Ask John: Which is Better, Princess Mononoke or Nausicaa?

Question:
Which do you consider the superior film, Princess Mononoke or Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind?

Answer:
Please be warned that this article may contain mild spoilers about the Princess Mononoke and Nausicaa movies.

At first I was a bit stunned by this question, uncertain of how to approach it because comparing these two films is quite a challenge. Since I don’t like to capitulate with an excuse that the two films can’t be or shouldn’t be compared, after a bit of consideration I determined a clear answer. In my opinion, Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind is a superior film to Mononoke Hime. Both films have some flaws, but ultimately I think that Nausicaa is a more complete, more effectively constructed film than Mononoke Hime is.

Mononoke Hime enjoys the benefit of nearly twenty years of advances in technical animation quality over Nausicaa, but the Star Wars prequels compared to the original trilogy should be evidence enough that advanced production techniques and quality alone don’t ensure a better film. Mononoke Hime fundamentally works as the sum of its parts, but its parts themselves don’t stand on their own. Especially protagonists Ashitaka and San are archetypes representing the opposing forces of man and nature. Ashitaka is virtually a blank slate through which the positive and negative aspects of humanity are distilled and expressed. San is pure feral reaction with little compromise. In essence, these two characters exist to propel the story, but don’t convey a lot of individuality and character to the audience. They are sterile characters that show us their backgrounds, but never make us feel their struggles or empathize with their desires or emotions. The god of the forest also appears to be more of a plot device than a fully realized character. Although he/it is the focal center of the film, viewers never get a good sense of personality or character from the God of the Forest. Because there’s too little focus on the God, the climax that involves the race to recover the god’s head seem to appear too suddenly and without context, making the ending feel disjointed from the rest of the film. All of these factors are small flaws in the context of the film experience, but they do distance us from full immersion into the film.

Nausicaa, on the other hand, isn’t so much a cumulative result of its attributes; Nausicaa is a effective combination of its attributes. Unlike Mononoke Hime, which adds different elements such as its music, story, and animation quality to build toward an amazing whole, Nausicaa starts with outstanding elements and simply brings them all together. First and foremost, Nausicaa of the Valley of wind features exceptionally emotive characters that viewers empathize with and cherish. From the villagers to supporting characters to primary characters and Nausicaa herself, even the non-human characters like Teto and the kai and the ohmu all have distinct personalities. We deeply sympathize with and care about and care for the characters in Nausicaa. We believe in their back stories and their lives. In essence, unlike the characters of Mononoke Hime that seem to exist only as principles of the story, the characters that populate Nausicaa feel like fully fleshed out characters.

Hayao Miyazaki himself has expressed displeasure with the ending of the Nausicaa movie, particularly that it climaxes with a deus ex machina literary device that’s often considered a fictional shortcut to bail out a story that’s written itself into an intractable corner. The final third of the Nausicaa movie is overtly emotionally manipulative, including scenes such as Kushana’s explanation of her hatred of the insects, the torture of the baby ohmu, and Nausicaa’s martyrdom. The film also creates a story in which the only possible resolution comes from a literal miracle out of the blue instead of from a logical continuation of the linear story. But despite being technically literary flaws, these elements of the movie are undeniably effective and moving. Unlike the climax of Mononoke Hime, which may be technically slightly more faithful to its story, the climax of Nausicaa is less faithful to the integrity of the story up to that point, but still delivers a far more dramatic and affecting impact than the climax of Mononoke Hime. Most of the time, manipulative films end up being obvious, and if we find them effective, we feel used and cheated afterwards. Nausicaa is one of the rare instances of a sensationalistic, bombastic climax actually being deeply cathartic and satisfying without being condescending.

So while Mononoke Hime is a wonderfully gorgeous film and a flawed but still amazing motion picture experience, Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind is simply a more affective, expressive film. It feels more cohesive and more linear than Mononoke, resulting in it being a more intense and dramatic movie experience. In light of the respect and reverence lauded on Nausicaa compared to the appreciation given to Mononoke Hime by fans worldwide, I’d say that most fans agree with my conclusions, although perhaps not as consciously.