History Anime / TheTaleOfThePrincessKaguya

* AmnesiacGod: PlayedWith, as Kaguya is revealed to be [[spoiler:a Lunarian -- an immortal celestial being from the Moon, whose ranks include the Buddha -- who was temporarily exiled to Earth with her memories of her prior life being erased as punishment. When the other Lunarians place a celestial robe on her, restoring her divine status, her memories of her mortal life on Earth are erased]].
* 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.]]
** Both moments are [[OrWasItADream 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.]]

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Best exemplified with Kaguya's tutor, Lady Sagami. She teaches Kaguya how to be a proper lady, which is very tedious and restrictive. Her tutor also imposes contemporary fashion standards that the audience knows to look off (like plucking her eyebrows and rubbing black charcoal over her teeth), but are considered beautiful during the time the film is set in. Her tutor also insists that if Kaguya chooses a rich man's hand she will be happy, but Kaguya points out that she's never met or seen any of these men or vice-versa, so how can they love her, and how can she find happiness pledging her hand to a stranger?

This was Takahata's last directorial work before his death in April 2018, though not the last project he was involved in (that being ''WesternAnimation/TheRedTurtle'' in 2016, which he co-produced alongside Toshio Suzuki, Vincent Maraval, Pascal Caucheteux, and Grégoire Sorlat). It was dubbed and released in North America in 2014, and was nominated for the UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestAnimatedFeature, a first for an anime film not directed by Creator/HayaoMiyazaki. It was also the first Ghibli film to be distributed on home video by Creator/{{Universal}} in North America. It also is currently the highest-budget anime film ever made, having a budget of $49 million (5 billion Yen)[[note]]more than twice the budget of the previous film to hold this distinction, ''Anime/{{Steamboy}}'', which had a budget of $20 million (2.108 billion yen)[[/note]].

** Living a life that makes you miserable to please others will only leave you full of regrets [[spoiler: when you reach the end of your life]].

* BigDamnHeroes: Me no Warawa almost pulls one off [[spoiler: when she recruits the 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.]]

** 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 parental fear.

** 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.

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Kaguya is taken back to the Moon, the celestial robe placed on her stripping her of all memory of everything she experienced. It's implied she has some sense of what she's lost, judging both by her story of the one who came before her, but she only remembers enough to know she's sad and doesn't know why, given 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]].

* {{Love Interest|s}}: 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]].

* 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.]]

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Kaguya was genuinely happy living as a simple bamboo cutter's daughter in the mountains. Then her father decides to buy her a mansion in the capital, give her proper lady training, and put her on the marriage market for rich suitors, ruining her happiness and [[spoiler: hastening her return to the moon]].

* 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]].]]

* TheSimpleGestureWins: When Kaguya sends out her suitors to [[ImpossibleTask retrieve five mythical items]] in order to win her hand, most return with tall tales or forgeries. However, the fourth suitor, whom she had tasked with retrieving Buddha's begging bowl, returns with only a simple wildflower. He explains that, after considering the task, he felt the flower was the more accurate representation of his devotion to her - simple and blooming. [[spoiler: Ultimately subverted when Kaguya discovers that this suitor has made the same speech to multiple other girls, including his wife ''who he is still married to''. When the suitor is giving his speech, Kaguya - sitting behind a screen - quickly swaps out with the wife, who then tears a strip off the man, before sending the suitor away.]]

* SoundtrackDissonance: The TearJerker ending is set to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4e5_7RlXko 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]].

''The Tale of the Princess Kaguya'' is a 2013 Japanese animation film from Creator/StudioGhibli, directed by Creator/IsaoTakahata, based on the 10th-century Japanese folk story ''Literature/{{The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter}}''. Clocking in at 2 hours and 17 minutes, it stands as Ghibli's longest film ever released and one of the longest animated films in the world. It's also the longest animated movie to not be tied to a preexisting media franchise (assuming folk tales don't count as media franchises).

* IncapableOfDisobeying: In theory, no one can disobey the Emperor's orders. When he summons Kaguya to live in his palace as a court lady (with marriage to him heavily implied), she's terrified, since this that she has absolutely no free will in this decision. Subverted since Kaguya does manage to reject him multiple times, and he actually listens to her after she turns invisible.

* DefiledForever: Implied. The wife of Ishizukuri no Miko scolds him for trying to woo Kaguya, stating that every other girl who had been similarly charmed were sent away to nunneries when Ishinokami has had his fill of them.

* AnalogyBackfire: The fourth suitor claims that he offers Kaguya, not the Buddhist Begging Bowl he promised, but a [[FlowersOfRomance simple wildflower]]. He explains to Kaguya that in his search for the treasure, he happened upon the wildflower instead and found it more suitable to [[RuleOfSymbolism represent]] his 'devotion' for her. As opposed to his and the other suitors' claims of how their love for her were like impossible treasures, it makes it look like his love has shifted to becoming just like that flower: simple but natural and blooming. But when it's revealed [[YankTheDogsChain he's made that speech before to other girls]] (including his begrudging ''current wife''), said-wife makes a [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech scathing point]] that his wildflower speech is but a glorified pick-up line. If anything, it only serves to reflect how he ''really'' views women: as [[TrophyWife easily attainable]] as common wildflowers to pluck up and then dispose of when he tires of them.

* NotHisSled: There is no elixir of immortality here, and subsequently no romance with the Emperor. In fact, [[spoiler:She ''never'' comes to love him, instead being repulsed by the idea that she may be forced to serve him, and tells him to go away; her true love interest, by contrast, is never asked to keep living on for her sake, and she wants to live a mortal life with him]]. Leaving the elixir out of this retelling emphasizes the ephemeral nature of life throughout the story.

* {{Irony}}: The fifth suitor dies from falling and breaking his spine, whilst a tiny unharmed swallow hatchling escapes its shell and [[BirthDeathJuxtaposition hatches in the palm of his dead hand]]. Such imagery is quite grim.

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Best exemplified with Kaguya's tutor. Her tutor teaches her how to be a proper lady, which is very tedious and restrictive. Her tutor also imposes contemporary fashion standards that the audience knows to look off (like plucking her eyebrows and rubbing black charcoal over her teeth), but are considered beautiful during the time the film is set in. Her tutor also insists that if Kaguya chooses a rich man's hand she will be happy, but Kaguya points out that she's never met or seen any of these men or vice-versa, so how can they love her, and how can she find happiness pledging her hand to a stranger?

* 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.

* ItsAllJunk: Kaguya eventually realizes her treasured little garden (that she shaped to resemble their old home in the mountains) is just a fake imitation of the real thing she always wanted. She ends up destroying it in a fit of emotion.

* WhamShot: Kaguya's final encounter with Sutemaru is loving and romantic, showing that even after the years went by the latter still carries a torch for the former. Cue him waking up from his "dream" and joining up with the other homecoming villagers--including his wife and child. Time has passed for sure, but their presence confirms that the life Kaguya wanted was long out of her reach.

* DefiledForever: Implied. The wife of Ishinokami no Miko scolds him for trying to woo Kaguya, stating that every other girl who had been similarly charmed were sent away to nunneries when Ishinokami has had his fill of them.

* {{Irony}}: The fifth suitor dies from falling and breaking his spine, whilst a tiny unharmed swallow hatchling escapes its shell and hatches in the palm of his dead hand. Such imagery is quite grim.

* NoblewomansLaugh: {{Averted|Trope}}. While Sagami tells Kaguya that refined women do not laugh loudly, she doesn't give a demonstration.

* WellDoneDaughterGirl: This is why Kaguya endures the traditions as long as she does in order to please her father.
* WomenAreWiser: Kaguya's mother and handmaiden understand her and what makes her happy better than her father ever does.

* 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 made 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.

* {{Gonk}}: One of the suitors is incredibly obese. Another has an ugly wife.

* MoodWhiplash: The fifth suitor triumphantly grasping a swallow's egg before pratfalling into a large kettle slap-stick style is PlayedForLaughs, until the very next scene reveals he died from the fall. As for Kaguya's reaction...

* ShoutOut:
** Kaguya's [[LadyInWaiting handmaiden]], Me no Warawa, dresses rather similarly to and looks very much like [[Franchise/TouhouProject another Princess Kaguya...]]

** The people of the moon could easily be read as a TakeThat to UsefulNotes/{{Buddhism}}. Not only does the leader of the moon people resemble the Buddha, but they're described as ageless, immortal beings who never experience the miseries of mortal life (hunger, pain, fear, sorrow, loss, grief, aging, sickness, or death) but also never its joys or pleasures either. (One of the core tenets of Buddhism is rising above worldly suffering and desire to obtain enlightenment.) The moon and its people can be seen as symboling nirvana (a state of permanent peace, liberation, and "consciousness without feature, without end" beyond suffering and desire). Kaguya's passionate speech that she's learned that it's better to experience all the joys ''and'' hardships of mortal life than the bland immortal existence, and them [[spoiler:putting the cloak of forgetfullness on her anyway is unambiguously depicted as a DownerEnding.]]

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: ...she is (understandable) ''distraught'' to learn that her ImpossibleTask got her fifth suitor killed.

* AdultFear:
** A toddler Kaguya strays from her father in the woods and gets nearly attacked by a wild boar. Luckily, she's rescued.
** Inadvertently ruining your child's life when trying to give them a better one.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The whole story, on Kaguya's father side, is a fantasy retelling of what fatherhood and the relative AdultFear means:

** 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.

* AmnesiacGod: [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]], as Kaguya is revealed to be [[spoiler:a Lunarian -- an immortal celestial being from the Moon, whose ranks include the Buddha -- who was temporarily exiled to Earth with her memories of her prior life being erased as punishment. When the other Lunarians place a celestial robe on her, restoring her divine status, her memories of her mortal life on Earth are erased]].

''The Tale of the Princess Kaguya'' is a 2013 Japanese animation film from Creator/StudioGhibli, directed by Creator/IsaoTakahata, based on the 10th-century Japanese folk story ''Literature/{{The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter}}''. Clocking in at 2 hours and 17 minutes, it stands as Ghibli's longest film ever released and the fourth-longest animated film in the world. It's also the longest animated movie to not be tied to a preexisting media franchise (assuming folk tales don't count as media franchises).