Magnificent Manga

Japanese filmmaker and artist Hayao Miyazaki has won international acclaim for such visually stunning animated films as Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, and Howl’s Moving Castle. In the early 1980s, Miyazaki wrote and illustrated the graphic novel Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, which he later adapted for a film of the same name.

Duke University Libraries owns a deluxe box set of Nausicaä, a two-volume hardback compilation that tells the story of a determined princess in a post-apocalyptic world. The set includes a guide to the story’s sound effects, full-color illustrations, and an annotated drawing of “a Wind Rider Outfit for the Sea of Corruption”—which features a strobe grenade, a miniature telescope, and a “Mushi-Bue” whistle used to calm forest insects.

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is in the manga collection—Japanese comic books and graphic novels—housed in Lilly Library.