The Untold Aftermath of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind: Episode 2

The True Ending of the Manga Version of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

The manga version of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind explores events after the film that were never shown on screen, featuring abstract and difficult-to-grasp themes. Behind Nausicaä's sudden enlightenment about the world and her destruction of the Crypt lay several hidden connections woven between the lines of the manga's dialogue.

• The Truth of the Toxic Jungle: The Sea of Corruption and the Ohmu were not natural phenomena, but rather an "artificial system" created by the ancients to purify the world.

• The Truth of Human Biology: Modern humans (like Nausicaä and her people) had their genes modified so that they could not survive without toxins (pollutants). They were essentially "disposable cleaning tools" whose immune systems would run rampant and cause them to cough up blood and die if the world ever became completely pure.

• The Crypt's Plan: Once the world was cleansed, the "eggs of pure new humans" sleeping within the Crypt would be awakened to start a brand new world.

Nausicaä desperately could not forgive the fact that their very lives had been programmed by ghosts of the past. Declaring, "We are fine with the dark," she destroyed the Crypt. However, she carried the cruel and lonely secret that "humanity will eventually perish in a purified world if things continue this way," disappearing from everyone's sight. Meanwhile, Kushana chose not to become queen, instead taking on the gritty burden of reconstruction as regent.

A World Whose Gears Have Begun to Slip

Decades after the destruction of the Crypt, the world began to transform bit by bit. The purification speed of the Sea of Corruption increased, and regions with "completely pure air and water free of impurities" (the Lands of Purity) began to expand across parts of the globe.

• Kushana's Reality: The Mysterious Mass Deaths of Her People. In the reconstructed territories governed by Kushana, an unexplained strange illness began to spread around a certain period. Without warning, people would vomit blood and die one after another. Bearing the responsibility of real-world politics, Kushana ran herself ragged trying to prevent riots among despairing citizens and the collapse of her nation without even knowing the cause.

• Nausicaä's Choice: "Deification" to Protect the Lie. Nausicaä was the only one who knew—through her underground research and the battle at the Crypt—that "humans die in clean air." She made a resolute decision: "To keep present humanity alive for even a little longer, the world must not be made any cleaner (people must not be allowed to approach the Lands of Purity)."

Keeping the truth hidden, Nausicaä united the Dorok people with overwhelming charisma and psychic powers, eventually reigning at the top of a massive religious state where everyone revered her as a god (savior).

The Reason for Climax: A "Survival Clash" Where Neither Side Has Justice

The rupture between the two began when Kushana's Torumekian people, seeking to escape the strange illness (the transition from polluted lands to pure lands), attempted to expand their living sphere into the territory managed by Nausicaä.

• Nausicaä's Argument (Rule of the Gods): "You must come no further. If your bodies touch the pure wind, you will vomit blood and perish. I must protect these lives living right now—even if I have to carry a lie to do so."

• Kushana's Argument (Human Pride): "We do not wish to live managed and deceived by someone else. Even if ruin awaits us down this path, I will lead my people forward. That is what it means to live in reality. Clear the way, Nausicaä."

Neither side is inherently right. Nausicaä acts out of an ego (a distorted maternity) to "protect humanity from extinction." Kushana acts for the "immediate survival of the subordinates and people who trust her." Their irreconcilable survival strategies finally awaken the worst possible option: "The resurrection of the God Warrior."

God Warrior vs. God Warrior: A Clash of Overwhelming Firepower

During the "Seven Days of Fire" that once scorched the world in seven days, thousands of God Warriors rampaged. This time, however, there was only one God Warrior on Nausicaä's side and one on Kushana's side. While there weren't enough to completely erase the world, it was "far too much firepower" to trample human beings. To protect her "tainted lie," Nausicaä unleashes the divine fire once sealed away, while Kushana does the same to protect "human reality." They plunge into a quagmire of war, melting the earth into sludge as they fight.

Kushana's Compromise and the Conclusion of the Battle

When it came to warfare involving armies, Kushana was undeniably superior. In the midst of this battle, Nausicaä suffered severe injuries—losing half her body—after being hit by the intense poison (radiation) emitted by the God Warrior and the desperate, ferocious attacks of Kushana's army. Kushana raised a war cry of victory to her entire army, certain of humanity's triumph.

However, Nausicaä is eerily resurrected by transplanting the immortal flesh of Dorok legend (Hydra genes) into her own body, donning a black cloak. From this moment on, she completely casts aside her former kindness.

Following the gruesome clash between the God Warriors, the battle bogged down into a quagmire. Kushana coldly realized that if the war continued any longer, the "real humans" she wanted to protect would get caught in the God Warrior's firepower and all be killed by stray blasts.

It was not about annihilating the opponent out of hatred. Precisely because this was a war started "for herself and her people," Kushana decided when to cut her losses of her own free will. "This is no longer worth it. If a single life of mine can end this barren conflict and leave even a sliver of a living sphere for my people, then that is enough. I believe in Nausicaä's awakening!" Kushana chose to willingly accept defeat before Nausicaä's "overwhelming divine firepower." She perished proudly, scattering her life while entrusting the future to the next generation and to Nausicaä.

With the loss of Kushana—the "only real protagonist who could say no to Nausicaä"—the world lost its brakes, plunging into a 200-year dark reign ruled by the Black Monarch, Nausicaä.

Amidst the increasingly purified air of the world, Nausicaä comes to wear a "black helmet that circulates trace amounts of miasma" in order to maintain her own body. Thus begins the birth of the "Black Monarch."

— (Continues to "Episode 3")