If I hadn’t already watched it to write this review, I guarantee that Cosmic Princess Kaguya would be incessantly recommended to me by everyone I know. While I only have a passing knowledge of Vocaloids and my anime fandom is intermediate at the best of times, the concept of cute girls developing intense emotional bonds through the power of catchy pop music and colorful video game battles is very much me-coded.
So, while adoring its music and characters wasn’t exactly surprising, I was taken aback by how much Cosmic Princess Kaguya grabbed me in terms of story and themes. Despite its silly and Internet-pilled setup, the film is an emotionally complex and genuinely affirming story about what makes life worth living, be that what we do or the people we meet. How did director Shingo Yamashita pull this off for his first full-length feature? Let’s discuss.
What is Cosmic Princess Kaguya about?
(L-R) Iroha and Kaguya in Cosmic Princess Kaguya
Yachiyo in Cosmic Princess Kaguya
Iroha in Cosmic Princess Kaguya
Our story begins when Iroha Sakayori, an emancipated high school student living in Tokyo balancing her studies and part-time jobs to the point of exhaustion, stumbles upon a mysterious baby that quickly grows into a girl the same age as her named Kaguya. And Kaguya sharing a name with the moon princess from ‘The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter’ folk tale is not a coincidence.
Determined not to let the story’s original ending of being taken back to the moon befall her, Kaguya sets her sights on streaming superstardom within the virtual world of Tsukuyomi. With Iroha serving as producer and Kaguya as on-screen talent, the two girls bond over the shared joys of music, food, and their favorite virtual idol Yachiyo, top performer and de facto leader of Tsukuyomi. Will Kaguya get her happy ending or is her date with destiny inevitable?
Cosmic Princess Kaguya Review
(L-R) Iroha and Kaguya in Cosmic Princess Kaguya
Kaguya in Cosmic Princess Kaguya
Kaguya in Cosmic Princess Kaguya
Cosmic Princess Kaguya manages to simultaneously be extremely timely and yet very much timeless. The focus on gaming and streamer culture, the Hatsune Miku-inspired music, and the “Twitch if it was also Genshin Impact” world of Tsukuyomi are all of course very modern. The film’s design and overall look are built on what popular culture and artistic expression look like in the 2020s specifically. But at the same time, its themes are relatable to just about anyone.
At its core, the story is about finding life’s joys and how precious life can be, especially given how fleeting it often is. And you don’t need to understand idol culture or why people like watching other people play video games on the Internet to understand that idea. And it’s reflected beautifully in the parallel arcs of the film’s two leads: Iroha and Kaguya.
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Iroha is responsible to a fault, so consumed by work and school that she forgets what drove her to start working so hard in the first place. Her struggles with saving money and trying to make a life for herself amidst a world where everything gets more and more expensive and the system feels more and more stacked against you feel immediately relatable to anyone who’s ever lived or is currently living through hard times, myself included. And it’s only through meeting Kaguya that she starts relearning how to balance work and play.
Meanwhile, Kaguya is impulsive, self-indulgent, and lives to be happy in every moment. Her joy at trying new foods or discovering new songs is nothing short of exuberant, matched only by the over-the-top tantrums she throws when faced with something that upsets her. Everything is new to her, both good and bad, but given what she believes fate has in store for her, she’s determined to avoid the bad at all costs. It’s only through forming a kinship with Iroha that she learns life’s greatest joys come when you take the good with the bad. Because life is incomplete without both.
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They need each other, they love each other, they drive each other insane but once they’ve gotten to know each other they can’t imagine life without each other. Yet they are still fully fleshed out characters in their own right. Which in turn makes their relationship that much more authentic and fun to watch. Kaguya and Iroha’s dynamic is obviously very different than Kaguya and the bamboo cutter in the original folk tale or more traditional adaptations like Studio Ghibli‘s The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, but the emotional wallop of Kaguya finding herself amidst the mortals is present nonetheless.
And while this shouldn’t be a shock coming from Shingo Yamashita, the man behind Chainsaw Man‘s acclaimed opening among other works, the visuals are incredible. The powerful contrast between the cramped and drab real world and the vibrant colors, bright lights, and wide-open spaces of Tsukuyomi is brilliantly executed in and of itself. But when you add such fluid movements and creative choreography during the action and dance sequences that in turn complement the top-notch character designs, you’ve got yourself an early contender for one of the most visually stunning films of 2026.
Is Cosmic Princess Kaguya worth watching?
Yachiyo in Cosmic Princess Kaguya
Iroha in Cosmic Princess Kaguya
Yachiyo in Cosmic Princess Kaguya
For as much as I was looking forward to it, I honestly thought I would have more to nitpick about Cosmic Princess Kaguya than I actually did. I thought the gamer culture stuff might come off as cringy, but it by and large didn’t. I thought Kaguya might start to get annoying, but she’s consistently endearing. I thought the English voice cast and lyricists might not be able to translate this story and music across language barriers, but they did that too.
Simply put, Cosmic Princess Kaguya is a triumph of beautiful animation and heartfelt storytelling that speaks to universal and timeless truths while capturing the Internet and gaming community better than most other attempts on film. This is easily the first must-see movie of 2026, and if the rest of the cinematic landscape can keep up, then this is going to be one incredible year.
Cosmic Princess Kaguya premieres on Netflix January 22.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
