Tezuka in English

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Reflection on the work as a whole
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Upon viewing the works as a whole, or even with more insight into Tezuka's other writings, there becomes apparent something more to the tales of Leo than a precursory examination reveals. Jungle Emperor could easily fall into the same category as Lost World just as Kimba could easily be shuffled among hundreds of other Saturday morning cartoons, yet each bring with them the strength of Tezuka's best work and deserve more attention than the medium might suggest.

Like Astroboy, at first Leo is small and innocent and must defend himself and new friends against a harsh world, but Leo never quite falls into this formula in part because he isn't a super hero. Instead his victories come through the interdependence he fosters through his jungle community. The belief that the animals have in him at first only shows with what great ability his father was able to do the same.

• Jungle Emperor manga (~1950)
  My rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

It is said that Leo developed out of Tezuka's love for Bambi, and while both works have a subtle complexity, the scope of Tezuka's vision extends far beyond the WW2 analogies of Bambi. Certainly the love of drawing nature must connect the two; in works prior to Leo we can see how much Tezuka enjoys drawing non-human creatures (every kind of animal, dinosaurs, etc.) and so it only seems a matter of time before he would write a story where the main characters are animals.

The story itself (beginning before Leo's birth) and ending shortly after his death involves Leo's attempt to create a working animal society, and defending it from humans while also having considerable respect for humans. Throughout the story there is a sense of the progression toward an ideal society (though we can't quite see it yet.) Panja sees no problem with capturing domestic animals and killing them for food as a way to solve the problem of jungle animals eating each other. Leo rejects this notion and starts a farm and even a restaurant (I think this is actually Tomy's idea.) Leo rejects the general anti-human stance and begins systematically educating all of the animals. It is implied at the end of the story that Lune, with additional human contact, would continue to push the advancement of a society with equality for all forms.

Jungle Emperor, Kimba, Onward Leo! and Jungle Emperor Leo all relate as a single 'mythos', but not always as a consistent, single work. In this section I will review the 'core' plot of Jungle Emperor which runs through all of the works above, and note where certain themes have been explored in greater detail or amplified by the films. At times, the two TV series certainly take liberty with the original plot, and this can result in some highly satisfying 'alternative versions' of the basic Jungle Emperor story.

The story begins before Leo's birth with Hamegg, selling his services to the Donga tribe as a great hunter. Hamegg has been tasked to kill Panja, the white lion who has been killing the tribe's domesticated animals. The purpose behind Panja's attacks have different explanations in the manga and the film, though for the most part we may understand them as an attempt to feed himself and other animals without killing wild animals. This issue is disguised in the US dub of Kimba.

overview and essays by Chris Moon

• Introduction (below)

• Part I: Synopsis
• Part II: Reviews
• Part III: Discussion

INTRODUCTION

Of the iconic characters created by Osamu Tezuka, few are as easily recognizable as the white lion cub known as Leo or Kimba. The white lion and the stories surrounding him make up one of Tezuka's earliest fully developed works (1950) and would remain important enough to him that he would revisit the stories and characters several times via animation and occasionally in manga.

In sharp contrast to the Astroboy stories which are very direct, accessible and stand-alone, the white lion's story is lengthy, spanning the character's entire lifetime with plot threads extending well beyond the limits of the manga or films. Readers familiar with Tezuka will find most of his mature themes present here, though of course in their earliest iteration. There is a sense of metamorphosis from the rugged (if not outright amateurish) nature of works like Lost World and Metropolis into the young Tezuka who would someday write Phoenix. I will go so far as to say that this is the story where Tezuka found his voice.