This is a very loose retelling of the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, a story adapted and referenced countless times in anime, films, and video games. Princess Kaguya comes to Earth, experiences beauty and love there, then is taken away by the moon people. In this version, she arrives in 2030 Japan and becomes the companion of Iroha, a high school girl who lives alone in Tokyo. Iroha is smart and talented, but constantly stressed and sleep deprived because of her effort to manage both school and paying her own bills. Princess Kaguya brings some chaos and eventually some new joy into her life. There are other details, but it's better to learn them from just watching the film.
In the original Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, Princess Kaguya is sent to Earth because forming attachments there is meant to be a punishment. In other versions of the story, including this one, she leaves the moon of her own accord because she wants to experience the many pleasures that exist on Earth. Depending on which version you get, there might be more emphasis on this aspect of it, or on how the Princess is a sort of iconoclast, or on the power of fantasy. Or there might be some other angle. There are many ways to tell the story.
But one thing they all include is that the Princess must eventually leave. The people of the moon think that she should not be exposed too much to the Earth's imperfections. Different versions of the story may also emphasize different imperfections, and sometimes, Princess Kaguya challenges them. In Ichikawa's version of the story, for instance, these imperfections are the lies and inequality of aristocratic society. In Takahata's version, they include patriarchy and alienation from nature. In this version, it's overwork, careerism, finance, and the other things that make modern people lose sleep.
Of course, we also lose sleep trying to find something we actually enjoy amid all that. The film evokes this by making the online world nocturnal and pulling from several different online subcultures and content genres. There are cooking streams, virtual concerts, Vocaloid songs, esports, and fanbases for the various figures in these spaces. There is also the misty aspiration that anyone online could, maybe, create something that would win other people's hearts.
This plays into the admittedly bizarre last section of the film and its self-conscious, Hadestown-esque take on the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter's ending. The film acknowledges the fact that the traditional story doesn't have a happy ending. On some level we sense Kaguya has to leave; she does not entirely seem to belong to our world. She's too perfect, or too free. But the last part of the film imagines that maybe we can make the world good enough for the Princess to stay.
So, this film's characters have a lot more power to put good things out into the world than Takahata or Ichikawa's characters. But they're mostly fleeting, virtual things. The film doesn't address this directly, but it's a productive complication that the avatar of all the joys in the film is Princess Kaguya--a character who is largely known for the fact that she must leave.
On the other hand, it's easy to see the value in a fleeting experience with a film like this. The character animation reminded me of Ojamajo Doremi or Bocchi. It's exuberant, shifting between styles, and indulging in all kinds of unexpected, cartoony gestures. A lot of the visual gags do this on a broader level, too, pushing against the fourth wall and our understanding of the online environment.
So maybe the world is not good enough yet for us to believe Princess Kaguya can stick around. But somebody is having a lot of fun with the material here; that way, we know at least something good is going on while we're all overworked and sleep deprived.
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