The Tale of the Princess Kaguya is an animated film that is as beautiful as the titular princess herself.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Nov 8, 2024

Leave it to the great Isao Takahata to return with not only the best animated film I’ve seen this year, not only the best overall film I’ve seen this year, but one of the most beautiful film experiences I’ve ever had...

| Jun 17, 2024

This is anime-as-arthouse cinema, thoughtfully and gracefully composed.

| Original Score: 10/10 | Nov 29, 2023

As in many Studio Ghibli films before it, the male director is speaking directly to his male audience, pleading with them to treat the women in their lives with the respect and equality they deserve.

| Aug 1, 2023

[Filmmaker Isao] Takahata embraces the sketchy, impressionistic, painterly qualities of animation being displaced by CGI.

| Aug 19, 2022

The film holds a timeless, magical quality, along with being thematically heavy and looking absolutely marvelous. Go in blank, let it unfold.

| Mar 29, 2021

In every aspect of the narrative, we feel the work of an exceptional craftsman. A phenomenal masterpiece that we should accept and give, cradled in own palms, to our friends and family.

| Dec 15, 2020

With gorgeously expressive animation reminiscent of Japanese scrolls and an irrepressible heroine who is full of life and joy and humor, this is an ancient folktale fresh with immediacy and relevance.

| Oct 25, 2020

A hand-drawn masterwork.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 6, 2019

Everything in it exudes a special magic that emanates in a slow and leisurely narrative rhythm, that transports us unfailingly to another time. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Aug 27, 2019

The result is a pleasing, if bloated and simplistic, experience destined to be overpraised because of its lauded creative team.

| Original Score: B- | Aug 6, 2019

Occasionally guilty of resting on its beauty in a way its protagonist never does.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 14, 2019

The Tale of Princess Kaguya is one of the most beautifully animated films of this or any other year.

| Original Score: A | May 6, 2019

A melancholic swansong, it blends the director's prior occupations and provides a perfect canvas for a final visual flourish.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 4, 2019

The material might be fantastical, yet due to the universal themes of womanhood and true happiness, Princess Kaguya's story is exceptionally grounded.

| Oct 10, 2018

A great, grounded realist with a firm eye but a light touch, Takahata's leisurely swan song has a rare serenity and grace.

| Nov 16, 2017

In an era where anime films seem to blend into each other aesthetically, Takahata's impressions seems marvelously alive - its modesty in images makes them feel as if they're being created before our very eyes.

| Original Score: B- | Jun 6, 2016

A mezmerizing display of impresionist animation. [Full review in Spanish]

| Mar 18, 2016

There exists a compelling experiential satisfaction of the closure of a mythical character journey full of ebbs and flows, complexities and emotional introspection, all expressed fully in the compassionate drawings of director Isao Takahata.

| Feb 29, 2016

Flurries of expressiveness swirl into subtle shifts in style; it's these fiercely elemental illustrations of one girl's forbearance, defiance and longing which mark Takahata's The Tale of The Princess Kaguya as Studio Ghibli's fourth masterpiece.

| May 25, 2015