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. The film originally was planned for a release alongside Hayao Miyazaki's The Wind Rises — which would be the first time two directors release a film simultaneously since 1988 — but was delayed due to production issues. 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. It is Takahata's first directorial credit since My Neighbors the Yamadas in 1999.

The film had a lengthy creation period. Takahata first expressed interest in adapting The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter back when he worked at Toei Animation, long before he even thought of starting an animation studio. The project was abandoned for over half a century, and Takahata revisited it fifty-five years later, with the announcement that Takahata was developing a new project in 2008. The film was in production for eight years, and is notable for being the most expensive anime film ever produced, with a budget of five billion yen, or $49.3 million USD.

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya was released to critical acclaim, being nominated for an Academy Award for the Best Animated Feature (although it lost to Big Hero 6), and an Annie Award for Best Animated Feature (losing to How to Train Your Dragon 2). It is one of the few films to have a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

The story 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.

Tropes used in The Tale of the Princess Kaguya include:

• Affectionate Nickname: Little Bamboo, given to Princess Kaguya by the children to reflect her rapid rate of growth.
• 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.
• Arcadia: Princess Kaguya lives this lifestyle before she is forced to move to the city and live the life of loyalty. This is idealised, and elements of it are present throughout all aspects of the film, including life in the capital. Kaguya trying to return to this lifestyle and enjoy nature, outside of the expectations placed onto her by loyalty, is a conflict present throughout most of the film.
• 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.
• Art Shift: The art style becomes much more sketchy and rough when Kaguya runs away from the mansion, and becomes much colder and more focused in the scenes following.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Kaguya 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.
• Blue and Orange Morality: The residents of the Moon. Having lived on the moon for their entire lives, they are unable to experience the wonders as well as the ups and downs of live on Earth. This means that they struggle to comprehend basic human emotions, and does not understand Princess Kaguya when she wishes to stay on Earth, citing that on the Moon, one cannot experience negative emotions. They neglect to mention that this also means that they cannot experience positive ones.
• Character Title: The Tale of the Princess Kaguya.
• Costume Porn: In contrast to the people living in Princess Kaguya's village, the people living at the capital wears elaborate and decorative clothing. The clothes that Princess Kaguya wears serves as a visual representation of her transition from her childhood home to life in the capital. The scene where she runs away with Sutemaru has her throwing of the robes she is given, symbolising a transition back into her Arcadia lifestyle.
• Dashed Plotline: As the film follows the life of Princess Kaguya from birth to death, there are bound to be some Time Skips scattered throughout the film. The skips from when Kaguya is a toddler to a child is noticeable, although many of the other skips are much more subtle and can easily be missed.
• 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 the end of the film, when 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. In addition, the last scene when Princess Kaguya is being taken away to the moon feature plenty of usage of this trope, involving people running across water and sitting on clouds.
• Downer Ending: Princess Kaguya forgets all memories of Earth and is taken to the Moon, where she cannot feel any more emotions or play in nature. As she flies towards the moon, she turns back and glances back at Earth with teary eyes, longing to return but never knowing why.
• 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.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: This film is, you guessed it, a tale about Princess Kaguya.
• 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.
• Flight: In this case, the characters do not possess the ability to fly on their own, rather, flight is used to represent the emotions of the characters, as well as contrast the supernatural with the regular people. Princess Kaguya and Sutemaru when they run away together, and are shown to trip and start flying through the landscape to represent their emotions running wild. Also Princess Kaguya's parents briefly do this when they fly up the the cloud the Moon people are standing on at the end of the film.
• Foreshadowing: The conflict between Kaguya's desire to be with nature or to live in the capital. This is established in a scene near the beginning of the film, where the children of the village calls her Little Bamboo and calls her to come. Her father calls her Princess and calls for her to come to him. She first walks towards the children — reflecting the Arcadia life that she lives for the first quarter of the film — but then walks towards her father — reflecting her life as royalty in the capital.
• 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.
• 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.
• Heroic BSOD: Princess Kaguya 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.
• 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.
• MacGuffin: The items that Kaguya asks the suitors to bring her.
• Narrator: In both the Japanese and English tracks, introducing audiences to the bamboo cutter which would serve as Kaguya's father in the opening. The narration continues on for the film, explaining actions of the characters without delving into Captain Obvious territory. This is used to develop and enhance the 'fairy tale' feeling of the film, alongside its art style.
• Rags to Royalty: Princess Kaguya 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.
• 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.
• Retraux: The art style of the film is reminiscent of early Japanese paintings, rather than Ghibli's usual style.
• 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.
• Scenery Porn: Occurs a lot in Kaguya's early childhood, with many shots focusing on distant mountains, greenery, or small animals. There are many shots of trees blossoming or flowers opening.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Walking on Water: Princess Kaguya's parents 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.
• Weird Moon: In this case, the weirdness comes from size. In some shots of the film, notably the last one before the credits, the Moon takes up over half of the screen. The shot is made more weird by the lack of saturation when compared to the rest of the film. Justified, as Kaguya is from the Moon.
• World's Most Beautiful Woman: Princess Kaguya, to the point where even the Emperor of Japan took interest in her 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.

• The X of Y: The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, fitting in the formula The (common noun) of the (Proper Noun).