Princess Knight 1

Osamu Tezuka – Kodansha – 1999 – 6 volumes
This is a bilingual version published in Japan

I kind of don’t want to write about this here.  I only cover work that has been released in the US on this site, since as a young fan I was always frustrated with sites that covered material I didn’t have access to.  I hate it when this is included in lists of Tezuka’s work in English, because it wasn’t distributed outside Japan and was never meant for an English-speaking audience, but as an aid for those learning English.  It’s extremely hard to come by.  My copies are used and weren’t expensive, but I had trouble locating them even in obvious secondhand marketplaces, like the Yahoo Japan auctions.  Unfortunately, I thought this was the 2-volume version of Princess Knight from the late ’50s since I could only find listings for the first two volumes.  It’s not, it’s the 6-volume remake from the late ’60s (supposedly the superior version).  After learning that, I found the listings for the rest, but the later volumes are quite expensive, even used in Japan.  Sigh.  And the volumes are only a little over 100 pages long!  There only needs to be three!  Geez.

Anyway, how’s the story?  My first tip-off that it wasn’t what I thought was when it started completely different from the segment that I read in Shojo Beat.  The first scene takes place in heaven, with a mischevious angel that gives a baby a boy’s heart just before God assigns her a female gender and sends her down to Earth.  As punishment, God sends the angel down to fetch her boy’s heart back, but the damage is already done, and the angel simply sits back and watches the girl (named Sapphire) live her life.

It’s exactly like a children’s fairy tale.  The characters all have really appropriate and slightly absurd old fairy tale-ish names (Sapphire, Tink the angel, the prince from the neighboring kingdom Franz Charming, King Plastic, Sir Nylon).  The plot follows the familiar arc, with an evil uncle that threatens to ursurp Sapphire and make his son king in her stead plotting her downfall while she begins dealing with forbidden feelings for Franz Charming, a boy she can’t marry while she’s pretending to be a prince.

The art goes well with the fairy tale story, too.  While it’s not nearly as flowery and ornate as Tezuka’s early shoujo work, it’s still got an adorable, cartoony charm to it, and it does look a lot more controlled than the early work.  Some of the costumes look like they were ripped straight from Disney movies (quite literally, I’m pretty sure the palace women’s costumes are taken from Cinderella), and I love Sapphire’s character design.  Fun fact: one of the first bits of artwork I saw from a Tezuka comic was the first version of Princess Knight, and I was blown away by how it looked like a cross between Disney and Max Fleischer.  After hearing how important he was to the manga industry, I wasn’t sure how I felt about the obvious… homage.

The one interesting difference between Princess Knight and a standard western fairy tale is its themes of gender identity.  It’s interesting how such a complex theme is woven into what seems like a simple story.  It’s also out-of-place here since it is otherwise such a western story, and such a topic is extremely uncomfortable among a large portion of the western audience (at least Americans, anyway).  In the story, the reason given for Sapphire to act like a prince and keep her gender secret is that her cousin Prince Plastic will become king and put the evil Duke Duralmin in a position of power.  She makes for a wonderful prince, and not even the Duke’s best efforts unmask her as a princess.  Her character design is extremely feminine, however, and it’s no real secret to the reader that Sapphire is a female at any point in the story, which is an interesting choice.  By the end of the volume, Sapphire finds herself in a difficult postion in her kingdom, so I’m very curious how the rest of the series will play out.

I enjoy the translation, which is the most literal I have ever read.  Again, this wasn’t meant for an English-speaking audience, really, so the literal translation is likely far better for understanding the meaning of what’s being said.  The Japanese dialogue is printed around the outside of the panels.  The literal translation makes it somewhat difficult to get too absorbed in the story, and is also hilarious in spots.  My favorite part is Franz Charming exclaiming “shit!” when he finds himself in prison.

I’ll talk a little more about the pacing in the next volume, but as I said, I’m having a hard time figuring out where this is going, since pretty much everything that I was expecting to happen was undone at the end of this volume.  Maybe that means exciting things are in store.