Kaguya-hime in Today's Manga and Video Game: Naruto, Pokemon, and Onmyoji (ナルト, ポケモン and 陰陽師)
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Kaguya's arriving in the earth
The moon where Kaguya was sealed
Kaguya's two sons
i: Ootsutsuki Kaguya (大筒木かぐや)
Naruto is a manga series written by Masashi Kishimoto (岸本 斉史). It describes how Naruto, the main character, becomes the shinobi leader, hokage, in a fictional ninja world. The second season of Naruto, ends with Naruto's fight with Ootsutsuki Kaguya, who is the most powerful and challenging enemy against Naruto and the entire shinobi world. Kaguya was the princess of the Ootsutsuki clan from another planet. The Ootsutsuki clan had an ambition to extract a type of special energy from the entire universe, and Kaguya was assigned to come to the earth. However, once arriving, Kaguya started to love this planet and the people here, so she decided to protect the earth from the Ootsutsuki clan. She was married to the emperor and had two children, but because people began to fear her power as an alien, she was betrayed by the emperor and was banished from the imperial palace. She was enraged, absorbed the special energy from the earth, controlled all human beings and started to rule the kingdom. She was eventually defeated by her children, and was sealed in a large stone, which became the moon. She was later released by Naruto's other enemies, but she was defeated again by Naruto and sealed into another moon.
The first debut of Kaguya occurs in a bamboo forest, which suggests the connection between Kaguya and the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. Although Kaguya did not come from the moon, the place where she was sealed by her children, which is the moon in the Naruto world, confirms that Kaguya is related to the moon.
Interesting, Tsukuyomi (月読), the moon god who does not appear in the original Kaguya story, is also used in Naruto's story aiming to connect the alien Kaguya to the moon. Tsukuyomi is a skill in Naruto that can trap people into illusion. The most powerful version of Tsukuyomi, mastered by Kaguya and her elder son, can shine the entire earth and force all people to be trapped into illusion. Kaguya was intended to use Tsukuyomi to control all human beings on the earth, but she was eventually defeated by her elder son by the same powerful Tsukuyomi.
Celesteela, テッカグヤ
SELENE, the Kaguya spacecraft
Young Celesteela, the bamboo cutter, and his wife
Celesteela leaving the earth for the moon
Pokemon: Celesteela (テッカグヤ)
Celesteela is a type of pokemon that first appears in Pokemon Sun & Moon. It belongs to the Ultra Beast family, and it has the type of steel and flying. Its body composition can be seen as a combination of bamboo and rocket. Its arms are fragments of a bamboo, and its hands and feet can be treated as rocket ejectors. Its Japanese name, テッカグヤ, originates from 鉄火, bombs, and かぐや. Clearly, the bamboo motif and the カグヤ part of its name suggest that the idea of this pokemon is inspired by the tale of the Bamboo Cutter, while the rocket element is believed to refer to the second Japanese lunar orbiter spacecraft, SELENE, whose nickname is also Kaguya.
In the Pokemon Sun & Moon anime, Celesteela first appears in Episode 69. Mentioned in this episode, the Japanese Kaguya story is adapted in a way that can fit the Pokemon world view. Celesteela came to the earth from the moon 200 years ago, but instead of a girl form, it was rooted in the ground and kept its bamboo form during its growth. Also different from the original version of the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter,Celesteela (Kaguya) here has the power to destroy all plants around it by absorbing all nutrition and emitting natural gas.
During the 200 years on the earth, Celesteela always stayed on the same place, took in nutrition from the ground, and produced natural gas for the energy resource of the next launching. It smiled every night when the moon appeared. The strong desire for going back to the moon, instead of staying on the earth, is very different from other Kaguya stories, and can be seen as a new interpretation or an innovation of the traditional story. At the end of this episode, Celesteela finally was able to store enough natural gas and to return to the moon.
An interesting feature of Kaguya in Pokemon, as mentioned before, is the addition of a rocket ejector element. Unlike the supernatural power owned by the Kaguya-hime and people from the Moon Palace in the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, Celesteela is designed to look like a rocket ejector, and it uses energy from burning natural gas, or science in general, to return to the moon. The switch from the supernatural power to science can be regarded as a modern adaption of the original story, which can attract and convince the young audiences that are educated with solid science background.
Celesteela's natural gas content being measured
Onmyoji: Kaguya (かぐや)
Onmyoji is a smartphone video game developed by a Chinese Internet technology company (NetEase). Players can collect and train Shikigami (式神) to fight for them. Kaguya is one of the rare SSR Shikigami and she serves as a support Shikigami during a fight. Her appearance, name and skills (the Jewelled Branch, the Fire-Rat Fur Robe, and the Jewel in the Dragon's Neck), and the incorporation of bamboo element seem to suggest the connection to the Kaguya-hime.
"I was trapped in a small piece of bamboo, asleep all the time. One day, wakened by a unfamiliar flute sound, my heart gets warm again. I realize that there are other people in this bamboo forest besides me. I am not alone anymore, and the flute sound is my best accompany. Day and night, it is this flute sound that wakes me up and helps me fall into sleep." (from https://yys.163.com/shishen/280.html)
From her biography on the game website, it can be noticed that loneliness is still the theme of Kaguya's life. Although the bamboo cutter and his wife are not mentioned, and the "flute sound" does not appear in the original story, the game developer tries to use new elements and to remove details to make the character more attractive and easier to understand.
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