Drunken Warrior Poet: The Journey of Shuna

Originally published in 1983, Hayao Miyazaki's The Journey of Shuna is an early work that very much provides a glimpse at themes and concepts the artist would eventually flesh out to a greater extent in future works "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind" and "Princess Mononoke". In many ways it feels almost like a rough draft of those later two works. It is short, done entirely in watercolor, and almost never even uses captions, instead sprinkling what little dialogue it has amongst descriptive sentences that give it the quality and feel of an old story book rather than traditional manga.

Please note: Entries about media reviewed in this blog are written from the perspective that the reader has already seen the work in question and desires further commentary or explanation. Plot twists and endings will sometimes be examined.

The story begins in an isolated valley whose inhabitants work very hard to scrape an existence out of the soil. They raise livestock as well, but due to the difficulty of life, their numbers dwindle, with members of the younger generation growing smaller. Shuna, the prince of the small kingdom, is looked up to by the people and feels a great responsibility for them. He one day happens upon a dying traveler who tells him of a strain of golden wheat that could greatly ease his people's suffering, but the grain lies beyond the uncharted wastelands to the west. Deciding he must take the chance to try and find the grain, Shuna prepares some supplies and a gun and heads off to search for the grain.

From the very beginning, the story has elements in common with other Miyazaki works. The valley setting resembles Nausicaa, and the early scenes from this book recall those of the village from Nausicaa's valley of the wind. Shuna's mount is named Yakul, the same as the red elk Ashitaka's from Mononoke, and the two are more or less identical in appearance and demeanor. The journey west, as well mirrors that of Ashitaka's.

Shuna travels over deserts, mountains, and canyons devoid of life, before these sights make way to forgotten ruins and signs of civilization. He comes across an enclave of female cannibals who try to lure him in before he becomes suspicious of them and flees, only to have to fight them off later when they pursue. He then makes his way to a large, walled free-city full of slave markets and traders. The idea that civilization is corrupt and wicked is demonstrated very well in these scenes. The rotting alleys and starving slave children lie in plain sight of the rich and opulent. An unscrupulous merchant tries to sell Shuna a pair of young girls, claiming they are actually deposed royalty, only to have the elder of the two, who is named Tea (pronounced Tay-Ah, not tee), expose him for a liar right in front of Shuna to the fury of the merchant. Later Shuna laments his feelings of powerlessness at it all. He could sell his gun or Yakul to buy the two girls, but where would it leave him but powerless to defend himself from opportunistic others? He was already warned not to by the girls.

And so he instead makes his way outside the city to camp where he is approached by an old man who gives him still more information on the golden grain he seeks, in exchange for food and the warmth of his fire. The old man tells him that the golden grain can be found in a place he calls "the land of the gods" and that he'll reach it if he continues west to a great precipice and then to the land where "the moon is born and returns to die". The following day, Shuna resolves to free the girls he met earlier by force, and launches a surprise attack on an armed slaver's wagon. The three then flee from the vengeful slavers.

Knowing that they will eventually be overtaken because Yakul is slowed down by the burden of carrying three instead of just one, Shuna gives Yakul over to the girls and then prepares to wait for and ambush the band that is after them. A fight ensues, and Shuna is able to overcome his aggressors, but as the fight ends he sees a large luminous object float across the sky and sink into the hills beyond a canyon in the distance, "the place where the moon returns to die..."

Shuna climbs down shear rock cliffs, past ruins lost in time and the giant bones of extinct beasts to a violent ocean. He falls asleep exhausted only to wake in gentle waters which are now shallow enough to wade across. He sees prehistoric creatures of enormous size swimming in the waters and wandering in ancient forests he encounters beyond. These scenes are very reminiscent of ones in Nausicaa's "Sea of Corruption" and Mononoke's glade of the Forest Spirit. All of these places give the sense that they are untouched by man, untamed and wild but also pristine in this sense as well.

Finally, Shuna comes to a strange valley filled with giants who appear to be the gardeners of this bizarre land. At the center of it all is a large otherworldly structure that upon closer inspection appears to be alive. At night the giant floating "moon" returns to drop the bodies of people into this structure, leading the reader to believe this land is fed and fertilized with human lives. This part of the narrative is very similar to that of the hidden valley and ancient pyramid in the center of Dorok from Nausicaa. It is beautiful and appears fruitful, but hides a sinister aspect which is key to its prosperity, the corruption at the center of the fruit.

Shuna plucks some of the golden grain he finds there, only to discover the entire valley seems to know he has done so the instant it occurs. The giants shriek and howl and a strange, frightening, unnatural pain pierces Shuna and seems to follow him as he runs back through the forest. When he comes once more to waters, however, he discovers they have again returned to a raging storm of oceans. Trapped and with nowhere else to run he jumps into the torrid waves...

The story then shifts perspective to Tea and her sister, the two slave girls who escaped earlier thanks to Shuna. The two now work very hard under the harsh and demanding servitude of an old woman in a small village. One night, feeling uncomfortable and sensing the same in Yakul, who still remains with them, Tea wanders out into the night to find none other than Shuna, tattered and disoriented and ambling aimlessly in the wilderness. Tea takes him in only to discover he now appears to be mute and also seems to have little or no memory of the past. Despite the burden he has become, Tea continues to care for him, nursing him back to health and planting the seeds he carries in a pouch he had on him, to be harvested next season.

Meanwhile, the old woman Tea is working under has become impatient with her and the burdensome Shuna, whose mind is shattered and is too shellshocked to work with the girls. She demands the girl marry and whole village shows up to a gathering designed for the occasion. Though we have seen her loyalty to Shuna, it is at this point that Tea shows some ingenuity of her own as well, by choosing carefully the conditions of the test her new husband will have to pass. The test she puts forth is that the one who can ride upon Yakul, who becomes rebellious and fiercely shakes off anyone who tries to mount him, will be the one who takes her hand in marriage. It is a test that all the men in the village fail at, until Shuna, still speechless and weak approaches the beast who becomes immediately calm in the presence of its former master.

From here the story proceeds a bit more easily. Tea and Shuna are married, and eventually Shuna recovers his speech. The two continue to grow and harvest the golden wheat, expanding the fields and prospering while fighting off threats from outside. The story ends as the day comes when Shuna, Yakul, Tea and her sister pack their things and get ready to head back to Shuna's hometown, thus beginning yet another journey.

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In addition to the aforementioned similarities it has with other Miyazaki works, The Journey of Shuna also has an affinity with several ancient myths and folktales. Shuna traverses a large expanse of land and colossal sights of nature, through deserts, across oceans, and into chasms, to see things few others ever have. I'm reminded in some ways of epics like those of Gilgamesh and also Odysseus and (in a more recent example) Conan the Barbarian who also took unbelievable journeys.

The struggle of Man vs Nature (a common motif in Miyazaki works) is in this story portrayed more as a natural strife than a direct, literal conflict between the two, with only the section of the valley of the gods having any kind of supernatural aspects to it. For the most part the Man vs Nature struggle is demonstrated by the characters clawing away at the soil to survive with only moderate success. The desperation of the land they inhabit is what fuels the slavery and persecution that plagues it. And so the cruelty of human nature makes it appearance (another trait common to Miyazaki's work, especially Nausicaa's depictions of war).

The way Shuna takes the grain is very much like Prometheus's stealing fire from the gods, or instead of the Apple of Eden being picked by Adam and Eve, we have here Shuna picking the wheat. Man's prosperity is seen as being very much an endeavor of taking an advantageous item from gods who are controlling or oppressive.

The final part of the story owes much to the fairy tales of the more recent past like the Brothers Grimm as well as fables and parables like those of Aesop. Strong female characters are another hallmark of many Miyazaki works and centering in on Tea, the tone of the story shifts very much from one of action, adventure, and exploration to one where the girl's wit and determination are necessary for success, being that this girl doesn't break/fight convention by simply acting like a boy. The test she puts her suitors through at the end is evocative of tests in other fairy tales like the glass slipper in Cinderella, Arthur's Sword in the Stone, and the countless times we've heard that only a kiss from the true and destined person will break a particular curse. Unlike those examples, however, no magical hand of fate is involved on the protagonist's behalf, causing them to rely instead on their intelligence to think through the situation and bearing more in common to the test facing Chihiro at the end of Spirited Away, another Miyazaki work.

Other elements of fairy tales include the original story to Shuna by the dying traveller and later the old man who helps him, demonstrating a character shunned by nearly all in society, but who actually has useful knowledge to be given to the main character when they show that person a rare kindness.

Shuna could be an interesting little supplement for those who like Miyazaki, or could possibly serve for those who are interested in a quick introduction to his work. I'm not sure if this has been published in English or not, but it's a fast read at only about 150 pages, and comprised more of images than words, also making it a good choice for those studying Japanese and want an exercise that isn't too daunting.