Nausicaa was the first film to capture Miyazaki's deeply rooted environmentalist spirit and turn it into a sweeping, epic sci-fi story. The film stands as a landmark of animated cinema, even outside the realm of anime, that can be attributed best to its vision and heart. It can be easily compared to his later masterpiece, Princess Mononoke. In a way, the two complete each other, illustrating the never ending battle of man against nature in both its beginning and post-apocalyptic stages. Both films also sport dynamic female leads that story tellers these days can learn a thing or two about portraying females from.
Let's take a look at our first main character, Nausicaa. She has all the makings of a young, pretty pacifist heroine. She is compassionate, yet strong willed at the same; altogether she is an extremely likable character. With these attributes you could make her out to be another Disney princess cutout. And yet I consider her to be one of the best examples of a lead female role in anime. Nausicaa has another side to her nature that she constantly has to hold back- her own hatred. Hatred is a reoccuring theme in the film, and when Nausicaa kills several guards in a blind rage after they murder her father and later when she lashes out against those who put her loved ones in danger it is apparent that the hatred which afflicts the rest of this world lies within her as well. She knows that such anger and contempt will only cause more destruction and learns from her own mistakes. Throughout the film she is constantly battling her impulse to lash out against those who wrong her or the innocents she is trying to protect. In the end, it is her capacity to love rather than to return hate that ultimately spares the world. She also makes great sacrifices for her pacifistic actions; in this aspect, Miyazaki shows us that those who strive for peace are far stronger than those who reciprocate hatred and vengeance.
You could say that Princess Mononoke's lead female is the epitomy of unbridled hatred at the beginning of the film. San is fierce and animalistic in nature, risking life and limb to destroy the one who threatens her forest without mercy. Being raised by wolves, killing comes naturally to her and to curb that impulse seems unthinkable to her. However, her character develops throughout the story, the way Nausicaa did, to realize the destruction that hatred can cause. Through Ashitaka's message she comes to terms with her own humanity and works with him to solve the conflict that seeks to destroy both humans and nature, similar to what Nausicaa does at the end of her film. A profound love for nature and the creatures who call it home is also a driving trait between both of these stand out heroines.
