Studio Ghibli's unofficial first release brings us environmental warnings wrapped in the context of a world war. The famed Japanese animation house wouldn't actually come into being until immediately after _Nausicaä_, but all the important pieces are here and the experience of working together encouraged them to do it again, which makes this a sort of prologue for _Totoro_, _Mononoke_ and the like.

This particular tale has its roots in print, drawn from a long-running serial written and illustrated by head honcho Hayao Miyazaki, and those expansive origins are blatantly obvious. I mean that in both positive and negative lights. Depth of character is a major strength, with dozens of fully-fleshed faces competing for similar, but subtly opposed, military goals. The world itself, a precarious civilization which clings to life at the edge of extinction, thrives with unfamiliar life and unusual technology. Alas, Miyazaki couldn't efficiently wrangle this narrative on the page (his serials would continue, off and on, for another decade, with a final page count in the thousands) and that leaves a ninety-minute film adaptation to merely scratch the surface. We spend so much effort defining and exploring the major players - three distinct warring nations, an army of giant insect berserkers, kings and queens, turncoats and commanders - that we run out of time for them to do anything consequential.

As a showcase of raw imagination, it's triumphant. Proto-Ghibli was producing incredible work in the early ‘80s, far ahead of their contemporaries, and it feels warmly satisfying to catch the inception of recurring themes and motifs that would thread through their later work. The fledgling troupe was in sore need of a good editor, however, and that shortcoming ultimately leaves _Nausicaä_ feeling overly ambitious and incomplete. A grand first effort that only feels a little bit dated, it’s probably best recognized as a vital learning experience for the talented team behind the scenes.