The Tale of the Princess Kaguya/Characters

Characters from The Tale of the Princess Kaguya include:

Violet: Main Characters

Green: Princess Kaguya's parents

Red: Residents of the capital

Main Characters

Tropes exhibited by these characters include:

Childhood Friend Romance: The two characters grew up together, and Princess Kaguya longs to return to the countryside to be with him, even running away from her responsibilities. Kaguya refuses to marry any of the five suitors presented to her, instead wishing to be with Sutemaru.
Flight of Romance: Used when Princess Kaguya and Sutemaru run away together, and are shown to trip and start flying through the landscape to represent their emotions running wild.
GASP: After the running away scene and falling in the snow, Kaguya wakes back up in the house she ran away from, the first sign that she is a resident from the moon, and GASPs at this sudden realisation.
- Sutemaru makes a sharp and sudden GASP when he realises that the young Princess Kaguya is about to be attacked by an adult boar.

Princess Kaguya

A young lady found in a bamboo shoot, who grows rapidly.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Affectionate Nickname: Little Bamboo, given to her by the children to reflect her rapid rate of growth.
Be Careful What You Wish For: She wishes that she doesn't have to marry the Emperor of Japan, and calls out to the moon for help. Her wish is granted, and she no longer has to marry the Emperor, but the consequence is that she is now being taken away to the Moon, away from her friends and family on the planet with no way to prevent it.
Blush Sticker: She often gets them as a young child. The Blush Stickers disappear when she grows up, though.
Cherry Blossoms: When spring comes, Princess Kaguya rushes outside to admire a newly blossomed cherry tree, running and laughing around it. A robe that she wears throughout the film is of the same colour as the blossoms.
Dream Melody: Princess Kaguya keeps singing or playing the short melody that opens the film. The melody is used diegetically in the song "Nursery Rhyme", although it never builds up to a full on music number.
Gilded Cage: Her home in the capital serves as this to her. It's luxurious and large, but she feels confined due to the expectations placed onto her. She resorts to having a slice of the Arcadia life she used to live, planting a small garden in the house.
Heroic BSOD: She has one when she is told that Sutemaru and the children has moved away to another area where there are trees to chop. After hearing about this, she wonders away silently, collapsing in the snow.
It's All Junk: She keeps a small garden in the back of her mansion to mimic the Arcadia lifestyle. In a fit of rage, she destroys the garden, realising that it is only a copy of the real thing holding almost no value and decides that it's no longer worth having around.
Lonely at the Top: She struggles to make genuine and authentic friends as a Princess. Despite living a luxurious life surrounded by wealthy individuals, she longs for her old lifestyle. The trope is made more powerful by the fact that the Princess does not have a choice in getting to the top; she is forced into the top by her parents.
Lonely Rich Kid: She makes friends while she is living in a humble village. When her father finds gold nuggets spilling from a bamboo shoot, her and her family are taken to the capital, away from her childhood friends. The strict behavioural standards imposed on royalty means she struggles to make friends as a member of the nobility, and her only meaningful relationships come from the people she befriended before leaving. When Princess Kaguya returns to the countryside near the end of the film, she once again meets Sutemaru and feels the joy she felt when she was a poor kid.
Melancholy Moon: Princess Kaguya often stares at the moon, being disappointed in how she will be taken to back to it, away from the emotions and nature present on Earth, and be forced to live life in boring bliss.
One of the Boys: Princess Kaguya plays with the boys and Sutemaru in her village, living a care free lifestyle, going around and catching bugs or playing in a spring.
Rags to Royalty: She was found by commoners in a bamboo shoot they cut down. Later on, her father went into the forest to cut down bamboo, and gold spills out from one of plants he cuts. Her parents uses the gold to buy a mansion and to hire a tutor, aiming to make Kaguya into a proper princess. Unfortunately, she wishes to live in the countryside, away from the capital. Near the end of the film, this is subverted when Kaguya returns to the countryside and runs away, and even more so when she is taken away to the moon.
Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: The character has dark hair and pale skin, partially contributing to her status of being perceived as the World's Most Beautiful Woman.
Rebellious Princess: 'Princess' Kaguya, who refuses to do almost everything expected from a princess. She refuses to paint her teeth black, or to pull out her eyelashes, only doing so after much time and discovering that Sutemaru and the other kids she grew up with has moved away form her home. Instead of dedicating herself to rigorous study, she instead chooses to play and run around her house.
Rule of Symbolism: Kaguya is given a bird in a cage. She sets it free, seeing how the bird represents her, and the cage represents the mansion she is confined in. The bird flying away represents her desire to be with nature.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Princess Kaguya, running away after guests at her naming party demands to see her, but her father not permitting. Deranged Animation follows.
Single Tear: When Princess Kaguya's eyebrows are being picked out, serving as a sign for her getting further and further away from her childhood.
Slipknot Ponytail: When Princess Kaguya is admiring the cherry blossoms and running around the tree, her hair becomes untied and sways around much more with her movements. Her hair-tie being lower down means that it's easy to shake loose, although we are never shown this actually happening. Instead, we are greeted to a shot of her with her hair-tie on, her feet sweeping along the floor, and a shot with her hair swaying around her as the tie comes off.
Ten-Minute Retirement: When Kaguya abandons her role as a princess and runs back to her childhood home. She shortly returns to the role when she discovers that the children she grew up with has moved away.
World's Most Beautiful Woman: Even the Emperor of Japan took interest in Princess Kaguya's appearance, and Kaguya receives many letters from people waiting outside her palace. The five suitors race to her palace, causing a stampede and knocking bystanders into a river.

Narrator: As time went on, rumours of the princess's beauty grew, the streets outside the mansion became crammed with people, hoping to catch a glimpse of the mysterious Princess Kaguya.

Sutemaru

The childhood friend of Princess Kaguya, who gives her helpful information on how to live in Arcadia.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Diving Save: Sutemaru does this to save Princess Kaguya from a charging adult boar, marking the first time the two meet. Kaguya is playing with baby boar, and their mother is rushing to attack Kaguya. Sutemaru makes a diving save and tackles her out of the way at the last second.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Sandwich: Sutemaru catches a pheasant, and Princess Kaguya as well as her friends are scheduled to have pheasant stew the next day with mushrooms. The plans are interrupted by the abrupt announcement that she will be moving to the capital, and the film never shows the audience characters eating pheasant stew.

Princess Kaguya's parents

Tropes exhibited by these characters include:

Cry Into Chest: Princess Kaguya's parents cry into each others' chests at the end of the film, after Princess Kaguya is taken away to the moon.
Walking on Water: They do this near the end of the film. The Princess is being taken away to the moon, and her parents beg and plead for her to stay. They run on water and fly up to the clouds where the Princess is.

Sanuki no Miyatsuko

The bamboo cutter who finds Princess Kaguya.

Ōna

Sanuki no Miyatsuko's wife.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Good Parents: She is a much better parent to Princess Kaguya than Princess Kaguya's father. Whereas Sanuki no Miyatsuko takes Princess Kaguya away to the capital, believing that it's the best for her, Ōna understands Princess Kaguya wants to live a humble lifestyle, allowing her to keep a garden in the backyard. She's also supportive to Princess Kaguya.

Capital Residents

Lady Sagami

A tutor hired to teach Princess Kaguya in the way of nobility.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Stern Teacher: She was hired to tutor Princess Kaguya in the ways and customs of noble Princesses. Princess Kaguya is playful, wishing just to have fun, while the tutor is stern and only wishes to teach her traditions. As the film romanticises the care-free lifestyle that the Princess has, the tutor can be viewed as unsympathetic.

Menowarawa

A person who lives at Princess Kaguya's mansion in the capital.

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