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A review by nigellicus
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Vol. 3, Volume 3 by Hayao Miyazaki
5.0
I think this is the one where I really fell in love with comics. I mean madly, passionately in love, because I was already pretty smitten but I don't think I had ever seen or read anything like the sortie from the besieged garrison. Rereading it now years later I think I can still safely say it is the best depiction of battle that I have ever read or seen in any medium. It is the greatest piece of action narrative I know of, at any rate.
Travelling through Dorok territory with Kushana, Nausicaa discovers horrible signs that the miasma of the Sea of Corruption is being used as a weapon. Kushana is determined to rescue what is left of her beloved Third Army, being thrown away in useless rearguard actions by her horrible brothers. Nausicaa just wants to end the violence and reduce bloodshed. In a bargain to secure the release of civilian prisoners she agrees to ride beside Kushana in a daring sortie to destroy Dorok artillery.
It's incredible. The build-up, the careful depiction of the battleground, the precision of the tactics, the action itself, filled with acts of brutality heroism on both sides, the horror of it, the epic sweep of it, the astonishing momentum. That it's all in service to a dreadfully wasteful conflict is all rather the point, but this heightens the suspense and the stakes rather than reduces them. The incompatible aims of Kushana and Nausicaa are as much in conflict on the field of battle as the opposing armies,. and this is very much Kushana's ground. Can Nausicaa get through the fight without turning herself into yet another blood-spattered killer?
Travelling through Dorok territory with Kushana, Nausicaa discovers horrible signs that the miasma of the Sea of Corruption is being used as a weapon. Kushana is determined to rescue what is left of her beloved Third Army, being thrown away in useless rearguard actions by her horrible brothers. Nausicaa just wants to end the violence and reduce bloodshed. In a bargain to secure the release of civilian prisoners she agrees to ride beside Kushana in a daring sortie to destroy Dorok artillery.
It's incredible. The build-up, the careful depiction of the battleground, the precision of the tactics, the action itself, filled with acts of brutality heroism on both sides, the horror of it, the epic sweep of it, the astonishing momentum. That it's all in service to a dreadfully wasteful conflict is all rather the point, but this heightens the suspense and the stakes rather than reduces them. The incompatible aims of Kushana and Nausicaa are as much in conflict on the field of battle as the opposing armies,. and this is very much Kushana's ground. Can Nausicaa get through the fight without turning herself into yet another blood-spattered killer?