Princess Knight
Princess Knight, also known as Ribon no Kishi, is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Osamu Tezuka. This manga follows the adventures of Sapphire, a girl who was born accidentally with the blue heart of a boy and the pink heart of a girl. She pretends to be a prince to prevent the evil Duke Duralumin from taking over the kingdom through his son, Plastic. The gender-bending main character was inspired by the all-female musical theater group Takarazuka Revue in which women performed both female and male roles.
The story was ordered by an editor of Kodansha's magazine Shōjo Club who wanted Tezuka to produce a manga aimed towards a female audience that could replicate the success of his former boy-aimed stories. The author then created Princess Knight, originally serialized in that magazine from 1953 to 1956. The manga's popularity resulted into a radio dramatization in 1955, three other serializations between 1958 and 1968, and a 52-episode television anime series by Mushi Production that aired on Fuji TV from 1967 to 1968. It has also influenced several stage musicals since the 1980s and inspired remakes of the work by other authors.
The series' arrival in the English-speaking market was delayed by NBC Enterprises executives' perception that it could be interpreted as "sex switch". However, still in the 1970s, the television series got a dubbed version produced by Joe Oriolo. Renamed Choppy and the Princess, it was released to American, Australian, and British television audiences, with home video releases to follow. The manga would only reach the anglophone public years later, in 2001 when Kodansha International published a bilingual edition of Princess Knight, which was followed by a newer version by Vertical in 2011.
One of Tezuka's most famous works and widely regarded as a classic, Princess Knight has been very influential in the manga and anime industry. Its portrayal of gender roles is ambiguously interpreted by critics; some claim it has pro-feminist ideals and others think it expresses misogynist ideals of 1950s–60s Japanese society. Nonetheless, it started a tradition of androgynous-like heroines and established several trends in the shōjo genre. It is considered one of the first works in this genre that is narrative-focused and that portrays a female superhero.
Plot
Taking place in a medieval European-like fairy tale setting, Princess Knight is the story of Sapphire, who must pretend to be a male prince, so she can inherit the throne of Silverland as women are not eligible to do so. When she is born, her father, the King, announces his baby is a boy instead of a girl. The reason for this is that the next-in-line to the throne, Duke Duralumin, is an evil man who would repress the people if his son, Plastic, were to become king. Duralumin and his henchman Baron Nylon often scheme to take over the kingdom and attempt to prove that Sapphire is really a girl. Sapphire can keep the façade because, when she was born, she received the blue heart of a boy as well as the pink heart of a girl. Because of this, God sent Tink, a young angel-in-training, down to Earth to retrieve Sapphire's extra heart. Sapphire would not let Tink remove her boy's heart, however.Sapphire and Tink experience a variety of adventures, including encounters with Satan, a warlock who wants to steal Sapphire's special two-hearted soul and take over the kingdom. However, he is always frustrated by Tink and his fear of angels, and by his own daughter, Hecate, a demonic-shapeshifting witch who at first appears to be evil like her father, but who covertly helps Sapphire foil her father's plans. Sapphire also dons a Zorro-style mask at night, fighting crime as the Phantom Knight, and gets involved with Franz Charming, the young prince of neighboring Goldland. Their relationship is multi-faceted; Franz is familiar with Sapphire as three entirely different people and has different feelings toward each. He is good friends with Prince Sapphire, is in love with the unnamed princess, and despises the Phantom Knight, who he believes is a rival for the Princess's affection.
As the story progresses, Duralumin stages a coup d'état to conquer Silverland, following the orders of Mr. X, a large man clad entirely in boxy red armor and the ruler of the X-Union, a neighboring, proto-fascist federation of nations that wants to conquer the three kingdoms. The King and Queen are captured, but help Sapphire to flee. Duralumin is about to proclaim his son king and himself as regent when he is assassinated by Nylon, who has been driven near-insane by the Duke's constant abuse. The mentally deranged Nylon proclaims himself and welcomes Mr. X and his armies to Silverland. Mr. X, though, soon makes it clear that he has no intention of letting Nylon rule, even as a puppet monarch, and merely keeps him around as a churlish buffoon.
Sapphire and Franz try to prevent the King and Queen from being executed, but they are too late and the King and Queen are dropped in the sea. This culminates in the final battle, as Sapphire heads off to Silverland castle to confront Mr. X with the aid of three magic balls. Given to Sapphire by her parents, the balls represent the three kingdoms and are supposed to save Silverland: they are used at first to ring the kingdom's bells, magically giving to the people the will to fight the invaders.
Sapphire has the balls melted to form a magic axe, which she uses to rout Mr. X's troops, break up the castle's walls, and confront X himself. Sapphire ends up dueling Mr. X, with the help of Franz, and manages to wound him. Just as the enraged Mr. X is about to chop Sapphire and Franz in half, Tink calls on God for help, and a lightning bolt strikes Mr. X. As Sapphire seems to triumph, Mr. X rises from his apparent death and begins smashing the castle with his bare hands, eventually causing it to collapse onto himself. Nylon, who was swaying through the halls like a raving madman, is also crushed to death. Sapphire escapes the collapsing castle and stands triumphant in the sunlight. Tink has been mortally wounded by the castle's breakdown, and tells God that he is ready to sacrifice his life should Sapphire's parents be brought back from the dead. God then agrees to bring the King and Queen back to life, as Tink dies.
Sapphire and Franz end up getting married. Tink's spirit returns to heaven, where he has finally earned his wings.
Production and style
During the 1950s, Osamu Tezuka was already popular having written Kimba the White Lion and Astro Boy. In late 1952, a Shōjo Clubs editor asked Tezuka if he would be able to create a work similar to his previous ones but aimed toward girls. Tezuka agreed and his first idea was to transpose the all-female musical theater group Takarazuka Revue into manga. Takarazuka's "aesthetic is on full display in Princess Knight", argued Natsu Onoda Power, in her book God of Comics.Born in Osaka, Tezuka lived in Takarazuka City between five and twenty-four, and with a mother who was fan of the revue, he often watched its performances during his childhood and youthhood. Takarazuka's costumes, sets, and lyrics, as well as its gender representation and sexual politics were used by Tezuka on creating Princess Knight. Sapphire is based on the dansō no reijin of Takarazuka, and Franz is modeled after one of the main actresses, Yachiyo Kasugano. Nobuko Otowa as Puck in Takarazuka's version of A Midsummer Night's Dream influenced Tink's character.
Early Disney films' animation technique influenced Tezuka's art style, especially his way of drawing childlike features and eyes. The very large eyes were also inspired by Takarazuka's performances. The coloring and layout was influenced by the film The Tales of Hoffmann. Some aspects of Princess Knight are also reminiscent of his previous shōjo manga, Kiseki no Mori no Monogatari, which featured a feathered hat and men in white maillots as well as adventure-driven storylines. It was also influenced by Western literature, Christianity, Greek mythology, and European fairy tales—because of this it has been described as a "trippy pop culture pastiche". Reviewers have perceived influences from Cinderella, Fantasias "Pastoral", Pinocchio, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Betty Boop, Captain Blood, Dracula, "Eros and Psyche", Hamlet, "The Sorcerer's Apprentice", Swan Lake, The Scarlet Pimpernel, and William Tell.
Themes
Multiple critics have provided many possible interpretations on the presence of gender ambiguity and androgyny on Princess Knight. Patrick Drazen, author of the book Anime Explosion!, stated the androgyny in the series is "deceptive" as it addresses gender instead of sex, and more "specifically, gender-role expectations." "Tezuka's Gekiga: Behind the Mask of Manga"s Philip Brophy summed up it as: "With its visualization of masculinity and femininity within one body it was able to depict conflicting selves within one-sexed body under pressure for social conformity, hence literally embodying the quest for identity and subjective agency". Ed Sizemore of Manga Worth Reading says Tezuka's central idea critiques "the false dichotomy that society creates among male and female." Rebecca Silverman of Anime News Network and Sheena McNeil of Sequential Tart both wrote that Tezuka put feminist positionings on it and Chris Mautner of The Comics Journal highlighted the presence of Friebe, "a swashbuckling" swordswoman, as another depiction of women in a non-subservient position.On the other hand, Silverman affirmed it shows gender stereotypes and "some of the more misogynist ideals of 1960s Japan," as exemplified by the fact her boy's heart gives her physical strength. Mautner also found "some" sexism in the work, given as an example the fact she loses her swordsmanship ability when she is without her boy's heart. Drazen and Mautner stressed that the manga had broken with some gender expectations but did not abandon them, as Sapphire marries Franz in the end. Power stated that by this attitude Sapphire shows "her true happiness comes from being in a traditional female role." For Paul Gravett, it demonstrated she "was no feminist rebel after all" and he wrote in Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics that Tezuka "created an exquisite world of indecision." Power concluded that "The image of Sapphire must have sent complex, if not conflicting, messages" to readers. This conflicts led Brophy to say "It may be more accurate to depict her characterization as schizophrenic rather than androgynous".
Snow Wildsmith of ICv2 described the series as having "younger characters do not want to stick to the roles their parents proscribed for them and most of the women are tired of being told that they are the lesser sex." Mautner wrote that "if there's a central theme in Princess Knight, however, it's not that of sex roles but of parental expectations and filial duty". Drazen also exposed that the series deals with "another classically Japanese pair of opposites: duty and desire." Drazen said "she doesn't resent her duty" of having to be a boy and have fun with it, but that "only in private does she live out her feminine desires." Mautner expressed a similar view, affirming that even if she likes to be a boy "possesses a strong desire to indulge her female side."