The Ribbon Hero Review
Director: Yûki Igarashi
Date Created: 2026-08-08 19:19
2.5
The Ribbon Hero Review: Directed by Yûki Igarashi in his feature directorial debut, this Netflix anime film リボンヒーロー is inspired by Osamu Tezuka’s classic Princess Knight manga. The movie features Saya as the voice of Sapphire, alongside Seiran Kobayashi as Velvet, Mayumi Shintani as Zirco, Yoshimasa Hosoya as Rock, Haruhiko Jô as Pope, Kôki Uchiyama as Velvet and several other voice performers. The running time is around 110 minutes.
The Ribbon Hero Review
Netflix anime film The Ribbon Hero follows Princess Sapphire, she is a young girl who is the heir to the kingdom known as Silverland. However, all her life gets disrupted after a creature named Nergal decides to attack her kingdom. Sapphire is forced to escape and flee from her kingdom with her companion Zirco. She finally settles down in the adjacent kingdom called Goldland. There is no other place for Sapphire to go, and thus she starts working in mines where crystals that hold Nergal at bay are mined. However, after being threatened once again, she realises that the ribbon she carries has powers which transform her into Ribbon Hero and enable her to protect herself from the monsters.
The main thing that frustrated me regarding Netflix’s The Ribbon Hero was the fact that the movie actually had all the components necessary for a much more compelling fantasy tale than the one it ultimately became. The fate of Sapphire was really heartbreaking. From being a princess whose world included all things that she had ever known, she suddenly turns into a refugee working in the mines in order to make ends meet. This would give a lot of depth to her character, considering the fact that she has to understand the common people.
However, it seems that the Ribon Hīrō film goes through this stage of her life too fast. Although Sapphire is suffering, it is rare when she changes from a person due to what happened to her. The girl starts out as a very kind and altruistic heroine, and even despite losing almost everything, she still has this same inherent personality. I am not saying that the fact that she is a good person should not be the main feature of her character, but there is a difference.
Sapphire’s transformation to become the Ribbon Hero is arguably one of the most fun concepts in the movie. The ribbon is more than just a pretty adornment; rather, it takes on the symbolism of Sapphire becoming a hero. The “magical girl” element of these sequences was a lot of fun to watch, and the fact that the movie centres something delicate and female in its action is quite interesting.
However, after Sapphire gains her powers, the plot line begins to become predictable. Sapphire learns that she is capable of fighting off attacks from Nergal and embraces her duty towards safeguarding everyone else almost immediately. There is not much conflict about that duty. I wish that the movie had spent more time on the cost of being a saviour.
Supporting characters are not an exception here; Zirco is a useful presence as Sapphire’s companion, but she does not get enough screen time and material to make her as memorable as she could have been. On the other hand, Velvet turns out to be a more intriguing character for me since his attitude towards the crisis at Nergal is not simple. Velvet’s motives for freeing Goldland from its dependency on the creature are much more varied than just helping the heroine to defeat the monster.
In fact, the religious controversy regarding Nergal is the most intriguing aspect of the entire tale. It goes without saying that the monster is terrifying, but it is important to acknowledge that not everyone supporting it is portrayed as a foolish person. On the contrary, some people sincerely think that Nergal is a divine being, and sacrificing humans is the only way to save the kingdom from any threat. In such cases, one may raise the question of how far the idea can be taken.
This would have been the best thematic element for the Netflix film The Ribbon Hero, especially considering that Sapphire is the embodiment of the opposite belief. She feels that people should be saved and not sacrificed. The issue here is that sometimes the film communicates this dilemma better through its messages than through its actions. The religious elements that fight for sacrifice have their philosophy; however, I would have liked to see it challenged instead of the morality of Sapphire.
Thankfully, the animation in Netflix’s The Ribbon Hero movie has always been something that has impressed. The film does not use just one style for the visuals; along with its fantasy settings and big action scenes, it utilises expressions in the chibi style, stage visuals, shadow play scenes and two-dimensional backgrounds.
The action scenes are equally energetic, as Sapphire takes on the Nergal beasts through her magic as well as her swordsmanship. Even at this point, however, I found the movie lacking that something special. The action scenes are exciting, but too often, the plot relies on anime clichés that do not allow for an imaginative depiction of Sapphire’s skills.
Netflix The Ribbon Hero Review: Summing Up
Overall, The Ribbon Hero was a mixed experience. The movie does not make me hate it. It has enough to praise about its animation, setting and basic premise. However, at every moment of it, one gets the impression that the movie needs just one more layer to become something truly amazing. The character of Sapphire deserved a more complex emotional development, whereas the plot connected with the villain Nergal deserves some more breathing room. The result is that the movie always chooses the safest way to present its concepts, which, by the end of the movie, results in my admiration of what is happening on the screen rather than emotional involvement.
