Since I first read it I considered Nausica of the Valley of the Wind to be a totally different kind of experience compared to all the other stuff I read and watch daily but I was never quite able to tell out why that was. Now that I just finished reading it all once again after about 8 months I feel I grew a little more conscious of that answer so Ill try to put it into words. Im not writing this to be a commentary on Nausica itself rather a discourse about how I personally perceive and evaluate art in its forms. My first approach with Nausica of the Valley of the Wind was the 1984 movie. At that time I had barely any experience with Ghibli movies and Hayao Miyazakis works but I had already seen Princess Mononoke which basically everyone told me to be the polished version of Nausica however to me Nausica of the Valley of the Wind was and still is to this day an overall much better experience. To me any artistic product holds a value in itself and it has become very hard to talk about this concept in a world where artistic products are but merch produced by an industry which objective is to sell said product to their costumers. Being part of this world and community for many years now I think that many people become accustomed to evaluate art manga and anime specifically in this case with the same criteria the industry does that is evaluating the shape and content of a product with the same esteem if not considering the shape to be the most relevant one. I recently saw a video about an anime series stating that even if it tells nothing but it does entertain the public its still a good product and I see this argument being used in discussions on this topic pretty often like how something doesnt need to be deep or have a big meaning behind it to be likeable and while I agree with this statement to some degree this is something that is true if considering only the industrial aspect of the product in my opinion. The shape does not create value it adds value to a product. The content of the product is what creates its value. A godlywritten and entertaining story that has nothing to tell or teach is worth nothing. Instead a story maybe full of flaws but still able to convey a meaning is a great story to me. Art in itself is the only mean a person has to express himself art is indeed the purest expression of the self and it certainly was never about shape to begin with. A story is told because someone has something within himself that he wants to tell to others that is to me the essence of art. And that is why a product empty of meaning will never be as valuable as one that relies on its meaning. This is not to say of course that shape is worth nothing without a shape the content cannot be conveyed and thus cannot reach the others. But I cant go as far as to say that the shape is then as important as the content is. To me this is not true as the content in itself is reason why art is born in the first place and conveying it is the end goal of the artistic product. Prioritizing shape sometimes ends up restricting the strength in which the content is conveyed and this is the reason why I still prefer Nausica of the Valley of the Wind over Princess Mononoke. This whole discourse reminds me of Hideaki Annos comment on the release of the manga Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin he made in 2005 titled Celebrating the Revival of Gundam as a Tale in which he stated: In recent years the hollowing out of mainstream culture severely diluted and eroded the standing of the Tale. TVtype mass consumption laid the impoverished grounds of contemporary entertainment giving rise to masses that can only respond with praise for superficial details and technical proficiency. That is why I am so glad that Gundam is showing us here a true Tale through the medium of manga. I want as many people as possible to reconfirm and savor the essence and allure of Tales. To me the manga Nausica of the Valley of the Wind accomplishes the achievement of telling a true Tale one that relies completely on its meaning and that was born from the innate need of its author to tell something to others something that will remain endlessly in time. Thats why it feels to me as a completely different experience one that you cannot really stop learning from and that is capable of shaping you as a person. I hope this aspect of art wont be lost as the industry keeps exploiting artistic products for entertainments sake but I do have a feeling that humans cannot live without art.