Cosmic Princess Kaguya Bursts onto the Scene with Dazzling OST From Popular VOCALOID Producers

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Table Of Contents
  1. Film Overview
  2. Anime Songlist
  3. CDs
  4. Campaigns / Events
  5. Manga Controversy
  6. Links

ryo(supercell) posted a remix of メルト / Melt to Nico Nico Douga and YouTube on January 22nd this year, eliciting a huge repsonse from VOCALOID fans on X.

ryo (supercell) / Melt CPK! Remix (Hatsune Miku ver.)

Although the majority of the reactions seemed positive, there was a vocal, albeit small, minority of community members expressing dissatisfaction, stating that the remix “butchered the original” (only for such posts to be quoted by other fans saying that the remix was made by ryo themself). Such complaints appear to have disappeared since.

Many people responded positively, saying this was his first VOCALOID-related work in over a decade, and it’s true that we haven’t seen much in new works from ryo, aside from new song remixes and covers, such as when 初めての恋が終わる時 / When First Love Ends was brought to Project SEKAI featuring Hatsune Miku and the Leo/need cast.

What I foolishly didn’t realise at first though, was that this remix of Melt was made specifically for the new Netflix animated film, 超かぐや姫 / Cho Kaguya Hime (official translation: Cosmic Princess Kaguya). Both general anime AND vocal synth fans started discussing the movie, and despite my curiosity, I didn’t do any further digging for a while (aside from watching the trailer) in case I spoiled myself.

Note: The following translations are unofficial unless otherwise stated. This post discusses some aspects of the film’s plot, so come back after watching it to avoid spoilers!

Film Overview

Cosmic Princess Kaguya! | Special Trailer | Netflix Anime

As you can see, the above trailer puts a strong emphasis on the VOCALOID producers involved, which is both the reason why my interest was piqued, but also how a misunderstanding came about on my part.

From the second it starts, you’re dropped into an explosive (human) cover of World is Mine.

So the anime is VOCALOID adjacent, right? I thought to myself.

How cool… Hatsune Miku has made cameo appearances AND finally starred in an actual “VOCALOID anime” (the Project SEKAI movie), and now we’ve got an anime about VOCALOID production!

Well, that’s what I assumed anyway.

It turns out that the anime isn’t about VOCALOID at all really- it’s a modern retelling of The Tale of the Bamboo-Cutter / The Tale of Princess Kaguya, a folktale dating back to the Heian period (794-1185). Some of you might be familiar with the Ghibli movie adaptation, which is where I first learned of the story myself. This new adaptation takes place in a world “not so far in the future”, where people can enter virtual worlds using special contact lenses. The story depicts characters who traverse the real and virtual worlds, with a focus on music production and various facets of content creation, including VTubers, streaming and Esports. What I initially found strange though, was that VOCALOID doesn’t really have a place in the story – just the song covers and prominent vocaPs who made the soundtrack- a misunderstanding caused by both the marketing and my reluctance to research before watching.

Anime Songlist

Going back to the the soundtrack though, the film has music by ryo(supercell), yuigot, Aqu3ra, HoneyWorks, 40mp and kz(livetune)– a pretty star-studded cast indeed.

Ex-Otogibanashi (Ex-fairytale) by ryo(supercell)

>Vocal: Yachiyo Runami (VA: Saori Hayami)

私は、わたしの事が好き。 Watashi wa, Watashi no Koto ga Suki. (I like me.) by HoneyWorks

>Vocal: Kaguya (VA: Yūko Natsuyoshi)

星降る海 / Hoshifuru Umi (Starry Sea) by Aqu3ra

>Vocal: Yachiyo Runami (VA: Saori Hayami)

Remember by yuigot

>Vocal: Yachiyo Runami (VA: Saori Hayami)

瞬間、シンフォニー。 (A moment, symphony.) by 40mp

>Vocal: Kaguya (VA: Yūko Natsuyoshi)

ワールドイズマイン CPK! Remix / World is Mine CPK! Remix by ryo(supercell)

>Vocal: Kaguya (VA: Yūko Natsuyoshi) and Yachiyo Runami (VA: Saori Hayami)

Another surprising addition to the roster is Bump of Chicken, who wrote the ending song:

Ray by Bump of Chicken

>Vocal: Hatsune Miku

The movie version of the song, called “ray 超かぐや姫！ / ray Princess Kaguya!” is also worth a listen:

There are character covers of one notable song per producer which have been uploaded to the official YouTube channel, and although many of these don’t feature in the movie, I thought it’d be worth listing them here:

1. ロンリーユニバース / Lonely Universe by Aqu3ra

  • Cover by Yachiyo Runami

2.竹取オーバーナイトセンセーション / by Bamboo Cutter’s Overnight Sensation by Gom, HoneyWorks

3.トリノコシティ / Torinoko City by 40mp

  • Cover by Yachiyo Runami

4.夢をみる島 / Dreaming Island by yuigot

5. Tell Your World by kz(livetune)

CDs

For fans of the OST, two CDs related to CPK were made available to buy this year:

CPK! Remix by ryo(supercell) – ¥2,300 (tax included)

  1. World is Mine (Yanagi Nagi ver.) [CPK! Remix]
  2. Melt (Yanagi Nagi ver.) [CPK! Remix]
  3. World is Mine (Hatsune Miku ver.) (CPK! Remix)
  4. Melt (Hatsune Miku ver.) (CPK! Remix)

Ex-Otogibanashi – ¥2,500 (tax included)

  1. Ex-Otogibanashi
  2. World is Mine CPK! Remix (Kaguya &Yachiyo ver.)
  3. Melt CPK! Remix (Kaguya ver.)
  4. Ex-Otogibanashi (Yachiyo ver.)
  5. World is Mine CPK! Remix (Anime ver.)
  6. Ex-Otogibanashi (Anime ver.)

Where to buy:

Purchases made via the following stores could receive bonus gifts:

supercell OFFICIAL ONLINE SHOP

  • CPK! Remix / Ex-Otogibanashi
  • Note: Those who bought both CPK! Remix AND Ex-Otogibanashi at the same time together could receive an acrylic magnet of the jacket art for either CD.

Amazon.co.jp

Rakuten Books

  • CPK! Remix / Ex-Otogibanashi
  • Orders of CPK! Remix OR Ex-Otogibanashi came with an acrylic keychain depending on the CD.
    Ordering a set of both CPK! Remix AND Ex-Otogibanashi could get you 2x acrylic keychains and a sticker set of the jacket art.

Animate

  • Buying one of the CDs would get you a square bromide (Animate bonus) AND jacket art sticker(s) (supercell bonus).

Gamers

  • Buying one of the two CDs could get you stickers featuring the jacket art as well as a can badge:

Other supporting stores

  • Buyers would receive a postcard

Note: all of the above bonus gifts are available while stocks last.

Campaigns / Events

    Yamaha Giveaway ← Ongoing

    Another connection between VOCALOID and CPK is that Yamaha have been collaborating closely with the anime film! So far they’ve held a giveaway in support of it and are still running a TikTok campaign:

    Title: MAKE YOUR WAVES CAMPAIGN!

    Campaign info: Yamaha website AND CPK TikTok

    Duration: January 27th ~ March 22nd 2026 at 23:59 JST

    How to participate:
    1. Follow the official CPK TikTok account
    2. Post a TikTok featuring you doing a musical/singing cover or remix of ANY song featured in the CPK film with the hashtags ＃超かぐや姫, #CosmicPrincessKaguya and #MakeWaves during the campaign period.


    Prizes: 4* winners could receive one of the following: 3x VOCALOID 6 voicebanks of their choice**, AG03MK2 Live Streaming Pack, a Yamaha CK61 Stage Keyboard Piano or a CPK poster signed by the voice cast***. Other related merchandise, such as stickers and notebooks will also be up for grabs.

    Results: Winners will be announcced via DM from the official CPK TikTok account in mid-April 2026.

    ⚠️Note: Ensure you enable DMs on TikTok. Accounts which cannot be contacted via DM, or which do not reply to the notice of winning after a given period of time may have the win revoked.

    Disclaimer: There is no mention of the campaign being Japan-only, but since all of the information is in Japanese, it is presumed you will need to use Japanese for any DM correspondence. There may be the chance that international entries cannot win prizes.

    * There is a discrepancy between the amount of prizes on the official Yamaha webpage and the CPK TikTok, as can be seen above.
    **Voicebanks have to be chosen from a given list, though no further details have been given.
    *** Winners cannot choose which prize they get.

    Yamaha Sound Crossing Shibuya

    What’s more, they organised workshops with yuigot on how to use the VOCALOID software for a limited time:

    The free workshops ran between Jan 23rd and February 8th at the Cosmic Princess Kaguya! x Yamaha CREATION STORE POP UP at Sound Crossing Shibuya, and participants were able to try out the VOCALOID software by adding vocals to the lyrics of yuigot’s song “Remember” from the CPK film!

    Visitors who went to the MUSIC INSTRUMENTS CAFÉ at the store could get latte art of Kaguya, Iroha or Yachiyo (available for cafe latte / hot chocolate):


    And to top it all off, CPK x VOCALOID stickers were handed on specific dates (although these ran out quickly due to high demand):

    If you weren’t able to attend, definitely keep an eye out for future workshops and pop ups!

    Manga Controversy

    This was going to be the place where I would recommend the novel and manga adaptations of the film for anyone wanting more from the CPK universe… until I saw the backlash towards the manga from fans on X.

    Translation: Seeing that you’ve removed the yuri***** aspects of the original story of your own accord, and added unnecessary emphasis on a heterosexual [relationship] is really devastating. It’s a betrayal of the original source material, and you could surely call it a failure on the manga artist’s part. Unless the artist changes, there’s no chance I’ll buy the manga adaptation.

    *****”Yuri”/ 百合 is a term used in Japan to describe lesbian couples and/or the genre of stories which centre around two female leads in love. This genre is also referred to as GL/ガールズラブ (girl’s love).

    As can be shown by user @HBSatou’s response, and by looking at the topic on X, the manga artist for the comic, 米田タロウ / Yoneda Taro, is being criticised for apparently removing the GL romance aspects from the story, one of the most central aspects of CPK, instead focusing on Kaguya’s interactions with male characters like Mikado, of rival group Black OnyX.

    In @HBSatou’s reply is another piece of “evidence” fans point to: a post from 2022 which appears to outline the artist’s rules/boundaries for commissions.

    “NG: […] BL・百合（GL）も対応難しいです…（ブロマンス・友情はOKです！）”

    Translation: Things I won’t draw: It’s difficult for me to work with […] BL, Yuri (GL) (bromance and friendships are fine though!).

    …which people interpreted as the artist being homophobic.

    Although it’s worth noting that this is being quoted from a post from 2022, and it has been argued that it outlines the artist’s personal boundaries as opposed to necessarily coming from a place of intolerance, it’s hard to deny the peculiarity of a publisher choosing an artist who said they were uncomfortable drawing gay relationships… to draw a manga where a gay relationship is central to the plot.

    Some posts, such as this one, highlight scenes from the manga they believe show inherent GL erasure and homophobia, where only one toothbrush can be seen (as opposed to in the anime when there were clearly two, a sign that Iroha and Kaguya were living together), and the manga artist’s emphasis on Kaguya and Mikado in volume 3.

    With all of this considered, some fans are suggesting reading the light novel over the manga.

    （From left to right) CPK manga vol.1, light novel and guidebook.

    On February 28th 2026, the official CPK X account posted an interview with the film director Shingo Yamashita and manga artist Yoneda Taro, discussing the manga adaptation. The interview has been posted in Japanese, English and Chinese. I made a thread about this on X, but here I’ll summarise what I said (bear in mind that I have not read the manga myself).

    Q: Why would they choose a manga artist who (potentially) doesn’t like drawing GL to draw the CPK manga?

    Reason 1: They chose Yoneda Taro because of his skill at drawing action sequences. The director likes Black OnyX especially, so wanted to see how well Taro could depict them.

    = This implies that their priority was the battle scenes, not Iroha and Kaguya’s relationship?

    Reason 2: Since CPK “intentionally avoids overt sexual or romantic elements”, they wanted to avoid a “typical male-targeted style, where female characters are objects of attraction”, a task they thought Taro could execute well.

      = This suggests that the understanding of the film from the director’s perspective vs the viewers is different. All fans I have interacted with noted a strong romantic bond between Iroha and Kaguya, so saying the film avoids romance is strange to me.

      Q: Why does the manga change certain aspects of the anime? Why is Mikado seen with Kaguya so much?

      A: The director notes his fondness of Black OnyX multiple times in the interview, and the manga scene where Mikado lifts Kaguya’s chin up apparently felt in-character, as Mikado presents himself in a very confident, ostentatious way anyway (such as by entering scenes on a tiger bike). The interview also highlights a cute scene of Kaguya and Iroha sleeping together which was added to the manga but wasn’t present in the film.

      = As a fan of anime films of all kinds, I recognise that films are incredibly limited compared to longer series, in that they cannot expand on every character or scene they might like to. Hence why I like reading manga/light novel adaptation after I watch films: to get more lore about the world and characters. If a manga adaptation is 1:1 with the film, it might feel a little pointless, so I appreciate them focusing on other characters. But if this is to the detriment of depicting the protagonist Iroha and her relationship with Kaguya, I myself would not be pleased.

      It feels as though the interview was posted to quell the huge backlash on social media (especially considering how it was translated into three languages officially), but perhaps that’s just me overthinking.

      As of writing, both the manga and LN are only available in Japanese, but if the film is popular enough, there is a high likelihood that they’ll be translated into other languages, especially English. If this becomes the case, there will no doubt be significant backlash, and fans who would prefer something “more accurate” to the film lore should look out for the LN instead. There’s also an official guidebook you might want to check out (JP language only as of writing).

      Overall, I was a little bit shocked that -considering how many VOCALOID collaborations have been been part of promoting CPK- the film’s story didn’t really talk about VOCALOID culture. Nevertheless, I think CPK is heartwarming love story which successfully mixes both traditional Japanese and contemporary technology and culture in a way which is fun, cozy and unapologetic in its depiction of yuri (ignoring any issues with the manga).

      What made me want to write about this in the first place was to introduce CPK to people, and if you’ve got this far in my post and haven’t watched it yet… I hope you’ll go and check it out soon!

      >> Watch Cosmic Princess Kaguya on Netflix <<

      I’ll also be writing a review of the film, so please check that out once it’s been uploaded!

      Links

      Cosmic Princess Kaguya

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