Noi Komazawa

Cosmic Princess Kaguya!, called Cho Kaguya-hime! in Japan, is a long animated musical film from 2026. It runs 142 minutes. It is the first feature film by director Shingo Yamashita, who wrote the screenplay with Saeri Natsuo. Studio Colorido, Studio Chromato, and Twin Engine made it, and Netflix released it around the world on January 22, 2026. It then opened in Japanese theaters on February 20, 2026, and came back to theaters in September. The film became a big hit. Netflix said it had 7.7 million views in the first half of 2026, the most of any anime film in that time. In Japan it earned about 3.3 billion yen by early October. The film starts from Japan's oldest known story, The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. In that old folktale, a man finds a tiny girl glowing inside a bamboo stalk. She grows into the beautiful Princess Kaguya, and people from the Moon later come to take her home. Yamashita moves this story into the year 2030. Here, the glowing bamboo becomes a glowing utility pole, the kind of pole that holds power lines on a city street. The hero is Iroha Sakayori, a high school girl who lives on her own after her father's death. One day she finds a baby inside that glowing pole. The baby grows very fast into Kaguya, a loud and cheerful girl who says she comes from the Moon. Iroha and Kaguya then go into Tsukuyomi, a huge virtual world, a digital place people enter online. It is run by an AI manager named Yachiyo Runami. Inside Tsukuyomi, the two girls join a contest for streamers, people who perform live on the internet for fans. Iroha's older brother, Akira Mikado, from whom she has grown apart, leads Black OnyX, the top streamer group. And as in the old tale, beings from the Moon will not leave Kaguya alone forever. Music drives the whole film. Conisch wrote the score, and the songs come from famous Vocaloid producers, including ryo of supercell, HoneyWorks, 40mP, kz of livetune, Yuigot, and Aqu3ra. Vocaloid is singing software whose voices, like Hatsune Miku, are very popular online. The main theme, "Ex-Otogibanashi," is sung by Saori Hayami in her role as Yachiyo. The soundtrack reached number one on Oricon's digital album chart. In Japanese, Kaguya is voiced by Yuko Natsuyoshi and Iroha by Anna Nagase. The English dub stars Jeannie Tirado and Dawn M. Bennett. The film is full of love for internet culture. It makes jokes about memes, live comments that fly across the screen, and VTubers, who are streamers that appear as animated avatars. Some reviewers also see a yuri side to the story, which means a close bond between two girls. The director said he chose not to make it an open romance. Critics mostly praised the colorful visuals, the songs, and the friendship at the center. Some felt the film was too long and that the ending lost some of its emotional power. Even so, it won prizes, including Best Sound at the Newtype Anime Awards. It also led to a manga in Comptiq, a novel, and a spin-off comic about food.