Though Hayao Miyazaki is the world's most famous anime film director, it's a surprising manga that is his true magnum opus. Before he was a household name, before he won countless accolades, before Studio Ghibli was even a glimmer in his eye, Miyazaki was in the middle of crafting his finest work of all time, the original manga version of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.
Running from 1982 to 1994, the Nausicaä manga is quite different than the film which would become the prototype for a Studio Ghibli film. Both versions focus on the titular Nausicaä who lives in a post-apocalyptic world dominated by giant insects. At first living a peaceful, pastoral life, Nausicaä is eventually forced to combat an empire that is willing to destroy the world even further if it means gaining more power. While the two versions of the story start off similarly enough, the film is only a rough adaptation of the seven-book manga's first two volumes. Though the film is regarded as a classic for a reason, all the things that it didn't adapt are what make the manga such a masterpiece.
Without the constraints of runtime, the manga version of Nausicaä is able to fully portray the intricate world and characters that are only hinted at in its animated counterpart. In addition to the expanded world, the manga is also darker. The people responsible for engineering the world's toxic forest create a mold that attracts giant insects into battle, inevitably leading to an absolute massacre of people. Nauscaä herself even gains control of one of the monsters responsible for destroying the world, a God Warrior. This creates a conflict for the idealistic Nausicaä, as control of the God Warrior grants her terrible power. By the end, Nausicaä is forced to choose between letting an advanced civilization control the direction of humanity, or letting humanity determine its own fate.
One thing that makes the manga so remarkable is how it almost serves as a rosetta stone for Miyazaki's future work. His obsessions with flying and environmentalism, his unique worlds, his emphasis on quiet moments that build character, everything that makes Miyazaki's film direction so remarkable is present within the pages of Nausicaä. It's easy to see the parallels between this manga and Miyazaki's future fantasy epics, Castle in the Sky and Princess Mononoke. Without the confines of budget or a studio, the manga perhaps has the least compromised vision of anything Miyazaki has ever worked on.
The manga was also incredibly influential too. Nausicaä's DNA runs through works as diverse as the Final Fantasy series, Neon Genesis Evangelion (creator Hideaki Anno even worked on the film and is a close friend of Miyazaki), and extends far into western media as well, with many noting the parallels between Nausicaä and Rey from the Star Wars sequel films. The manga's complexity, beauty, and social commentary have inspired countless artists. Though his films are far more well known Hayao Miyazaki's best work will forever remain his work on the manga version of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.