is a 2026 Japanese animated musical yuri 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, the film follows high school student Iroha Sakayori and Kaguya, a girl from the Moon, as they compete in a streamer tournament within the virtual world of Tsukuyomi. 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 music 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. It later received a theatrical release in Japan from February 20 to June 18; a re-release began on September 18. The film has grossed over billion.
Plot In 2030, Iroha Sakayori, a high school student living independently from her family after her father's death, struggles to maintain a tight schedule of study 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 over the span of a few days into a girl of about Iroha's age. 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 AI, 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. The live show is successful, but after the performance, 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 fights the lunar forces with the help of Black OnyX and her friends, but they are ultimately unable to stop Kaguya from being taken. Returning to her normal life but unwilling to accept Kaguya's absence, Iroha completes a song she and her father had never finished and sings 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 to Earth by Iroha's song, Kaguya attempted to travel back in time to reunite with her, but her ship collided with an asteroid, sending her back 8,000 years into the past. Unable to leave her damaged ship, InuDOGE (who later became Yachiyo's companion Fushi) 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. After ten years, she succeeds: they can finally be together and continue performing, this time both in real life and Tsukuyomi.
Voice cast Character Voice actor Japanese English Yūko Natsuyoshi Jeannie Tirado Anna Nagase Dawn M. Bennett Saori Hayami Ryan Bartley Frankie Kevich Rie Kugimiya Cassandra Lee Morris Miyu Irino Max Mittelman Yuma Uchida A.J. Beckles Yoshitsugu Matsuoka Casey Mongillo Yoshino Aoyama Cassandra Lee Morris Konomi Kohara Anairis Quiñones Fairouz Ai Natsuki Hanae Kieran Regan
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 (2022) and My Oni Girl (2024). In November 2025, Netflix announced that would direct his first feature-length film, Cosmic Princess Kaguya! He had previously directed the web series Pokémon: Twilight Wings and the opening sequences for several anime series, including the first season of Jujutsu Kaisen and Chainsaw Man. After directing Pokémon: Twilight Wings, Twin Engine offered Yamashita to work on an original film. Yamashita's initial plans for the film were rejected since they "lacked elements that would appeal to the public as an original work", after which he created a new proposal whose elements include the metaverse and live streamers. The decision to include Vocaloid producers came after Yamashita realized that Yachiyo's characteristics and design had similarities to Hatsune Miku. He also cited One Piece Film: Red and Needy Girl Overdose as partial influences for the film. The project 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 and served as the film's main theme song; it was released as a six-track CD single on January 23, 2026. A cover version of Bump of Chicken's song "Ray", performed by Natsuyoshi and Hayami, served as the ending theme song. "CPK! Remix", a four-track CD single, was also released on January 23, 2026, and contains remixes of the film's songs, performed by Nagi Yanagi and Hatsune Miku. The film's score and soundtrack were released on music streaming services on the same day.
The soundtrack peaked at number four on Billboard Japan Hot Albums chart and at number 14 on Oricon's Combined Albums Chart. It debuted at number four on the Billboard Japan Download Albums chart on January 28, and later topped the chart on February 18. Debuting at third place on February 2, it reached number one on the Oricon Digital Albums Chart on May 13. The cover version of "Ray" also debuted at number 82 on the Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart published on February 11, 2026.
Themes Cosmic Princess Kaguya! pays homage to and parodies Japanese internet culture since the 1990s, referencing danmaku comments, stickers, emojis, and memes. Daisuke Watanabe from calls the film "the first music anime to seriously feature the legacy of Vocaloid culture and streamer culture". A MoguraVR writer points out that the film traces VTuber culture from its dawn around 2018, the fad of team-based esports games, and trends on Nico Nico Douga, while also covering smart contact lens, the metaverse, VRChat, and augmented reality. The film also contains a homage to the Urashima Tarō folktale.
In a discussion between Yamashita and manga artist Tarō Yoneda, Yamashita detailed how they had intentionally avoided overt romantic elements in the film. Reviewers of the film have noted yuri themes within it, with others categorizing the film as yuri. Chu Ah-young of Cineplay described how lyrical change and repetition was used in various instances of the song "Reply" to elucidate yuri themes by demonstrating the emotional transformation of the protagonists.
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. Hayami and Natsuyoshi also performed cover versions of five Vocaloid songs published on the film's YouTube channel: "Lonely Universe" by Aqu3ra, "Taketori Overnight Sensation" by HoneyWorks, "Torinoko City" by 40mP, "Yume o Miru Shima" by Yuigot, and "Tell Your World" by KZ. The film has held multiple collaboration events with companies such as Yamaha Corporation, as well as with Fuji City.
The 2026 Sanrio VFes on VRChat included the premiere of a virtual concert featuring Kaguya; the event notably set a record for concurrent users on the platform as a whole (156,716), surpassing a record that had previously been set on New Year's Eve.
Release Cosmic Princess Kaguya! 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. The film was released in 19 Japanese theaters starting on February 20, 2026; it included screenings that allow cheering and waving of glow sticks. Initially a one-week run, the theatrical release was extended beyond February 27 with eight additional theaters that screened the film, and it expanded to over 100 theaters starting on March 13. The film's theatrical run concluded on June 18. A re-release began in 249 theaters on September 18 and included screenings in the MX4D, 4DX, ScreenX, Ultra 4DX, and Dolby Atmos formats.
Twin Engine, , and Sony Music Solutions released the film on Blu-ray in standard and limited editions on September 9, 2026. The limited edition included an extended version of the film containing scenes that were cut from the Netflix and theatrical releases. The limited edition sold 27,000 copies and the standard edition sold 9,000 copies in its first week, respectively placing first and third on Oricon's Blu-ray Disc rankings.
Reception Viewership and box office