When monstrous beasts threaten to destroy the world, Sapphire transforms into the supernaturally gifted Princess Knight to save it. The Ribbon Hero lauds friendship and selflessness, but we also find some mild language and a twisted religious order that wants to sacrifice children.
It’s been seven years since Sapphire’s home, Silver Land, was destroyed.
As princess, Sapphire wanted to protect her people, but the power of the Nergal—monstrous, destructive beasts from another realm—proved to be too much.
Sapphire doesn’t know why the Nergal decided to attack, nor why her mother stopped fighting and gave up hope right near the end. The queen even refused to let Sapphire try to save her. Instead, she told Sapphire that she should simply accept defeat and try to survive.
Now, Sapphire wanders the land with her loyal but aging servant, Zirco. The two make their way to neighboring Gold Land, which has somehow found a way to stave off the Nergal attacks … for now.
But the King of Ash, the most powerful and dangerous Nergal, is beginning to stir. The Mitra, Gold Land’s ruling religious authority, believe that if they can feed the King of Ash enough magical crystals, he’ll leave their nation alone. Unfortunately, increasing Nergal attacks at crystal mining sites have depleted Gold Land’s supply.
Ironic, right?
The Mitra have a plan to to satiate the King of Ash should the need arise—but only as a last resort. In the meantime, they’ll keep trying to harvest more crystals, a plan made all the more difficult by uprisings among the immigrant miners.
The common folk of Gold Land are tired of risking their lives to mine crystals for the Nergal. They believe it’s high time to fight back, to take down the King of Ash once and for all.
When Sapphire arrives on the scene, she’s sympathetic: She knows firsthand the havoc the Nergal can wreak. She wants to prevent Gold Land from suffering the same fate as Silver Land. And luckily, she just might have the powers necessary to do something about it.
The Ribbon Hero lauds the power of friendship. Sapphire makes new friends in Gold Land who offer her encouragement and love at critical moments. Sapphire is also a selfless person who is always willing to help someone in need.
Pine, Sapphire’s first new friend in Gold Land, struggles with insecurity. Unlike Sapphire, she lacks the necessary skills to fight the Nergal. However, Sapphire reassures Pine. Without friends like Pine, Sapphire says that she wouldn’t have the strength or courage to carry out her fiend-fighting duties. So while Pine may not feel like she’s doing much for the world, what she does means the world to Sapphire.
One guy initially sells out Sapphire to a group that means her harm. He clarifies that he never wanted to cause her harm, and he deeply regrets his actions, admitting his own cowardice. But he later atones for those actions, eventually risking his life to save a child and help others in need.
Another man risks his life to save Gold Land’s orphans from a terrible fate. This initially pits him against Sapphire since he’s worried her actions will incite the Nergal, but he eventually realizes that she can help him. Many characters risk their lives to help or save others.
Note: This section contains spoilers.
We’re told that the Nergal rose from a “great calamity” that emerged from the sea. Many of them look like skeletal sea creatures. Some soar through the air like fish in water. When they leave their own realm, they bring a sort of toxic mold with them that poisons humans. Nations like Gold Land have long kept the beasts at bay by offering tithes of crystals and sacrifices of souls.
But not just any old soul will do: The Nergal will only consume the purest of souls—those of children. Essentially, we’re told, the sacrifice has to hurt the ones offering the sacrifice to count. They must mourn what they’ve lost. And the Mitra indeed prepare to sacrifice a whole slew of young orphans when the King of Ash makes an appearance.
Speaking of the Mitra, it’s sort of like a church. There’s even a pope-like figure as the head. It’s hard to say if he’s corrupt or just woefully misguided, but he’s not above murdering the innocent few to protect the masses. At one point he says, “Prayer without pain is purposeless and ineffective.”
The people of Gold Land and the Mitra pray to an “Angel of Hope,” trusting this supernatural being to guide them in their plight against the Nergal. We never do see that angel (though we do hear hymns about it and prayers uttered to it), but several citizens wonder if Sapphire might be the angel when she starts battling the Nergal on their behalf.
Oh, I should probably mention Sapphire’s powers. Essentially, Sapphire was born with a special heart. Not much is really explained about that, but an illustration shows that angels hand out hearts at birth, and hers was one covered in ribbons. She was supposed to be sacrificed to the King of Ash when she was a child as part of a creed to protect Silver Land. However, the queen couldn’t do it. She chose to protect her daughter instead. And that paved the way for Sapphire to attain special powers to fight the Nergal when she grew up.
When she gets to Gold Land, Sapphire falls into a crystal-infused pool that transforms her into the “Princess Knight,” complete with a full-body makeover and outfit change. She can activate and deactivate her powers by fluffing her large hair ribbon. As the Princess Knight, Sapphire becomes immune to the mold spores of the Nergal and really good at sword fighting. She can also further transform into a glowing white bird-like being that flies around battering the Nergal.
When Sapphire enters a battle against the King of Ash, he psychically transports her to a sort of alternate universe—one where her parents and people are still alive and living in peace. The King of Ash offers Sapphire the opportunity to stay in this heaven-like realm, but she sees through the façade. She finally accepts that her parents are dead and her homeland is gone forever. This acceptance, though it washes her in grief, helps Sapphire to break free of the King of Ash’s hold, allowing her to defeat him.
Someone wonders if the Princess Knight is a demon.
Sapphire and another female character both wear bra-like tops. Some male miners are shirtless. When Sapphire transforms into the Princess Knight, the animation focuses on her figure as her hair and clothing change. A male character wears robes that sort of look like a dress.
Early on, as she’s fleeing Silver Land, Sapphire’s arm is discovered to be injured. It’s covered in what looks like blood, and she eventually loses use of the limb.
The Nergal attacks are not bloody, but they are destructive. One wipes out a mining site. Another knocks the tower off a castle. When the King of Ash arises, he shoots bolts of purple lightning that solidify on contact. One young man is annihilated by one such beam after saving a little girl from some falling rubble. And presumably, many people are killed by collapsing infrastructure.
Sapphire uses a sword to fight several agents of the Nergal (and the Nergal themselves), but those fights are not gory either. The weapons swipe through the air, and when they hit their marks, it’s depicted as a flash of light. Sapphire occasionally gets knocked around in comical ways during battles.
Some people die from the mold spores that the Nergal bring. Sapphire sees a dead man whose face is covered in the stuff. When Nergal show up at a mining site, one guy knocks an old woman and a child out of his way as he flees. A woman puts a man in a headlock while threatening him. A large tiger-like animal attacks Sapphire, but she manages to fight it off using a mechanical arm. Sapphire collapses in exhaustion after a few of her Princess Knight transformations.
When the Mitra learns that commoners are trying to resist the Nergal, they worry it will provoke the King of Ash to attack. So orders are given to publicly whip anyone who tries to rally the people against the Nergal.
We hear a couple uses each of “b–tard,” “d–n” and “h—.”
Some people drink at a tavern in celebration.
Times are hard in Gold Land, but apparently only for the common folk. It seems the Mitra has created a class system that ensures the wealthy never want for anything even if the common folk starve. The Mitra further takes advantage of the poor and of immigrants by drafting them to work in the dangerous crystal mines.
Some characters lie.
Netflix’s The Ribbon Hero is based on the popular manga series Princess Knight by Osamu Tezuka. But other than sharing the lead protagonist’s name and powers, I’m not sure The Ribbon Hero has all that much to do with the graphic novels.
On the plus side, that means that parents won’t have to navigate some of the plot points of Tezuka’s series—namely that the main character in Princess Knight was born with a boy’s heart and a girl’s heart. However, if your child becomes interested in the manga after watching this anime, you may find yourself trying to wade through those water anyway.
And for that matter, The Ribbon Hero brings its own weird content issues to the table. The Nergal, the King of Ash, the Mitra, the Angel of Hope—all of these supernaturally tinged details are fuzzy at best. Add in the concept of child sacrifice and some illustrations about the origin of Sapphire’s heart and you’ll be left saying, “Huh?” There’s also some mild language in the mix, along with some non-graphic depictions of violence.
That may be navigable for some families, especially since there’s some really nice messages about friendship and courage here. But by and large, The Ribbon Hero is a tangled knot of artistic interpretation and muddled spirituality.
Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.
