For my graphic novels for youth class, I had to choose a Manga to read this week. I went with Tezuka's Princess Knight because I was intrigued by the dueling gender relationships and the playing with stereotypes especially for a book published over 50 years ago in Japan. I had also heard that Tezuka is the father of Manga from Scott McCloud's work.
The premise of this book is that a mischievous angel named Tink places a boy heart in an unborn baby before God gives the baby a girl heart and sends he/she on his/her way. As punishment, Tink must go to earth and take the boy heart back before he can ever return to heaven. Unfortunately the baby becomes the Prince/Princess of the kingdom and it takes Tink 15 years before he can even speak to her. The story follows the adventures of Prince Sapphire as he/she deals with trying to hide his identity of a girl to be considered the heir and prince to the kingdom.
The book mainly played on gender stereotypes and had a lot of slapstick humor reminiscent of Bugs Bunny and other cartoons from that era. With the heavy religious overtones, I was worried that with the dated writing of this text that the book would try to make the character choose one gender or the other. While I've only read part one, I'm happy that Tezuka allowed him/her to remain ambiguous and has him/her gain identity from both hearts. She is neither fully princess or fully prince.
With action, adventure, knights, witches, pirates, kingdoms and assassins, this book would appeal to both girl and boy readers who love comics. The humor is kid friendly and as it was intended for a young female audience (shojo) it is not too violent or sexual.
Here's a bonus YouTube video from the opening of the Princess Knight anime:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bb_8PJ4Wqjo
Intended reading level: Grades 3-5
Questions for the readers:
Do you think Prince Sapphire should keep both hearts? How does each heart help her in her adventures? What do you think of the choice Tink made towards the end that changed his fate? Do you think Sapphire will choose Captain Blood or Franz Charming? What fairy tales does Tezuka use to tell his story?
Read-alikes: Astro Boy, Bone series
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