My mom got this for me as a birthday gift and I loved it. I loved Sapphire most of all: she's a spunky, fearless, gorgeous heroine who looks so cool with a fencing sword. It's a good combination of romance and action and humor in the typical Tezuka style, and a real game changer in terms of manga. I believe a lot of people credit PK as the starting title for shoujo manga, which makes sense. The only thing I didn't like was near the end, when Sapphire temporarily lost her blue heart and became weaker - as if 'only' being a girl made her less of a knight. That was really the only moment when I think Tezuka strayed from the overall positive message of female empowerment, albeit not a perfect one considering it involves Sapphire having two hearts. I cannot wait to grab the second volume and see what happens to Sapphire and her new pirate friends. ( )

I wanted to read a manga by Osamu Tezuka. Maybe I should not have picked this one.

It's from the fifties and the cartoon style is similar to thirties and forties cartoons. The story is long and drawn out about a prince who is really a princess. She gets caught and spends a lot of time running around and escaping evil villains and tower jail cells. She's also an excellent swordsman.

It was a bit violent, just like American cartoons of the day. I've never been one for fairy tales and this is definitely a fairy tale story.

I had read quite a bit about Osamu Tezuka being the father of manga and that he is looked on in Japan as Walt Disney is here. To be fair, if I had never seen a Walt Disney cartoon and then I saw one today, I would probably be saying - 2 stars. It's not for me.

So my review does not do justice for someone doing ground-breaking work in this field, but it's hard to give more stars to something that I really didn't care for. It would have been best to have reviewed this at a younger age but even then that might not have prompted more stars.

( )

This work has elements of Snow White, the Swan Princess, Robin Hood and other well known fairy tales whose name I can't remember right now. Saphire is given the heart of a girl and the heart of a boy due to the mischievous angel Tink. Tink is sent to earth to retrieve Saphire's male heart. Meanwhile Saphire's kingdom will only allow men to rule, so her family and advisors let everyone believe she is a boy, and her male heart is actually quite helpful. Then hijinks ensue as a Duke tries to figure out if she's really a boy in case it means he can put his son on the throne and Saphire falls in love with the neighboring kingdom's prince. There is also an evil witch/devil and a dashing pirate who I hope to learn more about in the next volume.

The artwork is clearly inspired by Disney and I wonder if the subject matter wasn't inspired by Disney as well. ( )

This work has elements of Snow White, the Swan Princess, Robin Hood and other well known fairy tales whose name I can't remember right now. Saphire is given the heart of a girl and the heart of a boy due to the mischievous angel Tink. Tink is sent to earth to retrieve Saphire's male heart. Meanwhile Saphire's kingdom will only allow men to rule, so her family and advisors let everyone believe she is a boy, and her male heart is actually quite helpful. Then hijinks ensue as a Duke tries to figure out if she's really a boy in case it means he can put his son on the throne and Saphire falls in love with the neighboring kingdom's prince. There is also an evil witch/devil and a dashing pirate who I hope to learn more about in the next volume.

The artwork is clearly inspired by Disney and I wonder if the subject matter wasn't inspired by Disney as well. ( )

This work has elements of Snow White, the Swan Princess, Robin Hood and other well known fairy tales whose name I can't remember right now. Saphire is given the heart of a girl and the heart of a boy due to the mischievous angel Tink. Tink is sent to earth to retrieve Saphire's male heart. Meanwhile Saphire's kingdom will only allow men to rule, so her family and advisors let everyone believe she is a boy, and her male heart is actually quite helpful. Then hijinks ensue as a Duke tries to figure out if she's really a boy in case it means he can put his son on the throne and Saphire falls in love with the neighboring kingdom's prince. There is also an evil witch/devil and a dashing pirate who I hope to learn more about in the next volume.

The artwork is clearly inspired by Disney and I wonder if the subject matter wasn't inspired by Disney as well. ( )