Cullum~ Nausicaa

As a little girl growing up in America in the 90s, I had a childhood full of disney princesses that never seemed to actually do anything. My Japanese Anime class was my first exposure to films that seemed to be geared toward a younger age that had princess’s who actually fought! The two anime that will be discussed in this blog are Nausicaa and Princess Mononoke. The two films, put together, complete a sort of image of a war against earth and its inhabitants from beginning to end. In both films, nature is trying to be destroyed but is saved by a heroine. 

In Nausicaa, the main character is a pretty, young, passionate, strong-willed princess named Nausicaa. This particular anime is set in a post apocalyptic world, after a war that managed to wipe out most of the ecosystem and most organized civilizations as well. There is a Toxic Jungle in which everything in it is lethal to humans. In Nausicaa, the Pejite are trying to destroy the toxic jungle by burning it. Nausicaa is a ally to the Ohmu in the jungle, they kind of look like giant caterpillars that you wouldn’t want to mess with. The ‘Giant Warrior’ is the weapon they plan to use to destroy the jungle and the Ohmu. When they go to use it, though, it doesn’t work. In the end, Nausicaa saves a baby Ohmu and gets run over by a herd of Ohmu drawn out of the forest by the Pejite. She survives, though, after the Ohmu revive her for her efforts and it ends happy with everyone living in peace.

In Princess Mononoke Lady Aboshi is destroying the forest to better her people and to make more iron in Iron Town. She is also killing the creatures that live in the forest. Her hatred for the creatures is the reason the main character, Ashitaka, has been fatally wounded and is now in search of a cure. Princess Mononoke, whose real name is San, won’t stand for the destruction Aboshi is creating. San is young, pretty and passionate just as Nausicaa was.  Aboshi takes the forest spirits head and her ignorance and destructive personality ends up destroying her own town in the end. San and Ashitaka return the spirits head to it and it ends up healing them and the lepers in the town.