Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind began with Hayao Miyazaki's producer, Toshio Suzuki's proposal to make a feature film. He was turned down at first because it wasn't proper to make an animated film without a Manga (comic) series to help back it up. Suzuki never gave up and pushed Miyazaki to produce the Manga version of Nausicaa. Without Suzuki's persist determination, Nausicaa wouldn't have become a reality.

In 1982, Nausicaa's first installment appeared in the Anime magazine, Animage. It soon gained an ever growing fan base, thus becoming the most popular comic in the magazine. Nausicaa's media attention soon gave Miyazaki the green light to begin preparations for the full-length animated feature film. With much dedication and unforeseen hardships the film was finally completed in the year of 1984. During its release approximately one million tickets were sold.

In 1985, after Nausicaa's great success, Ghibli Studio was born. A place to keep Miyazaki's animation flowing, exceeding its own boundaries, setting new standards for animation and putting itself in a class of its own. Besides the animated feature-film, after twelve years of tedious work, Miyazaki finally finished the Manga of Nausicaa in March of 1994. Since its release in Japan, it has sold more than ten million copies and gained a worldwide popularity, cherished among all fans of the genre.