The Ribbon Hero Remakes Princess Knight Without Two Hearts

The Ribbon Hero, Yuki Igarashi’s 111-minute Netflix film, began a two-week Japanese theatrical run on September 4. It had already gone out worldwide on the service on August 8 as a rewrite of Osamu Tezuka’s 1953 manga Princess Knight.

Twin Engine asked for action. The two hearts that defined Sapphire in every Tezuka version did not make the trip.

The Ribbon Hero Is Already on Netflix

Outline animated the movie at Igarashi’s new studio, Twin Engine produced it, and Netflix holds worldwide streaming rights. A limited Japan booking runs through September 17, after a June 24 preview in the Annecy Presents section of the 2026 Annecy International Animation Film Festival.

THE 2026 RELEASE

• Netflix debut: The film began streaming worldwide on August 8, 2026.
• Running time: Netflix lists it at 1 hour 51 minutes, or 111 minutes.
• Japan theaters: Twin Engine booked a two-week run from September 4 to September 17.
• Festival preview: Annecy screened it on June 24, during a festival that ran June 21 to 27.

The May teaser still sold a revival. That first look sat beside Netflix’s earlier bet on the 1953 classic, which treated the title as a straight return for Tezuka’s fighting princess. The finished film is a disaster story about a refugee who picks up a sword.

Netflix rates the title 13+. In the United States it carries a PG for thematic elements, action and violence, some language, and brief smoking. Those are separate boards, not one grade.

Twin Engine’s Brief Was Action First

Igarashi, who drew the first Jujutsu Kaisen ending as a key animator and directed the Star Wars: Visions short Lop & Ochō, is making his feature debut. He also wrote the screenplay. When Twin Engine hired him, the company did not ask for a page-faithful Princess Knight.

When Twin Engine first approached me, they specifically requested ‘a bold reinvention of Princess Knight’ and asked that it be turned into an action-oriented work.

Yuki Igarashi, director, interview with Animation Magazine

He has said a girl who fights with grace no longer shocks anyone, and that he wanted a present-day Japanese take on a female hero. The result follows Sapphire after a monster named Nergal, out of the Sea of Ash, wipes out Silverland. She wanders for seven years with her attendant Zirco, reaches Goldland starving, and takes mine work to live. When Nergal comes again, a ribbon wakes in a crystal cavern and she names the new form Princess Knight.

That is the engine on the film’s own plot synopsis: a hero who ties her ribbon and decides to defy fate. Velvet, voiced by Koki Uchiyama, warns that a reckless fight will wreck the land. Crystals bought from the mines are used to keep the monster fed. The old court plot, the prince disguise, and the neighboring-kingdom romance are not what drives the 111 minutes.

Four Manga Versions, Then a 52-Episode Show

Tezuka could not leave the story alone. He made four versions from a 1953 magazine serial through a 1967 retelling, and he later shrugged at the last one as a tie-in drawn by other hands at Mushi Production. Kodansha USA put the best-known run out as a one-volume omnibus in August 2022.

The 1953 Shojo Club Princess Knight serial opens on an angel’s prank. Tink makes the unborn princess swallow a boy’s heart as well as a girl’s. Silverland will not let a daughter take the throne, so Sapphire is raised as a prince, trained with a sword, and allowed a dress only in secret. Tezuka’s official page on Sapphire still calls her the cross-dressing heroine of a classic of girls’ manga, and traces her to his childhood in Takarazuka.

PRINCESS KNIGHT, REMADE

A 1999 anime film from Media Vision was the last time the property moved on a screen. That gap is 27 years. Igarashi has said Tezuka is fading among Japanese readers in their teens and 20s, and that some have never heard the name. He wanted even an “inspired by” film to send people back to the old books. The books still open on two hearts. The movie does not.

Who Voices Sapphire in The Ribbon Hero?

Saya, of the comedy duo Lalande, voices Sapphire in her first lead role in a feature-length animated film. Courtney Lin voices her in the English dub. The May teaser made that casting the argument before anyone had seen a reel of Nergal. Replies treated a comedian in a seiyuu part as a draw hire. The film kept her.

Seiran Kobayashi voices Pine, the Goldland baker who feeds the refugees. Mayumi Shintani voices Zirco. Yoshimasa Hosoya voices Rock, a miner. Three NIJISANJI talents, Mito Tsukino, Lunlun, and Debidebi Debiru, make feature anime debuts as Hecate, Chick, and Tack, the rest of the mine crew. Haruhiko Jo voices the Pope. Yusuke Tezuka voices Chorogy.

THE VOICE CAST

• Sapphire: Saya of Lalande, in her first feature anime lead; Courtney Lin in English.
• Pine: Seiran Kobayashi, the first friend Sapphire meets in Goldland.
• Zirco: Mayumi Shintani, the attendant who pulls her out of the ruined palace.
• Velvet: Koki Uchiyama, the Goldland figure who tries to manage the monster.
• Rock: Yoshimasa Hosoya, on the crystal crew.
• Mine companions: NIJISANJI’s Mito Tsukino, Lunlun, and Debidebi Debiru as Hecate, Chick, and Tack.

Kei Mochizuki designed the characters, with Mai Yoneyama on concept and Issei Arakaki on animation design. Cedric Herole was art director. The artist okama designed Nergal. Satoru Kosaki and Ryuichi Takada, both of MONACA, wrote the score. Girls Archives, a Korean-Japanese group that mixes live and virtual members, sings the theme “Reborn.”

Reviewers Keep Coming Back to What Got Cut

The drawings are not the fight. Clint Worthington scored the film 2 out of 4 and wrote that it refuses to highlight what made Princess Knight unique, then called the result a thin copy of the magical-girl stories the manga helped spawn. Phil Hoad scored it 2 out of 5 and called the rewrite conservative for staying on the girlish side of Sapphire, where the old books flipped her presentation as a tactic. Elijah Gonzalez scored it 7 out of 10 and said it still remembers theatricality even if it is not a revelation.

WHERE CRITICS SPLIT

• Clint Worthington, 2/4: The unique parts of Princess Knight are left unlit, and the movie imitates the genre it should have parented.
• Phil Hoad, 2/5: The gender-flipping original is flattened into a do-gooder princess versus a giant flying pest.
• Elijah Gonzalez, 7/10: The stage feeling survives even when the story is no longer a first of its kind.
• Isaiah Colbert: A messy magical-girl romp can still move a viewer, and the medium has room for women in the lead.

Audience grades sit in the same split. Filmarks lists a 2.7 average from 1,005 user reviews. IMDb lists 5.9 out of 10 from 589 ratings. Those are different sites and different samples, not one number. Japanese users who liked the movie keep pointing at Mochizuki’s designs in motion and at the last act. Users who did not keep asking why the ribbon is the point, and why Nergal feels light beside the rest of the frame.

The first public fight was Saya. The fight that lasted past August 8 is the missing dual heart, plus a calamity some viewers do not feel in the body. People who already streamed it and then bought a ticket say the widescreen and the house sound change the movie. That is a physical fact about a film built for curtains and wipes, not a verdict on the script.

Stage Curtains, Paper Cutouts, Then Live Action

Igarashi studied the first three manga versions and leaned on the 1953 mood: a fairy-tale opening that sounds read aloud, chapter breaks like a rising curtain, and paper-cutout passages. He has also said the Takarazuka Revue sits under the whole property, because Tezuka grew up in that city and watched an all-women company play men. Netflix carried his note on Tezuka and Takarazuka when it posted the first look, including his hope that the film would play as true mainstream entertainment.

Reviewers who soured on the plot still describe a pile-up of styles: court pageantry on hard 2D backdrops, chibi shocks, shadow play, a rubber-hose burst in the climax, and a live-action break that holds a prop of Tezuka’s manga. Jose Solis, writing a parents’ guide, called the movie candy-colored and bright, with bursts of animation that never quite become compelling. The pictures are the argument Igarashi can win without the two hearts.

Netflix Anime’s English trailer is the cleanest public cut of that mix.

Igarashi has said he felt the pressure of remaking an early girls’ manga as a man, and that the doubt stayed with him through production. The brief he accepted still shapes every scene that follows. A fighting princess is on screen. The boy heart and the girl heart are not.

Japanese Theaters Hold the Film Until September 17

Twin Engine moved the already-streaming title into a short theatrical window rather than opening Japan first. First-week tickets from September 4 to September 9 came with a CD of “Reborn,” in a jacket drawn by Kei Mochizuki. That bonus is over. The booking itself runs through September 17.

THE 2026 CALENDAR

1. April 23, 2026: Netflix and Twin Engine announce The Ribbon Hero for an August debut, with Igarashi directing at Outline.
2. May 26, 2026: The first teaser, the main visual, Saya’s casting, and the August 8 date go out together.
3. June 24, 2026: Annecy previews the film in a non-competitive section.
4. July 30, 2026: A final trailer adds Hosoya, the three NIJISANJI roles, Yusuke Tezuka, and Jo.
5. August 8, 2026: Netflix releases the 111-minute film worldwide.
6. September 4, 2026: A two-week Japanese theatrical run begins; the first-week CD bonus lasts through September 9.
7. September 17, 2026: The Japan booking ends.

The official film account posted the theater dates when the window was set.

୨୧ː『THE RIBBON HERO リボンヒーロー』ː୨୧
┗━━　劇　場　公　開　決　定　━━━┛

/／
9月4日(金)より2週間限定劇場公開決定👏✨
＼

『#THERIBBONHERO #リボンヒーロー』を
まだ、ご覧になっていない方も！
大きなスクリーンでご覧いただきたい方も！
ぜひ劇場に足をは運んでください🎀… pic.twitter.com/y7abGWOq0C

— 『THE RIBBON HERO リボンヒーロー』公式@アニメ映画 (@the_ribbon_hero) August 27, 2026

Igarashi wanted a movie that would make teenagers pick up Tezuka again as the artist’s centennial comes into view. The official Tezuka pages still introduce Sapphire as a girl born with two hearts and raised as a prince. The Ribbon Hero gives global subscribers a different first look: a princess who lost a country to Nergal, works a mine, and ties a ribbon to fight. Japanese theaters have that version through September 17. After that date it remains a Netflix title, and the old books remain the place where the second heart still sits.