ANI-MOVIES, *The Tale Of Princess Kaguya

The Tale Of The Bamboo Cutter has been adapted for various anime media, including Sailor Moon S: The Movie, but aside a live-action film from the late 80s it didn't have its own animated feature production dedicated to it. Studio Ghibli regular Isao Takahata made his last anime movie this 2013 Oscar nominated movie, whose superb creation landed him his own behind the scenes full-length documentary chronicling the directors etherial swan song. The Tale Of Princess Kaguya takes one of Japan's pinnacle folk tales and makes it open to Western audiences, originally through Disney, and then again after it was requisited by GKids.

A middle-aged bamboo cutter lives in the Japanese mountains. One day, he discovers a tiny Thumbelina-like sprite in the woods which immeadiately turns into a human baby girl after being touched by the bamboo cutter's wife. The baby keeps growing older at an accelerated rate, and is hinted to be a princess as her parents keep finding blessings from heaven to raise the child. With their newfound wealth, the family moves into a stately manor in the capital where the now young lady is officially named Kaguya. Her beauty gets the ears of all the eligible members of the royal court, each of which are sent on their own impossible quest to win her hand in marriage. After every one of the suitors ends up either going broke or flat out dying, the emperor himself tries to claim Kaguya, but this ends up backfiring as Kaguya finally realizes she comes from the moon, and accidently wished to be sent back to her celestial realm. Kaguya was a resident of the lunar kingdom who learned about the romantic Earth from a lady who had lost her magical robe on her trip there, and the young princess wished to be reborn on the mortal world to experience what love is. Her hasteful wish to return comes true as Buhdda himself and his entourage puts everyone guarding Kaguya to sleep, and is ascended back to the moon, but maintains her Earthly memories on her voyage home where its hinted she is reborn again.

Possibly taking a hint from the Ayashi No Ceres legend of a heavenly figure her divinity while growing a family in the human world, Isao Takahata's take on the bamboo cutter tale tries to bridge the seperate sagas into the same continuity. Most of The Tale Of Princess Kaguya movie covers the plotpoints of the source material, but greatly expands on it from the point of view of Kaguya herself and how she wanted to lead a simple life instead of maintaining her position as a rich noble, and how her decisions impact the lives of her adopted family. The entire film is more of an exploration of the title character's perspective on the world around her, despite she the fact she wishes to be merely a mortal instead of a divine being. The style of animation fluxuates during some of Kaguya's more spirited dream sequences which has her interacting with others on a spiritual level. The dub is acceptable, but seems to miss the charm of the previous Ghibli English adaptations. The movie altogether does show Isao Takahata's lifetime of quality as one of the premiere anime legends.