Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Vols. 1-4 [Box set] [Paperback]

Hayao Miyazaki (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 1088 pages
• Publisher: VIZ Media LLC (January 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569313482
• ISBN-13: 978-1569313480
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 6 x 3.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,328,455 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Hayao Miyazaki is the prominent director of many popular animated feature films. He is also the co-founder of Studio Ghibli, the award-winning Japanese animation studio and production company behind worldwide hits such as PRINCESS MONONOKE, HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE and SPIRITED AWAY.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

101 of 111 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The (second) translator's perspective, October 10, 2003

By 

Matthew Thorn "Matt Thorn" (Kyoto, Kyoto Japan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Vols. 1-4 (Paperback)

I translated the last 3/7 of this series, and in nine years of translating about 5000 pages of manga, this was the best and most important title I worked on. If you go way back to the earliest reviews here (1998), you'll find some very nice comments by Toren Smith about my translation, but I must say Toren and Dana's was a hard act to follow. They did an excellent job on the first 4/7, and my biggest challenge was to maintain both their tone and their level of quality. I give it four stars here only because I'm a bit disturbed by the way fans treat this work as a sacred text, flawless and beyond criticism. It is a great work, but, no, it is not the Lord of the Rings. Tolkein spent his entire life creating the world of Middle Earth (and not doing much else, itseems, other than teaching linguistics). For Miyazaki, the Nausicaa manga was a side project he worked on in between his many brilliant animated films. There were often long breaks, and many fans feared he would never finish it. As a result, yes, there is some inconsistency in tone and even theme. But the story only gets better and better as Miyazaki matures and his thinking becomes more nuanced and complex. The Nausicaa we see here in the later volumes is not the two-dimensional messiah figure of Miyazaki's (excellent) 1983 animated film of the same name. She is wracked by doubts, is sometimes ready to give up, and even experiences what might be a nervous breakdown. But what I want to talk about here is the experience of translating Nausicaa and the almost religious devotion of non-Japanese fans to this work. I never got so much e-mail about anything else I ever translated. For example, one time I had to translate an episode while I was on the road, and I didn't have the previous translations with me. A character appeared who hadn't appeared since the first volume, and I couldn't remember how Toren and Dana had transliterated her name, so I took my best shot and asked the editor to check for consistency. The editor didn't check, and as it turned out I had transliterated it differently (I think they had named her "Ketcha" and I had named her "Kecha," or something like that.) Wow! When the episode was published, fans went ballistic! What was more surreal, though, was the fact that fans were relying to a great extent on a so-called "fan translation" of the animated movie for reference. This unauthorized "translation" is laughably bad, and was done by a person who, although prolific, is utterly unqualified to translate Japanese. But this self-appointed translator has (or at least had) an almost god-like status among fans, and I would get letters complaining that I had "mistranslated" a line, because my translation differed from that of the unauthorized translation. In other words, the gross mistranslations of the "fan-subber" had become canonical, even where they completely reversed the meaning of the original! Today I am an associate professor in Japan's first and only Department of Comic Art, at Kyoto Seika University. I teach about the history and sociocultural aspects of manga and comics from around the world to some of the most talented aspiring manga artists in Japan. (Every year, about 400 applicants vie for 40 openings in our program.) You could say that I have dedicated my life to preaching the gospel of sequential art, and I mean that only half-jokingly. So I think I'm qualified to say this. Take a deep breath now. Step back, and look at things in perspective. This is a great manga. No, it's a great comic, or graphic novel, or whatever you want to call it. But it is not the Bible. It is not the Koran. It is not the Talmud, or the Lotus Sutra. It's the side project of a man who considers himself foremost an animator, and who creates comics almost as a hobby. There are actually many manga that are arguably better than this (though this may be the best ever translated into English). Uncritical worship will only make prospective readers skeptical. Four stars is probably good enough, and four stars is nothing to sneeze at.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars not comic, this is art., March 14, 2004

By 

taka(Japanese (Tokyo, Japan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Vols. 1-4 (Paperback)

I am surprised that USA people watch this comic series in addition to the same title movie.

As you know, Naushika's story don't finish to the movie. The truth story start from reading this comic. Even if Japanase read them, the story is a little difficult, but there are more wondeful things than the minus point.
For instance, the drawing ways. Generally comic(Japanese MANGA) is simple drawing. But the comic is very detailed drawing. They is like art rather than comic.

And in addition to the wonderful drawing,the expression of the character's face is very excellent, for instance joy, sarrow, longing, anger... Mr. Miyazaki can write their expressions very well. There are writers that can write comics very well in the world, but there will not are writers that can write their expressions of face very well.

If there are people that was moved when watched the movie, absolutely we recommend this comis..art series.

You will not waste your money by buying this arts series.

I am sorry for my poor English.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars only Manga book i read, April 15, 2003

By 

kiko (Jersey city, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Vols. 1-4 (Paperback)

I'm japanese and I'll tell you that Japan is flooded with comic books also known as Manga.Threre are hundreds of weekly all comic magazines published and almost EVERYBODY is into some sort of those things. And I'm not. I can't stand reading and gazing at drawings at same time, it almost seemed like impposible to me. Until I saw this. I saw the animated film version of the same title and was blown away! I had to read the Manga version. The story is deep. There is a lot more going on here than in the movie. Way more complicated, and made me cry so many times. You won't understand in 1 read. I've read it like a thousand and one times, but every time you read it you find more to it. Another message here, different meanings there.....
Mr. Miyazaki took like 16 or so years to complete this. It's a masterpiece. only 1 thing is towards the end it feels like he rushed himself to end it, like very anxious to finish it and get it over with.It could've been 50 more pages to have it ended more dramatically. But well it might've taken him another 3 years for that so.... that was enough for him I guess. Anyway...
I think it's great and this is the only manga book I own and love.