The first Vocaloid songs I listened was Koi wa Sensou. Back then I knew it as Love is War, a translation that now considered inaccurate. As I know little Japanese, I can’t say if it’s right or not. That was in 2008. What followed was a slew of Vocaloid classics; of which you’ll hear some of them in Cosmic Princess Kaguya, sung by the VAs - both Japanese and English dubs, a rarity.
But before I get to the review for real, I’ll need to warn you while I try to minimize the spoiler by writing in generality, I also not gonna try harder than that.
Cosmic Princess Kaguya! is a retelling of sort of legend of Princess Kaguya - you can get the gist elsewhere by now - in the near-future, between two girls, Iroha and the titular Kaguya. Iroha is a prodigy; she’s what you wished if you were an academically-inclined student, excel in all her studies, while having self-control tighter than vise - living by herself and working part-time because she and her mother had… disagreement.
Iroha’s weakness is cute girl, and Kaguya is one, when she entered her life. And the movie proceed from there.
So how’s the movie? Well, I love it. I wouldn’t bother writing it if I don’t love it, after all. The animation is rich, whether the background or the special effect. Characters emote well, with subtlety that shows their hidden mental process. The voiceacting do their job well, both Japanese and English - and they even bother dubbing most of the songs, and pulled it well enough I believed the VAs were utaite (unfortunately they don’t seems to be).
So what is it about?
Well, it’s about ending. Or rather, going against prescribed ending. Both Iroha and Kaguya wanted to go against their prescribed ending, or at least different way to reach them. And the other part is about…
So: the other part is there’s never actual ending, isn’t it?
You might be faced with bad ending - or heck, normal ending. But some of us, we can’t get normal ending. Not because we are unable to, but because it’ll kill us. It’s no different than bad ending. Well, that’s the other part; there’s no ending in life until it’s over.
Why did I mention Vocaloid songs in the beginning? I was younger back then. That was almost two decades ago. Listening to these old songs reminded me again about all those mushy part. And-
If it’s broken, let’s fix it all up,
The flowers are all wilted now, but we can water them again,
I promise you this isn’t the end.