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The Ribbon Hero review – do-gooder princess battles giant flying earwigs in update of classic yarn

Yûki Igarashi’s adaptation of Osamu Tezuka’s influential manga is a conservative (if impressively animated) reimagining that dulls the source material’s pioneering elements First-time director Yûki Igarashi should hit the jackpot here: the first big-screen adaptation for decades of Princess Knight, a seminal postwar manga series from Astro Boy genius Osamu Tezuka. But this very loose reworking is an anticlimax: conservative in solely concentrating on the girlishly feminine side of its protagonist, Sapphire (voiced by Saya), where the gender-flipping original was heralded by many as pioneering; and bland in its vanilla characterisation and dull adherence to battle-anime norms. The owner of the most prominent hair bow since Minnie Mouse, Sapphire is a princess forced into exile when a Nergal – a kind of gargantuan flying earwig – lays waste to her home kingdom of Silverland. Wandering with

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Yûki Igarashi’s adaptation of Osamu Tezuka’s influential manga is a conservative (if impressively animated) reimagining that dulls the source material’s pioneering elements First-time director Yûki Igarashi should hit the jackpot here: the first big-screen adaptation for decades of Princess Knight, a seminal postwar manga series from Astro Boy genius Osamu Tezuka. But this very loose reworking is an anticlimax: conservative in solely concentrating on the girlishly feminine side of its protagonist, Sapphire (voiced by Saya), where the gender-flipping original was heralded by many as pioneering; and bland in its vanilla characterisation and dull adherence to battle-anime norms. The owner of the most prominent hair bow since Minnie Mouse, Sapphire is a princess forced into exile when a Nergal – a kind of gargantuan flying earwig – lays waste to her home kingdom of Silverland. Wandering with

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According to The Guardian’s linked report, The Ribbon Hero review – do-gooder princess battles giant flying earwigs in update of classic yarn, Yûki Igarashi’s adaptation of Osamu Tezuka’s influential manga is a conservative (if impressively animated) reimagining that dulls the source material’s pioneering elements First-time director Yûki Igarashi should hit the jackpot here: the first big-screen adaptation for decades of Princess Knight, a seminal postwar manga series from Astro Boy genius Osamu Tezuka. But this very loose reworking is an anticlimax: conservative in solely concentrating on the girlishly feminine side of its protagonist, Sapphire (voiced by Saya), where the gender-flipping original was heralded by many as pioneering; and bland in its vanilla characterisation and dull adherence to battle-anime norms. The owner of the most prominent hair bow since Minnie Mouse, Sapphire is a princess forced into exile when a Nergal – a kind of gargantuan flying earwig – lays waste to her home kingdom of Silverland. Wandering with

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The development sits in VINI’s Culture coverage for readers following arts, entertainment, fashion, film, music, celebrity, and the business of culture. The original report is linked so readers can check the source account, follow later updates, and compare new coverage against the first published record. The linked report is dated 2026-08-03T10:00:16+00:00.

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Primary source: The Ribbon Hero review – do-gooder princess battles giant flying earwigs in update of classic yarn via The Guardian. VINI cites and links the source; it does not reproduce the publisher’s full article text without rights clearance.

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