Comments on: Princess Knight, by Osamu Tezuka (1953-6) E

By: Princess^2 | The Black Letters

Princess^2 | The Black Letters — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 02:15:59 +0000

[...] Girl Utena, and anyone whose interest was piqued by my review of Osamu Tezuka’s Princess Knight: Katie O’Neill’s gently goofy and heartfelt new webcomic Princess Princess, in which a [...]

By: Emera

Emera — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 14:57:17 +0000

I was very disappointed that everyone seemed to take it for granted in the end that of course Sapphire’s boy heart would get taken back. And Tezuka didn’t seem particularly interested in treating the girl/boy heart system consistently, since in Vol. 1 she’s rendered weak and wibbly by the theft of her boy heart, but does fine in a fight without it again at the end of Vol. 2. Maybe this was supposed to indicate the growth of her confidence, outside of what the gendered heart conferred on her? It smelled more of narrative convenience to me. But I suppose one could make an argument that Tezuka was trying to show that women can be confident and more than capable “even” in the absence of explicitly masculine attributes, which is a fine message to be sending. (Backed up, I suppose, by both Hecate and Thisbe, who only have girl hearts but act as boldly as they please.)

The “she’s really a girl” resolution was especially disappointing, though, given that tantalizing moment early in the story where Tink asks Sapphire if she feels more like a boy or a girl, and she smiles mysteriously but never fully answers.

And yeah, Blood/Sapphire forever.

By: Betty

Betty — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 04:36:38 +0000

Ah! I don’t know how I feel about how Sapphire has to be… a ‘girl’? I don’t know. It seemed weird that as soon as she lost her boy heart she couldn’t sword fight and stuff and I would have totally prefered if she got together with Blood. Oh well!

By: Emera

Emera — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 01:22:52 +0000

Despite all my griping I don’t regret having read it for an instant. This is some HIGH-QUALITY CRACK, my friend.

I’m putting it on your borrowing-pile!

By: kakaner

kakaner — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 23:28:36 +0000

So, basically, Utena-esque? Unfortunately despite all the flashing red warning signals I’m pretty much sold on wanting to borrow it because of Tezuka + shoujobullshit.

Thank you that was most entertaining!