As I type this out, I have just finished watching this movie on Netflix. That’s how recently I watched this. Let’s see what I think of something this fresh.

The Ribbon Hero is based off of the legendary Manga series The Princess Knight made by Osamu Tezuka which, if you know of the history of Manga, means a lot. That said I have never read the manga and I don’t think it’s what I would call an adaptation looking into the plot of the Princess Knight. Instead of trying to look at it in comparison to a manga I know little to nothing of, I’ll instead just be looking at it as I saw it.

The Movie is divided into several acts. The Princess of Silverland is forced to leave as it falls to ruins following the attack by a monster called a Nergal. Our Lead Sapphire’s mother, the Queen, in her final moments tells the princess to just run, that they are powerless in the face of the world and against the Nergal as she and the survivors flee as the rot and destruction consume the remains of their home.

Sapphire and her retainer, an inventor lady, arrive in Goldland a kingdom with a more dogmatic defeatist religious view towards the Nergal – all about avoiding fighting them lest they draw the wrath of the biggest, the King of Ash. This ultimately causes a clash with Sapphire as when she’s working as a miner there is a Nergal attack, but magical girl stuff happens and she becomes the Princess Knight defeating the monster.

But the story isn’t as easy as that as over the course of the movie we learn the Nergal aren’t just simply monsters and how our lead must face against the nihilism and dogma of the church (of course a Japanese product has the church portrayed as bad guys, there’s a reason look it up)  as we have the story of hope and refusal to just give in against seemingly set in stone cruelty of the world.

The Film is done by Outline and Twin Engine, and just a quick glance of the works Twin Engine have produced… and it includes Witch Hat Atelier (yeah they are a high grade of animation). I have yet to find other works by Outline but if this is their standard I want to find out more about them. The show is vibrant when it needs to be. The Princess Knight may be mostly black and white in the colour palette, but her bright red ribbon then stands out as does the light she emits in comparison to the dark defeatist nihilism of the Nergal.

I do ponder now examining the original manga it drew from, though right away I can tell there are core differences so I think maybe a reimagining is a way to describe this? I was not sure until I read that. Still I’d say it’s worth a watch, especially during these dark times where you feel powerless against all the horrors going on.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐