Netflix’s stunning new anime could be perfect, with one crucial addition

Although Cosmic Princess Kaguya! draws plot details from the original material, writer-director Shingo Yamashita dresses the story in a hyper-technological pop aesthetic, swapping feudal Japan for a modern internet-centered Japan. In the process, he covers the screen with mesmerizing visuals and gorgeously designed characters, but he never fully delivers on the story’s emotional potential.

The center of the story is overburdened high-school student Iroha Sakayori, who sees her rigidly organized routine collapse like a house of cards when a mysterious, mystical girl from the moon enters her life. After an intense period of studying and working a part-time job, Iroha stumbles across a glowing telephone pole, which opens to reveal a baby, who sleeps calmly while colorful lights and an upbeat tune fill her small compartment. Reluctant to leave her behind, but also worried about the effect this unrequested meeting might have on her schedule, Iroha takes the baby to her house.

The supernatural baby ages faster than humans, magically jumping from a newborn to an infant in a single night. Incapable of explaining the child’s origins to the police, Iroha can’t find anyone to help her. Before long, the little toddler grows into the energetic teenager Kaguya, who learns the secrets of online stores as quickly as she learned how to walk. Though she appears to be Iroha’s age, Kaguya isn’t as independent, making Iroha feel responsible for the girl to some extent.

While bored waiting for Iroha to come back from school, Kaguya buys a pair of expensive VR contact lenses just like the ones Iroha owns (using Iroha’s money, naturally) and asks her human friend how to use them. The lenses are required to access Tsukuyomi, a metaverse where livestreamers, gamers, and fans hang out. When Iroha sees Kaguya’s joy at the novelty of the digital world, it reminds her of her own gleeful younger days, and she agrees to initiate Kaguya into Tsukuyomi and help her succeed there.

The beginning of the girls’ relationship reinforces the depth of Iroha’s fears about her future, since she never questions the inexplicable events in front of her. What truly frightens her is the possibility of losing study sessions or failing exams. But as Kaguya explores Tsukuyomi, looking for a happier ending than the one associated with her traditional fable, she helps her human friend find reasons to explore her creative side. When Kaguya wants to enter a competition for livestreamers, Iroha revisits her old music compositions to help out. The event is organized by the AI idol Yachiyo, a famous music idol who administers Tsukuyomi. Whoever earns the most fans during the competition will get to record a collaboration with her.

Image: Netflix

Yamashita and co-writer Saeri Natsuo use the basic elements of the original tale and the figure of Kaguya-hime to hold up a mirror to Iroha, inviting the audience to reflect about what she lost while trying to support herself after moving out on her own while still in high school. The movie isn’t an aggressive critique of capitalism, but it subtly touches on the idea by showing how the demands on Iroha exhaust her.

This is Yamashita’s directorial debut, but he has a long history as a key animator in famous anime series, such as Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. His experience is clear during the movie, where every movement flows smoothly and naturally. This is a coming-of-age anime, but Cosmic Princess Kaguya!’s action scenes can be compared to some of the best battle shonen animes. During the metaverse’s fighting games, like a weird adaptation of League of Legends, the impact of each blow is exciting. But the dancing scenes really showcase the quality of the animators involved in this project. Dancing is tricky to animate, because it can easily look stiff, robotic, or uncanny. In Cosmic Princess Kaguya!, the character’s movement feels human, expressive, and connected with the rhythm of the songs.

Rather than relying on occasional references to real pop culture elements to spark Leonard DiCaprio-pointing meme reactions, Cosmic Princess Kaguya! builds a world entirely rooted in current Japanese pop and digital culture. The Japanese VTuber livestreaming scene is fascinating, and goes far beyond broadcasting gaming sessions or the usual “just chatting” livestreams: Japanese VTubers have unique rituals, such as debut livestreams, where they display their avatar features and share personal information, or graduations, formal departures from streaming life, usually followed by a statement from the VTuber and a final livestream to mark the occasion.

Image: Netflix

And the Japanese VTuber scene is currently a massive industry. Many VTubers launch themselves as creative artists after building a fandom online. With agencies like HoloLive turning Vtuber acts into touring sensations, the streamer-to-famous-musician pipeline is more established than ever, and Cosmic Princess Kaguya! explores that idea as Kaguya pursues her new fans.

Music is partially at the center of Cosmic Princess Kaguya!, since it’s the motivation for Kaguya and Iroha to participate in the competition, and it’s tied to Iroha’s past and family. The movie’s music comes from famous names in the Vocaloid scene, like 40mP and HoneyWorks — a smart concept for a movie where technology is central. None of the songs grew on me, but they give Tsukuyomi a fittingly electronic, colorful vibe. Tsukuyomi is beautifully animated: Glowing neon flying fish amid traditional Japanese buildings give Cosmic Princess Kaguya! the futuristic Blade Runner-esque look that anime seems so good at capturing, and makes an exciting contrast with the movie’s folklore source material. The music and visuals have been carefully thought through to create an experience that feels modern and magical.

The character design is gorgeous as well. Iroha’s and Kaguya’s online avatars represent the attention and energy many people invest into expressing their identities in virtual spaces. But the real star is Yachiyo, the AI idol. Her design conveys the character’s divine nature, while giving Yachiyo the flavor of a music idol — the same effect as some of the best real-life Hatsune Miku figures.

All the beautiful scenarios and uplifting music in Cosmic Princess Kaguya! make the 143-minute movie entertaining, but it isn’t enough to compensate for the underwhelming narrative resolutions. Iroha is just a young girl, in spite of the responsibilities that forced her to become an adult too soon. The chaos Kaguya and her childish, dreamy side bring are a catalyst for transformation, as Iroha gradually finds the strength to pursue happiness again. But Iroha’s baggage gets unpacked too easily and hastily, considering how heavy it is.

Early in life, she lost her father, the only person who supported her engaging with music as an act of creative freedom. Her brother left home, depriving her of both a gaming companion and emotional support. Above all, Iroha’s relationship with her mother had a fundamental role in shaping who she is at the beginning of the story, with her insecurities and anxieties. After the death of Iroha’s father, her mother was stern and distant, telling the girl her creative side wasn’t worth exploring unless she was going to be successful.

That emotional, family-centered drama is never fully resolved: The expected resolutions don’t happen. The movie spends too much time demonstrating the strength of Iroha’s relationship with her new and old friends by setting them against challenges like the livestreamer competition, or even fighting aliens — it’s more power-of-friendship adventure than a fully realized coming-of-age story.

Kaguya’s friendship changes Iroha, sure, but the movie eclipses her personal growth by focusing too much on that relationship, as if Iroha had come to terms with her feelings about herself and her mother at some point off-screen. She visibly changes, learning to count on her friends to achieve her goals, but Cosmic Princess Kaguya! never offers the cathartic climax she clearly needs with her mother. It’s a waste of all the tension created in the first half of the film, since Iroha never actively faces the pain she’s carrying, via something like Taki and Mitsuha’s mountaintop confrontation in Makoto Shinkai’s 2016 movie Your Name.

Image: Netflix

Cosmic Princess Kaguya! is a high-value production, and a great example of what the anime industry is currently capable of. From visuals to music, it’s a top-tier anime movie. It invites viewers in from the start with colorful settings and stunning character designs. There is a subtle poetic tone, too, in linking the culturally foundational tale of Kaguya-hime to the coming-of-age story of a girl living in modern Japan. But this long film waters down its emotional potential. While it’s designed to let Yamashita flex his years as an animator, showing his keen eye for beautifully animated scenes, they do little to advance Iroha’s healing journey. Her issues deserve better closure, equal to the magnitude of the visual spectacle surrounding her.

Cosmic Princess Kaguya! debuts on Netflix on Jan. 22.