Princess Knight

Princess Knight, also known as Ribbon no Kishi, is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Osamu Tezuka. This manga follows the adventures of Sapphire, a girl who was born accidentally with the blue heart of a boy and the pink heart of a girl. She pretends to be a prince to prevent the evil Duke Duralumin from taking over the kingdom through his son, Plastic. The gender-bending main character was inspired by the all-female musical theater group Takarazuka Revue in which women performed both female and male roles. The story was ordered by an editor of Kodansha's magazine Shōjo Club who wanted Tezuka to produce a manga aimed towards a female audience that could replicate the success of his former boy-aimed stories. The author then created Princess Knight, originally serialized in that magazine from 1953 to 1956. The manga's popularity resulted into a radio dramatization in 1955, three other serializations between 1958 and 1968, and a 52-episode television anime series by Mushi Production that aired on Fuji TV from 1967 to 1968. It has also influenced several stage musicals since the 1980s and inspired remakes of the work by other authors. A new anime film adaptation titled The Ribbon Hero will be released on Netflix in August 2026. The series' arrival in the English-speaking market was delayed by NBC Enterprises executives' perception that it could be interpreted as "sex switch". However, still in the 1970s, the television series got a dubbed version produced by Joe Oriolo. Renamed Choppy and the Princess, it was released to American, Australian, and British television audiences, with home video releases to follow. The manga would only reach the anglophone public years later, in 2001 when Kodansha International published a bilingual edition of Princess Knight, which was followed by a newer version by Vertical in 2011. One of Tezuka's most famous works and widely regarded as a classic, Princess Knight has been very influential in the manga and anime industry. Its portrayal of gender roles is ambiguously interpreted by critics; some claim it has pro-feminist ideals and others think it expresses misogynist ideals of 1950s–60s Japanese society. Nonetheless, it started a tradition of androgynous-like heroines and established several trends in shōjo manga. It is considered one of the first works in this genre that is narrative-focused and that portrays a female superhero.