Reviews

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Vol. 5 by Kaori Inoue, Izumi Evers, Walden Wong, Hayao Miyazaki, Joe Yamazaki, Rachel Thorn

lordofthemoon's review

4.0

Princess Nausicaä's quest to understand the nature of the spores and the Sea of Corruption nears its end in volume five of the series. As the Dorok emperor poisons the younger brother in whose shadow he has lived for decades (due to his lack of supernatural powers) and makes plans to invade the Torumekian empire, this human-scale politics is played out against the backdrop of the apocalypse that has been unleashed and is threatening to destroy the few remaining viable lands that humans can inhabit. The vast, impersonal powers show up the petty human squabbles in a way that is chastening but never preachy.