Ribbon no Kishi

Princess Knight (TV) is an adaptation of a short manga series, by the father of manga himself, Osamu Tezuka. If you’ve been into anime long enough, you’re bound to know who I’m referencing, if not, he made Astro Boy. The anime version of Princess Knight is one of the most dated things that I’ve ever experienced and the English dub is comedy gold. • Especially Choppy’s voice. Each episode of Ribbon no Kishi is pretty episodic and is reminiscent of any old Disney or Max Fleshier animation. Except, this one is extremely low budget. People and objects randomly disappear. Color palettes change. • Strangely enough, for allof you who are familiar with Gundam, this was one of Yoshiyuki Tomino’s first internships, if not THE first. I’m not exactly sure, but I know that Tomino had some kind of partnership with Tezuka Productions before going waist deep into the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise. • This series is not very good looking for its time, I’ve seen better looking Betty Boop cartoons from thirty years prior to when this came out in (the 1960’s). The 1960’s are not when anime became what it is today though, the 1970’s are the gilded, golden age of Japanese animation and most of their top-tier works started blossoming toward the end and into the 80’s. • There’s not much to say about continuity, there are even characters that supposedly die at the end, and the show pulls a JUST KIDDING! They’re still alive, because this is a children’s cartoon and we can’t show death. And then Ringing Bell came out… Overall, just skip the anime and dive into the manga. The manga has a similar fantastical feeling as Tezuka’s Unico comics. • This series also was a stepping stone toward female liberation and gender ambiguity in anime, that still holds up today. Sapphire became Utena and Revolutionary Girl Utena was a largely iconic series for females growing up in the 1990’s and so forth. I give Princess Knight (TV) a 2/10 and highly suggest the manga instead, which I rated a 6/10.