Cosmic Princess Kaguya! Review – Anime based on Japanese folk music that immerses itself in the world of virtual reality pop | film

nThere has never been a film more deserving of the exclamation mark at the end of the title than this Japanese film. Cosmic Princess Kaguya! It is an adaptation of a Japanese folk tale, the story of a princess from the moon who was discovered inside a stalk of bamboo in a poor rural village. A decade ago, Studio Ghibli turned the 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-animated film set in the near future, half in a virtual reality world – and a TikTok full of emojis and stickers exploding all over the screen.

It begins when a 17-year-old high school student named Iroha finds a little girl inside a glowing lamppost (instead of the original bamboo stalk). Iroha (voiced by Dawn M Bennett in the English dub) is a sensible child, a talented musician, and a first-grader who has already moved out of the family home and lives on her own, working all hours to pay the rent on her small studio apartment. In any free time she has, Iroha follows her idol, mega-music star Yachiyo, into a crazy, chaotic virtual reality world called Tsukuyomi.

Iroha takes the baby home. But overnight, the tiny newborn grows into a crawling toddler. Within days, she has become a pre-teen girl, a pale, ethereal beauty named Kaguya, who turns out to be a runaway from the moon. This girl who fell to the ground is a ball of rushing energy; She convinces Iroha to collaborate with her on songs to win a performance contest with superstar Yachiyo, none of which are remotely catchy. The story revolves around hyperactivity, which is so astonishing that the Cosmic Princess Kaguya! It may leave audiences over 15 feeling older than the original tale.