Tezuka In English Discussion Forums

After getting all lovey dovey over her, I realized something. In the first episode, they flashback to when she was born and say "!2 years have passed since then" and it made me wonder. Is Sapphire 12? Am I crushing over a 12 year old?

The manga (the remake, the one that was released bilingual) says the timeskip was 15 years.

That WOULD make sense. Must make it easier to pass for a boy.

That came to mind. I was thinking "Gee, it's going to be difficult passing her as a boy as she gets older"

A 12 year old girl would almost certainly be maturing sexually, and as seems clear, Sapphire has the characteristics of a developing young lady. at 15, it would be all but impossible to pose as a boy. If she had not been posing as a boy all along, it would not be too likely that she could get away with it. But as everyone 'believed' or pretended she was a boy for so long, they could continue doing so. However, Duracell & Nylon, being suspicious all along, would be more so as she develops adult characteristics. In the anime, Rock/Franz knew from the start that Sapphire was female, & there were some humorous things that occurred as he tried to force her to admit it.

Is Prince Franz really played by Rock?
I had thought of them as separate Tezuka characters, but then he does look like he could basically be Rock in a special role.

In the TV series, he does; however, there were 3 different animated versions, + the manga versions.