Kaze no Tani no Naushikaa vs Mononoke Hime

These movies are pretty much telling the same story. I just rewatched both of them back-to-back so I have a clearer picture of them. I wonder if that was intentional, as Nausicaa was Miyazaki's first Ghibli film, and Mononoke Hime was supposed to be his last.

Nausicaa tells the story about a world being swallowed up in the sea of decay. The guardians of the sea are huge swarms of insects who are constantly at war with man. Nausicaa is the princess of the Valley of the Wind. When a foreign ship crash-lands right next to the Valley, she and her land are caught up in a political struggle of survival. The foreign ship comes from Tormekia, a military country in the west and their calvary comes to scoop up the crashed cargo, which turns out to be spoils of war from Pejite, another empire. Each of the three groups is willing to do whatever it takes to guarantee their peoples' survival. In the end, the battle of man vs insect takes precedence.

Mononoke Hime begins with Prince Ashitaka saving his village from a possessed boar-god. In doing so, he is cursed with a deadly disease and is thus banished from his village. He goes westward looking for answers. In the west, you observe a battle between man and nature. Lady Eboshi creates an industrial empire for her and the Tatara people, but at the cost of destroying the forest. That causes the animal tribes to be quite ticked off, not the least of which is the Wolf tribe and San, the human girl they raised. Eventually Eboshi and her town get caught up in political battles as well, because of its great industrial wealth. It finally escalates into a battle of man and nature, with Ashitaka and San trying to save both.

In both, the main theme is man vs nature. They each point out how man the cause for their own suffering. What amuses me is how the West is sorta portrayed as the "villains", but I suppose that's kinda expected. Nausicaa focuses more on how man will abuse their power if it means survival for them. Mononoke on the other hand, shows a slightly less selfish motives, but nevertheless exposes consequences for man's luxuries.

I tend to think that Mononoke Hime was the better film, with a clearer message. The fact that Ashitaka gets integrated into the Tatara way of life allows us to really warm up to these people who are generally quite kind and sympathetic. Its this sympathetic response that brings it closer to home, whereas the self-surviving people in Nausicaa come off as evil. Mononoke Hime's entire story, even its political subtexts, revolves around the man vs nature conflict so it's impossible to miss.

But nevertheless, I like Nausicaa more. Granted it is a little messier in its point, and in some ways does not provide a resolution for its problems, but Nausicaa excels in some areas. Nausicaa herself is quite a charming character. She's tough as nails, self-sacrificing, fears nothing, and always looking after others' interests. Yet at the same time, she is also human - she acts rashly out of anger, weeps when tragedy occurs, and carries a childish innocence. It also feels like Mononoke is a remake of Nausicaa not only because of all the similarities in themes, but even in execution. There were some scenes in Mononoke that seemed straight-up ripped out of Nausicaa and repainted with the new characters. So even if MH was more effective, it often feels like it just touches up on what Nausicaa already did. Nausicaa was a pioneer in the world of animation, so I give it a lot of credit for that. And though it's almost 20 years old, it animates beautifully.

Regardless, though there's much in common with the two films, they'll both captivate you in different ways.