English translation of last page:
Google Translate (right half only. starting from the right, top down)

__________

The Model Sheets Are Just a Starting Point!!
"Nausicaä" Assistant Director: Ichiro Katayama

The setting and designs for Nausicaä are based on the original manga, so they were drawn using that as a reference. In terms of the actual work, this meant streamlining and organizing the lines from the original work to create model sheets suitable for animation. However, when it came to character designs, Director Hayao Miyazaki and Animation Director Kazuo Komatsubara had countless meetings before the final versions were approved and completed.

A completed model sheet serves as the fundamental baseline before entering the animation phase. It represents the absolute minimum set of rules that must be followed during drawing. For example, if it is Nausicaä, it dictates that her earrings or her clothing must look a certain way—that is the agreement. Therefore, the animators drawing the frames just need to stick to these basics found in the model sheets, and leave the rest up to the director or the animation director!!

In other words, the model sheets are simply a starting point.

Fans often worry about whether a character looks exactly like the model sheets when they see them on screen. However, for the animators drawing the original frames, capturing the character's emotional state in that specific scene and expressing it effectively is far more important. That has always been the priority.

For example, generally speaking, Mr. Yoshinori Kanada struggled quite a bit to make the characters match the model sheets. However, the scene where Asbel's Gunship raids the Pejite cargo ship was absolutely magnificent. Setting aside his unique style of movement, Asbel's expression in that moment was truly the face of a killer. It captured the character's inner emotions perfectly, resulting in an incredible expression. You simply cannot get that kind of depth if you are just tracing over the model sheets.

For this production of Nausicaä, I was given the responsibility of handling the gun designs, among other things. Since I have always loved guns, I thought it would be an easy task, but it didn't turn out that way at all. Mr. Miyazaki sent them back for retakes over and over again... it was a brutal process. Anyway, his instruction was to design guns that perfectly fit the worldview of Nausicaä and looked completely plausible. Looking back at them now, they embarrass me so much that I feel like completely redrawing them.

(Interview)

Base +24