Everyone has their favorite Studio Ghibli movie, and for many, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind is an all-time classic (even if it was made before the studio was formerly founded). If you want to further explore that legendary tale set in a distant sci-fi future, we’d recommend reading Hayao Miyazaki’s manga, which debuted in 1982 and was adapted into the hit film in 1984. Over at Amazon, you can pick up Nausicaa’s deluxe manga box set for a huge 32% discount, dropping the price from $53 to $80. The set comes with two hardcover books totaling 1,104 pages.
What makes this manga series interesting is that it was written and illustrated by Studio Ghibli’s most prominent director, Hayao Miyazaki. It had quite the run–it began publication in 1982 and eventually concluded in 1994–and this deluxe version contains two hardcover volumes with interior color pages and a bonus poster.
If you’ve never watched the Nausicaa anime film or read the manga, the gist of its story is that it is set in a distant future where humanity has turned the world into a toxic wasteland, forcing survivors to live in domed cities that can protect them from the poisonous air and the giant mutant insects outside. Enter Nausicaa, a princess on a quest to stop a militaristic faction from gaining control of an ancient weapon that could spell the end of everything.
It’s a story with quite a few similarities to Princess Mononoke–another Studio Ghibli film with a strong message regarding mankind’s attempts to dominate nature constantly–and like that beautiful fantasy movie, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind has gorgeous visuals and fantastic character designs.
If you’re looking for more from Miyazaki’s limited body of print work, you should check out Shuna’s Journey, as this 1983 illustrated novel was translated to English and also received a deluxe treatment.
There are also new and upcoming omnibus editions of comic books based on popular Studio Ghibli films. These massive hardcover editions collect the out-of-print, and often pricey, trade paperback series into All-In-One hardcovers with surprisingly low prices. What makes them interesting is that they use the original film animation cells for illustrations, and they’ve all been rearranged and reformatted to look like comic book and manga panels. Since you’ve got Studio Ghibli’s colorfully elegant art on display, these allow you to really soak up the details you might have missed while watching the movies. The My Neighbor Totoro Film Comic omnibus just released on August 27.
Studio Ghibli Film Comics
Meanwhile, the Blu-ray version of Nausicaa is available at Amazon for $23, and it comes in a terrific steelbook case that features Nausicaa on the cover.
Nausicaa is far from the only Ghibli film with a steelbook edition, and many Ghibli films are available for less than $20 at Amazon. You can grab Spirited Away ($15), My Neighbor Totoro ($19), the newly released The Boy and the Heron on 4K Blu-ray ($34), and many others at Amazon. Each steelbook has a similar minimalist art design, but together, they create a beautiful rainbow of movies to display on your shelf.
Studio Ghibli steelbook Blu-rays
