Singapore gets to stream this one from day one. The Ribbon Hero — a new anime feature film based on Osamu Tezuka’s foundational manga Princess Knight (Ribbon no Kishi) — premieres exclusively on Netflix worldwide on 8 August 2026, with the final trailer and a preview of the English dub landing yesterday.
What Is The Ribbon Hero?
Princess Knight is one of manga’s foundational texts. First serialised in 1953 by Osamu Tezuka — the creator behind Astro Boy and Black Jack, widely called the Father of Manga — it follows Princess Sapphire of the kingdom of Silverland, born with both a boy’s blue heart and a girl’s pink heart after a mischievous angel’s prank. Because the law only allows a male heir to rule, her parents present Sapphire to the kingdom as a prince, hiding her identity to keep the scheming Duke Duralumon from seizing the throne.
The new film updates this premise with a darker, more dramatic tone. In The Ribbon Hero, Silverland is destroyed by a mysterious catastrophe called Nergal. Sapphire rebuilds her life in the neighbouring kingdom of Goldland — only for the same force to find her again. The modern visual treatment reimagines the magical girl transformation sequences that Princess Knight helped pioneer, giving them a contemporary edge while staying true to the spirit of Tezuka’s original.
The Team Behind the Film
The Ribbon Hero is produced by Twin Engine and directed by Yuuki Igarashi at the newly formed studio OUTLINE — this is Igarashi’s feature-length directorial debut. Character designs are by Kei Mochizuki and Mai Yoneyama, bringing a contemporary sensibility to Tezuka’s classic character silhouettes while keeping the iconic ribbon imagery that gives the film its title.
This is the first new Princess Knight anime in roughly three decades. The original 52-episode TV series aired in 1967 and has been deeply influential on the magical girl genre — you can draw a direct line from Sapphire to Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, and beyond.
Voice Cast
The Japanese voice cast, as revealed via Fandom Post, includes:
- Sapphire — Saya
- Pine — Seiran Kobayashi
- Velvet — Koko Ichiyama
- Zirko — Mayumi Shintani
- Rock — Yoshimasa Hosoya
- Hecate — Mito Tsukino
- Chorogy — Yusuke Tezuka
- Chick — Lunlun
- Tack — Debidebi Debiru
- Pope — Haruhiko Jou
An English dub has also been confirmed — a full English dubbed trailer is now live on Netflix’s official YouTube channel — though the complete English voice cast has not yet been officially announced.
Streaming from 8 August — Singapore Included
Netflix is making this a global-simultaneous premiere, which means Singapore subscribers can watch The Ribbon Hero the moment it drops on 8 August. For local fans who grew up watching Astro Boy and other Tezuka classics — a fixture on Singapore TV for decades — this is the most high-profile Tezuka anime adaptation in recent memory, and it arrives on a platform most Singapore households already have access to.
Keep an eye on more upcoming anime releases on the blog as streaming dates are confirmed.