Miscellaneous Myths: Kaguya

Remember Momotarō? Remember how he was a magic baby from nowhere? Well Japan has another story like that, only THIS baby came with a RENTAL period! This is the Tale of Princess Kaguya, whose life was exemplary of Live Fast, Depart This Plane Of Existence Young, Leave No Corpse. She inspired Sailor Moon and was sort of the villain of one of the Inuyasha movies, and I'm told she's in Naruto too, but like at this point who isn't

I told this story to like seven people while I was working on this video. Every single one of them asked me what the point of the myth was. I DON'T KNOW OKAY

MERCH LINKS:

[thelegend]

"Yeah my first girlfriend turned into the moon"
"That's rough buddy"

[annalise]

"My girlfriend turned into the moon"
"That's rough, buddy"

[crinkycrooolaloola]

The "forgetting all her love for humanity" thing is such a depressing and cruel detail, but still beautiful

[albenjomislang]

What if Kaguya gave the emperor the elixir so he can wait for the day she returns to him

[RelativelyBest]

"Um, hi. Wanna be empress?"
"Does that line usually work?"
_"I don't know!"_

[mordredt]

Interesting bit of trivia: The Apollo 11 astronauts were told during a transmission from Earth that according to Chinese myth, they should look out for the goddess Chang'e and the Chinese equivalent of the moon rabbit. No mention of Princess Kaguya, however. One of the astronauts responded they would "keep a close eye out for the bunny girl".

[captainbirch]

"DARLING THE BAMBOO'S GONE CRAZY! "
Best line ever

[marche]

Damn, the old man's name is literally "Get Bamboo Old Man", rough.

[PrincessOzaline]

Burning the elixir of life instead of becoming immortal and traveling to space in the twentieth century...




How cute.

[wojtektaracinski]

Ok, but there's one thing that Red forgot to mention, and it's something that's pretty off-putting, given how sad and tragic this tale is
...terrible puns and folk etymology. See, back then people liked to explain the origins of the words by looking at similarly-sounding ones, and making up stories on how one led to another. Now, add the fact that you can read words in different ways *or* break them down into individual components in Japanese (like "okami" - wolf, but also "o-kami" - a great deity. By the way, there's Kaguya reference in Okami as well), and... yeah.
Like, every couple of sentences the story takes a break from this sorrowful tale of loneliness and unrequited love and goes into full Dad Humour mode with stuff like "So, they all flocked to her and cramped her suite, and that's why we call them... THE SUITORS!" or "He was outraged when his pearl-encrusted gift turned out to be fake, and that's what we call... CLUTCHING AT YOUR PEARLS!". I'm not making this up
Oh, and on the topic of second dude: he actually had a good plan, and was probably closest to get Kaguya's hand. He loudly announced his trip, and then hid away for few months with hired artisans who made him a forgery of that golden tree. Sadly, in the end he was a cheapskate and didn't pay the artisans, who came knocking at Kaguya's door just as he was about to present his gift for her. So the moral of the story is: always credit your artist and don't steal others work, or it might cost you your magic moon waifu.

[anarkyah]

to the emperor: "That's rough buddy."

[siegesquirrel]

Honestly, my favorite part of this story is Red's portrayal of the Emperor as as adorably dorky as any other young man trying to ask his crush out. I can totally see him panicking as he tries to work up the nerve to talk to her, and his servants trying to encourage him. Poor guy. That attempted pickup line/proposal might just be the funniest thing I've ever seen on this channel.

[cherryblossombvllet]

What I find kind of nice in this story is the Emperor didn't want the immortality without Kaguya, and that's sweet, even if it seems to just be about the her not being there part, and it shows that he wasn't greedy either.

[LadyOMyth]

For Kaguya sending her suitors on impossible tasks, I really like the Ghibli version. Each one actually compares aspects of herself to the items she sends them looking for, which results in her idea to send them on those impossible tasks. Seriously, the looks on the suitors faces when they realize she's made them eat their own words is priceless. 😂😂

[McJethroPovTee]

I think the lesson to be taken from this is: If someone is way out of your league or doesn't reciprocate your feelings, that person came from the moon... or something.

[TheHeroOfTomorrow]

"If you don't have a legendary sword in your butt then don't even talk to me."

Well, he DOES have a snake-sword in his mouth...

[RedReaper]

the emperor had to watch the woman he loves turn into the moon? that's rough, buddy

[sharpetutor]

3:00
Kaguya seeing the Apollo landing "Hay! get off my property!" no love for humanity

Armstrong "Houston we have a problem, we lost the space race..."

Houston "What? to who?"

Armstrong "Senpai..."

[kevinr.]

"I wonder what Kaguya thinks of the Apollo missions"
Isn't that basically the plot of one of the Touhou games? Like, not Kaguya herself, but everyone else living on the moon.

[tomwest]

I'm liking the new end card songs being sung by Red.