Leo the Lion (anime)

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Leo the Lion

Lea, Rukio, Leo, and Rune

新ジャングル大帝進めレオ!
(The New Janguru Taitei - Susume Leo!)

Genre

Coming of Age, Adventure

TV anime

Director

Rintaro

Studio

Mushi Productions

Licensor

Sonic

Network

Fuji TV

Other networks:
CBN

Original run

1966 –

1967

Episodes

26^[1]^[2]

Leo the Lion is a sequel to the Japanese-American co-produced series "Janguru Taitei", or Kimba the White Lion. Osamu Tezuka had always wanted his story of Kimba to follow Kimba's entire life, and the Jungle Emperor/Kimba series was such a hit in Japan that Dr. Tezuka produced a sequel, without his American partners, in 1966.

Making the series without a co-producer gave him complete creative control. For example, Dr. Tezuka has changed the conclusion of his original manga story (represented in the last two episodes of this series) to a happy ending.

Leo the Lion does not follow immediately from the end of the Kimba series. In the story line, a couple of years have passed since the end of the first series. To English-speaking audiences, the behavior of the title character is inexplicably out of line with what was established in the first series. At the end of the first series, in the original Japanese script, Kimba promises to keep his animals separate from humans, and that promise drives the seemingly hermit-like Leo in this series.

As the series unfolds, the focus shifts from the title character to one of his cubs, the male named Rune. This series as a whole is about Rune's growth, from a whining weakling to a confident leader.

The Japanese series was dubbed into English 18 years after its creation, when it was given the title "Leo The Lion", Leo being the original Japanese name for the character known as Kimba in most of the world.

adapted with permission from content on www.kimbawlion.com

[edit] Characters

See also: Osamu Tezuka's Star System

Some believe that Leo is Kimba's cub, but that is not true. Leo is actually Kimba, from the previous US release of the anime, grown up to a full adult lion. The producers of the English-dubbed version used the original Japanese names for nearly all the characters. The equivalency with "Kimba the White Lion" is as follows: