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Princess Knight Stage Musical Casts Nogizaka46 Idols

posted on 2015-08-25 06:45 EDT by Egan Loo

Erika Ikuta, Reika Sakurai play lead Sapphire & rival Hekate in Tezuka's shōjo classic

Osamu Tezuka's classic shōjo manga Princess Knight (Ribbon no Kishi) is inspiring a new stage musical to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Kodansha's Nakayoshi magazine. Nogizaka46 idol group member Erika Ikuta will star as the main lead Sapphire, and another Nogizaka46 idol, Reika Sakurai, will play Hekate, a witch's daughter and Sapphire's love rival.

Princess Knight revolves around Princess Sapphire, who was born with both the soul of a boy and a girl and raised as a boy so that she can inherit her kingdom's throne.

Other cast members of the musical include Keisuke Kaminaga as Prince Franz, Tsunenori Aoki as the pirate Blood, and‎ Tomoru Akazawa as Plastic. Yukiko Ikeda and Shinichi Katori will play the queen and king, respectively. Kaoru Noguchi will play the nurse, and Shinichi Chiyoda will play the doctor. Airi Kanda will play the angel Tink, and Shōko Haida will play the wife Hell. Rounding out the cast are Masakazu Nemoto as Lord Nylon and Yūichi Yasoda as Duke Duralumin.

The musical will run at Tokyo's Akasaka ACT Theater from November 12 to November 17, and then at Osaka's Theater Brava from December 3 to December 6.

The manga pioneer Osamu Tezuka drew the original story in Kodansha's Shoujo Club magazine from 1953 to 1956. Princess Knight and Toshiko Ueda's Boku-chan (1951) are among the first shōjo manga in history. Tezuka later created the Twin Knight sequel in Kodansha's Nakayoshi magazine from 1958 to 1959, followed by a 1963-1966 Ribbon Knight remake in the same magazine.

Moyashimon scriptwriter Natsuko Takahashi launched a manga remake of the original manga titled Sapphire: Princess Knight in 2008 with artist Pink Hanamori. Japanese publisher Home-sha's online manga magazine Puratto Home launched a rebooted version by Shouko Fukaki (The Battle of Genryu: Origin, Guardian Dog) in 2013.

Vertical published the Princess Knight manga in North America in 2011, and also published the Twin Knight sequel in 2013. Right Stuf released the 1967 anime adaptation on home video. The manga also inspired an anime film in 1994.

Source: Comic Natalie

this article has been modified since it was originally posted; see change history

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News Princess Knight Stage Musical Casts Nogizaka46 Idols

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Princess Knight Stage Musical Casts Nogizaka46 Idols