Yûki Igarashi’s adaptation of Osamu Tezuka’s influential manga is a conservative (if impressively animated) reimagining that dulls the source material’s pioneering elementsFirst-time director Yûki Igarashi should hit the jackpot here: the first big-screen adaptation for decades of Princess Knight, a seminal postwar manga series from Astro Boy genius Osamu Tezuka. But this very loose reworking is an anticlimax: conservative in solely concentrating on the girlishly feminine side of its protagonist, Sapphire (voiced by Saya), where the gender-flipping original was heralded by many as pioneering; and bland in its vanilla characterisation and dull adherence to battle-anime norms.The owner of the most prominent hair bow since Minnie Mouse, Sapphire is a princess forced into exile when a Nergal – a kind of gargantuan flying earwig – lays waste to her home kingdom of Silverland. Wandering with her lady-in-waiting Zirco (Mayumi Shintani), she takes refuge in neighbouring Goldland and, in need of cash, bags a job working in the mines that supply crystals to placate the Nergal. When another one attacks, she falls into a crystal pool that activates her head ribbon and transforms her into Princess Knight, who is capable of trouncing the interdimensional critters. Local noble Velvet (Seiran Kobayashi), keen to slip free of the Nergal yoke himself, is paying close attention. Continue reading...