Warriors of the Wind

This is the shortened English version of Hayao Miyazaki’s film, which New World Pictures released in North America in June 1985. The cuts are not random trimming: the passage where Yupa finds Nausicaä’s hidden laboratory, and the one where Nausicaä works out beneath the Sea of Decay that the forest is cleaning the air, are both missing. The action survives; its reason has been removed. Once the function of the Ohmu and the ecological idea evaporate, what is left is an adventure about wrestling giant insects. The names were changed too. Nausicaä becomes Princess Zandra, Kushana becomes Queen Selena, Asbel becomes Prince Milo and Kurotowa becomes General Rogan. The poster and VHS sleeve showed figures nowhere in the film, gathered on the revived Giant Warrior, which the original shows alive only in a brief flashback. Miyazaki was unhappy and imposed a strict no-cuts condition on later foreign sales. Topcraft made the film and Toei distributed it; Studio Ghibli did not yet exist. Miyazaki had only 16 chapters of his own manga in hand while writing the screenplay. A good fit if you want the valley and the insect designs even without the scenes explaining why the Ohmu are protected. Not for you if you want Nausicaä’s story; for that the original sits under a separate title.