That helps a lot to connect the dots, the only thing I'm not sure if it's clear is this
they buried her capsule, since it wasn't needed anymore
Is there something that adds some meaning to them burying the capsule? I first I also thought they were digging it out, but the capsule is perfectly clean so burying it makes more sense, I just don't get why they did it. Even if they didn't need it anymore, I feel like there should be something more that I'm missing given the attention it was given in the MV.
It's another reference to the original Tale of the bamboo cutter. Kaguya and the emperor of Japan fall in love, but Kaguya has to return to the moon so she gives the emperor an elixir of immortality as a parting gift. The emperor travels to the top of Mt Fuji and burns a letter in hopes the embers will reach her on the moon and the elixir because he considers immortality without Kaguya by his side a curse and rejects it. In the subversion operated by this movie, Iroha is the emperor and the song Reply is the letter which does reach Kaguya. Kaguya's ship used to house her soul over the 8,000 years she spent on Earth until it was plugged into the internet and it represents her immortality. Iroha transfers her soul in a new body and the burial of the ship at the top of Mt Fuji symbolizes Kaguya herself deciding to live on as a normal human with her love, a complete inversion of the elixir's meaning in the fairy tale.
Whether Kaguya actually becomes mortal or if her soul will still persist in the moon/virtual realm once her new body dies is a different matter and starts involving speculation about the nature of human souls vs lunarian souls which I don't think can be definitively settled.
last edited at Feb 24, 2026 8:08PM