The postapocalyptic anime Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984) is one of Hayao Miyazaki’s most important films. Based on the first two parts of a longrunning manga series published in Animage magazine, the film was a critical and commercial success in Japan, resulting in the formation of Studio Ghibli in 1985. In the film, Miyazaki establishes many of the important tropes appearing in later Ghibli features, such as the metaphor of flight, the critique of rampant industrialism tied to imperialism and warfare, the condemnation of atomic power, and the relationship between man and nature. It also begins a long line of films featuring strong female lead characters. Nausicaa is one of the most notable animated films to take up environmental and ecological concerns, having generated quite a bit of scholarly attention because of its green message, and its power remains undiminished thirtyone years after its initial release.1 The film follows the exploits of Princess Nausicaa, a pacifist and environmentally conscious character, as she navigates her small nation’s future between the warring kingdom of Pejite and the militaristic Tolmekian Empire. The film is set a thousand years after a catastrophic (presumably atomic) global event called the Seven Days of Fire, which was caused by living bioweapons named God Warriors. The Days of Fire ruined much of the planet’s soil and water and gave rise to the Toxic Jungle, a deadly fungal environment whose only denizens