Rent Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
4.0 of 5 from 246 ratings
1h 56min
Pre-Ghibli Ghibli, with Miyazaki still working out the grammar in real time — the heroine, the spores, the queasy green dread that would later get the full Ghibli treatment.
Watching it after the proper classics, some of the bite had gone. I knew this forest already. Still, Nausicaä herself is a terrific creation: calm, brave, and oddly serene as she glides through all that toxic beauty. A dry run, maybe, but a pretty glorious one.