Princess Knight - Characters

Characters

Princess Sapphire

The young Prince of Silverland, Sapphire is in reality a girl, but must pretend to be a boy in order to inherit the throne and prevent the evil Duke Duralumon from taking power. Her personality is more refined than tomboyish, but she's good with a sword and at night fights crime as the masked Phantom Knight. She's good-hearted, has a strong sense of justice and is competent and level-headed as well. Although most of her time is spent as Prince Sapphire, later in the series she is able to go about as a girl (wearing a blonde wig) in the persona of the Princess, Prince Sapphire's sister. In this way she is able to court Prince Frank. Princess Sapphire is based on Chikage Awashima.

Tink (aka Choppy or Ching or Chinky)

A pint-sized angel who dresses in a green Peter Pan like outfit, Choppy is Princess Sapphire's sidekick. He's often brave to the point of being foolhardy, and tends to charge into situations head-first (literally). Choppy is stuck inside a mortal body and has no real divine powers other than the ability to blow the trumpet extremely loudly. Because of this, he often gets beaten up by the villians. Satan is deeply afraid of him, however.

Opal

Sapphire's white horse.

Prince Frank (aka Prince Franz Charm)

The young prince of neighboring Goldland and Sapphire's love interest. Obviously, their relationship is complicated. Prince Frank is familiar with Sapphire as three entirely different people, toward each of whom he has different feelings. He is good friends with Prince Sapphire, in love with the unnamed princess that Sapphire sometimes visits him as, and despises the Phantom Knight, whom he mistakenly believes is a rival for the Princess' affection. Because of their similar upbringings, Frank has many of the same skills as Sapphire (such as swordsmanship), although Sapphire is a bit better at many of them than he is. Tezuka, who was unsatisfied with the original manga series, added some improvements in the TV Series to both the story and characters, casting his recurrent character Rock as Prince Frank and adding more depth and temperament to the character while improving his role and abilities.

Duke Duralumon (aka Duke Jeralmin)

The show's main antagonist, Duke Duralumon is next in line to the throne after Sapphire. He is constantly trying to discredit Sapphire in order to inherit the throne. Duralumon is short, fat and balding. He's a fairly hands-off villain; he makes speeches to try to turn the people against Sapphire, but leaves the actual physical work of kidnapping and thuggery to his blackguard enforcer, Baron Nylon and a gang of thugish highwaymen known as the "Black Hats". Duralumon is corrupt and cruel and does pose a genuine threat to Silverland. Still, he is more of a bumbling, comedic villain than a sinister one. Later in the series he's shown to be a quisling in the employ of much more seriously evil characters, such as Satan or Mr. X. His name comes from the alloy duralumin.

Baron Nylon

A tall, thin man in foppish green clothes with a large nose, Nylon is Duke Duralumon's bumbling sidekick. He's a rougish ruffian responsible for doing Duralumon's dirty work. Due to his oafish incompetence, however, he usually manages to fumble things and ends up as the recipient of verbal and physical abuse from Duralumon. He is not very bright but is relatively skilled with a sword, although he never actually stabs anybody until the last couple of episodes.

Plastic

Duke Duralumon's small foolish son, whose primary function is to provide the series' comic relief on the villains' side.

The King

The King of Silverland. He deceives his people into believing his daughter is really a son in order to prevent Duralumon from inheriting the throne. Confusingly, he is killed early on, visits Sapphire as a ghost, is brought back to life by God, is killed again, and so on.

The Queen

The Queen of Silverland. Supports Sapphire and oversees the Kingdom during the periods when her husband is dead.

The Doctor

Sapphire's doctor is one of the few people who knows that she is a girl. He is in charge of teaching her masculine skills such as swordsmanship and history. The Doctor is also a bit of an inventor and occasionally comes up with post-medieval gadgets, such as a hot-air balloon to combat a kite-riding thief.

The Nurse

Sapphire's nurse is also among the few people privy to her secret. She's in charge of teaching her feminine skills such as sewing and cooking.

Satan (aka Mephisto)

The Devil, in the format of a warlock, and also one of the most powerful villains in the series. He is portrayed as a tall, thin human with chalk-white skin and a pointy nose, wearing a skin-tight red suit with a black cape. Satan has various evil desires, including stealing Sapphire's special two-hearted soul and taking over the kingdom. Satan has supernatural powers and is impervious to physical harm, but he also has an overpowering fear of angels. When Sapphire is confronted by Satan, Choppy often comes to the rescue. Satan cowers in fear from Choppy and flees screaming when Choppy starts blowing his horn. Duralumon and Nylon are secretly Satanists who are in his service.

Heckett

Satan's daughter, who is a witch. Heckett appears as a young human-looking woman around Sapphire's age who dresses quite provocatively. At first she appears to be evil like her father, but she later reveals to Sapphire that she is secretly good. She often covertly helps Sapphire foil her father's plans. Heckett's name was inspirated by Hekate, the Greek goddess of witchcraft and sorcery.

Mr. X

The show's ultimate villain, a large, imposing Darth Vader-like character clad entirely in boxy red armor (so that we cannot see his human features). Mr. X is the ruler of the X-Union, a neighboring, proto-fascist federation of nations that wants to conquer the three kingdoms (Silverland, Goldland, and Charcoal-land). As the series progresses, we learn that Duralumon and Nylon secretly work for him. Mr. X is portrayed as an indestructible, Terminator-like figure. In the show's final battle between Sapphire and Mr. X, he brings down Silverland castle by smashing the walls using his bare hands. He is the only character in the show with no comedic aspect whatsoever, as even Satan inspires laughs when he cowers with fear when seeing Choppy.