Princess Knight

Princess Knight (リボンの騎士, Ribon no Kishi?, lit. "Knight of the Ribbon") is a Japanese manga that ran through four serializations from 1953 to 1968, as well as a 1967 Japanese children's animated series. It was dubbed into English and brought over to Western audiences by Joe Oriolo in 1970, where it was called Choppy and the Princess. But due to several disputes by the syndicators over broadcast rights Choppy and The Princess/Princess Knight was rarely seen in the United States. In 1973, this series was dubbed in Portuguese and premiered in Brazil, where it still has many fans. In 1975, the series was dubbed into French (as Prince Saphir) and aired on TV Channel TF1. From 1972 to 1992 it was broadcasted in Latin America, dubbed in Spanish.

The original Japanese animation was created by Osamu Tezuka, the "God of manga", who is probably best known in the West as the creator of Tetsuwan Atom, also known as Astro Boy. Princess Knight had a similar animation and character design style as Astro Boy, and was targeted towards the same age range. The series was one of the earliest anime produced in color. It also had a profound influence on the women who would eventually come to revolutionize the genre of shōjo manga.

Princess Knight was released in 2001 in the United States in a bilingual (English/Japanese) edition by Kodansha International, however the edition is out of print and can be hard to find. It has since been licensed by Vertical Inc. A preview of the manga was released in the July issue of Viz Media's shōjo magazine, Shojo Beat.

A manga revival of the story, titled Sapphire: Princess Knight, by Natsuko Takahashi and Pink Hanamori was launched in the May 2008 issue of Nakayoshi.

In 1973 a film version of Princess Knight was released in theaters in the United States entitled Choppy and The Princess and was based manily on the Television Series of The Princess Knight. It was later Broadcasted on Syndicated Television.