Netflix has revealed The Ribbon Hero, an anime film adaptation of the Osamu Tezuka manga Princess Knight. It’s set to premiere worldwide in August 2026.
A teaser visual drawn by the anime’s original character designer, the illustrator Kei Mochizuki, provides an early look at this modern adaptation of Tezuka’s work, which features a princess raised as a prince.
Directing the movie is Yuki Igarashi, whose previous credits include Star Wars: Visions — “Lop & Ochō” (director and character designer et al.), Gen Hoshino’s “I Wanna Be Your Ghost” music video (director et a.), and Jujutsu Kaisen Season 1’s first ending (solo key animator). The animation production studio is OUTLINE, which Igarashi founded in 2022.
The staff lineup also includes illustrator and animator Mai Yoneyama (“COLORs” music video character designer and animation director, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners ending animation director, storyboard artist et al.), Issei Arakaki (Extreme Hearts) as animation character designer, and Cedric Herole (POKÉTOON “Wait for Me, Magikarp” director, character designer et al.) as artistic director. TWIN ENGINE is producing (in the non-animation/creative sense).
In a statement for the press release, Igarashi said, “For this film, I poured in my respect for Osamu Tezuka, the creator of ‘Princess Knight’, for Ichizo Kobayashi of the Takarazuka Revue, which lies at the root of the work, and for the supreme, classic entertainment they brought into the world. They also created their works while overcoming hardships such as infectious diseases and war, and those works became the very foundation of our culture. To everyone living in this era, I hope you enjoy this blood‑stirring, heart‑pounding piece of what I believe is ‘true’ mainstream entertainment.”
The Princess Knight manga.has three versions — the Shojo Club version (1953 to 1956, described by the Osamu Tezuka website as “the first Japanese story manga for girls”), the Nakayoshi version (1963 to 1966, the “better-known” one), and the Shojo Friend version (1967). Kodansha released an omnibus edition of the Nakayoshi Princess Knight in 2022 and describes the synopsis as such:
Set in a medieval fairy-tale backdrop, Princess Knight is the tale of a young princess named Sapphire who must pretend to be a male prince so she can inherit the throne. Women have long been prevented from taking the throne, but Sapphire is not discouraged and instead she fully accepts the role, becoming a dashing hero(ine) that the populous is proud of.
Missing from that synopsis is the part about Princess Sapphire having “the minds of both a boy and a girl” due to the “angel Tink, who makes Princess Sapphire swallow the essence of the mind of a boy before birth, is then ordered by God to take it back (via the Osamu Tezuka website).
Princess Knight previously inspired a 52-episode 1967 to 1968 TV anime with Katsui Chikao and Akabori Kanji as the chief directors and Mushi Production as the animation production studio, as well as a 1999 short. The Shojo Club Princess Knight had a follow-up titled Twin Knights, about Sapphire’s twin children.
Sources: @the_ribbon_hero, Netflix press release, Twin Engine press release
