Hayao Miyazaki’s Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is returning to the stage in Tokyo in the form of Kabuki theater. This is a traditional form of live theater in Japan, and Nausicaä will be the subject material for the second time. It will be performed at Kabukiza theater for a very limited time.
The announcement came from the company Shochiku’s official kabuki Twitter account on April 26th. Nausicaä previously had a run on the Kabuki stage in December 2019 which was well-received. The full title of the play will be Kaze no Tani no Nausicaä Ue no Maki: Shiroki Majo no Senki (Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind First Volume: Battle Chronicle of the White Witch).
Some cast from the original run will be returning, along with the directors G2 and Onoe Kikunosuke V. Kikunosuke V played the leading role of Nausicaä herself in 2019, but he will be playing Princess Kushana this time. Instead, Nausicaä will be played by Nakamura Yonekichi V. Kaze no Tani no Nausicaä Ue no Maki: Shiroki Majo no Senki will be the third play performed each day at the Kabukiza theatre, following two other plays with different subject material.While many anime have live stage adaptations in Japan (and even some other Ghibli movies have been successfully adapted) Kabuki theater is much rarer. Kabuki theater features highly stylized dance and songs with dramatic expressions and body movements - and interestingly, only male actors. Usually, Kabuki tells traditional Japanese stories or history, so it’s very special to see an anime film used for subject material.
Nausicaä first released in Japan in 1984, and its uncut, final version came to the Western world in 2005. While Nausicaä came out before the founding of Studio Ghibli, it is considered by most to be one of the original Studio Ghibli films. Its age alone makes Nausicaä an extremely famous film, and that doesn't even touch on its story and heavy anti-war message that has generated a lot of conversation over the years.
Seeing Nausicaä on the Kabuki stage allows a familiar story to be seen in a new way, and puts an interesting spin on it that cannot be achieved by a typical live action production. Kabuki is something so uniquely Japanese, and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind has become a treasured story from Japan over the past 30 years. While seeing the two come together may seem unlikely at first, when you think about it like that, it just makes sense.
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind First Volume: Battle Chronicle of the White Witch will be performed at the Kabukiza theater in Tokyo July 4th-29th, 2022.
Source: Anime News Network