Napping Princess (ひるね姫 〜知らないワタシの物語〜)
Napping Princess (ひるね姫 〜知らないワタシの物語〜, Hirune Hime: Shiranai Watashi no Monogatari, also known as Ancien and the Magic Tablet) is a 2017 Japanese animated fantasy film directed, written, and created from an original story by Kenji Kamiyama, his first original theatrical feature. Set in 2020, three days before the opening of the Tokyo Olympics, it follows high school student Kokone Morikawa, who keeps falling asleep into a recurring dream world that turns out to be connected to her family's hidden past.1 • 2
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title | ひるね姫 〜知らないワタシの物語〜 (Hirune Hime: Shiranai Watashi no Monogatari); English title Napping Princess, also known as Ancien and the Magic Tablet3 |
| Director and writer | Kenji Kamiyama, known for Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and Eden of the East; his first original theatrical feature, credited for original story, screenplay, and direction1 |
| Japan release | March 18, 2017, distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures; runtime 111 minutes4 • 5 |
| Setting | Summer 2020, three days before the Tokyo Olympics, in Okayama Prefecture, with a dream world called Heartland2 • 6 |
| Lead voice cast | Mitsuki Takahata as Kokone Morikawa, with Shinnosuke Mitsushima, Yosuke Eguchi, Rie Kugimiya, Wataru Takagi, Hideki Takahashi, Arata Furuta, Tomoya Maeno, and Risa Shimizu6 |
| Production method | Made at the studio Signal.MD with a nearly fully digital workflow on about 70 pen tablets, described as extremely unusual for a Japanese cel-animation studio7 |
| Music | Score by Yoko Shimomura, composer known for Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts work3 |
| Reception | Rotten Tomatoes 68% from 19 reviews; Metacritic score 69; IMDb 6.3/108 • 9 |
Spoilers
Story
The film opens in the summer of 2020, three days before the Tokyo Olympics. Kokone Morikawa, a high school student living with her father in Okayama Prefecture, is scolded for napping everywhere and anywhere. She notices that she keeps having the same dream: a cramped but warm world that turns out to be tied to a family secret she knows nothing about.2
In the dream realm of Heartland, an automotive kingdom whose castle is a factory, the princess Ancien wields a magic tablet that can bring machines to life, including the talking stuffed animal Joy and the motorcycle Heart, and sides with a rider called Peach against the Colossus, a giant of molten metal.10 In her waking life, her quiet father Momotaro, a car mechanic, is arrested on suspicion of stealing technology from the powerful auto company Shijima Motors, and a man named Watanabe comes looking for the tablet and for Kokone. With her childhood friend Morio, a university student home from Tokyo, she sets out for the capital to untangle the mysteries, and her dream world and waking world begin to overlap.10 • 11
The dream story draws on tales her father told her as a child, and her quest leads her to learn about her late mother, an independent executive and brilliant programmer.12
Origins and themes
A change after 2011. Kamiyama has said the project grew out of a shift in his outlook after the March 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. He was making a film when the disaster struck, and on finishing it he realized that depicting the resolution of a problem on screen did nothing to solve the problem in reality, a feeling he described as lying heavily on him. When Nippon Television producer Seiji Okuda invited him to plan something different from his earlier work, he decided to write a bright story with a narrow scope and a protagonist everyone could feel goodwill toward.13
The film deliberately departs from the science fiction and high fantasy of Kamiyama's better-known works such as Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (2002) and Eden of the East (2009), following an ordinary high school girl instead.13 • 14 Kamiyama treated the dream element with a rule rather than as free fantasy, citing Arthur C. Clarke's observation that sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic: in the film, information technology assists Kokone's actions in reality the way magic works in her dreams, so that the two worlds link up.15 • 13 Self-driving car technology serves as the film's emblem of the near future.13
Digital production
A nearly paperless studio. The film was produced at the Tokyo studio Signal.MD, which reporters were invited to see at work in December 2016. Instead of the large volumes of paper typical of anime studios, the studio lined up roughly 70 pen tablets, and people involved described it as extremely unusual among Japanese animation companies to do nearly all work on tablets, apart from full 3DCG studios.7 Kamiyama said he had long wanted to achieve digitalization in the true sense and to change the existing drawing system for the sake of the staff. He also digitalized direction itself: rather than controlling movement on paper timesheets by feel, the director could check each department's output as moving video immediately, making the imagery easier to grasp. He noted the change was not 100 percent complete but nearly realized.7
He argued the benefit would compound over time: because anime production takes five or ten years to master, a digital environment might shorten that learning period.7
Release and reception
The film opened in Japan on March 18, 2017, distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.4 In North America, GKIDS released it in limited theaters on September 8, 2017, and on streaming on January 30, 2018; the reported United States gross was $46.0K.8
Critical response was generally favorable. On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 68% Tomatometer from 19 reviews, while its audience Popcornmeter score is 52%.8 Metacritic assigned a score of 69 based on 5 critic reviews, in the "generally favorable" range.9 Charles Solomon of the Los Angeles Times called it inventive and imaginative and wrote that it confirmed Kamiyama as one of the most interesting writer-directors working in Japanese animation.12 Time Out's George Art Baker gave it 4 of 5 stars, praising its depiction of imperfect, loving family relationships.3 The Guardian's Mike McCahill was more critical, rating it 2 of 5 and writing that the film started to feel mechanized itself as giant robots crowded out its heroine.16 On IMDb the film holds a 6.3/10 rating.17
Kamiyama himself acknowledged a different tone from his earlier work, saying the film's style was somewhat unlike what came before, and he connected its concerns to a society where technology advances while life does not necessarily feel happier.18 A novelization written by Kamiyama was published by Kadokawa.19
References
- 『ひるね姫』神山健治が語る、日本アニメの課題, Real Sound
- 神山健治監督が目指した世界とは？『ひるね姫』インタビュー, アニメイトタイムズ
- Napping Princess, directed by Kenji Kamiyama, Time Out
- 社会の大きな問題と切り結ばない作品を作る意味はあるのか、神山健治監督が「ひるね姫」に込めたものとは？, GIGAZINE
- 東京オ, 西武鉄道 (film data listing)
- ひるね姫 ～知らないワタシの物語～, Netflix
- ひるね姫：神山監督が語るデジタル化の狙い "異例"の製作現場とは？, MANTANWEB
- Napping Princess, Rotten Tomatoes
- Napping Princess Reviews, Metacritic
- Napping Princess (2017) on Netflix, NetflixMovies.com
- 映画「ひるね姫 ～知らないワタシの物語～」オフィシャルサイト ストーリー
- An empowered girl soars in the animated Japanese fantasy 'Napping Princess', Los Angeles Times
- 映画「ひるね姫 ～知らないワタシの物語～」オフィシャルサイト PRODUCTION NOTE
- 神山健治さん インタビュー「コンテンツの冒険」, ACC
- 『ひるね姫』神山健治監督が心境の変化を語る, RBB TODAY
- Napping Princess review, The Guardian
- Napping Princess (2017), IMDb
- 神山健治、映画「ひるね姫」に込めた想い, Lmaga.jp
- 2017年、2018年に映画化・ドラマ化された本, Hagi City Library
Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Films by genre, form, and subject › Animated and short films › Japanese anime features › Released 2014 to 2026
Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026
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