A Theme Song CD You Can Only Get in Theaters
According to a report by Japanese entertainment news outlet Oricon News, carried by the Mainichi Shimbun, the week-one bonus is a CD single of "Reborn," the film's theme song, pressed as a standard 12cm disc and handed out one per viewer at theaters screening the film. Quantities are limited, and the giveaway ends once stock runs out. The jacket features new art drawn for the occasion by Kei Mochizuki, the illustrator behind the film's character concepts.
"Reborn" is performed by Girls Archives., a new Japan-Korea girl group whose members maintain both real and virtual personas. The song served as the unit's pre-debut release, so the theater giveaway lands while the group is still introducing itself.
The First Princess Knight Anime in 27 Years
The Ribbon Hero draws on Princess Knight (Ribon no Kishi), Osamu Tezuka's classic fantasy about Princess Sapphire, a royal born with the hearts of both a boy and a girl who takes up the sword as a ribbon-wearing knight. The manga debuted in 1953 in the magazine Shōjo Club and later ran in fellow shōjo magazines Nakayoshi and Shōjo Friend. A TV anime adaptation aired from 1967 to 1968, and the last animated take on the story was an original short screened in 1999 at Tezuka Osamu World, a themed attraction that closed in 2011.
The Ribbon Hero is the first anime based on Princess Knight in the 27 years since that 1999 short. Netflix's version updates the premise: when the monstrous Nergal devastates her kingdom, Sapphire reawakens as the Ribbon Hero and fights to protect her new home.
A Feature Debut That Went Straight to Streaming First
The film comes from studio OUTLINE under director Yuki Igarashi, a former key animator on Jujutsu Kaisen's first season making his feature-length directorial debut. Comedian Sāya, half of the comedy duo Lalande, voices Sapphire. She leads a cast that includes Seiran Kobayashi as Pine, Kōki Uchiyama as Velvet, and Yoshimasa Hosoya as Rock.
The Ribbon Hero has been streaming worldwide on Netflix since August 8, 2026, and screened at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in June ahead of its release. The theatrical run reverses the usual release order: instead of a movie arriving on streaming after its cinema window, a streaming film is getting a brief big-screen encore. A theater ticket with a collectible CD attached is a straightforward pitch to fans who already watched the film at home.
Looking Ahead
The two-week run begins Friday, September 4, 2026 in Japanese theaters, with the "Reborn" CD available during the first week only, while supplies last. Nothing has been announced about theatrical screenings outside Japan, but international fans don't need to wait: the film is already streaming worldwide on Netflix. The original Princess Knight manga is available in English from Vertical, most recently as a New Omnibus Edition released in 2022.