Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind Ending, Explained

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind ends with Nausicaä killed in front of a stampede of Ohmu and brought back to life by them. Leaders of Pejite drive the enraged herd toward the Tolmekians in her valley, using a captured baby Ohmu as bait; Kushana's attempt to stop the herd with the God Warrior fails; Nausicaä frees the baby and stands in the herd's path; and the Ohmu, calmed, heal her and leave the valley unharmed. This page covers the ending of the 1984 film, not the manga.

Sources for this page: the scene transcriptions on Wikiquote for dialogue, and five CBR articles for the sequence of events: Elizabeth Rivas's overview of the film, Emma Singer's piece on Hideaki Anno's animation, Jonathon Greenall's list of sad Ghibli scenes, and Vera Vargas's articles on heroic acts in Ghibli films and the savior in blue. They are one publisher, not five sources. Todd Ciolek's 2014 ANN review and Theron Martin's 2005 ANN review supply critical readings. We have not rewatched the film for this page.

The bait

Rivas sets up the climax. Nausicaä and Asbel, a prince of Pejite, return to his city and learn “of a plot by Pejite leaders to destroy the Tolmekians occupying her valley by unleashing a wave of enraged Ohm, using an injured and captured baby Ohm as bait.” The Tolmekians, led by Princess Kushana, had invaded the valley for the embryo of a Giant Warrior, which Rivas says Kushana intends to use to burn away the toxic jungle.

The God Warrior

Kushana's answer to the stampede is the weapon. Singer describes the sequence as “Kushana's desperate, and failed, attempt to eliminate the Ohmu using one of the God Warriors,” with the giant's body disintegrating. Martin's review adds a production note: the Giant of Fire's late scenes were some of the earliest animation work by a young Hideaki Anno.

The sacrifice

Nausicaä frees the baby Ohmu. Vargas notes that its blood stains the pink dress Asbel's mother gave her, turning it blue. Then she stands between the herd and the valley. Greenall: “Nausicaä faces down a mob of rampaging Ohmu while the watching people beg her to move. However, Nausicaä stands firm, and her body gets crushed and thrown into the air, killing her.”

The revival and the prophecy

Her death stops the stampede. Rivas: “Moved by her sacrifice, the Ohm revive Nausicaä and depart in peace, leaving the people of the Valley of the Wind unharmed and returning to their mission of guarding the Toxic Jungle so that it can continue to purify the planet.” Vargas writes that the Ohmu “uplift Nausicaa, healing her broken body.”

The ending answers a prophecy the film set up early. In the Wikiquote transcription, the valley's elder Obaba tells of a figure who will come “clad in blue and surrounded by fields of gold,” and Nausicaä finishes the legend: “And he will guide the people of this planet at last to a land of purity.” Vargas ties the two together. She points to an earlier scene that foreshadows the finale, in which an Ohm covers Nausicaä in glowing yellow feelers (“a veritable ‘field of gold.’”), and argues that the blue dress, dyed by the baby's blood, makes her the savior in blue. Vargas argues the color change shows she becomes the savior through her choices rather than by destiny.

The film's last scenes after the revival are beyond what our sources describe, so we stop here rather than fill them in from memory.

The criticism

Both ANN reviews take issue with the ending. Martin writes that the story has been criticized for writing itself into a corner, so that only “a contrived plot manipulation” resolves it, and calls that criticism “unfortunately, warranted”: the ending, though presaged, “seems forced.” Ciolek objects that “the plot even summons up an ancient legend just so Nausicaä can fulfill it,” and that the film is “a touch naive about her ability to unify two different worlds,” themes he thinks Miyazaki took to more realistic conclusions in Princess Mononoke.

The film and the manga

The film adapts Miyazaki's own manga, which VIZ Media publishes in English (its listing runs to Vol. 7, plus a box set). Singer notes that the film was made from a manga “far from even being completed at the time of its release,” so the film's ending is its own. This page does not compare the two.

What the ending means

Our reading: the ending makes its argument through what the Ohmu do rather than what anyone says. The humans spend the climax using animals as bait and weapons; the animals answer by healing the one human who treated a baby insect as worth saving, which is the same choice the film shows her making as a child. Martin and Ciolek are right that the miracle is convenient. It is also the film's whole case, staged rather than argued. That is our interpretation, not a statement from Miyazaki.

The Nausicaä quotes page collects verified lines from the film, the sub or dub guide covers its two English versions, and the Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away ending explainers cover two later Miyazaki endings.