Image Credit: Netflix
It’s hard to figure it out completely Cosmic Princess Kaguya! Intentions. This adaptation of the Bamboo Cutter fairy tale into a shojo-action anime represents young people’s relationship with the Internet and digital third spaces. Whether the film attempts to comment on them or simply portray them is a matter of interpretation, but it nonetheless adds an interesting glimpse into what could have been a silly and trite adaptation of an ancient tale for a new age. As it stands, Cosmic Princess Kaguya! A beautiful-looking, charming and exciting film that doesn’t neglect the basic moral of the original story.
Western audiences may be familiar with the bamboo cutter fairy tale through the Studio Ghibli film The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, in which a farmer cuts a bamboo stalk, revealing an angel infant who has escaped domesticity on the Moon to experience human life. Following the work of great Ghibli director Isao Takahata is a fool’s errand Cosmic Princess Kaguya! Director Shingo Yamashita avoids this by focusing on the modern setting.
We follow Iroha, a lonely schoolgirl who balances studies with work without the support of much family or friends. He stumbles upon a baby princess, Princess Kaguya, on the telephone pole outside his apartment, and suddenly he is thrust into the responsibility of raising her. Within days, Kaguya grows to be the same age as Iroha and learns of the ancient myth she is expected to fulfill. Rejecting this outright, Kaguya decides to create her own story, which takes the form of entering a competition to become a Twitch streamer and collaborate with the world’s most famous streamer, Yachiyo.
Turning Princess Kaguya into a streamer to attract teen audiences is a cheap ploy, the kind of thing you’d imagine an out-of-touch film exec doing for the next Minions movie. Cosmic Princess Kaguya! This is overcome by taking a very honest and detailed look at how integrated the Internet is into young people’s lives and how common parasocial relationships with idols and streamers are.
A large portion of the film takes place in a VR world where streamers wage battles or hold events, and Iroha finds more companions in this world than in reality. As Kaguya’s viewership grows, we see that she has become the subject of marriage proposals from men in her chats. None of these are ridiculed or celebrated; It is simply depicted as a part of these young people’s lives.
Another interesting inversion of the story is how Kaguya narrates Iroha’s journey rather than going through an arc herself. Basically, Kaguya gets to experience the full range of human experience, from happiness and innocence to pain and restriction, and when she inevitably returns to her home on the moon, she can do so knowing that she was, in fact, alive. Cosmic Princess Kaguya! In, he rarely has a moment of reflection, loss, or pain; She is a perfect foil for the ultra-serious Iroha, a constant ball of energy bouncing off the walls in every scene, who is incapable of seeing anything but joy in life. She reminds Iroha to live for life, and that her purpose as a person should not be limited to getting the best grades and earning rent every month. The film’s digital setting also makes more sense through Iroha’s arc. This meaningful connection that changed her outlook towards life was not created by becoming an idol in the digital world, but by someone who spent time with her in real life.
As much as it changes, Cosmic Princess Kaguya! The message of the original story remains intact – it is part of the human condition that relationships are all fleeting, that we understand that nothing lasts forever, yet we mourn when we lose them, because the time spent with a loved one will never be enough. Having Iroha so close to Kaguya makes her realize the full force of this message, and we really do see her as a completely changed person by the end of the film.
The narrative is not without its flaws, and the pace of the film can get in the way of some characters actually feeling like real people rather than pawns in the story. There’s a reveal about Iroha’s long-lost brother entering the narrative, and her two best friends are largely irrelevant to the plot, keeping it from feeling like a completely cohesive film.
The visuals in the film are never a problem, but don’t reinvent the wheel in any significant way. It is a classic 2D anime with some CGI enhancements in some action scenes. This means that it is a very beautiful film and the action is very entertaining. There’s a reason this formula is repeated, but the overly obvious and potato-like CGI still makes for a weird watch. It would be great if we could find a way to do this that wouldn’t be so frustrating.
Cosmic Princess Kaguya! From the dynamics between the two main characters to the fairy tale setting to the visual style, relying on some classic formulas, it all feels cozy and comfortable without being too challenging. One area where it could have said something subversive is its depiction of internet culture, instead it backs off from commentary and favors crowd pleasing rather than commentary. Still, a movie being enjoyable isn’t always a bad thing, and Cosmic Princess Kaguya! This will win over a lot of fans.