The Long Run takes place outside of our normal continuity of episodes, and features table discussion of an entire work or long selection of a series. In this episode of The Long Run we talk about Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, by Hayao Miyazaki. First published in 1982 and continuing intermittently through 1994, Nausicaä is about the princess of a small valley a thousand years after the collapse of industrial civilization.

The Valley of the Wind is a small vassal kingdom to the vast Torumekian Empire on the periphery of the vast Sea of Corruption, an endless forest of massive insects and enormous fungal growths which spew out a miasma which is toxic to humans. The story follows Nausciaä as she is involved in the ongoing war between Torumekia and the neighboring Dorok states—a conflict which escalates until it threatens all of the lands of the world—and as she discovers the origin of the Sea of Corruption, and the forgotten history of the world.

On the next episode of The Long Run we will be reading Preacher, by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon.

Our hosts on this episode are Andrew Chard, Joe Preti, Tobiah Panshin, Adam Panshin, and Jasmin Zamora.