The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

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Children: Go round, go round, water wheel go round, Go round and call Mr. Sun, Bird, bugs, bees, grass, flowers, and trees, Spring, summer, autumn, winter, bring them all on.

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (Japanese かぐや姫の物語, Hepburn Kaguya-hime no Monogatari) is a 2013 film directed by Isao Takahata and animated by Studio Ghibli partially based on the literary tale The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. It was Takahata's last film as a director before his death in 2018, and one of the final films from the studio before its restructuring. In 2014, the film was nominated for an Academy Award for the Best Animated Feature, but lost to Big Hero 6. It is one of the few films to have a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

The film begins with a bamboo cutter — Sanuki no Miyatsuko — finding a girl — Later named Princess Kaguya — in a shoot, and taking her home and raising her. Princess Kaguya grows quickly, to the point where she is nicknamed Little Bamboo by the children around her. She begins playing with the children, and meets Sutemaru, the oldest of them, and develops a close friendship with him. Miyatsuko went back into the bamboo forest, where he is blessed with luxury clothes as well as gold. Using these, his family, including Kaguya, moves into the capital, away from the natural Arcadia lifestyle and her childhood friends. The rest of the film deals with Kaguya's internal conflict of the lifestyle pushed onto her by her parents, and her desire to return to her natural home. Kaguya slowly accepts her new lifestyle, but always kept her old one in mind.

The film is notable for being the most expensive anime film ever produced, with a budget of five billion yen, or $49.3 million USD.

Tropes used in The Tale of the Princess Kaguya include:

• Aliens Speaking English: Or Japanese, depending on which language track you're using. The people from the Moon are able to communicate with people on Earth easily. Princess Kaguya, despite being from the moon herself, has no difficulties communicating with the people around her.
• All Just a Dream: Kaguya running away with Sutemaru. After Kaguya falls from the sky, Sutemaru wakes up in a field, and is shown to be lying alone, and Kaguya is nowhere in sight.
• Arranged Marriage: The Emperor of Japan tries to arrange one with Kaguya. Kaguya refuses to accept this, instead pleading for the Moon to take her away, leading to the end of the film.
  • This also occurs with the five prince suitors who are interested in her. Although she has a choice in which one to marry, and she sends them on a Fetch Quest, she is still expected to marry one of them.
• Arcadia: Princess Kaguya lives this lifestyle before she is forced to move to the city and live the life of loyalty.
• Deranged Animation: The animation style of the film adapts to Kaguya's emotions. In the scene where Kaguya runs away from the capital, the animation style becomes rough, unpolished, and uneven to reflect her sudden anger. Near of the film, where Kaguya reunites with Sutemaru, they run away together, and this is shown as them flying through the landscape. {{Sutemaru's later All Just a Dream scene makes the flying scene more unnatural.}}
• Easy Amnesia: Perhaps one of the easiest methods to induce amnesia in any piece of media: simply putting on a robe.
• Engagement Challenge: Kaguya sends the five suitors each one of these, the objective being to fetch a rare item which they have compared her to.
• Fetch Quest: Kaguya's five suitors are asked to find the precious objects which they compared her to — such as the Jeweled Branch of Mount Horai and a robe of fire-rat fur — as a test of their loyalty. Some of the items brought back were fake, and one suitor died trying to obtain his quest. Another gave up on his quest and turned back.
• Ghibli Hills: A common occurrence at the start of the film, present in almost all shots, depicted in a different, minimalist art style reflective of ancient Japanese paintings than Trope Namer Ghibli's usual lush green paintings.
• Gilded Cage: Kaguya's 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.
• Leitmotif: A rare example where the motif used is both diegetic and non diegetic. Kaguya's motif accompanies the opening credits, and appears in other places in the film as well. She also frequently sings it when she's playing with the children and Sutemaru.
• 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 has moved away form her home. Instead of dedicating herself to rigorous study, she instead chooses to play and run around her house.
• Scenery Porn: Occurs a lot in Kaguya's early childhood, with many shots focusing on distant mountains, greenery, or small animals.
• 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.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: When Kaguya is being taken away to the moon, joyful and festive music plays in a scene which should be melancholic. The soundtrack eventually progresses to a depressing and sorrowful song, averting the usage of the trope in the later parts of the scene.