Dang it! This was so close! Cosmic Princess Kaguya! has so many awesome things going for it! WHY AM I YELLING WHEN I HAD A GOOD TIME! KAGUYA!!!!!!!
No exclamation points to start the movie though. Iroha (Anna Nagase) is a hardworking teenager trying her best in Tokyo. She studies, gets scholarships, and works multiple part time jobs just to make ends meet in hopes for a normal, content life. All that gets thrown out the window when an electrical (not bamboo) pole opens, and out pops a baby. That baby quickly grows into Kaguya (Yūko Natsuyoshi), a younger teen supposedly from the Moon, that Iroha has to teach about life on Earth. Kaguya seems particularly drawn to the virtual world Tsukuyomi, and the AI overseer of the world, Yachiyo (Saori Hayami). Yachiyo launches a competition to do a virtual concert with the legend, which Kaguya insists she’s gonna win, despite Iroha telling her that top player Akira (Miyu Irino) is gonna be nearly impossible to beat to get there.
The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter goes back to the 1500s Japan in written form, probably even before that a few centuries. I had heard of this through the wonderfully animated version Studio Ghibli did in 2013. There have been plenty of attempts to modernize the fable too. But Shingo Yamashita’s spin here is nothing short of brilliant. He gets to have fun with modernizing the lore: Kaguya becomes a streamer, obviously! The bamboo shoot as an electrical pole: no notes. But then we go a little deeper; of course the Internet is the closest place to the Moon, even more than just a mountain. Plus, in cyberspace, you have carte blanche to design ANYTHING to your hearts content. Monsters, giant spirits, cat people…it’s all possible in the cloud. Battles now take place in Fortnite like arenas to fend off gods from invading Tsukuyomi. This leaves room for a twist or two as well, one that I definitely didn’t see coming. Even deeper than that is Yamashita’s greatest trick: we leave feudal traditions behind for shapeshifting the story into a character journey of self-discovery, with Kaguya acting as Iroha’s manic pixie dream girl plot device, now capable of imagining a more than just a normal life is possible.
Unfortunately Cosmic Princess Kaguya! doesn’t ever quite live up to its lofty story designs. But hey, it has a lot of fun along the way. It plays like a happier kid version of Belle. Iroha is also living joylessly, but the minute Kaguya shows up, that goes on the backburner. We’re in sugar high overdrive for 2 straight hours, in a frenzy of silly anime reacting, crazy epic virtual concerts, not Fortnite battle royales, and every color of the rainbow flashing every 10-20 seconds to keep you engaged. If you have a 9 year old daughter/sister/niece, tread lightly showing them Cosmic Princess Kaguya!, cause at its best, it could have a Kpop Demon Hunters like affect that will have you angrily designing Yachiyo’s outfit as a Halloween Costume for them.
So parents, if you’re having an Iroha like existence and need a 2 hour break, pop Cosmic Princess Kaguya! on. It’ll teach your kids new folklore and cultures. And, most importantly, teach your kids to stop reading/educating themselves to become Twitch streaming legends! Wait no! On second thought, THAT’S why you should tread lightly with this one. That was a weird choice.