Cosmic Princess Kaguya! reimagines moon folktale as trippy VR pop anime

Cosmic Princess Kaguya! is a Japanese animated reworking of the classic moon-princess folktale, recast as a high-energy, near-future techno anime with much of the action set in a virtual reality world.

Unlike Studio Ghibli’s hand-painted adaptation a decade ago, this version is frenetic and stylised — part virtual reality fantasy, part pop spectacle — with a TikTok-like visual approach that layers emojis and stickers across the screen and a VR realm called Tsukuyomi at its centre.

The story opens when 17-year-old high school student Iroha finds a baby inside a glowing lamppost rather than a bamboo stalk. Iroha (voiced by Dawn M Bennett in the English dub) is depicted as a sensible, talented musician and grade-A student who lives alone and works to pay the rent, while following AI musical superstar Yachiyo in Tsukuyomi.

The baby quickly ages into a pre-teen named Kaguya, revealed to be a runaway from the moon, and she persuades Iroha to collaborate on songs to win a competition to perform with Yachiyo. The review notes that none of the songs are remotely catchy, that the plot “pings about hyperactively,” and that the film’s dizzying pace may leave audiences over 15 years old feeling more ancient than the original tale.

Key Topics

Culture, Cosmic Princess Kaguya, Tsukuyomi, Iroha, Kaguya, Yachiyo