology: The most advanced pre-Seven Days of Fire technology was this, including the God Wariors, [[spoiler:the Forest]] and [[spoiler:the Crypt of Shuwa]]. Now only the most technologicaly advanced factions have some access to it, [[spoiler:mostly thanks to the Crypt]]. |
| 198 | * PersonOfMassDestruction: The God Warrior. Made even more evident in the manga, when the single Warrior that awakens during the story is given an actual name ([[spoiler:Ohma, "innocent"]]) and personality ([[spoiler:The Arbiter]]). |
| 199 | * PlatonicBoyGirlHeroes: Nausicaä and Asbel are drawn to each other by friendship. |
| 200 | * PluckyGirl: Nausicaä. Ketcha to a lesser extent. |
| 201 | * PostApocalypticGasmask: Almost everyone carries gas masks in order to deal with the highly toxic atmosphere of the Sea of Corruption. |
| 202 | * PropheciesAreAlwaysRight: The messiah dressed in blue who will restore mankind's connection with the earth turns out to be none other than [[spoiler:''Nausicaä'']]. |
| 203 | * ProphecyTwist: ''"And that one shall come to you garbed in raiment of blue and descending upon a field of gold..."'' But the prophecy didn't foresee that the "raiment of blue" would only be so because it was [[spoiler:drenched in Ohmu blood]], and the "field of gold" consisted of [[spoiler:the shining, golden feelers of the innumerable Ohmu gathered below and around Nausicaä]]. Even the tapestry depicting the prophecy tries to subvert the audience's expectations by displaying a MessianicArchetype as a ''male'' figure of Middle Eastern appearance with some sort of brown pheasant perched on his shoulder... which turns out to actually be [[spoiler:Teto]]. |
| 204 | * RedEyesTakeWarning: When the Ohmu and any other Toxic Jungle beasts are enraged. |
| 205 | * RibcageRidge: The overgrown, hollow exoskeletons of the fallen God Warriors are everywhere -- in fact, a massive "skull" rising from the Sea of Corruption is one of the first images of the manga. |
| 206 | * RidiculouslyCuteCritter: Teto the squirrel-fox is very cute when not angrily defending its master. |
| 207 | * RoaringRampageOfRevenge: ''Every single time'' an insect, particularly an Ohmu, is hurt, it will bring on an onslaught from the bugs. See ImplacableMan above for how it's deliberately used by the warring nations. |
| 208 | * RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: |
| 209 | ** All the Former-Eftal-Periphery chieftains. It's in their treaties with Torumekia that they must fight alongside them in wartime if they want to retain their nominal independence. |
| 210 | ** Also, Kushana. |
| 211 | ** Nausicaa herself. She spends most of her time in the Toxic Jungle collecting samples to study as well as parts of Ohm shells for the villagers to convert into supplies. When there's a crisis, she's usually at the front, directing her people on what to do and trying solve the problem directly. |
| 212 | * ScavengerWorld: People have forgotten how to replicate most old world technologies. Almost all machines are built from scavenged parts and [[UsedFuture look quite worn out]]. |
| 213 | ** In the first scenes of both the manga and the anime, Nausicaä salvages the eye shell of an ohm to replace the Valley gunship's window. The gunship is also the last working one that the Valley has, stored in a hangar along with the salvaged remains of the others from centuries ago. |
| 214 | * SchizoTech: Medieval castles and armor coexisting alongside WWII fighter planes and tanks alongside flying battleships and other repulsor craft. See AnachronismStew. |
| 215 | * ScienceHero: Nausicaä, to an extent. As the scene in her underground greenhouse shows, she's able to solve the problems between humanity and the Ohmu because she understands them and realizes why the balance of nature needs to be preserved. |
| 216 | * ScienceIsBad: {{Subverted|Trope}} in two ways... |
| 217 | ** In both versions, Nausicaä dabbles in botany and chemistry, using science to determine that [[spoiler:the plants of the Sea of Corruption are not actually toxic; the ''soil'' is.]] |
| 218 | ** In the manga, while the scientists who are responsible for the world's current state almost certainly caused more problems than they solved, their creations are shown to be just as capable of kindness and wisdom as any natural lifeform. However, played straight with the Dorok scientists who [[spoiler:decided to weaponize Forest plants and grow Ohmu in an attempt to end the war quickly, and ended up causing the Fourth Daikaisho.]] |
| 219 | * SecretUndergroundPassage: Nausicaä has one in her room leading to her hidden garden. |
| 220 | * SmallGirlBigGun: Nausicaä when she grabs hold of a machine gun[[labelnote:*]] (whose it is depends on the medium – Pejite in the film, Dorok in the manga)[[/labelnote]]. She doesn't actually kill anyone with it though, just intimidates them. |
| 221 | * SpellMyNameWithAnS: Several characters' names are different depending upon the translation, as are some terms. |
| 222 | ** Sea Of Corruption (manga) vs. Sea Of Decay (DVD/BD subs) vs. Toxic Jungle (English dub) |
| 223 | ** The Princess of Pejitei: Rastel (manga) vs. Lastel (DVD subtitles) vs. Lastelle (Bluray credits) |
| 224 | ** Torumekia (manga) vs. Tolmekia (DVD/BD) |
| 225 | ** Pejitei (manga) vs. Pejite (DVD/BD) |
| 226 | ** Ohmu (manga) vs. Ohm (English dub). The official subtitles are inconsistent on this one – DVD says "Ohmu", Bluray says "Ohm". |
| 227 | ** God-Warrior (manga) vs. Giant Warrior (movie) |
| 228 | ** Mehve (manga) vs. Möwe (German for "gull" and clearly what Miyazaki intended with メーヴ). The movie's English subtitles and dub ignore the term and just call it Nausicaä's glider. |
| 229 | * TheStoic: Yupa seldom ever loses his cool, or betrays any sort of weakness. At one point, he blocks a sword thrust at Nausicaä ''point first'' with the back of his gloved sword hand. His expression and voice never changes, but Nausicaä notices he's shuddering from severe pain and blood flows from the wound under his glove. |
| 230 | ** Gets even crazier near the end of the manga where Yupa [[spoiler:grabs a live grenade and keeps it from destroying everyone else by letting it blow his hand off]] and barely bats an eye. [[spoiler:He doesn't live very long past that point, though.]] |
| 231 | * SurroundedByIdiots: The men under Kurotowa's command seem to be rather incompetent, which annoys him to no end. |
| 232 | ** In the manga, Charuka quickly realizes that the scientists under his command have absolutely no idea how dangerous their experiments are. It comes back to bite them in the ass, ''hard''. |
| 233 | * SwordAndGun: The Valley, Pejitei, and Torumekian cultures all share this aesthetic. Guns are used for ranged weapons, but everybody carries a sword or knife (or both) for close quarters fighting. As with most ScavengerWorld situations, post-industrial guns suffer from quality, maintenance, and ammo supply issues while swords are pretty reliable. |
| 234 | * TomboyPrincess: |
| 235 | ** Nausicaä, with her boyish short hair and urge for adventure. |
| 236 | ** Kushana also fits to a degree, as she is a highly capable military commander and trainer. However, she was forced into this role by circumstance. |
| 237 | * TuckAndCover: Mito throws himself over Nausicaä to protect her from falling debris when the airship around them starts to collapse. |
| 238 | * TwoLinesNoWaiting: |
| 239 | ** In the film, after Nausicaä departs from the Valley, the narrative splits into two storylines – her adventures in the Sea of Decay and Kurotowa back in the Valley – switching back and forth and coming together again at the end when Nausicaä returns. |
| 240 | ** The manga, for most of its run, juggles at least ''three'' storylines simultaneously, often more. It gets hard to differentiate them because of characters constantly meeting each other and then parting again. The only reason it doesn't qualify as FourLinesAllWaiting is because the plot moves forward despite the constantly changing perspective. Everything eventually comes together at the end during the climax at the Crypt Of Shuwa. |
| 241 | * VictoriasSecretCompartment: Nausicaä stores Teto in the front of her shirt. |
| 242 | * WaifFu: Nausicaä. Like you wouldn't believe. |
| 243 | * WarriorPrincess: Kushana, of course. Nausicaä counts too, to an extent and by technicality. They can both face down giant insects and armies without flinching. |
| 244 | * WaveMotionGun: Primary weapon of the God Warrior. |
| 245 | * WeHaveReserves: [[spoiler:[[ZergRush During the rampage of the Ohmu]], the God Warrior blasts them several times, killing waves of them. It doesn't slow them down one bit.]] |
| 246 | * WellIntentionedExtremist: |
| 247 | ** At the very end of the manga, it's revealed that [[spoiler:the [[MasterComputer Heart of the Crypt]] was programmed this way. It was built to raise an entire ecosystem that would wipe Earth clean of its creators' mistakes, and then ''destroy'' said ecosystem so the original mankind could be resuscitated to rule the world again. It's willing to kill the current humans to do so]]. |
| 248 | ** The Holy Emperor also started out like this, thinking he could fix the world's problems and bring peace to everyone. Sadly, he was only [[spoiler:the Heart of Shuwa's UnwittingPawn]] and quickly slipped into authoritarian (and genocidal) rule. |
| 249 | ** In the film, the Pejiteans were this. They were prepared to destroy their own capital city [[spoiler:and the Valley of the Wind]] if it meant keeping the God Warrior out of Torumekian hands. |
| 250 | * WrongGenreSavvy: While in the Toxic Forest, Asbel attempts to defend himself from the wildlife by shooting at them. This might work in a typical action film, but in a story written by Creator/HayaoMiyazaki, [[GaiasVengeance this is a bad idea]]. |
| 251 | [[/folder]] |
| 252 | |
| 253 | [[folder:Tropes from the manga]] |
| 254 | * AdiposeRex: The Vai Emperor (a.k.a. King of Torumekia) and all of his sons. |
| 255 | * ArmorIsUseless: Subverted and played straight. Various armor is demonstrated to be capable of holding up under direct hits from rifles and machine guns at various points in the manga. On the other hand, an Ohmu shell blade will cut through ceramic armor like cardboard. |
| 256 | * ArtificialHuman: The Heedra and [[spoiler:the Garden Master]] are human(oid) creations of the old race. |
| 257 | * BabyDollBaby: Kushana's mother went mad after taking a poisoned drink intended for her daughter. At their last meeting before Kushana left for war, she was treating a doll as her child. |
| 258 | * BadassBoast: "I am arbitrator, warrior, and judge." |
| 259 | * BadassPreacher: The Dorok priest Charuka leads most of the Dorok campaign [[spoiler:until he publicly broke with his superiors after meeting Nausicaä]]. Might also qualify as HighPriest, since he was partial to the Council of Monks that rule just below the Emperor. |
| 260 | * BittersweetEnding: The war is finally over, and the source of the superweapons that made it so horrible is destroyed. However, said weapons caused so much devastation that the reason the war won't restart any time soon is because it will take a generation or more for the survivors to be capable of worrying about anything more than mere survival. The world will eventually recover from the poisoning of the land caused by the Seven Days of Fire, but humanity's evolving to be more resistant to the toxins has also reduced its ability to survive in a world ''without'' them. When the forests and the Ohmu finally finish cleaning up the world, the adapted human race is in for a long and painful transition to being able to live in a world that isn't polluted, which it may not survive. |
| 261 | * BlobMonster: The [[spoiler:Doroks]] genetically engineer a mold that escapes containment, becomes semi-sentient, and could attack airships by stretching from the ground upward. |
| 262 | * BloodFromTheMouth: Happens to some people who breathe in too much of the miasma. [[spoiler:Or people who breathe air that is completely free of any pollution, according to the Garden Master.]] |
| 263 | * BloodSplatteredInnocents: A variation. Nausicaä's [[DressingAsTheEnemy borrowed]] Dorok outfit, originally sienna red, is completely ''drenched'' in Ohmu blood when she tries to pacify the kidnapped Ohmu larva and keep it from plunging into the Acid Sea, [[spoiler:fulfilling the [[MessianicArchetype Messianic prophecy]] of a person "clad in blue".]] Add some trimmings and modifications, and it becomes her signature outfit until near the end of the manga. Then, her new outfit [[spoiler:is covered in the blood of the Heart of the Crypt]], which is a shade of blue even ''deeper'' and more vibrant than the Ohmu's. |
| 264 | * BulletproofHumanShield: When Nausicaä uses Siren shells to allow a Tourmekian cavalry company to escape encirclement, four riders from the company break off to shield her from gunfire as she rides to safety. Justified, since they and their mounts are far more heavily armored than she is. Nausicaä, however, wishes they hadn't joined her, as they slow her down. |
| 265 | * TheChessmaster: [[spoiler:The Heart of Shuwa]], which dispenses ancient knowledge to its subjects (and {{Unwitting Pawn}}s) to keep [[ThePlan its plans]] moving according to schedule. |
| 266 | * CultureChopSuey: At first blush the Torumekians and Doroks seem to be generically "[[MedievalEuropeanFantasy Western]]" and "[[FarEast Eastern]]" cultures, respectively, but on closer inspection the Doroks have many similarities to ''America'' of all places. [[labelnote:Here's Why]] Their nation is made up of fifty-one principalities; their ruling class came from a foreign land and subjugated the natives, who are extremely religious; and they even have similar militaries, using an odd combination of high tech weapons and vehicles with brutish fanatical footsoldiers. Dorok is also the country with the most intact pre-Seven Days technology, calling to mind America's superpower status.[[/labelnote]] The Torumekians, meanwhile, have a lot of what appear to be {{Mayincatec}} influences in their art and designs, but also have several characters with Japanese-sounding names. This last bit is particularly strange, as the series' FantasyWorldMap appears to most resemble China's Shandong Province or something in Central America or even the American South (though it also looks a lot like the area around Japan's Kii peninsula). |
| 267 | * DecadentCourt: With the exception of Kushana, everyone in the Torumekian royal family is scheming for power and convinced that everyone else is the same. Many problems arise from Kushana's siblings trying to get her killed to thwart treasonous plots she never made. However, this doesn't make Kushana a saint, it's just that she's too busy being a soldier to concern herself with politics. |
| 268 | * DisneyVillainDeath: Subverted with [[spoiler:the Holy Emperor's still-living head]] last seen talking jovially whilst falling from an airship into the Sea of Corruption. Subverted because [[spoiler:he claims his head must also be destroyed by force before he can die, which is probably true since he spent nearly a century undergoing operations that left him basically Heedra underneath his skin]]. |
| 269 | * TheFinalTemptation: Nausicaä's (involuntary) stay in the [[spoiler:Garden]]. [[LotusEaterMachine Just being there]] saps visitors of their determination, soothing their hearts to the point they forget their mission and even friends who have [[spoiler:just died]]. |
| 270 | * GambitRoulette: [[spoiler:The Heart Of The Crypt]] had one over a thousand years in the making. [[spoiler:The Sea of Corruption would neutralize the poisons in the soil, and then petrify and disintegrate, leaving a nice clean planet for the Old Mankind to repopulate.]] It even [[GambitSpeedChess reworked details on the fly]] to ensure [[spoiler:the Forest spread faster]]. Unfortunately for it, it never anticipated Nausicaä. |
| 271 | * AGodAmI: The primary antagonists fall into this – The Holy Emperor (more so than even his brother), as well as the [[spoiler:Heart of the Crypt of Shuwa]]. Also, [[spoiler:Ohma]]. Nausicaä is accused of this from time to time; she wonders if her accusers are right. |
| 272 | * HeelRealization: [[spoiler:The King of Torumekia]], although [[RedemptionEqualsDeath too late to do anything about it]], as well as nearly anyone who takes Nausicaä seriously and isn't a [[TheChessmaster Chessmaster]]. |
| 273 | * HeroicRROD: [[spoiler:Ohma's]] constant use of [[spoiler:his]] power erodes [[spoiler:his]] body by the second. |
| 274 | * HiddenDepths: The [[spoiler:two surviving]] sons of the King of Torumekia, at first glance, look like two extremely lazy royals who don't do anything. But both of them actually have great appreciation for high culture and are pretty good with musical instruments. |
| 275 | * HiddenElfVillage: The Forest People, who live in quasi-mystical symbiosis with the Sea of Corruption. |
| 276 | * IAmXSonOfY: |
| 277 | ** "I am Nausicaä, daughter of Jhil, chieftain of the Valley of the Wind." |
| 278 | ** [[spoiler:"I am Ohma, son of Nausicaä, warrior, arbitrator and judge."]] |
| 279 | * {{Immortality}}: [[spoiler:The Dorok Holy Emperor Namulith]] is immortal inasmuch as his head can be cut off and he's still as jolly a fellow as ever. See also DisneyVillainDeath above. This is because [[spoiler:he had an operation to make his body like that of the functionally-immortal plantlike Heedra]]. |
| 280 | * ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Happens twice. |
| 281 | ** The Holy Priest of the Mani Tribe is run through by Miralupa's guards after he refuses to reveal Nausicaä's identity. |
| 282 | ** [[spoiler:Lord Yupa]], taking an attack meant for [[spoiler:Kushana]]. |
| 283 | * ImportantHaircut: |
| 284 | ** Kushana slices off her waist-length braid as a pledge to avenge her soldiers who were killed when her brothers betrayed her to the Doroks. |
| 285 | ** Nausicaä gets one prior to leaving the Valley for the front... although her hair wasn't exactly long to start with. |
| 286 | * IntimateHealing: Nausicaä saves a Torumekian soldier who was poisoned by the miasma by taking the poisoned blood from his lungs via mouth-to-mouth. |
| 287 | * LanguageBarrier: While the languages of Eftal and Torumekia are mutually intelligible to the point they may as well be two dialects of the same tongue -- though people ''do'' note they sound distinct -- neither one has any intelligibility whatsoever with Dorok. This issue comes up and is discussed often, as most characters are monolingual. Obviously averted with telepaths, who have built-in TranslatorMicrobes when communicating psychically. For the record, the only major characters shown to be bilingual are Yupa, Asbel, Ketcha, Namulith, and (eventually) Chikuku. |
| 288 | ** The barrier is taken even further with Sacred Dorok, which is so archaic even most Dorok speakers can't understand it (and Miyazaki didn't translate it except for one exchange). Only Miralupa and the Mani Priest, both ancient, are shown to speak it. |
| 289 | ** The language of the Crypt, which can only be deciphered by a small cabal of ancient scholars. It's so dense and complicated that it takes over half a year to decipher just one line. |
| 290 | * LightIsNotGood: [[spoiler:The God Warrior Ohma's "light" is actually deadly radiation]]. It's even worse when it tries to fly because its light-wings are blinding-white. Zig-zagged with [[spoiler:the Heart of the Crypt of Shuwa]]; ''it'' considers itself the BigGood, but no one else does. |
| 291 | * LudicrousGibs: Quite a few deaths, including one poor soul who rode into the path of a massive siege gun. |
| 292 | * {{Mordor}}: The Holy City of Shuwa (the Dorok capital) is treated this way by most of the characters. Fitting, considering what's there. Tolas (the Torumekian capital) is basically stated to be this by the narration, due to heavy pollution. |
| 293 | * NayTheist: Nausicaä, of a sorts. There are creatures running around that are pretty close to {{Physical God}}s, like the God Warrior and the God of the Crypt, but she refuses to treat them as deities. This is a little bit ironic as she's an explicitly Messianic figure. |
| 294 | * NoHuggingNoKissing: Early on, the manga seems to hint at an eventual romance between Nausicaä and Asbel. The later parts also tease Asbel/Ketcha, Nausicaä/Selm and Selm/Ketcha, but all this never raises above subtext. The very end suggests Nausicaä [[spoiler:may have joined Selm in the Forest (as one possibility among several)]]. However, the penultimate page of the story heavily implies that Asbel [[spoiler:hooks up with Ketcha]]. |
| 295 | * NotQuiteDead: [[spoiler:Kurotowa]], after being severely injured and thrown around like a rag doll from a moving airship, is rescued by [[spoiler:Kushana]]. It takes him a while to recover completely. |
| 296 | * NotSoHarmlessVillain: Rather spectacularly, Kurotowa manages to pull this off in the space of his first appearance, going from a seemingly buffoonish lackey to proving himself dangerously competent. If he pulled the switch any faster, he wouldn't count at all. |
| 297 | * NuclearWeaponsTaboo: The God Warriors. Somewhat averted in that they are actually radioactive, and merely being in their presence is akin to standing next to an open reactor. |
| 298 | * OffscreenInertia: The twin princes of Torumekia who opt to [[spoiler:stay in the Garden, playing the old world's music and reading the compiled literary classics, are never mentioned again once Nausicaä leaves]]. |
| 299 | * PathOfInspiration: The religion founded around the [[spoiler:Crypt of Shuwa]]. All "holiness" that radiates from it is actually [[ThePlan a plot]] [[spoiler:by the Heart of the Crypt to cleanse the world and bring the old mankind back]]. |
| 300 | * PsychicLink: Nausicaä can project her will, and sometimes actual thoughts, upon other people, as well as perceive the same from Ohmu and the hivemind of lesser insects. This is part of what makes her a FriendToAllLivingThings, and often results in PsychicDreamsForEveryone. Later on, we learn Selm has this power too. Chikuku is basically a massive psychic projector and serves as Nausicaä's translator/disciple. |
| 301 | * PsychopathicManchild: The God-Warrior that Nausicaä basically raises. When she has to raise her voice, ''the building sized radioactive engine of destruction starts cowering with its hands on its head'', whimpering that Mommy is angry. She wasn't even yelling at ''him''. After she named him, he became much more intelligent and controlled. |
| 302 | * RuleOfSymbolism: The Holy Temple of Shuwa uses Eyes of God as its primary icons. This can also be seen on Namulith and Miralupa's hoods. |
| 303 | * ScrewDestiny: When Nausicaä finally makes it into the Crypt of Shuwa, she meets its Heart and learns [[spoiler:it's actually a bio-computer program that created the Sea Of Corruption after the Seven Days Of Fire and has been providing a steady drip of information to mankind's remnants to make the Forest spread, and will eventually resurrect the old mankind (to the detriment of the current) once the environment has been purified]]. Nausicaä does not take this well and [[spoiler:orders Ohma to destroy the Crypt, probably dooming humanity to extinction in the process, given that the forest is still there and still expanding, so the world is still slowly changing into one the poison-adapted humans can't survive in]]. |
| 304 | * SenselessSacrifice: Possibly. A squad of Torumekian armored cavalry elect to protect Nausicaä from Dorok gunfire while she makes her escape and are killed in the process. Nausicaä is horrified, believing if she hadn't been slowed down by her human shields, she could have escaped without them dying. Though her reckless tendency towards trying to save others at her own expense makes her judgement here suspect. |
| 305 | * ShapeshifterBaggage: When activated, God Warrior's flesh grows over its ceramic skeleton (albeit relatively slowly). Where does the matter for this comes from is not explained. |
| 306 | * SidewaysSmile: Kurotowa seems to have one perpetually plastered on his face. Ironically, Chris Sarandon shares that trait. |
| 307 | * TheSiege: One arc revolves around Kushana's efforts to relieve part of her army that has been besieged in a fortress. Later, we see the final stages of the siege of Shuwa. |
| 308 | * TakeThat: Miyazaki's dim view of militaristic themes in anime probably had something to do with the fact that a city built around the pathetic, rusted-out shell of the Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato features prominently in the manga. |
| 309 | * {{Telepathy}}: |
| 310 | ** This is how the Ohmu communicate. |
| 311 | ** Several human characters also have this ability, and it functions as the only real TranslatorMicrobes in a world with mutually-unintelligible languages. Practitioners include the Dorok Emperor's brother Miralupa, the Holy Priest of the Mani Tribe, Selm (though all Forest People seem to have some ability), and Chikuku – easily the most powerful telepath in the series. Nausicaä has a weak ability, only able to project simple concepts when she's distressed (i.e. "STOP!!"). |
| 312 | * {{Wingdinglish}}: Dorok, if untranslated, is this. Its characters kind of resemble a mashup between Japanese kanji and Korean hangeul. Sacred Dorok looks a lot like Old Chinese. |
| 313 | * WingedHumanoid: Explicitly averted and ridiculed -- when Nausicaä is identified as a MessianicArchetype by a throng of religious people, they wonder where her (prophesized) angel wings are. [[WiseBeyondTheirYears Chikuku]] angrily states that only a monster would have wings and that, instead, Nausicaä's white glider fills this role. |
| 314 | * WomanChild: As intelligent and capable as she is, Nausicaä has some maturity issues and is desperate to hold on to her childhood innocence. At the beginning, she often needs to be reminded of [[ToughLeaderFacade the proper way for a princess to conduct herself]] and would rather go bug collecting than attend to her royal duties. Whenever she's shown in a psychic vision, Nausicaä appears as a prepubescent little girl, indicating she has a very under-developed self-image. Miralupa, the Dorok Emperor's younger brother, who is also psychic, relentlessly mocks her when he notices this. |
| 315 | * YouNoTakeCandle: |
| 316 | ** A lot of Ketcha's dialogue is this. She's actually a very intelligent young girl who has the misfortune of sounding ridiculous when she speaks "Northerner". To her credit, she's about the only Dorok who ''can'' speak another language at all and her internal thoughts are noticeably more eloquent. |
| 317 | ** This happens to Mito when he tries to speak Dorok to Ketcha. She does not react well. It's PlayedForLaughs. |
| 318 | * YoungestChildWins: Nausicaä is the youngest of eleven children, and is the only one that lived long enough to become an adult. |
| 319 | * ZipMeUp: Kushana asks Nausicaä to fasten her armor at one point in the manga. LesYay? Of course. |
| 320 | [[/folder]] |
| 321 | |
| 322 | [[folder:Tropes from the movie]] |
| 323 | * AcousticLicense: Apparently pilots have no problem talking to another in-flight from gunship to gunship without their voices being drowned out by wind and the noise from the engines. Occasionally acknowledged when they use signal lamps instead or have to shut down engines and get closer to be audible. |
| 324 | * AdaptationalBadass: The Worm-Handlers in the manga were fairly ineffective forest-people used by the Torumekians because their worms could locate items of interest. In the film, the group is reworked into an elite Torumekian fighting squad, and probably the most competent of all the mooks. The group also absorbs some of Kurotowa's competence by being the ones who shoot down Asbel when he engages their airship. |
| 325 | * AdaptationalJerkass: The movie and manga versions of Kushana and Kurotowa are drastically different. Kurotowa in particular gets the short end of the stick in the movie, but at least Kushana [[FreudianExcuse remains a bit sympathetic]] (if more than a little [[KnightTemplar extreme]]). |
| 326 | * AdaptationalNiceGuy: Nausicaä herself is much colder and more dire in the manga than in the movie, fitting for its more nihilistic tone, although she still ends up largely on the side of idealism. [[spoiler:The fact that her real opponents in the manga are full-blown {{Omnicidal Maniac}}s, {{Master Computer}}s, and whatnot means she also ''needs'' to have a little more steel in her will than her film counterpart ever has to muster.]] |
| 327 | * AdaptationDistillation: The movie was released in 1984. The manga began in 1982 and was only finished in ''1994''. The first two volumes written when the movie was released contain no plot resolution. Thus the movie contains a neat two-hour version of the critical themes Miyazaki wished to use, given that he made both. |
| 328 | * AdaptedOut: Only the first quarter of the manga--amounting to about two books out of seven--even existed when the film was made.[[labelnote:†]] Major characters like Chikuku, the Vai Emperor and his sons, Selm and the Forest People, and Namulith would not be introduced until years later.[[/labelnote]] But even within ''that'', some key characters are missing. |
| 329 | ** Most notable of course is the excision of the ''entire Dorok race'', i.e. the other side in the war. They had just been introduced in the manga when the movie was greenlit. So, to simplify the narrative for the film, Miyazaki shifted their scenes to involve the Torumekians and Pejiteans instead. |
| 330 | *** Ketcha makes a brief appearance in the movie--she's the brunette girl who swaps clothes with Nausicaä--but she is never named, and is a Pejitei refugee rather than a Dorok. |
| 331 | *** In the manga, it's the Holy Priest of the Mani Tribe who "witnesses" (through Ketcha) the fulfillment of the ancient prophecy, while Obaba takes this role (through an unnamed Valley girl) in the movie. |
| 332 | ** The Worm-Handlers are also completely absent, their scenes in the Valley being swapped for a full Torumekian invasion. A more simplified design of the Worm-Handlers is used in the film, but they appear to just be Torumekian soldiers and not a different race of people. |
| 333 | ** Ohma ''does'' appear in the movie--it's hard to miss him--but is never named and almost immediately [[PowerIncontinence falls apart]] after firing twice. Of course, in the manga he did not awaken (nor was he named) until near the end of the story, years after the movie came out. |
| 334 | * AdaptationDyeJob: Manga!Kushana has blonde hair and silver coloured armour,[[labelnote:†]] Although the manga was not in colour, there were several covers and other artwork that show her original colours. [[/labelnote]] whereas Movie!Kushana has red hair and gold coloured armour. |
| 335 | * AnArmAndALeg: Kushana lost an arm at some point (and maybe one or both legs), as shown when she removes her gauntlet and there's nothing underneath it. |
| 336 | * ArtificialLimbs: Kushana hints at this when taking off some of her armor and shows there's no limb under it. Later, she appears ''sans'' armor, except for that arm and both legs, implying that her [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe lower half may be artificial as well]]. |
| 337 | -->'''Kushana:''' Whatever lucky man becomes my husband shall see far worse than that. |
| 338 | * BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler:Nausicaä, thanks to the Ohmu.]] |
| 339 | * BewareTheNiceOnes: Nausicaä is a BadassPacifist and FluffyTamer who is absolutely adored by her people as a [[RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething wise, compassionate leader]]. She also kills nearly an entire Torumekian squadron singlehandedly after they murder her father during their invasion of the Valley, and threatens two Pejite soldiers ''with a Gatling gun'' to try and get them to [[spoiler: stop their plan of using an injured baby Ohm to lure a stampede into the Valley]]. |
| 340 | * BigBad: Downplayed with Kushana, who's put in an EvilVersusOblivion situation about halfway through and detained by the heroes. Her DragonWithAnAgenda Kurotowa becomes TheHeavy after she goes MIA, and by the time she's back in power her Pejite enemies have provoked a calamity. [[spoiler:She takes her army and departs peacefully after the climax.]] |
| 341 | * BioluminescenceIsCool: The forest and its glowing spores (predating ''Film/{{Avatar}}'' by about a quarter-century, mind you). |
| 342 | * BlatantLies: Kushana's appeals for peace and cooperation with the Valley fall totally flat upon the fact that her people had just violently invaded their land and ''murdered their bedridden king'' without any provocation; Obaba is quick to call her and her cohorts out on their bullshit before Nausicaa reminds everybody that resistance is suicide in their current position. Kushana is quick to drop the facade after this confrontation. |
| 343 | * BloodlessCarnage: Overall, ''Nausicaä'' is less graphic than [[Anime/PrincessMononoke its spiritual]] [[SpiritualSuccessor successor]], and '''''much''''' less graphic than the original manga. The only blood visible is the FirstBlood during Lord Yupa's BarehandedBladeBlock. There's also blood briefly visible when [[spoiler:Nausicaä]] is shot in the shoulder and foot, not to mention plenty of insect blood. |
| 344 | * BugWar: Tolmekia is trying to destroy the Ohmu because the spores they spread are swallowing up their territory. This is averted in the manga, where Tolmekia is at least smart enough to realize the futility of fighting against a force of nature, so they start a war with the Doroks to try and take their territory instead. Either way, the typical portrayal of the bugs as mindless monsters is subverted six ways from Sunday. The Ohmu are probably some of the nicest entities in the entire story, and this shows by the end of the movie. |
| 345 | * CanonForeigner: Most of the Pejitei characters--notably the Mayor and Asbel & Lastelle's mother--never appear in the manga. This is because their scenes serve as a narrative substitute for the Doroks. |
| 346 | ** The tanks featured in the anime are absent in the manga, in which it's shown that motorized ground vehicles of any kind are completely nonexistent and that, other then the aircrafts, humans are back to being dependent on riding animals and beasts of burden. (A few boats and sea ships glimpsed in the manga are shown to be powered by steam engines.) |
| 347 | * CatchAFallingStar: Asbel is cornered by some insects, [[ShurFineGuns his gun jams]], he [[NoEscapeButDown jumps off a ledge]] and is then caught in midair by Nausicaä on her glider JustInTime before a worm creature could slice him in half with its mouth-pincers. |
| 348 | * ComfortingComforter: Asbel covers sleeping (or unconscious) Nausicaä with his jacket. |
| 349 | * CompositeCharacter: Obaba is in the manga, but her part is greatly magnified in the movie where she also takes on the roles of two other old blind characters (the Matriarch and the Holy One). |
| 350 | * CoolOldLady: Obaba, when she's told to run and hide when the Valley is being invaded, immediately replies that she'd rather stay right there. In the 1984 dub, she asks where they think she should run ''to''. |
| 351 | * CreditsMontage: The film ends with a montage of Kushana and her troops peacefully leaving, and the town rebuilding. The final shot hints the world is starting to return to normal. |
| 352 | * CrucifiedHeroShot: When Nausicaä risks her life to stop the Pejite from destroying the Valley, she flies at them on her glider with her arms outstretched [[spoiler:and gets shot twice. She gets better though]]. |
| 353 | * CueTheSun: At the end of the film. |
| 354 | * CurbStompBattle: |
| 355 | ** Nausicaä vs the Torumekian soldiers who [[spoiler:killed King Jihl]]. She lays them out in seconds with nothing more than a cane. |
| 356 | ** The Torumekians' invasion of the Pejitean brig via mid-air boarding. They gain the bridge within minutes. |
| 357 | ** Ohmu stampedes vs everything else. |
| 358 | * DeadpanSnarker: Kurotowa, especially when voiced by Chris Sarandon. |
| 359 | * DisabledInTheAdaptation: In the original manga, Kushana is 100% whole, as seen when she asks Nausicaä to help her put on her armor. In the movie, she explicitly lacks an arm and probably the legs. |
| 360 | * DisneyDeath: [[spoiler:Nausicaä]], although arguably subverted because [[spoiler:she does actually ''die''; she just has the luck of [[BackFromTheDead being revived]] because of the empathy the Ohmu felt for her]]. |
| 361 | * DramaticWind: So much, in fact, that it's shocking when it actually ''[[ItsQuietTooQuiet stops]]'' during the FinalBattle. |
| 362 | * DrivenToVillainy: [[spoiler:The survivors of the kingdom of Pejite.]] Before the events of the film, the Tolmekian army had recently conquered Pejite in order to acquire the God-Warrior discovered there. The God Warrior and a hostage, the Pejite princess Listelle, were to be sent to Tolmekia, but the plane delivering them crashed in the Valley. [[spoiler:Deciding that submission to Tolmekia was a FateWorseThanDeath, the surviving leaders of Pejite baited the Ohmu into attacking the occupied Pejite after evacuating as many survivors as possible. After they learn that the God Warrior was now in the Valley, they again plan to bait the Ohmu into attacking in order to destroy the Tolmekian forces there, which would enable them to recover the God Warrior afterwards. The Valley's people would be innocent casualties of war. In the end, the Pejite leaders were driven by same desires as Princess Kushana: to use the [[FantasticNuke God Warrior]] to destroy the Sea of Corruption and eventually restore the world to its pre-apocalypse state.]] |
| 363 | * DubNameChange: In the first two Cantonese dubs, Nausicaä's name was changed to [[Literature/TheBalladOfMulan Mulan]] while Teto's name was changed to [[Film/{{Gremlins}} Mogwai]]. Nausicaä and Teto's real names would be restored with the TruerToTheText Blu-ray redub. |
| 364 | * EarnYourHappyEnding: Nausicaä has to go through enormous hardship to save the day. |
| 365 | * EmpathyDollShot: Early on, when Lord Yupa enters an abandoned house, he notices a doll lying on the ground. He tries to pick it up, but it crumbles to dust. |
| 366 | * EvilPlan: There are two evil plans at work. |
| 367 | ** Princess Kushana trying to harness the God-Warrior's power in order to destroy the Ohmu. |
| 368 | ** The Pejite people using a captured baby Ohmu to make the Ohmu wipe out Kushana's forces so they can get hold of the Giant Warrior.[[note]]In the manga, the baby Ohmu was used by the Doroks to lure the Ohmu swarm into wiping out Kushana's forces, thereby quickly ending the war; they had no idea at that point the God-Warrior existed.[[/note]] |
| 369 | * FamilyUnfriendlyViolence: Despite the PG rating, the film contains quite a bit of violence. Not to mention the Ohmu... |
| 370 | * TheFarmerAndTheViper: Nausicaä, after a moment's deliberation, [[SavetheVillain chooses to bring Kushana with her]] while she escapes the crashing ship. Unfortunately, this trope is in full effect. |
| 371 | -->'''Kushana''': You're a fool. You thought I would grovel in gratitude? |
| 372 | * FilmingForEasyDub: The characters wear masks a lot of the time. Also, many of the older male characters have enormous mustaches that obscure their mouths. |
| 373 | * FirstBlood: During the BarehandedBladeBlock, Nausicaä notices Lord Yupa's blood dripping from the hilt. |
| 374 | * FlashbackBackBack: The little child's singing in Nausicaä's flashback is echoing out. |
| 375 | * GeckoEnding: Borderline example. Although the manga wouldn't be finished until a ''decade'' after this movie's release, the film still wraps things up nicely in its own way, even as many questions remain unanswered. |
| 376 | * GlassCannon: |
| 377 | ** Justified and {{deconstructed|Trope}} with [[spoiler:the resurrected God-Warrior]]. Because it [[spoiler:hatched prematurely]], just as the Ohms were charging at the humans, it was only able to fire off several powerful beams at them before disintegrating. Unfortunately, the humans were depending on it to defend against the Ohms. Had it not been for Nausicaä's intervention, the humans would have been completely eradicated. |
| 378 | ** A less justifiable case comes from the Tolmekian airships. For all of their guns, a whopping ''four'' of them don't stand a chance against a ''single'' Pejite interceptor, forcing Nausicaa and her band to escape with Kushana in tow. |
| 379 | --->'''Mito:''' These are some flimsy ships... |
| 380 | * GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: The film version's Princess Kushana, in fairly stark contrast to her manga portrayal. |
| 381 | * GreenAesop: The entire point of the movie (as well as [[NuclearWeaponsTaboo "nuclear weapons are bad"]], obviously). |
| 382 | * HadTheSillyThingInReverse: During the castle battle when the tank is commandeered. |
| 383 | * HalfTheManHeUsedToBe: Implied with Kushana. She remarks that "Whatever lucky man becomes my husband shall see far worse than that." and her legs are artificial cybernetics, probably implying that her lower half was eaten by a bug. |
| 384 | * HazyFeelTurn: [[spoiler:Kushana and Kurotowa leave peacefully at the end of the film. Averted with the Pejite leaders, who had to be forced at gunpoint to do the right thing and aren't really given closure.]] |
| 385 | * HealItWithNature: The ''ohmu'', essentially giant bugs the size of freight trains, are seen as representatives and guardians of nature. In the climax of the film, Nausicaa is trying to stop a herd of stampeeding ''ohmu'' by revealing to them that an infant ''ohmu'' that Tolmekia had abducted was alive and safe. But the ''ohmu'', blind with rage, collide with her and send her flying. She is seen lying on the ground, apparently dead. But the rage of the ''ohmu'' subsides, and they turn their attention to Nausicaa, and golden tendrils extend from their mandibles, radiating with energy. They repair Nausicaa's injuries, and she revives. |
| 386 | * HollywoodCyborg: Movie!Kushana's arm, legs, and an unspecified portion of her lower body including where her reproductive organs used to be have been replaced with cybernetics after being eaten by a bug. |
| 387 | * {{Infodump}}: At the beginning of the film, Nausicaä delivers a monologue about the world of the series in {{Expospeak}}. |
| 388 | * ImpliedLoveInterest: Asbel to Nausicaä as with the following Miyazaki films. |
| 389 | * LighterAndSofter: Has much less violence than the manga. |
| 390 | * KarmaHoudini: Despite their monstrous actions, [[spoiler:Kushana and Kurotowa]] get off scot-free after all is said and done. This also applies to [[spoiler:the Pejite survivors, who are apparently welcomed into the Valley after the film's events despite their previous plan to recover the God-Warrior by destroying the Valley.]] |
| 391 | * {{Leitmotif}}: Joe Hisaishi drew a stark contrast between the Valley of the Wind and the Forest musically. When in the Valley, the music is a warm swelling orchestral, while the Forest is backed by 80's-style synthesizers and drums. |
| 392 | * LetsGetDangerous: Lord Yupa. For most of the film, his swordfighting skills are just an InformedAttribute, until he [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown takes down]] a squad of {{mooks}} with them. |
| 393 | * MagicSkirt: In the introductory scene where Nausicaä is landing her glider, but otherwise averted as her skirt flies up all the time (she's wearing tights). |
| 394 | * MessianicArchetype: Nausicaä is one of the most famous examples in animation history. |
| 395 | * MoreDakka: There is no shortage in either the forms or [[BottomlessMagazines quantities]] of dakka. |
| 396 | * MyGodWhatHaveIDone: |
| 397 | ** Nausicaä, an ardent pacifist, slaughters an entire squad of soldiers in a murderous rage when she sees that they have killed her ailing father; when she rams her sword into Lord Yupa's hand as he halts the fight, she is traumatized to see she has shed the blood of not just her enemies, but of one of her own friends. |
| 398 | ** Kurotowa immediately realizes awakening the Giant was a terrible mistake. |
| 399 | * TheNeedsOfTheMany: The Pejiteians defend their plan to destroy the Tolmekians by pointing out that they are doing it for the good of the planet. |
| 400 | * NotSoDifferentRemark: |
| 401 | ** Nausicaä outright tells the Pejite survivors that they aren't any better than the Tolmekians [[spoiler:when they reveal their plan to destroy the Valley]], which they don't take kindly to hearing. |
| 402 | ** She does this earlier when Asbel muses about it being impossible for the Toxic Jungle and humanity to coexist, to which he responds that they're nothing like the "bloodthirsty" Tolmekians. Of course, it's hard not to see the similarities when both leaderships are just fine with weaponizing forces beyond their control in their power struggle and repeatedly screwing over Nausicaä's people in the process. |
| 403 | * NudeColoredClothes: Nausicaä's tights are tan-colored. For a while, there was a persistent belief that she was actually naked under her skirt (which would be unfortunate considering the number of times it flies up while she's piloting her glider). This can be attributed to the fact that the movie first came to the West in a cheaply-done VHS and poor-quality digisubs, which distorted and washed out the colors. The rumor was finally put to rest when Disney released the movie themselves, showing once and for all that pants are pants. |
| 404 | * ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish: The challenge and response chosen by the kids guarding Kushana? "Valley -- Wind." |
| 405 | * PowerGlows: Rather than the typical SicklyGreenGlow associated with radiation, the nuclear-powered God Warriors' "poisonous light" is depicted as bright orange in the anime in the style of a superheated plutonium pellet. Especially prominent in the flashback to the Seven Days of Fire, in which they're all carrying enormous, translucent orange, semi-molten nuclear fuel rods as lances. |
| 406 | * ProstheticLimbReveal: One of the old men of the Valley asks Kushana why she wants to wage war against the Ohmu, and she responds by removing her left forearm.[[note]]She's fully-intact in the manga, however.[[/note]] |
| 407 | * QuicksandSucks: Surprisingly, in this case, it doesn't kill Nausicaä and Asbel, but instead sucks them down into a system of caverns. |
| 408 | * RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Nausicaä of all people goes on one against the Torumekian squadron that murdered her father. She kills nearly every soldier in the room before Yupa stops her. |
| 409 | * SaharanShipwreck: The wrecked spacecraft outside the Valley is a variant; the nearby lake receded, leaving it to decay on an expanse of dry silt. |
| 410 | * SamusIsAGirl: Averted with Princess Kushana. Although we cannot really tell if it is a man or woman underneath the armor, the female voice leaves no doubt about it. Hence, her unmasking bears no surprise effect. Her real "reveal" is showing Mito [[ArtificialLimbs her robotic arm]]. |
| 411 | * SaveTheVillain: Nausicaä rescues Kushana when their ship is going down. This turns out to have serious consequences later on. |
| 412 | * SpellMyNameWithAnS: Because every medium of this story had its own translator, there are noticeable differences in spelling and terminology between the English versions of the manga, movie subtitles, and Disney's dub script. All of the differences can be boiled down to translation nuance and never go so far as to render any version "unfaithful", but it did result in at least one DubNameChange. See the Trivia page for specifics. |
| 413 | * AStormIsComing: Before the climax of the film. |
| 414 | * SweepingLaserExplosion: The Giant Warriors can create these as a form of FantasticNuke, as seen near the end when one fires at a stampede of enraged Ohmu. |
| 415 | * TapOnTheHead: Asbel gets one from behind when he tries to press Nausicaä free from his clan members. |
| 416 | * TrickedOutShoes: Kushana frees herself by using a secret blade [[HiddenWeapons hidden in the heel of her boot]]. |
| 417 | * UnfinishedUntestedUsedAnyway: Kushana's attempt to use the God Warrior before it's complete. |
| 418 | * UnstoppableRage: Nausicaä, after [[YouKilledMyFather her father is murdered]] by the Torumekians. She kills nearly everyone in the room before Master Yupa intervenes. |
| 419 | * VillainousRescue: Kushana deploys the Great Warrior to try and stall the rampaging Ohm at the end. This fails – the Warrior is not yet matured and rots away before doing anywhere near enough damage – and the attempt is short-sighted to say the least, but she gets points for ''trying'' to save the day. |
| 420 | * WeaponsBreakingWeapons: Nausicaa shatters Kurotowa's sword with a swing of hers during their first encounter at her father's castle. |
| 421 | * WeComeInPeaceShootToKill: Princess Kushana and her trigger-happy Tolmekian troops murder King Jhil and round up the people of the Valley like animals. Then Kushana acts unflinchingly polite, asking the people to join them willingly. |
| 422 | * WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: The closing credits detail life in the Valley returning to normal as the invaders peacefully leave. The final shot [[spoiler:is of Nausicaä's cap lying next to a tree sprout (probably from a Chiku nut she had left in that area), implying that the world is healing.]] |
| 423 | * WindsOfChange: The sudden absence of wind in the valley is a portent of danger. |
| 424 | [[/folder]] |
| 425 | |
| 426 | [[folder:Tropes from ''Warriors of the Wind'']] |
| 427 | * CoversAlwaysLie: The North American [[https://www.amazon.com/Warriors-Wind-POSTER-Movie-Inches/dp/B00KK6LPM6/ cover]] has nothing to do with the plot of the movie--not even the patchwork one in the dub itself. You can thank the heavy ''Magazine/HeavyMetal'' influence during TheEighties (which is possibly not casual, given Miyazaki was actually influenced by artists from said magazine, especially Creator/{{Moebius}}). The cover art also makes the film look like TheMockbuster of various '80s sci-fi/fantasy franchises, particularly ''Franchise/StarWars''. |
| 428 | * DubNameChange: The ''Warriors of the Wind'' dub changed the names of most of the main characters: |
| 429 | ** Nausicaä became Princess Zandra. |
| 430 | ** Kushana became Queen Selena. |
| 431 | ** Asbel became Milo. |
| 432 | ** Uncle Mito became Axel (maybe the new names for Asbel and Mito got accidentally swapped?) |
| 433 | ** The God Warrior became the "Fire Demon". |
| 434 | ** Ohmu became "Gorgons". |
| 435 | ** Yupa kept his original name, although it was pronounced "Yuppa", instead of "Yoopa". |
| 436 | ** Kurotowa was unnamed and exclusively referred to as "The General" in the dub, though an ad copy for some U.S. military screenings and the first Latin American Spanish dub refer to his character as "Rogan". |
| 437 | * TheMockbuster: {{Subverted}} with how the film was marketed in its edited form. The new cover art features characters not appearing in the film, who are all {{Captain Ersatz}}es of many '80s sci-fi/fantasy franchises such as ''Franchise/StarWars'', ''Film/{{Dune|1984}}'', ''Film/{{Clash of the Titans|1981}}'' and even ''Film/{{Jaws}}''. The French and German releases even had titles[[note]]''La Princesse des Etoiles'' ("The Princess of the Stars") and ''Sternenkrieger'' ("Star Warriors")[[/note]] that doubled down on selling the film as a ''Star Wars'' mockbuster, albeit with much more accurate covers. |
| 438 | [[/folder]] |
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