I think it’s really fun to look at how different Asbel and Selm are in Nausicaa of The Valley of The Wind. Especially in their relation to Nausicaa.
For anyone who’s just reading this for fun
(though I doubt anyone will be reading this except for maybe some of my friends) (also spoilers for a 40+ year old movie and manga)
Nausicaa of The Valley of The Wind is one of the first Studio Ghibli films produced, and has both a manga and movie adaptation. In the movie, a lot was cut to make things a cohesive story, including the character Selm.
Oh, and before I continue, this isn’t meant to be a serious analysis. I just finished the manga an hour ago and I am a nerdy nerd who needs to put my thoughts somewhere because the plot is too complex to explain to someone face to face without a lot of backtracking and confusion. 🥲
Anyway-
In both the manga and the movie, traditional romance was never a center focus. In both versions its sorta left vague on whether anyone “officially” gets together. However, at the end of the movie we get a shot of Asbel and Nausicaa still hanging out, so it can be assumed that at the very least they remain friends.
I watched the movie before reading the manga, and at the time I thought they were adorable. And don’t get me wrong, I still do. To me it felt like they had a very unique relationship, especially for one made in 1984. Looking back on it, most of the affection they shared with each other was about survival. Nausicaa shares what little food she has with Asbel. They save each other’s lives on multiple occasions, and both share a love for their people being a princess and prince respectively.
In the manga Nausicaa meets a more jaded version of Asbel, because unlike in the movie, Asbel is assumedly the only one of his people left after they were genocided by the Tolmikian empire.
For the second half of the manga, Asbel is very much in the background and I’d almost say a little forgotten by the narrative 😅 As at that point a lot of big things are happening, and all the necessary plot information introduced by Asbel isn’t really relevant to what’s happening anymore. Which is where Selm comes in.
In comparison to Asbel’s combined interactions in both the movie and manga, Selm’s time with Nausicaa is pretty short, but the impact he has on her is noticeably bigger.
In a manga filled with a significant amount of bloodshed, spending time with Selm is one of the only times we see Nausicaa having fun. And yet strangely enough both Selm and Asbel are used for the same narrative purposes. Asbel as a prince introduces the reader/viewer to his people and the conflicts they have with others, as well as their connection with uncovering a titan. Selm as a prince introduces the reader to his people, and gives us new information on nature/the toxic jungles relationship with humanity.
Selm as a character learns more about Nausicaa than any other character from their first meeting, as he guides her through her personal afterlife and allows her to make the choice to escape to paradise or come back to the war.
Which is fascinating, because Selm only has one paragraph on the official wiki, which talks about none of that. He’s introduced so late in the story, so there’s no way to fit him into the movie cleanly.
In the manga, Asbel is friends with another character who doesn’t exist in the movie, a girl named Ketcha. Selm and Nausicaa find out the secrets behind humanity, and agree to never tell anyone together. So the manga ends like this:
The girl Asbel hugs is Ketcha, and it’s stated that eventually Nausicaa goes to live with Selm in the forest.
And this post doesn’t really have a point, I just found it all so fascinating that I had to ramble about it somewhere.
I love the relationship Nausicaa and Selm have in the manga and the relationship Asbel and Nausicaa have in the movie. I have nobody to talk to about this with, I can only scream into the void.
