Nasuicaä Under the Microscope, part 1

This is the first in a series of articles in which I'll be analyzing Hayao Miyazaki's manga Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind. I plan to analyze the intersection of storytelling and art in this work, looking at how the art tells the story.

The nature of this analysis requires that I show a number of images from the original manga. I've no wish to impinge on copyright here, or to tick off Viz. I have contacted Viz several times through their Twitter account, requesting contact for permission to use these images. I've received no response. I will happily negotiate with Viz on this, if they'd just talk to me.

I'm using the 1995 Viz edition. As such, be aware that the art is flopped. Also, I number panels starting with the upper-left corner, and continuing to the right, then down, since that's the normal reading order of this edition.

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We begin on page 6 with two panels of ballistic movement, as a figure flying on a glider heads straight towards the reader. At the risk of sounding precious, I can't help but wonder if this is a callback to the opening pages of Osamu Tezuka's seminal New Treasure Island, which was famous for its ballistic opening pages.

Either way, this is a visually arresting image, and an interesting way to start. No dialogue, no explosions: just a peaceful image of a glider in the sky.

We then see the glider flying over a giant petrified helmet or head, clearly something not found in the real world. The glider casts a dark shadow on the head, drawing our attention to it. Note how the lack of background in the second panel keeps our attention from being distracted by it. Also note the glider's shadow in panel three, sitting in almost the exact center of the page. This head is clearly what we're supposed to focus on.

The head is covered in vegetation, which the final panel of the page shows to be a weird jungle unlike anything we'd see in reality. So, the first page has clearly established a fantasy or science fictional setting. The figure disembarks and heads into the jungle, a rifle slung over the figure's shoulders.

We'll realize shortly that the figure is Nausicaä, but note that there's nothing feminine about her here, and indeed with the rifle she looks more masculine than feminine. While this page has established the otherwordliness of its setting, it has said very little about this character. We don't even know if this is the protagonist.

Pages 7 and 8 show Nausicaä wandering in the jungle, carefully selecting specimens. One panel shows her with a pad of paper and what looks like a pipette, and in another she taps a spore into a glass test tube. These are clearly scientific instruments, implying that Nausicaä is peaceful scientist. Despite her rifle, her overall attitude is gentle and non-invasive.

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Page 8 reveals an Ohmu shell. Note the use of shading in panel three: the nearly black shadows ringing the top of the panel, then the dark figure of Nausicaä to highlight her position in front of the white Ohmu shell. Contrast that with the lower-left panel, in which her figure is almost completely lost relative to the shell. Panel three describes scale; panel four describes the Ohmu itself in almost obsessive detail: we see the highly insectoid nature of the creature. This mimics real life; we see vague shapes before we see detail.

In page 9, Nausicaä busies herself with the Ohmu shell, inspecting it and carving out one of the eye shells. Page 10 gives us the lovely spore "snow storm."

The forest is consistently portrayed as a gentle thing in these pages. Miyazaki consistently uses soft, rounded lines for the forest's flora; there's not a single straight line in the forest. Everything appears to move slowly, and Nausicaä is able to move through the environment without danger.

So, Miyazaki must use an internal monologue to establish the dangers of the forest. After she removes one of the Ohmu's eye shells, she muses to herself, "But humans can't walk here unmasked for even five minutes, or our lungs would decay. A forest of death...."

This establishes one of the major themes of the story: the problems of co-existence among different creatures. This environment, which to an Ohmu "must seem a warm and comforting place," is lethal to humans.

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Then Nausicaä receives her first psychic message. A calm, primarily white panel that shows Nausicaa peacefully buried in the spore "snow" is followed by a primarily black panel, centered on only one of Nausicaä's eyes. Note the starburst speech balloon, filled with text in a bold, calligraphic font in high contrast to the normal block print of Nausicaä's monologue. I love this font; it feels alien and formal. Perfect for the Ohmu.

This is followed by another mostly-white panel showing Nausicaä raise the Ohmu eye shell, her expression alert but not panicked. Note her posture: one hand comfortably gripping her rifle, the other carefully raising the ohmu shell. This is a woman who is not easily spooked.

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The top of page 11 is split into horizontal bands, which gives the incoming psychic messages a certain telegraphic feeling. This evokes the image of literally a stream of consciousness: a long, linear stream of thoughts.

We see the same message repeated: "He killed us," which morphs into "We will kill him!" Note how the starburst speech balloons grow softer, and the text itself grows smaller within the balloon, suggesting that the message is growing faint. The fifth panel stands in shocking contrast: strong horizontal lines leading from Nausicaä's squealed "Aa!", followed by a positively sketchy image of Nausicaä's face, then a bold, all-capital "KILL!"

That fifth panel reminds me of apocalyptic images of people obliterated by nuclear strikes. It makes an impression as though Nausicaä is being overwhelmed and obliterated by the force of the message.

Miyazaki uses a neat trick here to take maximum and efficient advantage of panel size. Because the fifth panel is so small, the word "KILL!" seems huge, despite only taking up little absolute space on the page.

Nausicaä hears a sound, a "siren shell," which distracts her from her psychic reverie. She races through the forest to get a vantage point, climbing up inside the skull of a god warrior to look out through its empty eye socket. We then see a forest littered with at least three god warrior bodies, and an enraged Ohmu. She fires what we assume is another siren shell, sees and hears an answer, and runs back to her air craft.

Miyazaki spends a full page--seven panels--on Nausicaä getting onto her craft, launching it, and flying towards the fleeing figure. From a pacing perspective, this draws out the action and adds tension, reminding us of all the little everyday actions that we must perform to use technology. Hollywood scenes of characters leaping into cars cut around the reality of opening the car door, climbing inside, turning the key, switching on the headlights, putting the car in gear, etc.

Nausicaä signals to the lone figure to go "up wind." Her attempt to rescue him is significant in itself. Nausicaä's already established as a woman who respects nature, and has just observed someone angering a huge forest creature. Many would say that the interloper deserves the Ohmu's wrath. She attempts to save him.

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Page 15 treats us to a huge action image, one which deserves some attention.

Panel one is a relatively clean image; Nausicaä on her mehve in almost the exact center of the panel, with huge pieces of the forest scattered in mid-air behind her. The sheer size and variety of the pieces implies some massive, destructive event. Note how the slightly off-center position of the mehve implies the direction of the destruction, as does the relative scarcity of pieces on the right side of the image compared to the left.

The second panel shows an Ohmu, drawn mostly in threatening black, its mandibles literally chewing through the forest. Nausicaä is barely visible in the panel's lower-left corner, easy to miss, and I think that's intended: your attention should be on the Ohmu.

Note the order of the panels here. Dramatic theory would tell you to  start with the Ohmu, the creature that's causing this destruction, then show the destruction it caused.

But this is ordered according to Nausicaä's perception. First she sees exploding trees, then the Ohmu.

In the third panel, Nausicaä strains to hold onto the mehve, her arms locked in a position of physical stress. This is our first evidence of Nausicaä's physical strength. We know her first as a scientist, then as a humanitarian; now as a figure with significant constitution.

The background of panel three is a horizontal blur, almost undecipherable. We see what may be two Ohmu mandibles behind her, but the background emphasizes speed, both of the debris whipping around Nausicaä and Nausicaä's own movement as she strains to control her craft.

This introduces another major theme of Nausicaä: humanity's relationship to technology. Science fiction often revels in its effortless technology, from Kaneda's motorcycle in Akira to the hardsuits in Bubblegum Crisis. To lapse into poetics, in Nausicaä's world, man must physically grapple with and control his technology, which can be as temperamental as a beast.

We continue with a few relatively pedestrian pages of Nausicaä calming the Ohmu using strobe grenades and leading the mysterious interloper to safety. And I'll end this first entry here, before the article gets unwieldy. Next time: surprising uses of white and black negative space, and fun with Nausicaä's hairstyle.

For more on this subject, see “At First, I Wanted to be a Manga-ka”: Analyzing the Nausicaa Manga by Kumi Kaoru and Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics.

[[Nausicaä Under the Microscope, part 2|Continue to part 2]