nHas ever been a movie more worthy of an exclamation mark at the end of the title than this animation from Japan. Cosmic Princess Kaguya! It is an adaptation of a Japanese folk tale, the story of a moon princess discovered inside a bamboo stalk in a poor rural village. A decade ago, Studio Ghibli adapted this story into a gorgeous animated film with a traditional, lovingly hand-drawn feel. This movie couldn’t be more different, a trippy, high-energy, techno anime set in the near future, half of it set in a virtual reality world — and TikTok-ified with emojis and stickers all over the screen.
It begins when a 17-year-old high school student named Iroha finds a baby girl inside a glowing lamppost (instead of a bamboo stalk as in the original). Iroha (voiced by Dawn M. Bennett in the English dub) is a smart child, a talented musician, and a grade-A student, who has already moved out of the family home and is living alone, working all hours to pay the rent on her small studio flat. In whatever free time Iroha has, she follows her idol, AI musical megastar Yachiyo, to a crazy, chaotic virtual reality world called Tsukuyomi.
Iroha takes the child home. But overnight, the tiny newborn grows up and turns into a crawling baby. Within days she transforms into a pre-teen, pale ethereal beauty named Kaguya, who, it appears, has escaped from the moon. This girl fallen to earth is a fiery ball of energy; She convinces Iroha to collaborate on songs with her in order to win a competition to perform with superstar Yachiyo, but none of them were remotely attractive. The plot spins hyperactively, so much so that Cosmic Princess Kaguya! To viewers over the age of 15, it may feel even older than the original story.
