Hayao Miyazaki by Raz Greenberg

Author:Raz Greenberg
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781501335952
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Published: 2018-05-06T16:00:00+00:00

The Heroine’s Journey

While Future Boy Conan provided inspiration for key elements in Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, it was also a very male-oriented show with the protagonist being, as noted earlier, the archetypical Miyazaki “civilized” boy who educates the people around him. Lana’s character in the show feels bland and underdeveloped, serving as little more than a plot device; Monsley is a far more complex character, but she also largely serves as a supporting character for Conan. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, on the other hand, focuses on a female protagonist and has been praised by different critics for providing a positive role model of a strong leading female figure for his readers.4 In fact, Miyazaki’s tendency to place female characters in dominant roles in his works can be traced to Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. Nausicaa’s character, however, was inspired by many previous works that Miyazaki was involved with, and other works he read or watched in the two decades that passed between the beginning of his professional career and the publication of the first chapter of the manga.

The initial inspiration for Nausicaa’s character came from the protagonists of two ancient literary sources. One was the protagonist of The Lady who Loved Insects, a story by an unknown author from the Japanese collection Tsutsumi Chūnagon Monogatari (“The Riverside Middle Counselor’s Tales”) originally published during the late Heian (795–1185 CE) period. The Heian period was a time of economic prosperity leading to cultural flourishing and the writing of many literary classics. Though the author of The Lady who Loved Insects is unknown, the story’s ironic tone implies that the intent behind it was to satirize the popular subject matter of many literary works of the period—the life of nobility.5

The story’s unnamed protagonist is the daughter of a noble family who refuses to conform to social norms, especially those concerned with beauty. Though she is a beautiful woman, she refuses to pluck her eyebrows, blacken her teeth, or trim her hair as fashion dictates. Instead, she devotes her time to her greatest passion—collecting and studying “all kinds of reptiles and insects, such as most people are frightened to touch,” especially caterpillars. The strange hobby reflects the lady’s desire for knowledge and understanding of the world, her wish to see the inner works underneath the superficiality of social life: “I want to inquire into everything that exists, and find out how it began … it is very silly of them to dislike caterpillars, all of which will soon turn into lovely butterflies.” While people of the social circles that surround the lady are largely appalled by her behavior, she manages to gather a group of boys who help her collect insects. Toward the end of the story, the lady also captures the attention of a nobleman who finds her odd behavior attractive. The story ends with a hint of courtship and a promise of a continuation in the “next scroll,” though the rest of the story, if ever written, has been lost.

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