Nausicaa vs. Gedo Senkai: Atonement

While bicycling around Culver City this morning, enjoying the splash of sunshine before the oncoming rainstorms, I had further thoughts about NAUSICAA IN THE VALLEY OF THE WIND, which I posted about below.

NAUSICAA is a rich enough movie that one can watch it several times, and each time come away with something different. On this viewing, what struck me was one of the recurring themes in Hayao Miyazaki's movies: cleaning up your own mess -- or, as one of the characters in SPIRITED AWAY puts it, "Finish[ing] what you started." In NAUSICAA, "your mess" is interpreted broadly; and various characters are involved in cleaning up messes their clan, their nation, or even their fellow species created. Ultimately, (spoiler warning) the engine that drives the plot is the Earth's millennia - long attempt to clean up the mess humanity made of the world -- an attempt that, it is quite likely, mankind will not survive.

A subsidiary theme in NAUSICAA is atonement: realizing you did something wrong to someone, and working to make up for it. That's another iteration of cleaning up your mess. And again, the concept is applied on a collective scale. Characters are constantly apologizing for what they, their countrymen, their fellow humans, or their swarm did. A further subtheme is bringing about atonement as a form of diplomacy. Nausicaa does this often: She sacrifices her physical well-being to aggressors, so that they will feel bad about what they've done, abandon their aggression, and devote their energies to atonement instead. This works with some (those with the innate goodness to realize they've screwed up) and not with others (those so convinced they're doing the right thing that they won't be swayed).

I can't help but compare this with GEDO SENKAI (and again, spoiler warnings are appropriate). The movie begins with the main character, a prince, savagely killing his father -- committing both patricide and regicide. This act is never fully explained in the movie. Yet the goal of his character arc is his forgiveness of himself for this act!! This is the opposite of atonement; it is seeking sanctuary after committing a crime. It is an ultimately unsatisfying resolution of the story, because fundamentally an unexplained crime requires atonement, not forgiveness.

I've only read the first of Ursula LeGuin's EARTHSEA books, the source material for GEDO SENKAI, so I can't address based on personal knowledge the degree to which this unbalance originates in the adapted material. But LeGuin herself has commented that it originates with the adaptors. She has also, however, conveyed the comments of a correspondent from Japan that the movie has found an audience with those who seek to forgive themselves for unexplainable sins, real or imagined. Which still leaves the question: When is self-forgiveness deserved? And when is the proper response atonement?

Oh, and the beer bottle? They sold this beer at the Ghibli Museum's outdoor cafe. "Kaze No Tani" means "Valley of the Wind." Apparently, atonement gives one a mighty thirst.

Aero in the Valley of the Wind

NAUSICAA OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND is my all-time favorite Hayao Miyazaki movie. It's the first feature Miyazaki directed from his own story. When we went to Japan in 2004, on our first full day there, we went to the Ghibli Museum, which was devoted to Miyazaki's work. That night, when we went to Akihibara, I bought one Region 2 DVD: NAUSICAA -- which had just been released on DVD in Japan, and had never been released uncut on American video at that point. When our tour went to a Chinese restaurant in Ikebukuro later that night, guess what was playing on the restaurant's TV -- NAUSICAA.

So when the American Cinematheque played a rare big-screen showing of NAUSICAA this evening at the Aero theater in Santa Monica, how could we help but go? Apparently, a lot of people had the same idea -- the audience was full.

The only other time I saw the movie at a theater was when the horribly sliced up version, WARRIORS OF THE WIND, was shown at the LA Animation Festival in 1985. This version, like that one, was dubbed. But thankfully, it was a far more faithful dub -- and the film itself uncut.

The dub featured such actors as Patrick Stewart (Lord Yupa, naturally), Uma Thurman (Kushana), Chris Sarandon (Kurotowa), and Shia Lebouf (Asbell), and it wasn't too bad. But it wasn't quite up to the quality of such other Disney dubs of Miyazaki films as PORCO ROSSO or SPIRITED AWAY; or the celebrated dub of PRINCESS MONONOKE written by Neil Gaiman. And I'll always prefer the subtitled Japanese language film, particularly due to Sumi Shimamoto's performance as Nausicaa.

And the film. Oh my, the film. I've seen it many times, but it still has the power to squeeze some moisture out of my tearducts. Miyazaki's later films may be much more slickly animated (heck, this one even animates giant pillbugs by using sliding paper cutouts), and they have some excellent stories and characters; but nothing matches this one. And what character could match Nausicaa -- the teenage princess who's an ace flyer, a plant biologist, an incredible warrior (she wipes out a room full of sword and gun toting soldiers, using only a staff -- and it looks believable), a leader, a hero (she constantly finds herself saving both male and female characters, left and right), and someone who will fly toward a machine gun, unarmed, with her arms spread wide. And on top of that, she's compassionate and humble. As Amy mentioned, those parents whose daughters are infatuated with Disney princesses should show the girls this film; here's a princess who's a real role model.

Watching NAUSICAA brought to mind my recent viewing of GEDO SENKAI: TALES OF EARTHSEA, the debut animated feature from Hayao Miyazaki's son Goro Miyazaki. The character designs in GEDO SENKAI strongly resemble the elder Miyazaki's in NAUSICAA. But Goro's direction just doesn't have the storytelling art of Hayao's. Many scenes in GEDO SENKAI serve no purpose except to get the characters from point A to point B. Such a scene would be unthinkable in a Hayao Miyazaki movie. Every corner you turn in a Hayao Miyazaki film leads you to a new treat -- something that surprises you, or thrills you, or amuses you, or makes you gasp with wonder at its beauty.

Sakura-Con Wrap-up

Sakura-Con is obviously long over. I was going to post a con report right after getting home; but as usual, life got in the way. Or more precisely, illness got in the way -- a sore throat and a 100 degree temperature as soon as I got back. I dealt with the fever by spending a day home from work -- and incidently working over eight hours that day. (Hey, it wasn't physical work, so technically it was relaxing.)

Anyway, Sakura-Con. At 10,000 attendees (about), it was much bigger than Anime Vegas or Anime LA, and much smaller than Anime Expo. There was no shortage of stuff to do, and everything was on the whole neatly organized. (This was the first time I'd seen one video room devoted entirely to subtitled videos, another to dubbed videos, another to movies, and a fourth to anime music videos.)

The attempts at organization fell down sometimes, however, and one of the most egregious examples was on the last day. Japanese manga creators Kohta Hirano and Yasuhiro Nightow were offering autographs/sketches. A sign advised that prospective recipients of sketches would be given lottery tickets to determine who would be able to go into the undisclosed locations and obtain the sketches. It also said that there were no lineups before 2 pm. (You might see where this is going.) Staffers, alas, advised fans to, yes, line up before 2; and issued them lottery tickets. Shortly before 2, however, a rather loud and rude staffer chewed out the line occupants for lining up before 2 pm; and made them give back their tickets! (You can imagine the calm with which a couple hundred tired, low-blood-sugar-afflicted, hyped up young people took this information.) The atmosphere got sufficiently threatening that security guards or police officers were called. Worst of all, when the new tickets were being brought out for distribution, someone yelled, "Go! go!" The fans began stampeding toward the ticket bowls; and I, observing from the sidelines, began to get that sick feeling of watching a train wreck in motion. Fortunately, a loud-voiced burly staffer stopped the mayhem before anyone was (physically) hurt.

Below is video of the more orderly aftermath, with the still-peeved fans being chosen by lottery for sketches. Alas, Amy was not one of the chosen; but she high-fived the thirty who got sketches.




One of the delights of the convention was meeting veteran Japanese voice actress Sumi Shimamoto, pictured below. Ms. Shimamoto has done numerous voices for Hayao Miyazaki movies, including Clarice, the heroine of his first full-length movie, Castle of Cagliostro; and his (and anime's) most famous female character, Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind. I also captured some video of Ms. Shimamoto's panel.





I asked her if she had noticed any changes in voice actor styles over the years she had worked. She replied that the cadence of acting had speeded up; that more voice directors were using overlapping dialogue, and background/foreground voices; and that some casting directors were hiring voice actresses more for their looks than their ability.

The final video I'll post from the con is the intro to the dub voice directors panel, with Johnathan Klein and Taliesin Jaffe: