Americans and Religion in Miyazaki

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, a 1984 Hayao Miyazaki production, depicts an environmentally devastated world that’s just a handful of giant bugs shy of our own potential reality. 1,000 years following the collapse of industrial civilization, protagonist Princess Nausicaä is left to mediate conflict between the violent warring nations to the East and West that ensnares her own peaceful subsistence community. Above the constant human conflict, the threat of encroaching decay looms; the Sea of decay — a toxic forest of fungus and hostile creatures — spreads, threatening what little of humanity is left (Nausicaä). Japanese reception of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind following its release was overwhelmingly positive; the film would go on to become the country’s highest grossing film that year, additionally earning popular magazine Animage’s Grand Prix Prize (LaPierre, “Warriors of the Wind”; “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind”). It’s popularity has endured with audiences today, earning countless accolades and awards. In a recent poll of over 80,000 responses, for example, Nausicaä earned the title of second best animated movie of all time (“Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind”). From the nearly 40 years since its original release date, Nausicaä has managed to retain its widespread adoration among Japanese anime-consumers and the general public alike.

The same cannot be said about the American market. Both upon its original release and now, Nausicaä fared incredibly poorly in the states. I couldn’t even call its performance here a flop, as “flop” implies a failure of considerable scale. The film failed to make the slightest ripple, even among American anime fanatics. The film scored a measly 74% on Rotten Tomatoes’ audience score, with less than 50 ratings in total. Do not let this “passing” score deceive you. Compare this C- to the ratings of Princess Monoke, a thematically similar Miyazaki film. Mononoke earned a 94% with over 100,000 community votes. Even Howl’s Moving Castle — Miyazaki’s second least popular film on Rotten Tomatoes (and among American weeaboos) — scored a whopping 93% with over 25,0000 ratings. It’s not just that Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind received poor ratings from American audiences — the film is practically unheard of.

What could possibly explain the discrepancy between American and Japanese receptions of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind? I argue that, as a cultural product, the Shinto and Buddhist code of morality this film emulates disagrees with our Chirstian American sensibilities, to the extent that the vast majority of Americans find this highly-acclaimed foreign film unenjoyable. It’s not a stretch to view this film as a prime ambassador of Japanese values, either — Miyazaki’s films famously double as family-friendly entertainment and allegories of harrowing real-world experiences. Even seemingly innocuous feel-good films, like My Neighbour Totorio, discuss darker themes of estrangement, both from childhood and the natural world. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is much the same; it’s imaginative worldbuilding and stunning animation belie a far graver environmental message. In Nausicaä, humanity is weak in the face of the natural world. The film tells us that, in contrast to what Christians may espouse, the world was not built for us. In fact, Nausicaä chastises us for overexerting our presence in nature — an attitude that Christianity actually encourages. Nausicaä effectively deconstructs Americans’ fundamental understanding of our place on Earth, making it unpalatable for the average consumer.

In the post-industrial world of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, humanity has long-lost its dominance over the Earth. The growth of the natural world has relegated man to a few sparse civilizations; the Sea of Decay and its vast insect army habitually consume more and more of what is left of man. This entirely reverses the Christian hierarchy of life. Per Genesis:12, God intended for mankind to “fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Man no longer has dominion over the living things of the planet in Nausicaä — in fact, it is the living things that have dominated and “subdued” humanity. The insects proliferate while the human population dwindles. The scale of Nausicaä’s bugs furthers this idea as well — the protagonist, Princess Nausicaä is no bigger than the eye of an ohmu insect. Additionally, the Sea of Decay itself is simply a sprawling mass of fungi and spores. Humans have become so insignificant on this earth that they have quite literally become smaller than a once-microscopic segment of the world. Mankind, in all its arrogance, has shrunk in scale to the critters and lifeforms that we would have once paid no mind to.

The fact that bugs, over any other form of life, now dominate humanity only adds insult to injury. Insects represent corruption and filth; the bible paints them as abhorrent beings. As Leviticus 11:20–24 commands, “all winged insects that go on all fours are detestable” to humans, “and by these you shall become unclean… whoever touches their [insect] carcass shall be unclean until the evening”. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind not only knocks humanity down a peg in our life hierarchy. It places us below even insects. Furthering the destruction of Christianity’s worldview, this movie’s insects, rather than humans, represent the voice and tools of larger spiritual power. The ohmu become the true crusaders and voice of the earth. As one character describes, their “fury is the rage of the Earth itself”. In a sense, they glorify God, if you consider their God to be the natural world. They protect what humanity has tried to destroy (ie the forest). This again reverses the role Christians view humanity as having on this Earth.

Princess Nausicaä later discovers that the Sea of Decay in fact purifies deeply-polluted soil and water, effectively purging the world from what humanity has wrought upon it. This all amounts to the stunning realization that humanity is the scourge and corruption of the Earth — not the Sea of Decay, the insects, or the natural elements that have overwhelmed mankind. The natural world becomes the protagonist, while humanity represents the polluting antagonist who only continues to interfere with the natural functions of the earth. It is a slap to the face of Christian human superiority — the view that humanity is supposed to have control over everything, allowed to exhaust resources greedily and endlessly.

This movie effectively does not translate well because humanity is not central, which as Americans and Christians, is not understandable. To clarify, of course not every anime-consumer is Christian. In fact, much of America’s youth — the demographic more likely to consume Miyazaki films — are becoming less and less devout. I of course concede that the US of today is not the Christian-hub of yesterday. There is no refuting, however, that our American perspective of the world is largely influenced by our country’s collective Christian roots. Our nation largely shares a disregard for life. We consume huge amounts of meat with little regard to where it comes from. We have little regard for the Earth, for the resources we consume, and how we disrupt the natural equilibrium of the world. We still treat the Earth as if it is entirely ours to exhaust and wither away. We still hold this false sense of human superiority to the Earth.

While Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind’s less-than lackluster performance in the US is disappointing, it at least quells the fear that globalization equates to cultural homogenization. As time progresses, cultures certainly become more united (ie globalized) as cultural products diffuse across borders and seas. Some products such as Nausicaä, however, never globalize. Globalization can only occur along lines with precedent; our world’s increasing interconnectedness does not equate to one shared sense of culture. We retain a core baseline of values and ideologies. We even view the cultural products we do adopt through the lens of said baseline. What fits and is palatable is embraced. What does not align simply does not translate. In the case of Nausicaä, our American sensibilities prevent us from fully enjoying the film. We are unable to comprehend a life structure that is so radically different from our own. Globalization is not to be feared. Rather, we should embrace globalization and the interconnected community it affords.

Works Cited

LaPierre, James. “When Nausicaä Became Warriors of the Wind.” Cinematheque, 6 Sept. 2016,

https://cinema.wisc.edu/blog/2016/09/06/when-nausica%C3%A4-became-warriors-wind.

Miyazaki, Hayao, director. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Topcraft, 1984.

“Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.” Ghibli Wiki, Fandom.

https://ghibli.fandom.com/wiki/Nausica%C3%A4_of_the_Valley_of_the_Wind.

“Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.” Rotten Tomatoes,

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/nausicaa_of_the_valley_of_the_wind.

“Princess Mononoke.” Rotten Tomatoes,

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/princess_mononoke_1999.

The Bible. The New Oxford Annotated Version, 3rd ed., Oxford UP, 2001.

Wright, Lucy, and Jerry Clode. “The Animated Worlds of Hayao Miyazaki: FILMIC

REPRESENTATIONS OF SHINTO.” Metro : Media & Education Magazine, no. 143, 2005, pp. 46–51. ProQuest, http://libproxy.usc.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/magazines/animated-worlds-hayao-miyazaki-filmic/docview/236425294/se-2?accountid=14749.