Nausicaa

Nausicaa for a long while was my favorite Ghibli film (although in the past few years it has been dethroned by Castle in the Sky). When I was in middle school, I actually bought the first volume of Nausicaa. I was really surprised by the presentation of the manga. The book was big, like, WAY taller than any of the normal manga books in the store. And it was printed in a brownish ink which made it really stand out (although looking it up, most of them seem to have been printed in the traditional black ink).

The manga itself is absolutely stunning. There's so much care and detail that Miyazaki put into every panel, from the drawings, to the textures. It's also very interesting to see how accurately the anime adaption kept to the manga. I guess that's one of the perks of adapting your own work yourself! The scanalation site I found had the manga going from left to right, which was confusing to say the least. I didn't realize it until I got to the fox squirrel scene that I was reading it wrong.

I think visually the most striking thing about this manga, is how beautifully the lighting is handled. It very accurately portrays the atmosphere it is trying to achieve, while still having everything be readable. Another aspect that I really like, is that the panel frames are hand drawn. It makes everything feel more natural, and it feels fitting for the type of story that Nausicaa is.