Cosmic Princess Kaguya!

image for Cosmic Princess Kaguya!

Short takes

Not suitable under 12; parental guidance to 13 (violence, scary scenes, themes)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Cosmic Princess Kaguya!
  • a review of Cosmic Princess Kaguya! completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 24 February 2026.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 12 Not suitable due to high level of violence, scary scenes and themes.
Children aged 12–13 Parental guidance recommended due to high level of violence and themes.
Children aged 14 and over Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Cosmic Princess Kaguya!
Classification: M
Consumer advice lines: Animated violence, injury detail, science fiction themes, and mature themes
Length: 143 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Iroha (voice of Dawn M. Bennett) is a young girl, determined to live independently from her mother after the death of her father. She struggles to get by while managing school and part-time work. She is a diligent student, intent on winning a scholarship to college. Her only leisure time activity is gaming in a virtual world called ‘Tsukuyomi’, run by a singing idol called Yachiyo (Ryan Bartley and Frankie Kevich (singing)).

Iroha’s life is turned upside down one day when, walking down the street, she sees a lit up light pole. The pole opens and reveals a baby inside. Not knowing what to do, Iroha takes the baby home. The baby grows rapidly into a young girl whom she names Kaguya, (Jeannie Tirado) after a Japanese folktale. Kaguya says she comes from the moon and doesn’t like the ending of the tale. She is determined to make hers a happy ending. Iroha reluctantly introduces Kaguya to Tsukuyomi, where she meets Yachiyo. Together, Iroha and Kaguya take on the challenge of the Yachiyo Cup but in order to do so, they have to fight Mikado (Max Mittelman) in a battle game called KASSEN. The girls don’t win the fight but they win the Cup due to their popularity. Kaguya, who is a high-spirited, volatile girl, knows she has to eventually return to the moon but intends to use the time she has with Iroha to the best of her abilities.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Science Fiction; Virtual Reality; Loss of a parent; Gaming.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is a lot of animated violence in this movie, including:

  • In Tsukuyomi:
    • Battles using various weapons: guns, knives, swords, bows and arrows.
    • There is also punching, kicking and throwing, explosions and buildings blowing up.
    • A character has a limb chopped off and black blood is seen flowing.
    • Several characters ‘die’ and just disintegrate.
  • Kaguya is a highly strung character, often prone to fits of temper, yelling and screaming, banging her head etc.
  • Iroha yells at Kaguya in a very angry way.
  • Iroha and her friends fight the aliens when they arrive to take Kaguya home.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • The moon aliens are quite scary-looking, with detached faces, huge bodies and many arms.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

  • A baby grows suddenly overnight into a girl, shocking Iroha.
  • A large, red devil head is seen on a wall.
  • People’s heads start turning into lanterns.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged eight to thirteen, including the following:

  • Iroha is highly stressed and often seen crying.
  • Iroha remembers her parents when she was a child.
  • Iroha gets sick and is in bed with a fever. Kaguya is frightened she will die.

Thirteen and overinfo

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

  • Nothing further noted.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • Lipton tea
  • Coca Cola.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • There is a suggested love between Iroha and Kaguya.

Nudity and sexual activity

  • None noted.

Use of substances

  • None noted.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Screw this
  • Peed
  • What the hell?
  • Hell yeah
  • Damn
  • God awful
  • Shut the hell up
  • Screwed around.
  • Name calling, such as:
    • Creepy alien
    • Dumb
    • Dummy
    • Nerds
    • Pain in the butt.

In a nutshell

Cosmic Princess Kaguya! is a Japanese anime movie and a modern retelling of a folktale called The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. There is a lot of animated violence, particularly in the virtual world of Tsukuyomi, and it has some intense themes. It is also over 2 hours in length, making it better suited to older children and teens.

The main messages from this movie are to live your best life; and to set realistic goals in life.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Friendship
  • Collaboration
  • Self-determination
  • Independence.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • Iroha worked very hard and pushed herself too much. Parents could talk about the need to keep things in perspective and have a good work/life balance.
  • Parents could talk about the excessive violence in video games and how this might impact their own behaviour.