Otaku USA Magazine
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind Gets Kabuki Adaptation

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, the Hayao Miyazaki manga/anime that helped launch Studio Ghibli, is getting a kabuki stage play in Japan.

This is the first kabuki play based on a Miyazaki or Ghibli film, and will star two greats of the kabuki world, Nakamura Shichinosuke II (as Princess Kushana) and Onoe Kikunosuke V (as Nausicaä).

In kabuki, both male and female roles are typically played by men.

The play will kick off in December 2019 at Tokyo’s Shimbashi Enbujo Theatre. That theatre has previously been the host of kabuki plays based on One Piece and Naruto.

Nausicaä began as a manga written by Miyazaki and was later adapted into a film with the help of Toshio Suzuki and Isao Takahata. The three men would go on to found Studio Ghibli, and the rest is history.

Seems like as good a time as ever for a rewatch! Here’s how Disney described it for its Blu-ray release:

After a global war, the seaside kingdom known as the Valley of the Wind remains one of the last strongholds on Earth, untouched by a poisonous jungle and the powerful insects that guard it. Led by the courageous Princess Nausicaa, the people of the Valley engage in an epic struggle to restore the bond between humanity and Earth.

Source: Sora News

Matt Schley

Matt Schley (rhymes with "guy") lives in Tokyo, and has been OUSA's "man in Japan" since 2012. He's also written about anime and Japanese film for the Japan Times, Screen Daily and more.

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