Anime Rebirth

Review - Ribbon no Kishi

Review by Roriconfan

Prologue
One of the first anime series ever made, Ribbon no Kishi seems ridiculous by today’s standards. But it does have a lot of value for being the first “kinky” story that opened the way for all the weird scenarios we get to have now.

Animation & Sound: 3
Awfully simple and childish, the series resembles more of a low budget Walt Disney production, rather an Anime. The bright palette colors and the fairy tale-like buildings may be a bit interesting to watch for a while but they quickly get annoying. With no realism in movement, no real special effects and pathetic music themes, this part of the series can become repulsive to most otakus.

Story: 8
The story is indeed weird. It looks like a simple fairy tale on first glance but turns kinky at times and actually makes you interested to see what is going to happen. (spoiler alert!)

In a phantasy kingdom, the king and queen are about to have their first child. Because of a bureaucratic mistake in heaven (that’s right), the baby that was supposed to be born male, is instead born female. The queen becomes unable to bare any more children and unfortunately, the law demands that the heir to the throne must be a boy of direct bloodline. The king, fearing that outsiders will steal the throne, hides the baby’s gender and raises it to behave like a boy in public.

So, this is the first weird part. The protagonist is male in soul, female in body and male again in behavior. What does that make him? Cross-dresser? Gay? Reverse transvestite?

Anyway, the series is about tasks that the girl/prince must solve on each episode (defeat monsters, win duels, apprehend criminals) in order to prove to the world that he is a capable heir. And all of the above without revealing his/her true gender, a thing that always stands in the way and makes this whole series interesting. And yes, he/she does wear woman’s clothing from time to time as an alias. The girl/prince has as a main rival a prince from a neighboring kingdom that tradition dictates to continually fight each other as a test of strength and to please the people. As the story goes, the two get very friendly with each other.

Here is the second weird part. They are TOO friendly. What does that make them? Normal couple? Gay couple?

The villains in the story are scheming members of the court that suspect the truth and always lay traps and lies in order to have an excuse to usurp the throne.

Half of the series is stand alone episodes with a happy ending and a moral message, like in all typical fairy tales. But then… the villains KILL the king and queen and hunt the girl/prince in order to kill him/her and leave no traces of the bloodline. No more fairy tales!

From there, the girl/prince becomes a masked Zorro-like hero (still pretending to be male) and defends the people from the tyranny of the usurpers. And yes, the story DOES have an ending. A melodramatic one, but an ending nonetheless.

So, having such a story in such an old series, a good mark is essential. I hardly believe that it is supposed to be aimed for little kids with all this gender confusion going around.

Characters: 4
Besides the girl/prince and the rival prince, all others are shallow as hell. Even those two are boring most of the time. So, I can’t say I liked anyone’s personality. It’s the gender confusion that defines everything.

Value: 10
A time-classic for several reasons:

-It’s an Osamu Tezuka production. You know, the guy that FOUNDED the artistic style of anime expression? The GOD OF MANGA? That guy.

-It’s the forefather of all the yaoi/yuri we love/hate today.

-It’s the first fairy tale with gender-benders!

Enjoyment: 4
Boring 4/5 of the time with those weird twists and gender-bending situations to make it worth the rest.

Verdict
I regret to inform you that the patient has left us. But worry not, as his ideals keep living inside his descendants.