aired in Australia in the 1970s, and was released on home media in Australia and the United Kingdom. Movie Makers released seven episodes under the title The Adventures of Choppy and the Princess and three individual episodes without the title. The distributor Tasley Leisures released six episodes under the title Choppy and the Princess, Adventures 1-6. The Starlite Group released seven The Adventures of Choppy and the Princess DVDs in the United Kingdom in 2006, with the film also being available from the same company. In August 2013, Hanabee Entertainment licensed the series for an Australian release; it was first released on DVD into two parts on September 18, and October 6, 2013 respectively, while a box set was released on September 6, 2014. Theater At various times in his career, Tezuka worked on short original animation films, or "theater anime", which included some of the Princess Knight story. Samples of this work were shown in the "300 Inch Theater", which was held at Tezuka Osamu World in the Kyoto Station Building from July 1999. In this film, the Phoenix (from the eponymous Tezuka manga) plays the role of storyteller, and introduces two pictures. The first part tells the story of Princess Knight, and the second part talks about Minamoto Yoshitsune, who made his mark in the history of Kyoto as a person who became entangled in a struggle by another's wicked design in spite of his desire for peace just like Sapphire. Reception Widely considered a classic, Princess Knight was very popular with girls in Japan by the time of its original release. One of the author's most popular works in Japan, it has been labeled as "a fascinating piece of anime history ... that's withstood the test of time" by Bamboo Dong of ANN. In 2005, Japanese television network TV Asahi conducted a "Top 100" online web poll and nationwide survey; Princess Knight placed 74th in the online poll and 71st in the survey. In 2006, TV Asahi conducted another online poll for the top one hundred anime, and Princess Knight did not make the general list, but ranked 77th in the "Celebrity List". After Vertical's statement that it would publish Princess Knight, critics Chris Butcher and Deb Aoki deemed it as one of the most anticipated manga announced at the Comic-Con. In the following year, it was considered one of the best new "kids/teen" manga by critics