Cosmic Princess Kaguya! Parent Guide

High school student Iroha (Anna Nagase) is overwhelmed. Since leaving home to escape her mother, Iroha must pay her own bills while trying to keep her grades high enough to get into a top university. Already stretched to her limit, Iroha’s life is turned upside down when a runaway from the moon, Kaguya (Yuko Natsuyoshi) moves in. Kaguya is carefree and uninhibited, which gets in the way of Iroha’s carefully scheduled life. The two girls find common ground, however, when they enter the virtual world of Tsukoyomi, a world where you can be anything you can imagine.  

 One of the worst things a movie can do is display glimpses of the much better movie it could have been. Cosmic Princess Kaguya! is fantastic for about an hour, then it quickly falls apart, becoming steadily worse until it finally, mercifully, comes to an end 90 minutes later. But even in those declining 90 minutes, it still has flashes of what could have been a good movie, teasing the audience with what it refuses to be.  

 There are many ways in which this film goes wrong, but the main problem is a complete lack of direction. The story is unfocused, meandering from place to place with no clear message or story structure. This lack of focus draws out the runtime to an unacceptable two hours and twenty-two minutes, with almost nothing to show for it. And while not a musical in the traditional sense, the film does market itself around its music, very little of which is any good.  

 On a positive note, Cosmic Princess Kaguya! is gorgeous to look at. The animation is some of the best I’ve seen, and the VR world is lush and imaginative. The almost complete lack of negative content even makes this a suitable choice for most audiences. Sadly, that lack of negative content doesn’t make up for the runtime, jumbled story, and confusing messages. This film frustrated me to no end and left me dissatisfied and confused. If you’re interested in the style, just watch some of the musical numbers on YouTube and you’ll have a much better time than I did.