Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) is Hayao Miyazaki's fantasy anime, and you can watch it online on iFILM. It follows a girl who chooses to understand her enemy rather than destroy it.

A thousand years after a war burned civilization to ash, most of the planet lies under the Toxic Jungle — a forest of poisonous fungi guarded by giant insects called Ohmu. The survivors cling to scraps of clean land. One of them is the peaceful Valley of the Wind, home to young Princess Nausicaä. She glides above the dunes on her jet-powered craft, walks the jungle without fear, and can read the minds of its creatures. Then a neighboring kingdom invades, dragging an ancient weapon out of the ruins, and the fragile peace collapses. Nausicaä stands between two armies ready to scorch the world.

Adapted from Miyazaki's own manga, the film arrived a year before Studio Ghibli was founded and effectively gave birth to it. Composer Joe Hisaishi scored it here, beginning a partnership that would last decades. Its warning about humans and the natural world still cuts as sharply as it did forty years ago. Stream Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) online on iFILM.