Happy Moon Festival 2016: Remembering The Story Of Princess Kaguya In Boukenger!

This year, the Moon Festival fell on this day of September 15, 2016. It's been ten years since Boukenger but I see no harm in actually bringing back Boukenger episode 13, "Phantom Thief Selene". The actress was played by Nana Yanagisawa who later on played Megumi Aso in Kamen Rider Kiva. Note that the episode didn't air during the Mid-Autumn of 2006. What's a bigger coincidence is that Super Sentai hit its 2,000th episode on the week of the Midautumn Festival.

Phantom Thief Selene was presented to be looking for the potion of immortality. It's also something that the Jaryuu wanted to get. After the episode's end, we see that Selene (who's named after the Greek goddess of the moon, Selene) may actually be Princess Kaguya herself. The immortality potion may have been derived from the Chinese version of the story. It's still better to treat Princess Kaguya and Chang Er as two different characters though.

The story of Princess Kaguya does have her as someone who's returned to the moon. She was found in a bamboo forest where she was adopted by earthly parents. Later in her life, she was reunited with the gods and goddesses of the Japanese pantheon. A similar character is the Chinese immortal Chang-Er. Chang Er's story was that during some time ago, Earth used to have ten suns. Just imagine what it was back then and everyone suffered. Chang Er gave up her humanity (by drinking the immortality potion to do so) so she could alleviate everyone's suffering from the ten suns problem. Nine suns were removed and only one remained thus maintaining the balance.

The Japanese would have tsukimi dumplings instead of the Chinese moon cake. These are rice dumplings. I believe they'd taste similar to Chinese rice dumplings which may come in several varieties depending on which province of China you're talking about. In South Korea, the festival is called Chuseok where Boukenger was called as Power Rangers Treasure Force. 

Well have fun!