Final Rating: 3/5
In the classic Japanese fairytale “The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter,” a bamboo cutter finds a tiny baby girl in a bamboo stalk and raises her as his own. In just three months, the child – named Kaguya – matures into a beautiful woman and the bamboo cutter and his wife come into extraordinary riches. Kaguya’s beauty attracts many suitors including the Emperor of Japan, but rejects them all, before revealing herself to be a princess from the moon, and finally returning home to her people.
Cosmic Princess Kaguya!, a new anime film out on Netflix from director Shingo Yamashita, reimagines the tale of Princess Kaguya for a new generation. Centring the story around livestreaming, online gaming, and idol culture, the film features solid worldbuilding and inventive deviations from the source material but suffers from pacing issues and an overreliance on clichés.
Cosmic Princess begins with Iroha, an overworked high school student, discovering a baby inside a mysterious glowing telephone pole. After Iroha reluctantly adds “single mother” to her extensive list of responsibilities, she’s shocked when only three days later, the infant has grown into her peer. Recognizing the parallels to the aforementioned fairytale, Iroha names her new friend after the mythical princess and reads the story to her. Kaguya connects with the story – even admitting she’s from the moon – but doesn’t care for the ending. Instead, she sets out to achieve a “good ending” for herself, and make a new home on Earth.
Her plan? Kaguya discovers that a famous AI livestreamer, Yachiyo, is holding a contest in which she will collaborate on a highly publicized concert with whichever streamer gains the most fans during a set period of time. With her sights set on national fame, and nothing but time on her hands, Kaguya works to become the biggest streamer in Japan, bringing Iroha along as her friend, songwriting partner, and – hopefully soon – the second biggest streamer in Japan.
Within the first half hour of this two-and-a-half-hour movie, Cosmic Princess is already trying to be several different films, none of which fit together cleanly. The film begins as a straightforward – if aesthetically wacky – reimagining of a well-known myth, and then awkwardly shifts to telling the story of an aspiring internet celebrity. In her endeavours as a streamer, Kaguya’s actions sometimes parallel elements from the original story but not so much that those parallels ever feel like more than a wink and a nod in the direction of those in the know.
The strongest parts of the story revolve around Iroha’s struggle to balance her new responsibilities to Kaguya with her already hectic life. Iroha is introduced as a highly gifted student studying for Tokyo University’s demanding entrance exam, simultaneously working a demanding job to pay rent on her apartment. Iroha could live with her mother, but a tragedy has left her estranged from her family. Iroha aspires to become a successful scientist in a bid to prove herself to her strict mother. Her high-pressure academic aspirations also serve as a convenient excuse to ignore her musical talents, which she associates with a past she’d rather forget.
The liberties Cosmic Princess takes with the story are individually interesting. Kaguya and the Bamboo Cutter are split into three characters; Kaguya’s more notable suitors are represented by a rival boy band; instead of an impossible task for the suitors, Kaguya, Iroha, Yachiyo, and the rival boy band play a competitive game resembling League of Legends. Combined, however, the effect is a strange dose of thematic confusion in a film that is mostly about the power of smart young women following their passions and succeeding.
Cosmic Princess is a fantastical sci-fi story but is more interesting when it steps back and becomes a straightforward drama. The film also overstays its welcome. There are a half-dozen clumsy fake endings in Cosmic Princess, and even the few that work are undercut by the filmmakers cheekily acknowledging there’s more to come.
Overall, Cosmic Princess Kaguya! is cute. There are good songs and great moments, good characters and fun world building, but the whole thing is held together by a story that’s too convoluted for its own good. Ironically, this anime about livestreamers is best watched the same way as most livestreamers: in clips.
Thank you to Netflix for the screener.
