Next month’s The Ribbon Hero anime film has gotten a Sapphire x Pine Bond trailer, which zooms in on the relationship between protagonist Sapphire (our titular Ribbon Hero) and her new friend Pine.
Amidst the mix of daily life scenes and epic battles, Pine can at one point be heard lamenting her powerlessness and role as the one who always needs protecting, saying that such a person is a failure of a friend. Later, when a despondent Sapphire describes herself as weak and says that “this is a curse,” Pine becomes the hero as she tells her friend, “Curses are something born from words, so the power of words can dispel them.”
Directed by Yuki Igarashi (Star Wars: Visions — “Lop & Ochō” director and character designer et al.), Gen Hoshino’s “I Wanna Be Your Ghost” music video director et al., Jujutsu Kaisen Season 1’s first ending solo key animator) and produced by Igarashi’s OUTLINE, The Ribbon Hero is inspired by Osamu Tezuka‘s Princess Knight manga, of which there are three versions. The synopsis reads:
Sapphire is the princess of a kingdom that no longer exists. Having lost everything in her homeland of Silverland to the calamity known as “Nergal,” she wanders in despair until she finally arrives in Goldland.
Though burdened by her past, she begins to find a glimmer of hope as she encounters the kindness of the people there. But as if to sneer at her peaceful new life, the calamity Nergal appears once more. The very despair that once reduced her homeland to ashes now threatens to steal the light from this land as well.
“I won’t lose anything ever again. And I won’t let anyone else lose anything either.” Brushing away her tears of sorrow, the girl takes up her sword. This is the story of a lone hero who ties her ribbon and resolves to defy her fate.
Sapphire is voiced by Saya of the comedy group Lalande, while Pine is played by Seiran Kobayashi. Also part of the cast are Koki Uchiyama as Velvet, the leader of the religious order that rules Goldland, where Pine resides in, and Mayumi Shintani as Sapphire’s scientist retainer Zirco.
Among the other production staff are illustrator Kei Mochizuki as original character designer, Mai Yoneyama (“COLORs” music video character designer and animation director, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners ending animation director, storyboard artist et al.) on character design cooperation duties, Issei Arakaki (Extreme Hearts) as animation character designer, and Cedric Herole (POKÉTOON “Wait for Me, Magikarp” director, character designer et al.) as artistic director.
The first Princess Knight manga was the Shojo Club version (1953 to 1956), which was later followed by the Nakayoshi version (1963 to 1966) and the Shojo Friend version (1967). The Shojo Club Princess Knight had a follow-up titled Twin Knights, about Sapphire’s twin children. The Osamu Tezuka website, which calls Princess Knight “the first Japanese story manga for girls,” describes the story of the Shojo Club version as such:
This is a fantasy of a princess by the name of Sapphire who has both a boy’s heart and a girl’s heart. She cleans up evils by disguising herself as Princess Knight.
Sapphire is born with both boy’s and girl’s mind due to a mischievous angel by the name of Tink. In addition, Sapphire bears a destiny to be raised as a prince to inherit the throne. On the other hand, Duke Duralumin, who wants to make his son the king, ploys to find evidence that Sapphire is a girl in various ways.
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 Ribbon Hero will be released on Netflix on August 8, 2026.
Production credits
• Director: Yuki Igarashi
• Original character designer: Kei Mochizuki
• Character design cooperation: Mai Yoneyama
• Animation character designer: Issei Arakaki
• Artistic director: Cedric Herole
• Nergal designer: okama
• Background art director: Masanobu Nomura (Mono, New Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt)
• Color designer: Natsumi Watabe
• CG director: Akine Nagamine
• Compositing director: Hikaru Fukuda
• Music composer: MONACA’s Satoru Kosaki
• Music composer: MONACA’s Ryuichi Takada
• Animation production: OUTLINE
Source: TWIN ENGINE YouTube channel
