Yes, it does begin simple enough, but then again it has to. The world is unknown to the reader,and even with the short plot synopsis on the first page things are still in confusion. Yes, we know about the Seven Days of Fire, the Sea of Corruption, and the downfall of humanity but do we really understand them? The truth is, even the characters don't. Not yet, anyways. At this point the Sea of Corruption is a forest, given birth to by the pollution humans had created. The Sea of Corruption spews poisonous gases called Miasma, deadly to all humans. Perhaps this is partially true, but everything is explained in the end.

Beginning with a human being in a mask, in a dark forest, it almost seems like another planet. Perhaps it is. This isn't Earth anymore, my friends, this place is The Sea of Corruption, the Torumekian lands, and the Dorok lands. This is the world in which Nausicaä and her people live.

It is all given to us rather suddenly. Nausicaä finds an Ohmu shell. What is an Ohmu? Why'd it leave a shell? Why is it so important? Well, Ohmu are giant insects, their shells of are super-hard material, stronger then ceramics. They have a heart, a mind, a soul, they would sacrafice their own lives for the life of another insect. Or, as we find out later, the life of any animal at all, as the Ohmu sacrafice themselves to create a warm forest for the Mold to survive in.

Nausicaa somehow telepathically hears the screams of Ohmu, in their own desperate rage. This is just one of the first signs of her impeccable bond with the Ohmu, and later, with all of nature itself.
Nausicaä, curious as to what the voices mean, jumps on her Mehve (Kite or Nausicaä's wings) and rescues the man by soothing the Ohmu and using strobe grenades.

The man turns out to be Yupa, Nausicaä's mentor. He shows her Teto, who is rather a minor character in the story, although he does save Nausicaä's life on various ocassions. Her quickness to get his compassion just shows her own love of animals their love of her. They both go back to Nausicaä's homeland, The Valley of Wind, a valley on the edge of the Sea of Corruption.

Upon reaching her homeland, we meet Mito, a loyal servent to Nausicaä, and Nausicaä's own dying father, Jhil. Jhil almost seems cold, distant, and while he is still strict we obviously see a light side to his personality and his love for his daughter. Perhaps the greatest of his fears and ambitions is that of his own kingdom. He knows his daughter will become ruler of his lands, and while she is obviously compentent and strong enough for such a job, he most likely feels that he will far too young and hasn't taught Nausicaä nearly enough.

After a party on the returning of Yupa, Nausicaä and Mito head out for a practice run over the Sea of Corruption with the Valley Gunship (a ship you'll get rather used to seeing in the manga. In fact, there was a model created of the gunship ^.^)

They find (with a little help from Nausicaä's yet-unknown link with nature) a ship being destroyed by bugs of the rotwood. They manage to knock off most of the bugs, but sadly it's too late. The ship crashes and Nausicaä and Mito land to see if there's any survivors.

The ship was a refuge ship from Peijitei. Nausicaä managed (rather luckily) to find a princess still alive. She turns out to have a little object that she gives to Nausicaä, which turns out (you find this much later in the manga) to be a key tool for the God Warrior.

The girl tells them that Pejitei was attacked by Torumekia, although they are both allied nations. Obviously, the attack was made because the princess had a key tool that could activate the God Warrior, which Torumekia desperately seeked.

So, Torumekia seem like the bad guy right now, huh? Not likely. I don't really recall the reasons for Torumekia's search of the keytool, but most likely it's because they didn't want it going into Dorok hands (which it inevitably does). Ofcourse, none of this changes the fact that Torumekia brutally killed all of the people of Peijitei.

Upon the princess' death appears a marveous Ohmu, in a scene as beautiful as any other Nausicaä scenes, which are scattered throughout the manga. It's eyes are blue, it doesnt' mean to attack. Nausicaä realizes that the Ohmu is crying, further complicating the depth of the Ohmu psychologically. I could go on for hours but then, my space is limited ^_^.
Soon the Torumekians find the ruins of the Peijitei ship, and they use Wormhandlers to search for the keytool.

Wormhandlers are another mystery of Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind, at first. They begin as vile, dirty, filthy men, but near the end we see the compassion of them, and the structure of their society. To a wormhandler, more important then anything is their own posessions, their worms and equipment. Later in the manga they find Nausicaä and her remarkable powers, and even abandon their worms, killing them out of compassion. If they didn't kill the worms, they would die of starvation or worse.

Through slight clues (mainly the signs of ship marks on the ground) Princess Kushana and her troops head off to the Valley of Wind.

Sorry, this is it for now! I have read the entire manga, but I just need some more time to finish up on the plot ^^ (heck, what I've covered now doesn't even tlak about the entire first issue!)