Amongst Netflix’s slate of upcoming anime was a vivid new movie headed to the streamer, The Ribbon Hero. “New” being the operative phrase as a result of the movie is definitely impressed by Osamu Tezuka‘s traditional manga Princess Knight, although judging from their appearances, you’d be hard-pressed to acknowledge that. Nonetheless, reasonably than recoiling in concern at how totally different the 2 works look, I’m really fairly amped about it.
In case you learn the above and thought to your self, “Who’s Osamu Tezuka?” I’m gonna go forward and rip the rug from beneath you in saying that for those who also have a fleeting appreciation for animation, manga, and anime, you’re already predisposed to him, whether or not you understand his title or not. Often called “The Godfather of Manga,” Tezuka is the creator of Astro Boy, Black Jack, Kimba the White Lion, and so far more. He’s your favourite mangaka’s favourite mangaka, inspiring complete generations of creatives, together with Dragon Ball‘s Akira Toriyama, Ghost within the Shell‘s Masamune Shirow, and even Studio Ghibli’s Hayao Miyazaki.
As we close to what would have been Tezuka’s centennial, his enduring affect on the anime business is being reintroduced to a brand new technology of anime followers by Studio OUTLINE‘s aforementioned anime movie, impressed by his 1953 manga Princess Knight, which premieres on Netflix this August.
The Ribbon Hero follows the journey of a “cursed” princess named Sapphire who takes up arms to not solely overcome the trauma of her previous, however to guard her residents from feral creatures who want to do them hurt. In so doing, Sapphire does a cute magical lady transformation, makes lifelong buddies, and battles a bunch of baddies utilizing the facility of her magic ribbon. Seems like your typical cool anime. It additionally appears wildly totally different from its supply materials, which has some diehard followers feeling a bit conflicted.
For comparability, the Princess Knight manga appears like this:
And these are the character designs for The Ribbon Hero:
So yeah, vastly totally different aesthetics. A lot in order that it appeared to ruffle the feathers of followers of Tezuka’s traditional manga within the replies to Ribbon Hero’s official X/Twitter account, which posted a key visible of the movie, with many individuals having combined emotions about how trendy and totally different the anime’s visuals look in comparison with the manga. A lot of the aesthetic distinction between The Ribbon Hero and Princess Knight owes itself to the creatives on the helm of OUTLINE’s movie. Key amongst them are character designers Kei Mochizuki (Destiny/Grand Order) and Mai Yoneyama (Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, Lazarus). The movie additionally serves because the directorial debut of Yuki Igarashi (Assault on Titan, Jujutsu Kaisen, Cellular Go well with Gundam GQuuuuuuX), who’s keenly conscious of the expectations positioned on OUTLINE’s trendy therapy of a beloved traditional.
“For this movie, I poured in my respect for Osamu Tezuka, the creator of Princess Knight; for Ichizo Kobayashi of the Takarazuka Revue, which lies on the root of the work; and for the supreme, traditional leisure they introduced into the world,” Igarashi advised Netflix. “In addition they created their works whereas overcoming hardships corresponding to infectious illnesses and struggle, and people works turned the very basis of our tradition. To everybody dwelling on this period, I hope you take pleasure in this blood‑stirring, coronary heart‑pounding piece of what I imagine is ‘true’ mainstream leisure.”
So what’s the distinction between Princess Knight‘s story and The Ribbon Hero past their artwork types? Effectively, after procuring Kodansha’s omnibus of Princess Knight, studying the manga, and evaluating it to what we’ve seen from Netflix’s trailers, Venn Diagram type, I can say rather a lot, really. However not in the way in which that different Netflix variations go a bit off the rails in an try and be totally different or self-serious. From what I’ve parsed, The Ribbon Hero appears poised to take care of the spirit of Tezuka’s work whereas doing its personal factor, and I’m actually just a little enthusiastic about that.
In contrast to what seems to be the setup in OUTLINE’s anime, Tezuka’s manga is the stuff of previous fairy tales, centering much less on the promoting level of a warrior princess, although that’s actually there, and extra on gender. The setup has angels in heaven assigning hearts to infants about to be born. One angel named Tink items child Sapphire a blue boy coronary heart moments earlier than Sapphire is given a pink lady coronary heart. This oopsie will get Tink kicked out of heaven to search out Sapphire and take away her lady coronary heart—an issue made all the more serious by the fortune of her start because the progeny of a Kingdom whose stake lies in her being born a male reasonably than a feminine.
After a snafu by which a retainer with a lisp confuses the dominion by calling Sapphire a “prinshesh,” the king and queen proceed a farcical ruse, elevating their daughter as a boy whereas those that want to usurp their energy attempt to expose Sapphire as a boy. Alongside Sapphire’s journey is a slapstick story that looks like a pastiche of Cinderella, Sleeping Magnificence, and The Little Mermaid, and all of Tezuka’s titular whimsy. The manga even acquired an anime adaptation again in 1967 by Mushi Manufacturing, so any loyalists worrying a couple of devoted adaptation can nip these complaints within the bud.
Princess Knight is as foolish and fun-loving because it sounds. Trying again on Tezuka’s manga, it’s uncanny how forward of its time it’s narratively, contemplating {that a} manga from the ’50s explores gender in ways in which predate Rumiko Takahashi‘s Ranma 1/2. Granted, its exploration of gender continues to be a contact antiquated as a learn within the huge 2026 (you’ll be able to fall on both facet of it being progressive and a contact misogynistic in Sapphire’s journey). Nonetheless, it does get there ultimately, with each Sapphire’s boyish and girlish nature being seen as a power reasonably than a contradiction. That’s rad.
Whereas The Ribbon Hero doesn’t look like exploring gender as its tentpole theme, followers have gleaned from its trailers that the movie could as an alternative concentrate on queer themes between Sapphire and her gal pal. On condition that Princess Knight impressed old-school queer manga/anime works like MAPPA’s anime adaptation of The Rose of Versailles, it’s possible the place the movie will go too as a reimagining of its story. Both that or followers (current firm included) are about to lose chess to the canine, because it had been, when The Ribbon Hero releases this August. Both means, variations ought to really feel extra fearless in branching out of the confines of previous myths they retell, as long as they’ve saved their core spirit intact, and Tezuka’s works are not any totally different.
This isn’t the primary time Netflix has landed a reimagining of Tezuka’s classics. In reality, again in 2023, Studio M2 launched the anime adaptation of Naoki Urasawa (Monster) and Takashi Nagasaki‘s Pluto. Pluto, in my humble opinion, was the most effective sci-fi anime that yr. And far of that wasn’t solely in seeing what Atom and its titular villain appear to be in movement, however from the way it used the footholds of its story to strike at one thing deeper. Particularly, Urasawa makes use of the robotic manga to critique america’ invasion of Iraq. And that’s simply one of many hot-button subjects Pluto touched on, weaving new life and perspective, constructing off the muse of Tezuka’s Astro Boy.
All that to say, regardless of its aesthetic and story variations, I’m going into The Ribbon Hero with an open thoughts to see how one other group of creatives will reshape and reimagine a traditional like Princess Knight and maintain Tezuka’s tales on the thoughts of a brand new technology of anime followers.
The Ribbon Hero premieres on Netflix on August 8.
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