Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

This dramatic adventure story about a brave young princess is set in a fantasy world a thousand years after a global war has upset the balance of the ecosystem. Human settlements are scattered among the Sea of Doom, a rampant forest of toxic fungi filled with gigantic insectoid creatures. Most humans stay away from civilized areas, but Princess Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, gifted with a talent for communicating with giant insects, discovers beauty in the forbidden space and learns to understand its ecological laws. Meanwhile, tensions between two of the most powerful nations escalate into an open battle over a mythical weapon from the age of global war. As humans fight against each other and the elements, Nausicaa tries to bring peace between all the warring parties. Miyazaki based the film on his own comic book and developed many elements characteristic of his upcoming work. The narrative, brimming with imagery, builds primarily on the author's typical motif of ecology as a set of relationships within a system. Following the phenomenal domestic success of the film, Miyazaki, together with his colleague Isao Takahata, founded the animation studio Ghibli, which remains one of the world's leading animation workshops.