Jungle Emperor Leo & Kimba the White Lion – Part III: Discussion

Reflection on the work as a whole

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.

In time, Jungle Emperor/Kimba diverges significantly from the likes of Astroboy. Leo is faced with the incessant challenge of having to defend his friends and home, but knowing also that the cost of his life is the cost of his dream–he cannot fail at least until he has a successor. This all-or-nothing spirit can be felt embodied in the grandeur of Tomita’s score for the films just as well as it can be seen in the strength of the illustration as Leo does his final battle with Queen Konga.

The best parts here are the life-long friendships that we only see in full maturation through the manga, along with the realization that Leo is only part of a larger story that started not with his dream but Panja’s dream. The absence of Jungle Emperor 2 only makes is stronger, as the mind races ahead to ponder the further adventures of Lune and Lukio (or their own children for that matter.) Like so many good books, this is a story that remains with you long after you’ve actually finished reading it; and most of the questions raised still seem valid today.

And while we are speaking of good books, Leo’s tales also have that general appeal that the majority of good children literature has–that is, while being appropriate for a particular audience, it has themes that will unfold with the reader as they mature.

Jungle Emperor versus Lion King

There is a love of controversy like no other when it comes to the originality of cinema. This is not a topic I am particularly interested in, however many who will read this article are probably still asking the question: Did Disney rip off Osamu Tezuka?

And well, the answer is ‘yes’ and ‘no’. We must not forget that Tezuka was a lifelong fan of Disney and many of the illustrations he created could easily be seen as rip-offs of the Disney style (especially early on.) Yet, no one accuses Tezuka of ripping off Disney. Why? Because Tezuka was up front about it. When some very familiar giant rodents are given the scientific name Mikimaus waltdisneus in Metropolis, the nod has clearly been made (though probably not in the way anyone would have expected!)

Kimba the White Lion

After writing this, I was surprised to find that Tezuka had in fact written several direct adaptations of popular Disney works such as Bambi, Snow White and Pinocchio. So I want to start with the picture in our heads that Tezuka was already showing his love for Disney’s work through homages and licensed adaptations. We might suspect that some day, Disney’s studio would return the nod.

That ‘nod’ seems to have been intended to come in the form of The Lion King (originally titled ‘King of the Jungle’); a film meant as homage to Tezuka himself and to Kimba. In its imagery and design we see near-carbon copies of scenes from Kimba, and these similarities are so striking and numerous it is impossible to think they could have been produced by coincidence only. Furthermore we find that Roy Disney and Matthew Broderick both allegedly made comments acknowledging that this was (at least in its original intent) a remake or homage to Kimba.

The timing is significant also. Production of this film would have started shortly after Tezuka’s death. I do not say this as evidence for the connection, but rather want to acknowledge what was no doubt a very moving comment from the animators of Disney on the life-long contributions of Tezuka to animation.

My thoughts regarding this matter is that if the team which developed and produced The Lion King had been allowed to carry out their desires, we would have probably seen a dedication at the end of the film to Tezuka. What I suspect ensued is that certain higher-ups became aware of what the ‘Lion King’ team was doing and went into damage control mode. An alternative hypothesis (suggested on the KimbaWLion site) is that the rights to Kimba may have fallen into legal question, such that it may have been impossible for anyone to own the rights to Kimba at that time. Regardless, any statement made by Disney studios after this point seems to have left the realm of artists and animators (and all those who create) and entered instead the world of politics; nothing I care to waste further time on here.

I want only to add before closing this section that the plot of The Lion King itself bares no similarity to Kimba or Jungle Emperor; which is partly why I am disinterested in this matter beyond wishing that Disney had completed their nod to the creator of Jungle Emperor at a time when I think it would have been very well received.

Jungle Emperor as a primer to Osamu Tezuka’s vision

In the preface of one of the volumes of Adolph (‘Half Aryan’) we find a summation of Tezuka’s ‘vision’ (this may be the only place to find it in English):

(1) A critique of the tendency to exclude that which is different (that is, discrimination)

(2) a deep suspicion of faith in absolutes (that is, ideology)

(3) a conception of existence as cycles of destruction and rebirth

(4) an ecological view of the interdependence of all living things.

It is these four points I would like to consider as they work as guiding principles for nearly every major work by Tezuka and further demonstrate (as I have suggested elsewhere) that Jungle Emperor represents the first, fully fleshed out work by the author.

• A critique of the tendency to exclude that which is different (that is, discrimination)

Like Astroboy, Leo as a cub is used to explore this subject through analogy. The separation from parents and the further suffering of caged animals should hardly be seen as just story telling. Tezuka makes frequent use of innocent childhood figures brought to full awareness of their inequality, but it appears here first.

Throughout the story there are also countless examples of distrust between humans of different races (European, Japanese, African, American) and this distrust brews for chapters until the combination of politics and cultural differences bring many people’s lives short. In many books of Phoenix we see war (century upon century) bring countless lives needlessly to an end, and those themes are here too. Tezuka masterfully constructs an always-present tension between the perfect world Leo strives for and a world where animals and humans senselessly kill each other.

• A deep suspicion of faith in absolutes (that is, ideology)

Once again, Tezuka examines this theme in both the animal and human community. Our suspicion that the author is in fact telling the same story twice (or mirroring one within the other) may indeed be justified.

Within the animal world there is faith so to speak in an animal law. Panja’s followers have broken from it, but they have done so because they are the weak animals which cannot defend themselves. Leo’s triumph is to break down the Law of the Jungle for all. He must smash the fear of humans and the conventions of the old to bring forth a new age of reason.

Amazingly, Tezuka goes so far as to show how much these -isms (or any static law) originate from fear and ignorance. The elephants know nothing of humans but refuse the ideas of humans out of fear. We also see Leo’s internal struggle between instinct and reason; once again another -ism that must be dealt with. In Tezuka’s view, the goal of a perfect society cannot be accomplished through static ideologies but only through an evolving system which we can foster, yet cannot set in law.

This is expressed in its highest form with the passing of the torch to Lune and Lukio. No single generation of ‘Leos’ can possibly be the single answer to the many problems of the world or attain forever the perfect society. Instead, one generation upon the next grows closer to an evolving ideal.

This theme is recapitulated in the world, where governments send their best against each other to find and return the power of the Moonstones. Ultimately, this vortex of distrust and corruption sentences Leo (an innocent outsider) to his demise. Whether government or religions, these are inescapable -isms which Tezuka mocks directly by naming these forces Nation A and B. Ultimately there is no difference to be found between them and their ideologies, though they find war amongst themselves inevitable (and think nothing of our main characters!)

• A conception of existence as cycles of destruction and rebirth.

Jungle Emperor is without question a story of orphans with visions shattered, who become what they are to be at first in part because such has been ordained by the community and then because it is their role, or their karma so to speak. This is not an issue of happy endings but of the Tezuka mode of story-telling. Rune is meant to come home to the pelt of his father, to the role of leadership, knowing nothing other than despair and confusion; which is to say, in precisely the same place as his father.

Yet through this cycle of orphaned Lion cubs, the community has advanced; it has grown with Leo’s sacrifice. This is to my knowledge the first work by Tezuka where a cyclical pattern emerge, not just at the beginning and end, but various segments within Jungle Emperor work as variation upon themes from before, as though even within the primary cycle (Leo’s life), there are cycles to be found within those.

To be certain, Phoenix is Tezuka’s most profound exploration of this premise of death and rebirth or karmic cycles, yet it is prevalent throughout his writing. To find it emerge first in Jungle Emperor however is not surprising to me, since it seems to be his first, bold step forward as a story teller.

• An ecological view of the interdependence of all living things.

It would be easy to argue that more than anything else, this is what Jungle Emperor is about. Although Leo is clearly the hero of our story, we must not forget that what he is, and what he has become rests squarely upon the community. It is important to recall that when Leo reaches Africa he wants nothing to do with the animals his father protected. We must also recall Leo’s decision to abandon those animals and stay with the pygmies (fortunately Lyre intervenes.) Leo is not painted (at least in the manga) as flawless, but rather as an extension of the animal community which both he has shaped, but in equal regard, has shaped him.

In too many cases we are reminded how every friendship is invaluable. Ultimately it is Mustachio who saves the community because of his old friendship with Leo. And it is only because of this friendship that Mustachio lives to see the story through. Through this ‘principle’, we see Tezuka at last achieve some degree of hope through his vision. These expressions of great compassion or selflessness intercede quite unexpectedly in a world that is both ‘red in tooth and claw’ on one hand, and mired in corruption on the other. This is the invisible trail that Leo seems to be after, and the one that leads him to his own death at the conclusion of the story.

In conclusion, I find that Jungle Emperor is one of the earliest, fully-fledged expressions of Tezuka’s vision, and thus of enormous importance. Jungle Emperor may very well be the template from which dozens of other works were derived; the first story where Tezuka may have said, “This is the kind of story I want to tell.”

Regardless of the actual historical events, Jungle Emperor reads very much like a road map to the publications which would follow. Even in his most mature period (late 60’s and beyond), the themes which play a role in Leo are still under active exploration (see Phoenix: Future for instance). It would seem folly then that Jungle Emperor remains unavailable in English, and thus I’d like to spend the last section of this paper exploring the reasons that it has never been published in English, and why this situation may remain so indefinitely.

The role of Africans in Jungle Emperor
Difficulties surrounding publication

Fans of Kimba may have wondered why there are no Africans to be seen in Kimba’s jungle; or for that matter, why no English version of Jungle Emperor is available. The problem is ironic and must have struck hard at Tezuka: the depiction of the African tribes in Leo can only be viewed by any modern person as racist.

This takes a moment to process and absorb because so much of Tezuka’s work explores (and attacks) the tenants of racism. Indeed, works as early as Astroboy seem to focus on racism-as-an-evil with such a deliberate ferocity that we can (and must) conclude that any such accusations regarding Tezuka are false. Let’s also not forget his own slogan: “Love all creatures! Love everything that has life!”

We might then wonder how it is that Tezuka has produced these images which offend modern sensibilities and which necessitated the replacement of African natives in Kimba with white hunters and ultimately prevented the publication of Jungle Emperor in English. It must first be said that very few of Tezuka’s human caricatures are particularly flattering–even of himself. What we find offensive in these drawings however is their stereotypical nature.

It is my opinion that the resources that Tezuka first drew from for the creation of his native characters are in fact the problem. More than likely Disney is the culprit here; though one might also consider the depiction of natives in the 1933 feature film King Kong. Most telling however are the now deleted sequences involving a black centaur in Fantasia. Other works by Disney from this period along with this sequence were clearly not meant as racist, but we can only judge from the perspective of the 21st century.

One possible source for Jungle Emperor’s Africans: a censored scene from Fantasia 1940. Though this type of depiction of Africans was common in US comics and animation in this period, we know Tezuka was particularly interested in the works of Walt Disney, as proved by numerous homages and similarities, ranging from the Disney-style birds and forest animals that surround Princess Sapphire to the race of giant rats called “mikimaus waltdisneus” which appears in the Metropolis manga.

Whether right or wrong, it is the inclusion of these images and the inability to change them that has loomed large over both the publication of Jungle Emperor and the expression of the ‘Leo mythos’ in film

This difficulty of these images is not limited just to the US however; Ioannis Mentzas (Vertical’s editorial director) has this to say when asked about their interest in the publication of Jungle Emperor in English:

“We’re interested, but the depiction of black people in Kimba is problematic. If everyone can for a moment put their sensitivity aside then we can do it. Otherwise people may be offended by the stereotypical drawing of Africans. A disclaimer might not be enough. And the author no longer being alive, it can’t be redrawn. If people promise to be understanding, we will publish it.

Of course, we would first have to talk to Tezuka Productions, too. They might have their reservations. I know for a fact that they are very careful about Kimba. They got into trouble in Japan in the early 1990s when certain groups said that it should be taken off the shelves—and it was. So they added a disclaimer and now you can buy it, but you don’t see it that much in bookstores.”

Not only then does the publication of Jungle Emperor remain uncertain, but it would seem this matter of racist depiction–innocent and unintentional–may well ensure that Leo never reaches the full audience that it should.

Thus, I’d like to take this small space to urge all relevant publishers (Vertical, Dark Horse, VIZ) to consider instead the significance of Leo in the whole of Tezuka’s work and the importance of having a version available in English. I would hope (as it seems Vertical does) that we can, for a moment, look past our own fears and weaknesses (I mean that as a species), and allow art to do its job.

We have already made some very bold steps: Buddha and Phoenix are contributions to the English Library which cannot be easily weighed. Among the early works which lead to this plateau, none illuminate the process from ‘Lost World’ to Tezuka’s mature philosophy and mastery of story-telling with such clarity as Leo. Though flawed and at times embryonic, this is the break through work. In its immaturity, the forces which would craft things such as Phoenix are for once transparent. In its infancy, Jungle Emperor retains all its innocence: Tezuka’s ideas and beliefs are not some old and tired mantra, but fresh and new. Indeed, as part of a larger work, that catalog (the whole of Tezuka’s writing) breathes and takes a new lease on life.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Enormous thanks to Craig Anderson and his KimbaWLion page; certainly one of the greatest resources on Kimba in the English speaking world. Thanks also to the entity known as strobe_z (internet lingo!) who translated Jungle Emperor for me. Further credit is due Ada Palmer, who has aided greatly in the promotion of Tezuka works in English through the site TezukaInEnglish.com (how appropriate!) and continued encouragement in the completion of this project. It would be an oversight not to mention the TezukaInEnglish internet community who have through questioning and suggestions helped shaped the final form of this essay.