Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)

Watched on 2023-10-16

Noticeably rougher round the edges than later Ghibli stuff but still a classic. I don't think anyone makes better films for children than Miyazaki.

I love the Moebius influence in this one and the synthy score* ("not going to lie, this is banging" -- quoth J) and the environmentalism is so aligned with my own that I wonder if I didn't see this as a child and just internalise its message in the same way that i discovered I had with the Earthsea books.

It's amazing how influential this was on like so much that came after. Watching it I was constantly like "oh, it's a chocobo!" or "oh right yeah, that's where Slipstream came from" each scene contains whole Disney+ franchise's worth of ideas.
* the soundtrack appears not to be on streaming services but is available on the internet archive