Nausicaa:
warning:spoilers ahead,
Nausicaa is the young princess of the Valley of Wind, a small valley near the Ocean of Salt. By it's location, the cool ocean winds keep the deadly miasmic poisons from harming the villagers.
Nausicaa's intelligence, love of nature, strength and courage all make up her ability to be a lovable protagonist. She does not simply accept the forest as it is, she must explore it and delve withen it. In the Valley castle, she had a secret room filled with plants that produce miasma gas. But, with the pure soils she gave and fresh water, the plants grew beautifully and unharmful to humans.
Her father is King Jhil, who chose his daughter to be the one that he would raise into adulthood, although he constantly says that she should have been born a man. That is because not only does she have compassion, love, and courageous attributes, she also has much skill. She can ride her mehve (or rocket-like flying glider) with such great skill it amazes all who witness it. Because in order to use a mehve, it takes the knowledge of reading the wind, for mehve's ride upon the wind to travel. So her skill not only forced her read the winds but also to make quick decisions and chose which winds would take her to where she needed to go.
Later on in the manga, her dress becomes dyed blue with Ohmu blood. Then when she confronts a forest insect trapped in a small staircase of a building, the bug nearly swallows her but when it recognizes the blood of the Ohmu itlets her go. The insect then went to a moist area of the building, laid it's eggs, and died.
Nausicaa at first seems like the perfect character; noble, good-willed, kind. But soon we find out that she isn't the first, there have been many before her that have tried and failed. Such as the original Dorok Empire. Even further we find far nobeler, more powerful people then Nausicaa, such as Selm.
But still, how does Nausicaa survive? In the end, her childlike innocence is nearly lost. She loses Teto, Kai, her father Jhil, her guide and mentor Yupa, and then Ohma, the god warrior, who thought Nausicaa to be her mother.
*Note, the manga version differs greatly from the anime version. Remember that the anime version was made when only the first 200 or so pages came out, while there are about 1000 pages of the manga total*
