Delayed Reaction: Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

Premise: In a post-apocalyptic world, a young princess gets caught up in a larger struggle to harness an ancient power.

I guess I'm out of excuses now. I've never made it a priority to catch up on all of Hayoa Miyazaki's movies. I used to have the excuse that they really weren't streaming anywhere, so I could take my time. Well, now they are all on HBO Max. It's time to get caught up.

Miyazaki's movies are sort of the populist movie nerd's anime*. He's made some of the biggest international hits ever. Even if you aren't that interested in Japanese animation, there's really no excuse to skip these.

*I don't know if anime is technically the right word, nor do I really care, since you know what I mean.

Nausicaa isn't technically Miyazaki's first feature, but no one of saying I need to track down Lupin the 3rd: Castle of Cagliostro. For all intents and purposes, this is where it begins for him. And you can tell. I've seen a few of his later movies (My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle). Nausicaa is a little light on that "Miyazaki magic". The characters don't pop quite as much. The visuals aren't quite a distinctive. Still good. Not quite as memorable. I think I prefer his movies set in a more contemporary time period. I like the contrast of Miyazaki's imagination with a more mundane world.

I'm not very well versed in anime. I'm sure there are better comparisons to make, but a lot of this movie sure reminded me of the Kingdom of Zeal portion of the game Chrono Trigger. Even the ohms remind me a lot of the Lavos spawn in that game. Maybe that's just me, and given the timeline of things, it's better to say that portion of Chrono Trigger reminds me of Nausicaa.

Verdict: Weakly Recommend