Looking back at all of Hayao Miyazaki's works, thinking about the contradiction between man and nature runs throughout. Starting from "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind", which made it famous, the "Sea of ??Corruption" and the Zerg represent a fierce war between nature and humans; in "Princess Mononoke", forest gods such as Kirin Beast and Pig God were invaded by humans. In pursuit and fierce pursuit, nature is on the verge of destruction. Princess Mononoke, a human girl raised by the White Wolf God, does not hesitate to launch a war against humans in order to protect the forest. In Miyazaki's eyes, the evolutionary history of human civilization is the history of nature's destruction. In "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind", humans burn the forest to ruins with a single fire. In "Princess Mononoke", the greedy humans cut off the head of the unicorn beast, causing the mountains and rivers to disappear in an instant.

Ignorant and greedy humans

His love and compassion for nature make Miyazaki often have a critical attitude towards humans. In his animated world, human beings are either ignorant and greedy, or arrogant and selfish. In the name of civilization and progress, they plunder and kill. Whether it is "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind" or "Princess Mononoke", driven by interests and ambitions, human beings not only extend their destructive hands to nature, but also to their own compatriots.

Muska in "Castle in the Sky" attempts to control the huge energy of flying stones to gain wealth and power; Queen Kushana in "Nausicaa" does not hesitate to launch thousand-year-old monsters in order to expand territory "Giant Soldier"; and Fan Ji in "Princess Mononoke" is ambitious and full of conquest, and stubbornly hunts the Qilin Beast. In "Spirited Away", human beings are portrayed as ignorant, lazy, and lonely group images, lost in that hidden country.

A denunciation of war

Miyazaki's films are filled with all kinds of wars: "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind", "Castle in the Sky", "Porco Rosso", "Princess Mononoke" "Howl's Moving Castle" and other films are like this. War is presented to the audience in various forms such as cold weapons, firearms, and even magical and futuristic high-tech weapons. Hayao Miyazaki's depictions of war are often more cruel than reality, showing his opposition and rejection of war.

Miyazaki Hayao used his extraordinary imagination to design weapons with different shapes and properties for these wars, from stone rockets to kill gods to "giant soldiers" that can destroy the world in seven days. Through the development and evolution of weapons, Hayao Miyazaki shows the catastrophic destruction caused by mankind's enthusiasm for weapons and war. The mushroom clouds generated by the robots in "Castle in the Sky" and the "Giant Soldiers" in "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind" are both reminiscent of nuclear weapons.

Fascination with weapons

However, while denouncing war, Hayao Miyazaki also loves weapons from the bottom of his heart, especially airplanes. When he was a child, his family ran a military factory, and under his influence, the young Hayao Miyazaki became obsessed with airplanes. Therefore, various aircraft are the most common elements in his films. The residents in "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind" can fly in the wind, there are huge airships and dragonfly-like aircraft in "Castle in the Sky", flying tops in "My Neighbor Totoro", magic brooms in "Kiki's Delivery Service", The protagonist Pollock in "Porco Rosso" is simply a top fighter pilot... In "Howl's Moving Castle", Howl himself even grew a pair of wings. The latest work "The Wind Rises" tells the story of Jiro Horikoshi, the designer of the Japanese Zero fighter jet. But what makes Hayao Miyazaki feel conflicted is that the very aircraft he loves and carry human dreams and technology have become tools of war. Hayao Miyazaki has a clear understanding of this, but there is nothing he can do about it.