History Anime / TheTaleOfPrincessKaguya

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''The Tale of the Princess Kaguya'' is a 2013 film from Creator/StudioGhibli directed by Creator/IsaoTakahata, based on the 10th century Japanese folk story "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter".

This was Takahata's last directorial work, with no plans to make another film. It was dubbed and released in North America a year later in 2014, and was nominated for the UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestAnimatedFeature, a first for an anime film not directed by HayaoMiyazaki. The disastrous box office failure of this film (even in Japan) became a temporary CreatorKiller for Studio Ghibli, leading to its restructuring.

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!! This film contains examples of:

* AdaptationExpansion: The film follows the folktale close enough, but adds more CharacterDevelopment and scenes to flesh out the story more.
* AdultFear: A toddler Kaguya strays from her father in the woods and gets nearly attacked by a wild boar. Luckily, she's rescued.
** Inadvertantly ruining your child's life when trying to give them a better one.
* AllJustADream: Kaguya goes through one after overhearing some highly unflattering comments by inebriated guests, wherein she runs back to the village only to find everyone gone.
** Later, Sutemaru has one about [[spoiler:flying away with Kaguya, leaving his family behind.]]
** OrWasItADream: Both moments are ambiguous and indicate that at least ''some'' of it might have happened as her dreams seem to overlapped with actual events [[spoiler:(Kaguya is given some plot-relevant information in the former, and with the latter, while it's reasonable to assume that the running off and flying part must have been a dream, everything up till that point is presented in a perfectly down-to-earth, realistic manner... And everything Kaguya says and does is things Sutemaru would have no possible way of knowing about.]]
* BarbieDollAnatomy: Zigzagged. Breastfeeding is portrayed matter-of-factly with nipples shown in close-up, and the infants are often without pants, but the females get the Barbie Doll treatment while the boys do not. When Kaguya is older and goes swimming with her friends, she removes her clothes and has a complete Barbie Doll job.
* BigDamnHeroes: Me no Warawa almost pulls one off [[spoiler: when she recruits then neighbourhood kids to sing Kaguya's childhood nursery rhyme about the blessings of life on Earth as she's about to be taken away. It doesn't work, but it does make her pause and drop the robe of forgetfulness long enough for her parents to reach her and say goodbye one last time.]]
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Kaguya is taken back to the Moon, the celestial robe placed on her stripping her of all memory of everything she experienced. It is implied she has some sense of what she's lost, though, judging both by her story of the one who came before her, and her backwards glance at the Earth.]]
** According to [[WordOfGod Isao Takahata]], the movie is about a girl who [[spoiler: is born and grows up but dies young.]]
* BlueAndOrangeMorality: [[spoiler:The emissaries from the moon are not even remotely bad beings, but they also do not seem to realize (or even ''care about'', for that matter) the fact that ''no-one'' considers what they're doing to be something good. They are, to put it simply, in an uncanny way harmoniously detached and oblivious of how utterly inhumane they really are.]]
** [[spoiler:The way they envision earthly life as "impure", and something worth to be punished longing for could put them in the ScaryDogmaticAliens category.]]
* CastOfSnowflakes: Despite the simple art style of the movie, all characters look different from each other.
* DeathByIrony: The death of Kaguya's fifth suitor is comically tragic in that he dies from an accidental fall trying to reach for a bird's egg to impress her. This is after a grand scene in which Kaguya's third suitor barely surviving his failed mission to slay a dragon.
* DoubleStandard: The film critiques this big time, since Kaguya grew up in a patriarchal environment. She and her mother receive scolding for out-of-line behavior while the more bumbling suitors and Kaguya's father are virtually free of reproach.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The whole story, on Kaguya's father side, is a fantasy retelling of what fatherhood and the relative AdultFear means:
** The Bamboo Cutter, the very day meets his daughter, is instantly smitten with her, naming her his "princess" and acting as she'll destined to be the most beautiful, important girl in his whole life. Exactly as every father is led to believe his own daughter is the cutest, brightest, loveliest little princess around.
** Kaguya grows at an extraordinary rate in the first act of the movie, often with other characters commenting upon her growth with every spurt she has (often following some special event, like flowers suddenly blooming or her learning how to crawl and walk). Now, what exactly is it grown-ups tend to say regarding children? "They grow up so fast."
** The Bamboo Cutter has always shown signs of being a protective, worrywart of a father. But [[spoiler: losing your little daughter in the woods, or a big area with little to nothing hopes of finding her in time]] is the quintessential AdultFear.
** Kaguya eventually grows up, and her adoptive father accidentally screws her whole life by trying have her an upperclass education and find her an high-ranking husband. Almost every father wants his daughter to have a better life than the one he led, sometimes without stopping to collect her own opinions in the process.
** Kaguya refuses to tell her father how she feels, to avoid hurting him. Her father couldn't have possibly known what's wrong with her. He sees her sullen and moody for all her teenage years, and every attempt to cheer her up is shot down. Exactly as the average complaint of a father unable to connect with his teenage daughter.
** In the end, [[spoiler:Kaguya has to get back to her kingdom on the moon, forgetting her life on Earth.]] How does a father feel when he becomes suddenly aware that his daughter is going to live on her own, possibly ending up somewhere where being in contact frequently would be very hard, if not impossible?
*** The whole plot point with [[spoiler: donning the celestial robe and forgetting everyone on Earth]] could be related to a daughter moving far away, "forgetting" about her parents and never calling them.
* EasyAmnesia: As easy as putting on a robe of forgetfulness.
* FreefallRomance: Towards the end Kaguya and Sutemaru seemingly re-unite with a romantic falling sequence, before it turns into AllJustADream / OrWasItADream see description above.
* FromDressToDressing: Kaguya patches up Sutemaru this way after a tumble off a rocky hillside.
* {{Gonk}}: One of the suitors is incredibly obese. Another has an ugly wife.
* GorgeousPeriodDress: And not-so-gorgeous, like blackened teeth and plucked eyebrows.
* HeroicBSOD: Kaguya goes through one when she hears one of the suitors died while on his quest.
* ImpossibleTask: What Kaguya orders her suitors to accomplish if they want her hand in marriage. One of the suitors even uses the trope's name in the English dub.
* InnocentFanserviceGirl: When Kaguya gets to her prepubescent years, she doffs her clothes (with BarbieDollAnatomy) with the other kids while swimming with no problem, since all she's known is being OneOfTheBoys. The boys are left agape.
* IntangibleMan: Kaguya somehow does this when the Emperor gets a little too close.
* ItsAllAboutMe: The Emperor is convinced that Kaguya refused five suitors so she could belong to him.
* LoveInterest: Sutemaru is the most prominent male presence in Kaguya's life next to her own father... or he ''was'', before her family moved away to the city and he dropped out of her life almost completely. [[spoiler: During the final act, she reunites with him and reveals her wish that she might have been able to live her life with him, only for the people of the moon to confront her, leading Kaguya to return to her final days at the palace and Sutemaru back to his wife and children]].
* [[spoiler:{{Lunarians}}: The Moon People, which eventually arrive to collect Kaguya.]]
* MindScrew: It's difficult to figure out what exactly is the point of the ending without WordOfGod to explain the symbolism. [[spoiler: The relentless approach of the People of the Moon is not an attack by ScaryDogmaticAliens, but the souls of the departed coming to bring Kaguya because she's dying and destined for TheNothingAfterDeath]].
* ModestRoyalty: Kaguya and her parents retain their peasant history even when they move to the capital. Kaguya becomes a RebelliousPrincess (see below), her mother continues to work in the kitchen and garden, and her father keeps his oafishness despite being the most adamant to adopt royalty.
* NoPeriodsPeriod: [[AvertedTrope Averted]]. Kaguya's menarche kicks off the chain of events that ends with her return to the moon.
* NoblewomansLaugh: [[AvertedTrope Averted]]. While Sagami tells Kaguya that refined women do not laugh loudly, she doesn't give a demonstration.
* OneOfTheBoys: Kaguya when she becomes a part of Sutemaru's gang.
* OverprotectiveDad: Averted with Kaguya's father, who does indeed want the best for Kaguya, including the highest-ranking husband possible.
* PatrickStewartSpeech: Kaguya starts to give one of these as [[spoiler: she's saying her final goodbye to her parents and to the Earth, adamant that the Moon people's attempt to downplay her hesitation by pointing out the impurity of Earth and the sorrow and pain that exist in it only reveals that they don't fully grasp the complexities and blessings of life on this planet and of the humans who inhabit it. Indeed they don't (nor do they care), for they place the robe of forgetfulness on her [[ShutUpKirk mid-speech and shut her down]].]]
* PrinceCharmless: Mildly [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]] by the Emperor who, though he carries himself with grace, is also an [[ItsAllAboutMe egocentric twit]] who arrives at the conclusion that Kaguya must've refused all other suitors because she's waiting for ''him'' to propose. After this he goes on to decide that he's [[EntitledToHaveYou Entitled to Have Her]] and attempts to take her with him against her will, reasoning that no girl has never wanted him ''not'' to take her. Even after Kaguya has made it as clear as possible that she wants nothing to do with him, he insists that it's his conviction that her happiness is dependant on her belonging to him.
* RebelliousPrincess: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] with the titular Kaguya, [[ModestRoyalty as she grew up in a hamlet]] surrounded by nature and friends, as well as allowed more freedom than when she became a princess. This is also downplayed is that she does succumb to much of the traditions for a time to keep her father pleased.
* ShootTheShaggyDog: One of Kaguya's suitors compares her to a cowry shell kept warm in a swallow's nest; she responds by requesting that he bring such a thing to her in exchange for her hand. This is 'easily' the least exotic comparison made, and thus the least exotic demand, but he falls just after grabbing something from a nest, shouting out in triumph, tumbling to land face-first in a giant pot, lethally breaking his spine. His treasure ends up being a mundane bird's egg, with the chick inside chirping.
* ShoutOut: Kaguya's handmaiden, Me no Warawa, dresses rather similarly to and looks very much like [[VideoGame/{{Touhou}} another Princess Kaguya...]]
* SoundtrackDissonance: The TearJerker ending is set to very happy festival music. JustifiedTrope as [[spoiler: the inhabitants of the Moon do not know anything about sorrow or suffering; they are pretty much incapable of realizing that a Soundtrack Dissonance is even possible.]]
* SternTeacher: Sagami, though she admits that Kaguya performs better when not in her lessons.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: The wife of the third suitor gives her husband one of these, knowing that Kaguya would probably become just another disposable spouse of his, just like she has become.
* TraumaCongaLine: Kaguya's childhood is relatively happy. Once she's taken to the capital, however, things sour:
** She's immediately shut off from her childhood friends.
** Her teacher is demanding and has no tolerance for her lack of enthusiasm.
** Her first period is met with her father putting her on the marriage market.
** Suitors are immediately struck by her, before even having met her, which puts pressure her to marry someone she doesn't even know.
** She briefly sees one childhood friend in the street, which mainly makes him pause in shock and be thoroughly beaten.
** One suitor successfully plays to her interests, but is strongly implied to be manipulating her rather than being genuine as the parents secretly have one of his earlier wives present at his proposal to verify his sincerity.
** Another accidentally dies in an attempt to woo her (see ShootTheShaggyDog above).
** The Emperor concludes that she's shooting everyone else down because she's holding out for him, and when he embraces her from behind, she panics, and sets in motion her return to the Moon.
** In the end, she can do nothing to stop it; even under protest, as she recognizes both the good and the bad of Earth and clearly doesn't want to forget it, the celestial robe is placed on her anyway.
* WellDoneDaughterGirl: Why Kaguya endures the traditions as long as she does in order to please her father.
* WonderChild: Kaguya is found dressed as a princess no more than a few inches tall, then turns into a fast-growing baby.
* YankTheDogsChain: One suitor does seem to align to her interest and understands her longing to escape her mansion and she nearly considers it... until it's revealed that his wife is present and he did a similar promise to her.
* YouCantGoHomeAgain: During Kaguya's dream sequence, she discovers that the villagers of her former countryside home have migrated somewhere else and the fields will take a long time to regain their life. This reveals that even the option to go back home is not available.
* YouCantFightFate: No one is able to resist Kaguya's return to the Moon.
* YouShallNotPass: Kaguya's father enlists the entire household to shoot down the Moon delegation as they arrive. However, the arrows turn to flowers mid-air, and everyone falls asleep save Kaguya's parents.

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! This film contains the following tropes:

''The Tale Of Princess Kaguya'' is a 2013 film from Creator/StudioGhibli directed by Creator/IsaoTakahata, based on the 10th century Japanese folk story "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter".

This was Takahata's last directorial work, with no plans to make another film. It was dubbed and released in North America a year later in 2014, and was nominated for the UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestAnimatedFeature, a first for an anime film not directed by HayaoMiyazaki. The disastrous box office failure of this film (even in Japan) led to the restructuring of Studio Ghibli.

* MindScrew: It's difficult to figure out what exactly is the point of the ending without WordOfGod to explain the symbolism. [[spoiler: The relentless approach of the People of the Moon is not an attack by ScaryDogmaticAliens, but the souls of the departed coming to bring Kaguya because she's dying and destined for TheNothingnessAfterDeath]].

** Kaguya refuses to tell her father how she feels, to avoid hurting him. Her father can't possibly known what's wrong with her. He sees her sullen and moody for all her teenage years, and every attempt to cheer her up is shot down. Exactly as the average complaint of a father unable to connect with his teenage daughter.

This was Takahata's last directorial work, with no plans to make another film. It was dubbed and released in North America a year later in 2014, and was nominated for the UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestAnimatedFeature, a first for an anime film not directed by HayaoMiyazaki. The disastrous box office failure of this film led to the restructuring of Studio Ghibli.

This was Takahata's last directorial work, with no plans to make another film. It was dubbed and released in North America a year later in 2014, and was nominated for the UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestAnimatedFeature, a first for an anime film not directed by HayaoMiyazaki.

* ShoutOut: Kaguya's handmaiden dresses rather similarly to and looks very much like [[VideoGame/{{Touhou}} another Princess Kaguya...]]

* ShoutOut: Kaguya's handmaiden dresses rather similarly to [[VideoGame/{{Touhou}} another Princess Kaguya...]]