Ribbon no Kishi (1963)
Princess Knight

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The original Princess Knight, published 1953-1956, was important for several reasons. It was the first Shoujo manga with an actual storyline. It also was a large influence on the development of the Magical Girl genre, since even though it does not feature a magical girl it's portrayal of a powerful female protagonist was a major influence on the genre. It also influenced later Shoujo manga (mainly from the 60s to the 80s) to explore gender identity and androgyny. This manga, meanwhile, is the remake Osamu Tezuka made about a decade later.

Story - 8/10
This is one of the more light-hearted Tezuka manga that I've read. ... Princess Knight takes place in a world that resembles a medieval fairy tale. I addition to the castles that look straight out of Bavaria, there are knights, dragons, evil plotting uncles, and angels and demons. There is so much humor and breaking of the fourth wall in the story that the tone never feels very heavy, but the storyline itself is played straight, so that in spite of the presence of so much humor the story never turns into a comedy. Nonetheless, it stays whimsical and lighthearted. Even the villains aren't exactly frightening.

The storyline itself starts simple enough. Sapphire is a princess born who was accidentally implanted with the soul of a man as well. Thus, she has two souls, a soul of a man and a woman. However, Sapphire is ultimately a girl, just one with some masculine traits (strength and competency apparently being male traits). Due to the laws of the kingdom, she cannot become heir as a girl, so she masquerades a boy. Meanwhile, the villainous Duke Duralumin has other plans, and seeks to discover her secret. That seems simple, enough but things start to get more complex from there as things slowly start to unravel for Sapphire.

Princess Knight eschews the episode-of-the-week format storyline that you find in some works of the time. But Tezuka rarely did do those types of storylines in his shorter works. Instead, we have a storyline in which the fundamental situation and circumstances are constantly shifting. Things never stay the same for long. In effect, Princess Knight's storyline consists in a series of story arcs. The story does drag a little at the end, when there is an entire arc revolving the goddess Venus that comes out of nowhere. The ending is also quite sudden for a work that is over 700 pages.

Art - 8/10

This is the first Tezuka manga I've read with a physical copy, so I may be biased, but I found the art to fantastic. Even one of the better ones of Tezuka that I've read. While relatively simple by today's standards, Tezuka certainly knew how to draw, and I found much of the art quite beautiful here.

Themes -

The most notable thing about Princess Knight is of course how it plays with gender identity. The protagonist Sapphire was born with both the heart of a boy and a girl. However, her girl's heart is the more overpowering force in her, so even though she has hearts of both sexes, she is simply a girl with some masculine traits, such as competency in fighting. And Sapphire, even though she is a girl and wants to be a girl, is forced by circumstances to masquerade as male. This began a tradition of androgynous characters within Shoujo manga, with Sapphire being the first in a long line of shoujo female protagonists who were androgynous or presented as male.

In this manga, Osamu Tezuka assigned specific traits to genders in an overly-stereotypical manner which he didn't seem to really believe in. Sapphire gets her gentleness and general womanliness from her woman's heart, and gets her strength, fencing skills, and general competence from her man's heart. When she losses her man's heart, she losses so much strength that she feels weak and is unable to fight. Even personality seems to be changed by whether one has a man's or woman's heart. In fact, in the manga we see an unmanly boy eat a man's heart. The result is he becomes more manly. This was the state of things until Tezuka changes his mind half-through, at which point girls seem perfectly able to fight against men with only their girl's heart.

Overall - 8/10

Princess Knight does not have any glaring flaws. I wouldn't call it one of Tezuka's masterpieces, but it is an important. If you like classic manga, Tezuka, or are interested in shoujo manga, I'd recommend Princess Knight. Plus, you can get the whole thing for less than $30.

This manga wasn't all that good if I'm being honest. It actually drug on at points and got annoying. Though I'm rating it a 6/10 because I do respect it. I respect that it influenced a lot of Shoujo, including the masterpiece, Rose of Versailles. It does well to talk of gender, and it puts women in a great light. Well, sort of... It does show women as strong and having multiple types of interests and personalities. Though it also shows them as jealous and love crazy at times. Ultimately, it's a great representation because it's diverse. ... I'd say its take on gender and how it influenced a lot of Shoujo after it is what boosts it up. When you take that away, it's a rather boring story. It's clearly inspired by Disney and other fairy tales. Though it feels like a mashup of them at times. Once again, I do have to respect this manga for the influence it had, but it just wasn't all that as a work of art. It's a 5/10 manga that's boosted to a 6/10, due to the influence it has on others.

Princess Knight is a tedious read.

The characters are paper-thin, all copied and pasted (as is the story) from various European fairy tails and mythologies; the events follow each other without setup and with no thought given to pacing or structure; and important moments aren't given any weight or significance, all lost in a narrative that only runs forward (with its eyes firmly closed).

Something that made me laugh was the appearance of a certain Greek deity, a few chapters before the end, despite the overbearing presence and many, many mentions of the Christian God.

The only redeming qualities in Princess Knight are the humor (both written and ... visual), as well as the charming art, which stays mostly very simple (and is reminiscent of French-Belgian comics), but is often lovely.