About the Author

Hayao Miyazaki is one of Japan’s most beloved animation directors. In 2005 he was awarded the Venice International Film Festival’s Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement, and his Studio Ghibli received the festival’s Osella Award for overall achievement in 2004. Miyazaki’s films include Spirited Away, winner of the 2002 Academy Award® for Best Animated Feature Film, as well as Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke, Howl's Moving Castle, and Ponyo, all of which have received great acclaim in the U.S. Miyazaki’s other achievements include the highly regarded manga series Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Starting Point: 1979-1996, a collection of essays, interviews, and memoirs that chronicle his early career and the development of his theories of animation. Both are published in English by VIZ Media.

Reviews

Nausicaa is the gifted teenaged princess of a small valley on a devastated far-future Earth, where a growing poisonous forest is threatening the last human settlements. As an excellent gunship pilot, she is drawn by an old alliance into a war between neighboring kingdoms. But the pacifistic Nausicaa is much more interested in exploring the secrets of the forest. This complex ecological adventure epic-a true comics classic-is the only extended manga work by renowned anime director Miyazaki (Spirited Away). His lush, detailed art, reproduced here in sepia ink, is more reminiscent of European artists such as Moebius than of most manga, but manga fans will be drawn into the story nonetheless. Viz's first edition of Nausicaa was seven volumes; later these were recompiled into a four-volume set. This new edition reverts to the artwork's original right-to-left orientation, the seven-volume breakdown, and the Japanese original's larger (7" x 10") size-an improvement, as Miyazaki's pages are dense with information. Highly recommended for teens and adults alike, this tremendous series belongs in every library. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.