Week 5: Castle in the Sky

Week 4: Naussica Screening 2

During the second screening of Naussica I was able to take a more analytic approach to the film, therefore I want to go a little deeper than just my surface reactions. The film contains so many thematic subtitles that range from the obvious environmental message to how the human condition affects a seemingly infinite world (not infinite in terms of preserving the current state, but infinite in terms of existing in some incarnation i.e. the post apocalyptic world), however for the purpose of this blog post, I want to focus on a couple topics I found most interesting:

- change (or lack thereof) in Naussica as a character.
- how finite beings interact with an infinite world.

First of all, it is clear that this film is centered around the main character Naussica who seems to a perfect character. She is at the top of a very atypical monarchy in that the members of the royal family are loved and revered by all, and they return that same love and respect to the people. She also possesses a very inquisitive mind, strong work ethic, a power over nature and animals that not even Lord Yupa has, and an infinite sense of selflessness (taking off her mask in the forest to calm the hostages, standing in front of the Ohmu stampede to stop their advance). Because of all this Miyazaki leaves little to no room for improvement. As the film progresses, it becomes obvious that Naussica does not change much at all as a character (besides the brief fit or rage following the murder of her father, which she spends the rest of the film atoning for). Thinking about this, the only reason I could think of for this consistency is to use her as a reference point from which to observe the change in all other peoples.

Week 3: Reflections on Naussica of the Valley of the Wind

Having only been exposed to the campy, dubbed-for-American-audiences, anime series as a child, (e.g. DBZ, Sailor Moon) I never really knew that gems like Castle of Cagliostro and Naussica existed well before my time. Perhaps is it's a good thing that I was never exposed to such animes (Naussica in particular). I was surprised how Naussica had such a cornucopia of serious themes without ever compromising the flow of a fantastic story, something a younger me would not have appreciated. In particular I really liked how Miyazaki was able to portray a story with such a strong positive message (symbiosis with nature) without resorting to the cheesy and lighthearted tactics. There was a very clear message throughout the film about how humanity came to destroy the world through a never ending hatred towards each other that completely overshadowed any regard for nature. Now more than ever this message seems to be appropriate as our world is inexplicably constantly embroiled in war and humanity continues to ravage nature at an unchanging pace.

In addition to how close this film hit home, the way in which Miyazaki sculpted Naussica as the perfect heroine made the story all the more heart wrenching. One scene in particular that was shocking to me was the scene in which Naussica is trying to prevent the baby Ohmu from crawling into the Acid Lake. When Naussica's foot slips into the acid she let out a shriek and it became clear to me that this girl, who seemed almost undeterred by machine gun wounds was indeed human and felt pain; but her sense of duty to the earth and everything in it made her truly miraculous.

Note: having never watched this film before (or even heard of it for that matter), this first enty is largely my first reactions, the 2nd screening will focus more on the thematic and technical details of the film