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Aka ''Ribon no Kishi''[[hottip:*:Literally, Ribbon Knight or Knight of the Ribbon]] and ''Choppy and the Princess''.

The story of Sapphire, the princess of Silverland, who must pretend to be a prince.

In Heaven, the souls of unborn children are being prepared for their births. Tink, an inexperienced apprentice angel, accidentally gives a child who will be born female both a pink "girl's" heart and a blue "boy's" heart. When this is found out, it's too late to fix the mistake, so Tink is banished to Earth in a weak mortal body to watch over the twin-hearted child.

Meanwhile, in Silverland, a vaguely medieval kingdom, the King learns to his dismay that the Queen has given birth to a girl, and due to complications cannot have another child. Women cannot inherit the throne, and the King knows that his closest male relative, Duke Duralumin, is a wicked man who would oppress the people. So the King pretends that Sapphire was born male, with only a handful of close advisors knowing the truth.

Thanks to her dual nature, Sapphire is equally adept at male and female activities (even if the latter must be taught in secret). The story picks up in Sapphire's early adolescence, as Duke Duralumin steps up his attempts to prove the Prince to be a girl, and Tink finally finds Sapphire in the mortal world. And it's a good thing Sapphire has a new ally, as the Duke is not the only force that threatens Silverland.

''Ribon no Kishi'' was created by OsamuTezuka in 1953, and is one of the earliest {{shojo}} manga. There were four manga storylines, the third starting in 1963, and serving as the primary basis for the {{Anime}} version. The anime was broadcast in the United States as ''Princess Knight'' or ''Choppy and the Princess'', the latter being at first the title of a short movie made by mashing together three of the episodes. Distribution of the American version was spotty at best, and it wasn't until 2012 that the show got a proper DVD release. The manga has received an English language two-volume collected release. There's a sequel, ''Twin Knight'', about Sapphire's twin children, Daisy and Violetta.
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!!This series provides examples of:
* ActionGirl: Sapphire and Friebe.
* AntiAntiChrist: Hecate, Satan's daughter, who's secretly good, or at least no worse than mischievous.
* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler:Sapphire's parents]], in the finale of the anime, and Sapphire herself thanks to Venus's help.
* BadIsGoodAndGoodIsBad: Hecate, while not truly evil, was raised by Madame Hell (or Mephisto, depending on the version) and has some very disturbing ideas of what constitutes harmless fun.
* {{Bifauxnen}}: Sapphire.
* BigBad: Mr. X. [[EvilerThanThou Even Satan pales in comparison in terms of sheer evil]]. Though in the manga, Madame Hell is the Big Bad.
* {{Bishonen}}: See the entry for "DudeLooksLikeALady", below.
* BrokenAesop: "You're acting like a sissy girl!"
* TheChewToy: Sir Nylon. His constant misfortune gets more amusing.
* ClingyJealousGirl: Venus
* DeusExMachina: Played straight in the finale.
* DistressedDamsel: Although more often than not, it evolves into BadassDamsel.
* TheDogBitesBack: [[spoiler:In the anime Sir Nylon, Duralumin's luckless henchman, finally snaps from the abuse and kills his boss, ruling Silverland for a very brief time as a drooling madman and puppet of Mr. X]].
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Duke Duralumin kills himself when he thinks his son is dying]].
* DudeLooksLikeALady: When Sapphire temporarily loses her female heart and turns into a guy, she looks exactly the same as she did as a girl.
* EasyAmnesia: Sapphire temporarily loses all her memories after she's brought back from the dead.
* EvenTheGirlsWantHer: Sapphire's crossdressing earns her a few crushes from oblivious girls, most notably Friebe, who even makes it to the altar with Sapphire before she learns the truth.
* [[EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses Everything's Better With Princesses]]
* FantasyKitchenSink: A really weird example; apparently the Abrahamic {{God}} and the [[ClassicalMythology Greek gods]] exist in the same universe.
* FluffyCloudHeaven
* ForgotICouldChangeTheRules: The king finally wants to change the law to allow Sapphire to succeed him, but is kidnapped to stop it.
* FriendToAllLivingThings: Sapphire has many cute animal friends.
* GenderBender: Sapphire is female, but has both male and female "hearts". At one point she loses her female heart and turns into a man.
* GoodHurtsEvil: Crucifixes and other holy items cause great pain to demons.
* HeirClubForMen
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Blood retrieves a potion to save Sapphire's life at the cost of his own life. Although it turns out [[ShootTheShaggyDog he brought it back just a few moments too late]]]].
* JerkassGods: Venus.
* KilledOffForReal: A lot of characters including [[spoiler: the King (in the manga), Blood, Hecate, Eros, Madame Hell, and Duke Duralumin]].
* KnightOfCerebus: Mr. X.
* LadyLand: Black Pearl Island.
* LaughingMad: [[spoiler: Friebe has a brief fit of hysterical laughter when she finds out that the boy she's about to marry is actually a girl]].
* LongLostRelative: [[spoiler:Captain Blood is the older brother of Prince Franz! Who'd have guessed?]]
* LovesMyAlterEgo: Prince Franz loves Sapphire's female disguise but hates Prince Sapphire due to a misunderstanding.
* MaskPower: During a period when Sapphire was supposed to be imprisoned, she snuck out a secret passage and donned a mask to be the Phantom Knight, who fought crime and oppression.
* NiceHat: Sapphire often wears a magnificently large hat.
* NoOntologicalInertia: Madam Hell is reminded at one point her flesh-to-stone spell will be reversed if she dies. [[spoiler: Sadly, this also applies to Hecate,as her mother literally ''made'' her using magic.]]
* ObfuscatingInsanity: [[spoiler: Marquis Oolong pretends to be a nutcase so that if any of his underlings plot to overthrow him, they'll be less covert about it and he'll be able to root them out]].
* PeekABangs: Parpa and Friebe.
* PinkGirlBlueBoy: The hearts in heaven are colored this way.
* PunchClockVillain: Eros often disapproves of her mistress Venus's jealousy -- motivated plots, and alternates between following orders because it's her job and secretly subverting Venus's plans while hoping that Venus won't find out.
* RaisedAsTheOppositeGender
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: Tink looks like a little kid, but since he's [[OurAngelsAreDifferent an angel]] it's probably safe to assume he's much older.
* RebelliousPrincess: Hecate is an odd case because she's technically the princess of Hell and she frequently rebels against her mother's plans and helps out the people that her mother is victimizing.
* RecursiveCrossdressing: Sapphire sometimes wore a blonde wig and a gown to impersonate a girl with a nebulous relationship to the royalty of Silverland so that she could woo Prince Franz.
* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: [[spoiler: Oolong]].
** [[spoiler: Plastic too, immediately after he swallows Sapphire's boy heart. In fact, the first thing he does is start to undo his father's evil deeds, then changes Silverland's outdated laws for the better and finally, paves the way to reinstall Sapphire as the righteous king. All what he wants in exchange is mercy for his father.]]
* {{Satan}}: Also known as Mephisto. He desired, among other things, to steal Sapphire's unique twin-hearted soul. In his earthly form, he possessed powerful magic and NighInvulnerability, but was deathly afraid of angels, retreating whenever Tink blew his horn occasionally turning him into a ButtMonkey.
* SmugSnake: Sir Nylon. Mrs. Hell (who appears in the third release published by Nakayoshi and replaces Satan's role) also qualifies.
* SweetPollyOliver: Sapphire, interestingly with no name change necessary.
* TakenForGranite: [[spoiler:Sapphire's mom, and later on lots of people in the vicinity of the royal castle of Silverland]].
* TookALevelInBadass: Plastic, after [[spoiler:accidentally swallowing Sapphire's boy heart]].
* TropeCodifier: This series codified the "[[{{Bifauxnen}} princely]] crossdressing heroine" trope that was later featured in ''RoseOfVersailles'' and ''RevolutionaryGirlUtena''.
* VoluntaryShapeshifter: Hecate can change into a variety of animals and creatures.
* WaifFu: With the HandWave of Sapphire's "male heart", because [[ValuesDissonance it's not like a girl could be competent at martial arts]].
* WholesomeCrossdresser
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