Key Insights
- Director Yuki Igarashi discusses the adaptation of Osamu Tezuka’s 1953 anime Princess Knight into The Ribbon Hero.
- The film features Princess Sapphire fighting against a catastrophe known as “Nergal” to reclaim her fate.
- Igarashi believes that the themes of the film resonate with modern audiences, reflecting contemporary issues.
- The film is set to premiere exclusively on Netflix on August 8.
A brand-new anime film is hitting Netflix soon, inspired by Osamu Tezuka’s 1953 manga, Princess Knight. This enduring tale of a lone heroine sparked the idea for The Ribbon Hero, directed by Yûki Igarashi (Star Wars: Visions), which recently celebrated an early preview at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival, as part of Netflix’s anime showcase. There, Collider’s Steven Weintraub caught up with Igarashi to chat about why now is the perfect time to reimagine this story.
In the movie, Princess Saphire’s (Saya) kingdom in Shiverland is completely decimated by a catastrophe known as “Nergal.” Instead of giving in to her despair, however, Sapphire defies the bleak destiny her course was set on, “fighting different monsters” to determine her own fate.
During their interview at Annecy, Igarashi discusses carrying on the legacy of Tezuka’s Princess Knight through a modern-day reinterpretation he believes “will really speak to people of this generation.” He talks about how his work on the Disney+ series <em>Star Wars: Visions</em> helped tackle a long-standing IP and what he hopes his feature directorial debut, The Ribbon Hero, says about the identity of his animation studio, Outline, as their first major feature release.
‘The Ribbon Hero’ Director Reveals Their Favorite Hayao Miyazaki Movie
Two come to mind for Yûki Igarashi.
Image via Toei Company
COLLIDER: I will start with the most important question. I ask this of a lot of people who work in animation: What is your favorite Hayao Miyazaki movie?
YÛKI IGARASHI: When I was young, my favorite was Princess Mononoke, and now it’s Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.
Thank you for indulging me. With the film premiering here at Annecy ahead of its Netflix release, how do you think international audiences will connect with a story so deeply rooted in the history of Japanese manga?
IGARASHI: Actually, the way I’ve directed and made the film, I think thematically and story-wise, it’s more inspired by. So, it’s been arranged in a way that we kind of tap into different themes, COVID, disasters, and it’s been put through almost a fantasy lens. I think it’ll be much more resonant with a lot of modern audiences.
Your work is often praised for dynamic movement and emotional action. How did you approach action in The Ribbon Hero so that it expressed character rather than just spectacle?
IGARASHI: In the film, our protagonist is fighting different monsters, kaiju, if you will, and there’s a spectacle between kaiju versus the human. But in certain moments, there are ribbons that scatter, and the ribbons that scatter, when our hero, Sapphire, attacks the kaiju, it almost carries an emotion of its own, which I think is reflective of what’s going on in Sapphire’s mind.
‘Star Wars: Visions’ Played a Key Role in ‘The Ribbon Hero’s Development
Yûki Igarashi directed the Season 1 short, “Lop & Ochô.”
How did your experience directing Star Wars: Visions influence the way you approached a legacy property like Princess Knight?
IGARASHI: Absolutely, my experience with Star Wars, taking such an idea that has so much history and that influenced so many other IPs and different franchises that spawned after it… I would say Tezuka Osamu’s work has also inspired so many other works. So, just that idea of how it’s been interpreted, reinterpreted, is something that I’ve learned by working on Star Wars, and I try to put that influence into my own, The Ribbon Hero, as well.
The Ribbon Hero is inspired by Osamu Tezuka’s Princess Knight, one of manga’s foundational works. What was the first image, emotion, or idea that made you feel this story needed to be reimagined now?
IGARASHI: Princess Knight, of course, is a very old franchise, and it’s influenced so many works after it, but it’s hard to see that link anymore because it’s been reimagined and reinterpreted so many times. This idea of a fighting woman, a fighting heroine, the protagonist, it’s its own genre, the heroine, but I would argue that Princess Knight was the first that really did that. I think that by translating that into a format that people can absorb and consume now helps bridge that gap between modern-day media and its origins in the past. I think it’s been done in an interesting way that audiences will be receptive to.
Sapphire has meant different things to different generations of readers. What did you want this modern audience to feel when they meet her in this version?
IGARASHI: The world setting that we’re thrown into is a very harsh world that she has to navigate, and despite all that, you see her grit and her trying. She keeps a very bright attitude throughout all of it, and she doesn’t get dark. She keeps humor throughout the entire film despite what might be happening. So, I hope that that brightness and that sort of attitude, that way you approach the world, is something that will really speak to people of this generation.
In America, a lot of animated movies will go through very big changes during the development process. Sometimes not much, but other times they could screen the movie and realize things are really not working, and then redo a lot of things. When you make a movie with other people in Asia, does it change a lot when you’re making it or is it very close to what you set out to make?
IGARASHI: I would say the fundamentals or the foundation haven’t changed or shifted much from development to final cut but there were a lot of changes or differences over course corrections if you will during production. It wasn’t something like we did a focus group or showed the client and then we got notes and changed it as much as the team themselves. All changes came from them. Animators would make suggestions and we would have discussions that would shift the project over time. So it wasn’t that there wasn’t any change but a lot of it came from that.
‘The Ribbon Hero’ Hopes To Appeal to Hardcore Fans and Eager Newcomers
“That was a very strong perspective.”
What conversations did you have with the team about balancing nostalgia for longtime Tezuka fans with accessibility for viewers who have never heard of Princess Night?
IGARASHI: I don’t know how much of this I should be saying. [Laughs] A lot of the team, the animators who worked on this project didn’t read much or know about the Princess Knight until they got involved. So I guess you could say they were almost looking at this project too with a similar lens that many present-day or modern-day audiences would. So that was a very strong perspective. They did a lot of research starting with this project and I myself had done a lot of research to service that backbone of what theme we’re trying to depict.
I meet people all the time who’ve never seen an Alfred Hitchcock movie or a Stanley Kubrick movie. You have to start somewhere.
IGARASHI: [Laughs] But I have seen Hitchcock and Kubrick.
This is the first major feature film produced by your animation studio Outline. What kind of studio identity did you want this film to announce?
IGARASHI: I personally like old stuff. In this film and everything I do I try to pay a lot of respect to works that have come before me and I think translates to this film. I hope that also extends to studio’s identity ultimately to audience so they can feel that’s where we come from.
The Ribbon Hero premieres worldwide exclusively on Netflix on August 8.
- Date de sortie
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August 7, 2026
- Duree
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109 minutes
- Metteur en scène
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Yuki Igarashi
Cast
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Seiran Kobayashi
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