Alternative Titles
Japanese: 超かぐや姫！
English: Cosmic Princess Kaguya!
Information
Episodes:
1
Status:
Finished Airing
Aired:
Jan 22, 2026
Source:
Original
Duration:
2 hr. 20 min.
Rating:
PG-13 - Teens 13 or older
Statistics
Score:
8.491 (scored by 3901939,019 users)
Ranked:
#169 2
2
based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.
Popularity:
#2719
Members:
81,377
Favorites:
1,888
Available AtResources
Streaming Platforms
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Ranked #169Popularity #2719Members 81,377 Tsukuyomi is a virtual realm where hopes and dreams come together. Iroha Sakayori, a 17-year-old high school student in Tokyo, leads an extremely busy life trying to balance part-time work and academics. She finds peace by watching a popular streamer named Yachiyo Runami, who is the administrator of an online virtual space called Tsukuyomi.
Iroha frequents Tsukuyomi, where people can live different lives and freely pursue their creativity, and she passes the time by supporting Yachiyo and playing battle games to earn a little extra money. On her way home one day, Iroha finds a telephone pole shining with iridescent hues. To her surprise, an adorable baby emerges from the pole. Unable to abandon it, Iroha takes the infant home and watches her rapidly grow into a girl her own age.
"Are you Princess Kaguya?"
The grown-up Kaguya develops a self-indulgent personality. At Kaguya's fervent request, Iroha helps her start streaming in Tsukuyomi. With Iroha as producer and songwriter and Kaguya as streamer and singer, the two grow steadily closer. Little do they know that ominous forces lie in wait, eager to take Kaguya back to the moon.
This is the tale of Princess Kaguya as never seen before.
(Source: Netflix, edited) | |
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MALxJapan -More than just anime-
| Characters & Voice Actors
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No opening themes have been added to this title. Help improve our database by adding an opening theme here.
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| "ray Chou Kaguya-hime! Version (ray 超かぐや姫！ Version)" by Kaguya (CV: Yuuko Natsuyoshi), Yachiyo Runami (CV: Saori Hayami)
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Reviews
Feb 14, 2026
Cosmic Princess Kaguya is a futuristic retelling of The Tale of The Princess Kaguya, and also a sapphic love story (which is a pleasant surprise).
The movie starts off slow, but it was necessary to flesh out Iroha & Kaguya so that we'd feel more attached to them. Their bond is central to the plot and they did a good job in showing how the girls naturally became closer. Once the main characters' dynamic was established, the story began to move, their friendship started to blossom into something more, and we become swept up into their world - both in real life and in the virtual
...
realm, Tsukuyomi.
Characters:
Our main character Iroha is a hardworking protagonist with many sides to her and someone you can't help but root for. She had a couple of intriguing conflicts, but most of them were surface-level. Still, Iroha had decent characterization and development, which even some series with multiple episodes have a hard time achieving.
Kaguya is a genki/deredere type that you see in a lot of anime. She is quirky, cute, lovable, and a delight to watch. She had potential to become more interesting, and it's a shame that the story didn't give her more depth.
The characters are pretty simple and aren't written in a deep, complicated manner, but this approach worked since the story is straightforward and doesn't try too hard to be something it's not. The girls' relationship, banter, and dialogues were also written quite well. They had plenty of sweet and heartwarming scenes, and their chemistry kept getting better as the movie went on. The side characters weren't focused on as much, but they were still enjoyable and memorable enough.
Animation:
One of the most visually appealing anime movies I've seen in a while! Everything was so full of life. The art style is fresh and distinct, but still familiar enough that didn't make it too jarring. It can get silly and cartoonish at times, but I found it to be charming and fitting. You could feel the characters' emotions with how their expressions and body language were animated. The character designs were iconic and unique, especially in Tsukuyomi. The virtual world was extremely detailed and stunning. They put their all in animating the action scenes which really looked like they were from a video game, but some of the fight scenes went on for too long in my opinion.
What most of the viewers looked forward to were the musical performances in the movie, and the animation for them did not disappoint. Each frame looked like it came from a high-budget music video/opening sequence. The performances were smoothly and beautifully animated, especially the close-ups and realism of the angles and perspectives in some shots.
Music:
It seems like a lot of people had high expectations for the soundtrack since it was promoted as the highlight of the movie. A lot of well-known vocaloid producers and musicians worked on it, but unfortunately, the OST was a bit underwhelming and didn't leave much of an impression on me. I wanted to love the music, but they didn't really stick with me after finishing the movie. You would probably need to listen to the original songs and covers multiple times before they finally grow on you. But if you love idols, vocaloid, utaite, and vtuber culture, then I'm sure you'll appreciate what the movie has to offer.
The downside (MINOR SPOILERS):
My main issue lies with the last couple of minutes in the movie. The ending was rushed and the twists could've been executed better. The way things were explained and wrapped up near the end felt anticlimactic. There were also some pacing issues and underdeveloped plotlines. Nevertheless, the movie won me over with its amazing visuals, wholesome humor, and endearing characters. I also love that it has a lot of rewatch value, since there's so many details and realizations about the movie that you'll only notice or understand if you watch it again or if someone else points it out.
Overall, Cosmic Princess Kaguya was a fun, refreshing take on the famous Japanese folklore. My favorite thing about it is how it unexpectedly ended up being a compelling romance. While watching, I couldn't help but wish that it would turn into an actual yuri rather than queerbait where they'd only be labelled as "besties", so I'm glad that the romantic tension between the two girls became strong and obvious enough by the end of the movie to the point that even the general audience wouldn't be able to deny it.
Score: 8.5/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jan 24, 2026
With the premise of a “normal girl” in a “virtual world” isn’t too new these days, so it’s hard not to compare with similar shows.
Let’s start with the good parts:
Animation. Every frame of the characters seemed perfectly crafted, and the style resembled that of oshi no ko, my dress-up darling, or yoneyama Mai’s style. Bright and attention-grabbing! The choreography that mainly featured 2-D animation was very well done, and there was definitely a lot of more dynamic camera movement.
However, as someone else mentioned, music fell a little short of expectations. While it definitely wasn’t bad, it didn’t leave a long-lasting impression like “Belle” did. None
...
of the OSTs or songs stood out in particular.
Voice acting is… fine.
Last but not least; the characters and the plot. Again, there was a lot of potential, however, it was definitely rushed towards the end; kind of an infodump trying to tie everything together, not unsimilar to that of wonder egg priority’s final episodes. Perhaps the show was made to cater for a teenage audience, however, to adults, the “overly bubbly, happy-go-lucky, happy-ending” type of character might not be as attractive. There wasn’t much of a deep dive into Iroha’s apparent family issues; it seems they were trying to make it a main plott point, but it was too rushed to have much of an impact, if at all. Since it was a movie, it may have been better to focus on either the plot or character development and stick to a simple motif or idea; trying to cram in both in a short amount of time usually doesn’t turn out well.
Final verdict: Animation is pretty, but otherwise, it’s not a particularly memorable movie that stands out in any aspects.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jan 22, 2026
To be honest, I was probably watching this against my better interests and, aura/vibe-wise, I got pretty much what I expected.
But for it to clash with me IDEOLOGICALLY too? Holy shit, it's like a 2 on 1 assault on my senses.
I will say you can probably knock this up a point or two if you enjoy Cutesy Girl Shows, I don't really know what show to consider this show's North Star but there's a definite Aura to this show that I think just isn't my scene or arms race.
Kaguya is a total spoiled brat but you're supposed to find her charmingly annoying, moe, and
...
quirky.
Didn't work for me, could've sniped that little shit in the forehead 10 minutes in and gotten a better movie imo.
(Speaking of 10 minutes, you can watch the first, like, 10 minutes and get a good grasp of what Aura I'm talking about, hell, even the trailers were giving this aura)
But Kaguya being a spoiled brat, I wanna orient on that. Because it's the river from which all the misshapen, foul-tasting, ugly fruit of the poisonous tree flows from.
(before I go any further, I just want to say the songs were disposable bubblegum at best, annoying crap at worst. I'd say the nadir of this movie was actually when they played World is Mine. Fine song musically [although not great] but the lyrics were so smug and self-serving the movie actually pissed me off. It actively lessened any interest I could've ever had in Vocaloids knowing this was one of their flagship songs that even a lowly peasant like I knew the title of it, if not the content. It doesn't help the context of which it played in but you're gonna have to let me ramble a bit more down below before I can elaborate on that.)
I have not read the original tale. I have not seen the Ghibli movie. This is, broadly speaking, my first dive into the Princess Kaguyaverse.
So, Iroha is some overworked student who is more or less self-sufficient and yeah yeah blah blah blah, *insert Japanese salaryman stand-in here*
I read a summary of the original tale for this review and I'm pretty sure the OG Kaguya doesn't fall in love with anyone so why they chose, of all people, the "bamboo cutter" who raises Kaguya to fall in love with her this time, no clue.
I mean, I know why, because this is escapist bubblegum corporate garbage, but like that alone automatically killed my goodwill for this movie.
I guess Kaguya grew up to an acceptable age within a couple days so it's not truly like Iroha/Kaguya is filled with the problematic power dynamic that "Iroha raised Kaguya from babyhood" implies but on the other hand, she also mentally stunts out at (metaphorical) baby who throws a tantrum any time she needs to do something she doesn't want to and needs shiny jangly keys to not be bored to death.
Like, I guess you can just excuse her as a bratty anime girl because I'm sure there are 100 examples of "serious anime guy x bratty anime girl" you could throw at me but it's Iroha technically having raised her that just twists that knife a little more.
From there, you can pretty much extrapolate what happens here and you'd probably be correct but a lot of this movie actually takes place in Tsukuyomi, a VR world!
Let's talk about escapism.
I mentioned this when I reviewed Baan of all shows but I don't like isekai, like, on a conceptual level (CP Kaguya is not an isekai but just work with me here).
I find it to be a Not Good message that if your life sucks, you can just escape to a better world. I will say at least CPK isn't saying you've gotta die first but "you gotta put your nose to the grindstone so you can feed this empty corporate machine money so you can spend time with your friends over the digital airwaves instead of the now non-existent Third Spaces", like... idk, man, I don't think we should be encouraging working your ass off just to blow your money on video games and Second Life x Discord (I realize the irony of me saying this all while wasting my time writing a review on some shitty movie on fucking MyAnimeList but I'm also not saying that this is a good life path and that you should also watch anime and write reviews for a hobby).
More broadly speaking, they almost defiantly spit in the face of the original tale (which trust me, the quality of the movie alone was doing that, you didn't need to do it yourself) by going "uguu, we need a HAPPY ENDING, this tale's ending sucks!"
I feel like, in general, it's just encouraging people to be selfish, spoiled brats. That's the message I got from the movie tbh. Iroha WAS being too self-sacrificial, granted, but Kaguya is so ~moe~ that she gets rewarded in every single instance and Iroha ends up overcorrecting by the end.
(going back to the World is Mine scene, this is why I hated it so much. Kaguya is such a brat that World is Mine IS something she would sing but the problem is now World is Mine isn't just some disembodied voice singing it, it's through the mouth of someone I've already grown to dislike. If this were the villain song like Easy Street from Annie or Killer Instinct from Bring It On: The Musical or something, maybe then it'd be good conceptually [if not my favorite musically] but we're supposed to LIKE Kaguya. We're supposed to be HAPPY this scene is occurring.)
The direction was fine. It was a good looking movie. Certainly not in my top 10 prettiest anime mediacontent or anything (it's not even the best this season, I prefer Fate/strange Fake or even JJK S3) but like it sure looked pretty, had nice flashing colors, it could occasionally do funny gags (I liked Kaguya's first stream, that got a laugh out of me).
Like, idk man.
I have a feeling I'm just being a cynic here, my oomf was watching this at the same time (separately, we weren't watching it together, it just so happens that we both started and finished the movie around the same time) and she adored it and had completely different takeaways so I'm sure there's a positive slant here, it's just that the messages that I personally took away and understood from this movie were nasty and gross and it was delivered in the most, like, Ready Player One-ass jackoff session for the idol (and specifically Vocaloid/VTuber) industry (and League of Legends for some reason? idk if this was the director auditioning to direct a battle shounen or something [he failed, by the by] but a strange amount of time is dedicated to a League match) possible.
The movie pissed me off hard, to be honest, the only real reason it didn't get a 1 is because I'm trying to be nicer and I don't just wanna start throwing out 1s to every show that pissed me off. But, like, on top of pissing me off, I can't think of anything that I could take away from this movie and say that I enjoyed it.
It really starts and stops at:
1. I liked the Lunarians' designs. It reminded me of Land of the Lustrous. I think Lustrous did it better but, like, did I enjoy the Lunarians' designs? Yes. So good point there.
2. It did stoke the desire to consume more Princess Kaguya media just to see if this is CPK specifically or the story. I might throw on the Ghibli movie or something soon, idk.
The last show I gave a 2 was Summer Time Rendering but at least that had a hot waifu and a song I liked.
Like, I'm sure there's an audience that'll adore this movie. To be honest, in that sense, maybe this should actually be a Recommended review because I'm sure it'll probably land with the audience it seeks to attract.
But I gotta be free. (I gotta do what?) I gotta be me. Most importantly, I gotta believe.
And I believe this movie was a waste of 2 and a half hours.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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