YMMV / The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

• Adaptation Displacement: It is based off of The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, one of Japan's oldest recorded stories written over a thousand years ago by an unknown author. Animation fans in the West might know it better than the original tale, but in Japan most all know the folk tale first.
• Awesome Art: The art style is simply breathtaking, evoking the Eastern brush paintings of yore.
• Awesome Music: Soundtrack by Joe Hisaishi, especially the one played when she's flying with Sutemaru and the happy tune that plays during the scene.
  • Another track worth mentioning is "The Procession of Celestial Beings", which plays when the lunar entourage comes to bring Kaguya home.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Me no Warawa, Kaguya's handmaiden. Might have something to so with her quirky design and general light-hearted personality, on top of being the closest thing Kaguya has to a friend once she's separated from Sutemaru and the boys. It helps that she's voiced by Hynden Walch in the English dub.
• Epileptic Trees: Those two surreal instances that seem to be dreams that overlap with real life? Some interpreted that Kaguya committed suicide in those two instances but because she's technically not a mortal, her life simply reset for her.
• One-Scene Wonder: The wife of the fourth suitor, who reprimands him with a severe "The Reason You Suck" Speech and effectively protects Kaguya from falling into his emotional manipulation.
• Ron the Death Eater: Kaguya herself has earned many detractors since the movie came out, with said detractors viewing her and her actions as selfish and even wangsty at times; some even going as far as to call her straight up evil. This is of course ignoring the fact that she, among other things, was forcefully taken away from her home and repeatedly forced to marry people she doesn't know and has no interest in marrying.
• Signature Scene: The running scene where Kaguya fled from the palace shows how absolutely breathtaking and wild the animation can do itself, in addition that shows Kaguya's emotion.
• Squick:
  • The old namer describing his experience upon seeing Kaguya: "this old man's body began to tremble as if a dry fountain had come flowing back to life."
  • A couple of the suitors are clearly much older than Kaguya, who has only just had her first period and might be as young as 13.
  • When word comes that the first suitor had returned, Kaguya's father is very much set on preparing a bedchamber for them, much to the dismay of Kaguya and her mother.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: While this movie is rated G or PG in western countries, people are surprised by how much the movie displays a lot of very adult content and themes, some of which children may not even grasp. Mild nudity, strict gender roles, Kaguya being pushed into an arranged marriage at a very young age, suitors who are pursuing her who are old men, sexual assault, suicide, and a depressing ending where the main character loses everything dear and precious to her.
• The Woobie: Kaguya herself. She is forced to give up her old life she knows and loves, in favor of a well-off but ultimately miserable life as a noblewoman while being pushed in arranged marriage after arranged marriage. Is later on forcefully grabbed and nearly kidnapped by the Emperor. And finally, she is taken back to the moon separated from everyone and everything she once knew even more.
  • Kaguya's parents as well. And by the end of the movie, they are completely and quite possibly eternally separated from their daughter. And will have to live the rest of their mortal lives with the guilt. All this because Kaguya's father wanted a better life and future for his daughter, but didn't understand that she was happy with what they had already: a simple life in the country.

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