Netflix’s The Ribbon Hero takes inspiration from Osamu Tezuka’s landmark 1953 shōjo manga Princess Knight, but its ambitious fantasy adventure struggles to turn that legacy into a coherent film. Directed by Yûki Igarashi, whose previous work includes the Star Wars: Visions episode “Lop & Ocho”, the movie often feels more interested in displaying its influences than building a satisfying story.
A theatrical idea without a clear dramatic centre
Tezuka’s heroine, Sapphire, was an androgynous swordfighter inspired in part by the all-female Takarazuka Revue theatre company. The new film acknowledges that connection through stage curtains, an act-based structure and a puppet-show sequence depicting Sapphire’s adventures in Goldland.
However, one of the original story’s most important ideas has been removed. Sapphire’s gender-bending identity is largely absent, apart from unclear imagery involving two hearts. In the manga, her unusual abilities are connected to possessing both a male and a female heart; here, that concept is reduced to a confusing visual reference.
Sapphire’s powers arrive without enough explanation
Before the main story begins, brief flashbacks show Sapphire’s mother training her to survive in a dangerous world. Monsters known as Nergul attack without warning, destroying entire kingdoms. When one of them devastates Silverland, Sapphire is left alive alongside Zirco, an elderly engineering prodigy who becomes her guardian.
For seven years, the pair survive by begging, despite Zirco’s remarkable ability to build bionic arms and laser-firing swords. Their situation changes when Pine, a kind baker with no apparent friends, helps them find work mining crystals.
Another Nergul attack sends Sapphire into a pool filled with water and crystals. Rather than killing her, the incident grants her unexplained abilities connected to a huge hair ribbon. She gains a magical transformation, a new costume and a laser sword, while occasional swan transformations add another unexplained layer to her powers.
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A world built on exposition
Goldland is governed by a theocracy that forbids resistance against the Nergul. Its leaders fear that fighting the monsters will provoke their hidden master, the King of Ash. Velvet, the pope’s chief enforcer, rejects that policy and joins Sapphire in searching for a solution.
The film explains this mythology through long speeches delivered against motionless backgrounds. Characters stare across landscapes or sit inside palace rooms while they discuss the Nergul, the King of Ash and the possible ways to defeat or appease them. The result is information-heavy but dramatically thin.
Velvet is female-presenting but uses a male identity and voice, a detail the film never examines. That sits awkwardly beside Goldland’s hostility towards immigrants and its practice of raising orphans to be sacrificed to monsters, creating a setting whose social rules never feel fully considered.
Too many visual styles, not enough unity
Animation studios Outline and Twin Engine use a broad range of techniques. Much of the film has a hand-drawn appearance that suits its fairy-tale world. Sapphire’s childhood memories shift into black-and-white or sepia imagery, while the Nergul use jagged computer animation that makes them look alien and unpleasant.
Other passages include exaggerated anime reactions, a 1920s-inspired angel sequence and a live-action section linking Sapphire’s abilities to Tezuka’s manga. These choices suggest a larger meditation on theatre, faith and artistic influence, but the film’s flat dialogue and unremarkable action make that intention difficult to grasp.
Horror, slapstick and abandoned ideas
The Nergul initially seem genuinely threatening. Their fungal spores spread an aura that kills and rots everything nearby. Sapphire’s apparent immunity also suggests an important mystery, but after the first two confrontations the film largely abandons both ideas. Her otherwise ordinary companions are soon able to participate in the fights without the earlier danger shaping the action.
The tone is just as unstable. A scene involving a demonic creature consuming hearts and souls during a religious ceremony can be followed by broad comedy as Sapphire’s friends scramble to recover her magical ribbon. The contrast could have worked with stronger characterisation and timing, but here it mostly adds to the film’s lack of direction.
Verdict
Princess Knight was controversial and influential, making any modern adaptation a difficult proposition. The Ribbon Hero does not meet that challenge. It offers a crowded mythology, familiar fantasy elements and a constantly changing visual language, yet provides few compelling characters or memorable battles.
Viewers curious about Tezuka’s influence may find more rewarding results in anime such as Sailor Moon, Revolutionary Girl Utena and Magic Knight Rayearth. The Ribbon Hero is scheduled to release on Netflix on 8 August 2026.
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