Cosmic Princess Kaguya!


Cosmic Princess Kaguya! is a 2026 Japanese animated musical fantasy film directed by, in his feature directorial debut, from a screenplay he co-wrote with. A reimagining of the folktale The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, it is produced by Studio Colorido and Studio Chromato with character designs from Akihiro Nagae and Hechima. The film stars the voices of Yūko Natsuyoshi, Anna Nagase, and Saori Hayami.
Netflix announced the film and revealed the main cast and staff in November 2025. The film started development in 2022, with the final product being delivered in September 2025. Its soundtrack consists of an original score composed by Conisch with songs provided by Vocaloid producers Ryo of Supercell, Yuigot,, HoneyWorks,, and Kz of Livetune. The film was released on Netflix on January 22, 2026, along with a limited theatrical release at Laemmle Glendale in California.

Plot

Iroha Sakayori, a high school student living independently from her family after her father's death, struggles to maintain a tight schedule of school, tuition and part-time work while also spending time in the virtual world of Tsukuyomi. On her way home one night, she encounters a glowing utility pole with a baby inside. Reluctantly taking her in, the baby rapidly grows up into a young girl over the span of a few days. The girl, claiming to be from the Moon, is named Kaguya after the Japanese folktale. Dejected by the "depressing" ending of the folktale, Kaguya aims for a "happy" ending with Iroha.
As Iroha's daily life begins to be disrupted by Kaguya, much to her annoyance, she introduces her to Tsukuyomi and its virtual administrator, Yachiyo Runami. Together with Kaguya's virtual pet InuDOGE, Kaguya and Iroha sign up for the Yachiyo Cup, a streamer tournament where the winners get to perform a live show with Yachiyo.
Kaguya quickly becomes a popular streamer with Iroha's help, inadvertently placing them in the crosshairs of Black OnyX, the top streamer group led by Akira Mikado. After the group challenges the pair to a competition in KASSEN, a territory battle game in Tsukuyomi, Kaguya learns that Akira is Iroha's estranged brother.
Despite Yachiyo's assistance, Black OnyX wins the KASSEN match, but the outpouring of support from fans allows Kaguya and Iroha to win the Yachiyo Cup instead, securing their live show with Yachiyo as well as reconciliation with Akira, who agrees to co-sign a new apartment for the pair. However, after the live show, Tsukuyomi is invaded by mysterious beings, revealed to have come from the moon to bring Kaguya home. Although repelled by Yachiyo, the beings promise to come back by the next full moon, a fact that troubles Iroha, who is now unwilling to part with Kaguya.
On the day of Kaguya's impending departure, as she performs a graduation concert in Tsukuyomi, Iroha attempts to fight the lunar forces with the help of Black OnyX and her friends, but are ultimately unable to stop her from being taken by them. Returning back to her normal life but unwilling to accept Kaguya's absence, Iroha completes a song she and her father had never finished and plays it. After she does so, she reaches a revelation and logs back into Tsukuyomi, where Yachiyo confirms that she is a future version of Kaguya.
Having been motivated to return back to Earth by Iroha's song, Kaguya had attempted to travel back in time to reunite with her, but her ship had collided with an asteroid, sending her back 8,000 years into the past. Unable to leave her damaged ship, InuDOGE served as her communicator, interacting with people over the ages until the creation of Tsukuyomi, where she was uploaded into a virtual avatar.
Determined to bring Kaguya back into the real world, Iroha scraps her plans of becoming a law student and works on creating an android body for Yachiyo to upload her digital consciousness into. The procedure is a success, allowing the new Kaguya, Iroha, and Yachiyo to continue perfoming, both in real life and Tsukuyomi.

Production

In April 2022, Studio Colorido signed a deal with Netflix to co-produce three feature-length anime films for the platform, with the first two films being Drifting Home and My Oni Girl. In November 2025, Netflix announced that would direct his first feature-length film, Cosmic Princess Kaguya! He had previously directed the opening sequences for several anime series, including the first season of Jujutsu Kaisen and Chainsaw Man. Twin Engine approached Yamashita for an original project, which began development in 2022. The storyboards for the film were completed in June 2024, and an additional year was allotted to finishing the animation. The final product was delivered in September 2025. The film is a reimagining of the Japanese folktale The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. Yamashita co-wrote the screenplay with. Naoya Nakayama directed the film's musical performances, and Masaya Machida served as the CG director.
Studio Chromato, where Yamashita serves as the representative director, produced the animation with Studio Colorido; the film is Studio Chromato's first production. Akihiro Nagae, who worked on Drifting Home, designed the characters in the film's real world, and illustrator Hechima handled the character designs in the Tsukuyomi world. Yūko Natsuyoshi, Anna Nagase, and Saori Hayami were cast as the main characters Kaguya, Iroha Sakayori, and Yachiyo Runami. In December 2025, Rie Kugimiya was added to the cast as the voice of Fushi. The following month, Netflix revealed seven cast members and the English-language dub cast; the latter includes Jeannie Tirado, Dawn M. Bennett, and Ryan Bartley as the voices of the main characters, with Frankie Kevich providing Yachiyo's singing voice.

Music

Conisch composed the film's score. Six Vocaloid producers provided original songs for the film: "Ex-Otogibanashi" by Ryo of Supercell, "Remember" by Yuigot, "Hoshi Furu Umi" by, "Watashi wa, Watashi no Koto ga Suki" by HoneyWorks, "Shunkan, Symphony" by, and "Reply" by Kz of Livetune. "Ex-Otogibanashi" is performed by Hayami as Yachiyo Runami and served as the film's main theme song, and a cover version of Bump of Chicken's song "Ray", performed by Natsuyoshi and Hayami, served as the ending theme song. The former was released as a six-track CD single on January 23, 2026. "CPK! Remix", a four-track CD single, was also released on the same day. It contains remixes of the film's songs, performed by Nagi Yanagi and Hatsune Miku.

Marketing

A teaser poster and trailer were released along with the film's announcement in November 2025. The trailer featured a remix of Ryo's 2008 Vocaloid song "World Is Mine", originally performed by Hatsune Miku. Hayami provided the vocals for the remix, titled "World Is Mine CPK! Remix", as her character Yachiyo Runami. Three additional trailers featuring each main character were unveiled in the same month. The film's main poster and trailer were released in December, followed by a second full trailer in January. Cover versions of five Vocaloid songs – Aqu3ra's "Lonely Universe", HoneyWorks' "Taketori Overnight Sensation", 40mP's "Torinoko City", Yuigot's "Yume o Miru Shima", and Kz's "Tell Your World" – were also performed by Hayami and Natsuyoshi and published on the film's YouTube channel.

Release

The film was released on Netflix on January 22, 2026. It had a commemorative screening at the Grand Cinema Sunshine in Toshima on the same day, and a limited theatrical release was held at Laemmle Glendale in California, U.S, from January 22 to 29.

Other media

A manga adaptation by Tarō Yoneda began serialization with its first two chapters in Kadokawa Shoten's Comptiq magazine on January 9, 2026; later chapters were published in Kadokawa's website. The manga's first volume is set to be released on February 10, 2026. A novelization by Naruto Kiriyama with illustrations by Asao Urata was released by Kadokawa on January 30, 2026. Supervised by Yamashita, the novel contains additional scenes not shown in the film. An 80-page guidebook compiled by Newtype editorial department, subtitled Happy End no Sono Saki e!, was also published on January 30.