Nausikaa Of The Valley Of Wind Analysis

9. Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind (Hayao Miyazaki, 1984)

This particular anime was the one that introduced Hayao Miyazaki to the world.

A thousand years have passed after the “Seven Days of Fire”, a war that destroyed civilization and created the Toxic Jungle, a poisonous forest swarming with giant mutant insects. Humanity now tries to survive in little cities and villages as the “Valley of the Wind”, where Princess Nausikaa is in charge. She tries to protect her people from the jungle and especially from the Ohms, giant trilobite-like creatures, although her goal is to find a way to coexist with them.

However, troops from the kingdom of Tolmek arrive at one point, whose purpose is to use a bio-weapon that was implemented during the war, to

Eventually, Sheeta ends up with Pazu, who also dreams of seeing Laputa, and the two of them try to reach the floating city before their chasers.

Miyazaki directs a film that entails many of his distinct traits, but particularly the ones regarding co-existence with nature and the futility of war. The first one is presented through the city's past, while the violent clashes between Sheeta, Pazu, their pirate friends and Muska and his soldiers, exemplify the futility of armed confrontation, the worthlessness in the struggle for power.

Furthermore, "Castle in the Sky" incorporates elements of a coming-of-age film as Sheeta and Pazu try to cope with the world, maturing through the fact that they have no parents to take care of them.

The film features astonishing drawing and animation, with the battle scenes and the ending sequence standing apart.

6. Akira (Katsuhiro Otomo,1988)

Katsuhiro Otomo’s magnum opus, based on his own manga that stretches for more than 2000 pages, is one of the landmarks of the anime genre, being universally acclaimed and having garnered a large cult

Black Rain (Shohei Imamura, 1989)

Based on the homonymous novel by Masuji Ibuse, "Black Rain" was one of the most acclaimed Japanese films of the 80's winning nine awards from the Japanese Academy and a plethora of others from festivals all over the world.

The film begins during the explosion of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima, as we watch three survivors, Mr. and Mrs. Shizuma and their niece Yasuko, wlaking through the streets while black rain showers them. Five years later, the three of them live together with Yasuko's senile grandmother, in a village with many survivors.

The Shizumas worry about the marriage prospects of their niece, since the fact that she may succumb to radiation sickness does not make her an appealing prospect. Yasuko does not share their worries and eventually befriends a veteran of war named Shuichi, who suffers from a PTSD.

Shohei Imamura directs a social film regarding not the immediate victims of the atomic bomb, but the ones that suffer the consequences indirectly, as they become pariahs in society. He focuses on the relationships among them, and the fact that in order to cope, the previous generation clings to tradition while the new one is lost. In that fashion, he criticizes Japanese