Reflections on "Super Kaguya-hime!": Why the title is "Super" instead of "New" or "True."

142 minutes. The moment I finished watching it, I couldn't move for a while.
I watched "Super Kaguya-hime!" on Netflix. I pressed play thinking it would be just another adaptation of The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, but it was completely different.

Today, I want to pour my heart into my thoughts and analysis of Super Kaguya-hime. This contains spoilers, so please be careful if you haven't watched it yet.

What The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter has been telling for 1,000 years

The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter is said to be the oldest story in Japan.

A beautiful princess born from bamboo rejects the impossible demands of her suitors and eventually returns to the moon. We have known this story since we were children. We have encountered it many times in picture books and textbooks.
But you know, when you reread it as an adult, you notice something.
The essence of this story is "parting."
Kaguya-hime is a resident of the moon, and Earth is merely a temporary dwelling. No matter how much she is loved, and no matter how much she herself wants to stay, she must return. The scene where the messengers from the moon arrive is the most heartbreaking part of The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. Even if the Emperor sends his army, and even if her foster father, the old man, breaks down in tears, it cannot be stopped.

Herein lies the message that this story has been telling for 1,000 years.
Beautiful things eventually leave. Loved ones eventually return to the place they belong.
We have accepted this as "something that cannot be helped."

"Super Kaguya-hime!" overturns that premise

"Super Kaguya-hime!" comes to break this 1,000-year-old premise head-on.
Kaguya does not return to the moon.

To put it more accurately, it rewrites the very binary choice of returning or not returning as a story. Kaguya doesn't choose between Earth and the moon; she sings in the virtual space "Tsukuyomi," performs live with Iroha, and creates her own place to belong.
This is important, but this is not a simple story of rebellion where she says, "I won't go back because I don't want to."

The Kaguya-hime of The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter accepted returning to the moon as her fate. The Kaguya of Super Kaguya-hime redefines fate itself. Moon and Earth, real and virtual, past and future. Instead of choosing one side of a binary opposition, she stands on the boundary line and creates a new place.

It is not that she "doesn't return." It is that she "increased the number of places to return to."

In this one respect, "Super Kaguya-hime!" is not a "sequel" to The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, but an "update." It does not deny the premise that the 1,000-year-old story held, but expands upon it.

That is why I think the title is "Super" instead of "New" or "True".

The true nature of "surpassing"

So, what did this work surpass?
I don't think it's the plot of The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. What it surpassed is the OS (operating system) of the story that we have accepted for 1,000 years: that "parting is inevitable."

The character Yachiyo Tsukimi symbolizes this.
8,000 years. That is the time Yachiyo spent waiting for Kaguya. The old man in The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter could not resist the moon's summons. But Yachiyo spent an unfathomable 8,000 years resisting the very fate of parting.

When I first heard this setting, I honestly thought, "Isn't that too heavy?"
But when you watch the work, that weight becomes the driving force of the story itself. All the feelings of 8,000 years are poured into the live performance scene in the final act. If there is anyone who doesn't cry during that scene, I'd like to meet them.

The title of the insert song was "Remember."
Don't forget. I don't want to forget. That's why she is here, even if it means rewriting a 1,000-year-old story. The moment that song played, the theme of the story and the message of the song perfectly aligned, and it felt like being struck by music.

142 minutes that hit you from every angle

No matter how much analysis I write, the sheer impact of this work cannot be conveyed even halfway.
The reason is that the visuals themselves are insane.
Director Shingo Yamashita is an animator known for his opening direction in "Jujutsu Kaisen" and "Chainsaw Man," but the density of the visuals, which never lets up for 142 minutes in his first feature-length directorial work, is incredible. The battle scenes, the live scenes, and the everyday acting are all hand-drawn and all in motion.

The decision to do the live scenes by hand. The obsession to do that in 2026. I think it's insane. But I think it's precisely because of that insanity that tears come to your eyes during the scene where Kaguya sings. By having a digital existence move through hand-drawn animation, it paradoxically conveys the feeling that "this girl is really here."

ryo (supercell), kz (livetune), HoneyWorks, 40mP. When I saw the names of the Vocaloid producers who worked on the music, my heart swelled as someone who grew up on Nico Nico Douga. Doesn't just seeing those names lined up make you want to cry? The culture of those days overlaps with the 8,000 years of The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. The design of this work is truly terrifying.

4.0 stars on Filmarks, over 7,600 reviews. Excluding Hayao Miyazaki's works, this is a historic rating for an original animated film. The numbers prove the power of the work.

The first "smash hit" from Netflix

There is one thing I really want to talk about.
Netflix has had many original anime that seemed like big productions for a long time.

'Cyberpunk: Edgerunners', 'PLUTO', 'Scott Pilgrim'. There were certainly high-quality works. But honestly, I don't think any of them hit the 'bullseye' for Japanese anime fans.

Actually, I myself have always had the impression of Netflix original anime that 'the quality is high, but it just doesn't quite resonate.' It's a luxurious complaint, though.

'Super Kaguya-hime!' flipped all of that on its head.
Vocaloid, VTubers, hand-drawn animation, The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. It layers multiple levels of Japanese culture while remaining incredibly entertaining. Including the flow of starting on Netflix, catching fire through word-of-mouth, and then getting a theatrical release, it shows a new form of hit.

And I can't help but feel that this fact of being 'born from a streaming platform' overlaps with the theme of the story. An incredible work was born from a third place that is neither a theater nor television. It is the same as the 'third place' Kaguya found on Tsukuyomi.

"To exceed" means to increase options

Princess Kaguya returned to the moon. That is what we have been taught.
But 'Super Kaguya-hime!' asserts that 'there isn't just one place to return to.' Instead of a binary choice between the moon and Earth, you can just create a third place. You don't have to rewrite fate; you just need to increase your options.

It is not denying 1,000 years of history. It is depicting what comes after, while accepting 1,000 years of sentiment.

That is why it is 'Super' Kaguya-hime.

So, a one-week limited theatrical release begins on February 20th. If you haven't seen it yet, please see it in theaters. Even if you've watched it on Netflix, watch it again. Those 142 minutes are worth experiencing with theater sound and a big screen.

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