The Earthsea Cycle influenced 風の谷のナウシカ (Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind)

Ursula K. Le Guin recorded that Hayao Miyazaki told her he kept the Earthsea books by his bed and that they had influenced all his work, and he had long wanted to adapt them. What carries is - - Le Guin's balance, where power used carelessly poisons the world and the hero's task is to restore rather than conquer. -The Wind as a power and motif.

• Prior to Earthsea, most Western fantasy relied on Tolkien's binary "Good vs. Evil" axis. Le Guin introduced a Taoist, holistic worldview where true conflict comes from shadow-self, greed, and imbalance. Miyazaki adopted this directly