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Brazilian Nausicaa Fan Film Released on YouTube

Film maker Chris Tex has released his fan-made Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind tribute film called Wind Princess on YouTube. The 16-minute film recreates images from the beginning of Hayao Miyazaki's epic manga Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind and the 1984 anime film version. The fan film, which is almost wordless, shows Miyazaki's masked heroine Nausicaa exploring the giant forest of fungus that has overtaken her future world. She climbs onto the gigantic cast-off shell of an Ohmu, a giant insect creature, where she takes its eye shield, before hearing a commotion in the desert outside...

According to Tex, the film was shot in Brazil. It was self-funded and is an entirely non-profit endeavor. Under the video, Tex says that he and his friends worked on the film for almost seven years. There is a group photograph of the filmmakers at the end of the film's closing credits.

In May 2019, Tex released a teaser trailer for the film, which reached the attention of Japanese fans. Japanese pop culture site KAI-YOU reported on the trailer and wrote: "It would be wonderful if this video could be the springboard to connect the Brazilian creator and Studio Ghibli."

Wind Princess had its world premiere at the Fantasia Film Festival and was also selected at the Sitges Film Festival.

Tex has previously said that the intention behind his film is to pay homage to Hayao Miyazaki and that he hopes to donate all of the costumes and props to the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka.

On his website, Tex describes himself as a film director, screenwriter, comic book creator, and video-game script teacher. He has now launched a funding page on ko-fi.com, seeking US$300,000 to help make his first feature film.

Miyazaki created the original Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind manga in Tokuma Shoten's Animage magazine before adapting part of the story for a 1984 anime film. While the film was made before Studio Ghibli was founded, it is often retroactively considered to be part of the studio's body of work, as many of the key staff that would eventually form the studio worked on the film. The story follows a warrior princess who protects her land amid wars in a post-apocalyptic Earth. Miyazaki drew the manga from 1982 to 1994.

Source: Chris Tex's YouTube channel