History YMMV / KimbaTheWhiteLion

* CommonKnowledge: The claim that ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'' [[TheyCopiedItSoItSucks plagiarized]] this series has led to many people unfamiliar with the franchise making assumptions about it being more similar to ''The Lion King'' than it actually is. Whereas in reality, any similarities beyond parts of the basic premise and some very surface-level visual and character tropes generally don't actually exist; one might as well claim that ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' is very much like ''WesternAnimation/TheJetsons'' because both are about a redheaded man in a futuristic setting and the comedic misadventures he gets involved in. For instance...
** Easily the most [[JustForFun/{{Egregious}} egregious]] of all misconceptions is the notion that Kimba was a single 1965 feature movie instead of a 52-episode anime. Some of its episodes were incorporated into an amalgamation movie but it never got dubbed, and needless to say, it bore little resemblance to the plot of ''TLK'', as the original anime itself was very episodic in nature and sometimes featured [[RandomEventsPlot Random Events Plots]].
** Some people claim that Disney was originally in talks with Tezuka Productions to make an adaptation of ''Jungle Emperor Leo'', but after Osamu Tezuka’s death in 1989, Disney continued the production but with the SerialNumbersFiledOff, leading to the creation of ''The Lion King''. There is no source whatsoever verifying this claim and by all accounts, it is a fabricated story that got blown out of proportion. Alternatively, some claim that the 1997 movie was first conceived in the late '80s but went through TroubledProduction following Tezuka’s death for nearly a decade, and Disney caught wind of it and beat it to the punch with their own KingOfBeasts movie. Once more, there is zero verifiable evidence to suggest the 1997 movie entered production prior to the release of ''The Lion King'', let alone during the late '80s, and the production of the 1989 series, which Tezuka greenlit just before his death, seemingly wasn’t affected by his passing.
** Simba is often thought to be "Kimba" with one letter changed. In fact, "simba" is actually [[ADogNamedDog the Swahili word for lion]], and has been a StockAnimalName for lions both real and fictional [[OlderThanTheyThink as far back as the 1920s]]. This has been such a common lion name for such a long time that the English localizers were originally considering making Leo's {{dub name|Change}} Simba, but decided against it because they feared the name would be too generic for them to claim as their intellectual property.
** Claw is commonly claimed by some sources to be Kimba's EvilUncle and the BigBad of the series in order to compare him to Scar. In truth, Claw has no mentioned biological relationship to Kimba, and only appears in a few episodes. Moreover, his personality is very different from Scar's, being a temperamental and brutish figure rather than suave and playfully sarcastic like Scar is.
** Pumbaa is often said to have been inspired by a Kimba character named Gargoyle G. Warthog. But Gargoyle isn't the happy-go-lucky comic relief character Pumbaa is, he's a very angsty and insecure guy who has a character arc about discovering his own self-worth. On an additional note, Gargoyle is not nearly as important a character as Pumbaa, only appearing in a single episode of the 1965 anime.
** Pauly Cracker is often compared to Zazu since both are birds, and thus many assume Pauly to be a royal majordomo with a similar uptight personality. In fact, Pauly is just a friend of Kimba's who doesn't have any such position in the court, and has a HairTriggerTemper in contrast to Zazu's timid, loyal, and polite personality.
** Many sources mention both series having a wise baboon/mandrill as characters. However, Dan'l Baboon is not an eccentric witch doctor like Rafiki is, and is more of a stereotypical GrumpyOldMan who is often a source of slapstick and isn't always portrayed in the right.
** One can find many videos comparing shots from ''Kimba'' to shots from ''The Lion King''. What these videos generally don't say is that many of the ''Kimba'' shots are from a movie released in ''1997'', three years after ''The Lion King'' came out, and were made exclusively for the movie and have no counterpart in any earlier Kimba-related content. If anything, they're evidence that that particular iteration of the franchise was [[FollowTheLeader deliberately aping]] ''TLK'', rather than the other way around. The shots that ''did'' predate 1994 are generally cherry-picked from more than 3,000 minutes' worth of footage, often not only implicitly given more importance than they ever were in the source material but also [[ManipulativeEditing edited together in misleading ways]] to make it look like they happened in sequences mirroring events in ''TLK''. As Adam Johnston of ''WebVideo/YourMovieSucksDotOrg'' fame has [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uw6tHkgOQQ pointed out]], one could very easily make the same arguments about ''Kimba'' being superficially similar to properties that have predated ''it''.
** A panel from the manga with a very leonine cloud is often cited as similar to the ghost of Mufasa that appears to Simba. But this isn't the ghost of Kimba's father [[note]]In fact, this shot was the last panel of the manga and is supposed to represent Kimba after he died[[/note]], nor was it the inspiration for the dead Mufasa appearing before Simba -- that came from ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}''.
** Despite the comparison being much stronger with the original series and the first Lion King movie, something that is also worth pointing out is that while both Kimba and Simba have children at one point and they are also protagonists, at least of Kimba's children only Rune, his son, has a substantial role in the plot while his daughter Rukio is tossed aside in the plot. Simba's, however, both of them have equal importance to the story. Not to mention Rune and Rukio's arcs (The former revolves around Kimba teaching him how to rule and the latter doesn't have that much on an arc) are drastically different from Kion and Kiara's (The former learns how to protect the Pride Lands with the Lion Guard, while the latter doesn't want to be queen and has a StarCrossedLovers situation with her LoveInterest).
** For what it's worth, Tezuka's son Makoto thinks that the comparisons are overblown and notes that he and his father's studio never seriously considered litigation against Disney. Makoto [[https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/tokyo-film-fest-macoto-tezka-redemption-lion-king-controversy-1250399/ observes]] that Western and Japanese animation regularly borrow from each other (noting that ''Kimba'' itself was heavily inspired by Disney's ''WesternAnimation/{{Bambi}}'') and he wouldn't be surprised if ''The Lion King'' drew some inspiration from his father's work, but that's hardly the same as plagiarism.

* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** The first episode of the 1989 series adapts the first chapter of the manga with the black characters being portrayed more respectfully and by "more respectfully" we mean "not as racist caricatures otherwise known as 'Blackface'." Likewise, the MightyWhitey element of Mary as Conga/Tonga becoming leader of an African tribe is removed by having the character being a member of the tribe by birth named Conga/Tonga.
** The first dub of the original series had Kenichi renamed to the impossibly corny "Roger Ranger." The 1993 dub and the dub for the 2009 special have the far less cheesy name changes of "Jonathan" and "Kevin O'Donnell" in stark contrast.

* TheWoobie: Leo in the 2009 special embodies this trope. He hasn't yet learned to hunt properly, and even the *prey* laughs at his pathetic attempts. Considering the original Kimba/Leo swam the seas to get back home and learned early on to get tough, this cute-but-less-confident Leo comes as a bit of a surprise to fans.
** Poor, poor Snowene/Eliza. First she watches her mate die right in front of her, after being captured and used as bait to lure him in. Then she's forced to send her son away, knowing the ship they're on is about to sink in a storm. Then she drowns.

** In several series, Kimba preserves his father's hide in his home. Unfortunately, the "hide" looks more like a corpse, so most interactions with it come off as BlackComedy - this can range from it being cleaned, [[NemeanSkinning worn]], used as a hiding spot and even as a ''chair''. One episode goes even further and has an ''[[UpToEleven entire sanctuary]]'' filled with the hide-corpses of Kimba's ancestors, which are also subjected to similar (mis)treatment.

** The first dub of the original series had Kenichi renamed to the impossibly corny "Roger Ranger." The 1993 dub and the dub for the 2009 special have the far less corny name changes of "Jonathan" and "Kevin O'Donnell" in stark contrast.

** Many aspects of the original manga did not age well, particularly the [[DarkestAfrica racist and]] [[{{Blackface}} heavily caricatured]] stereotypical depictions of African people, reminiscent of many old American cartoons.

** Pauly Cracker is often compared to Zazu since both are birds, and thus many assume Pauly to be a royal majordomo with a similar uptight personality. In fact, Pauly is just a friend of Kimba's who doesn't have any such position in the court, and has a HairTriggerTemper personality in contrast to Zazu's timid and loyal attitude.
** Many sources mention both series having a wise baboon/mandrill as characters. However, Dan'l Baboon is not an eccentric witch doctor like Rafiki is, and is more of a stereotypical GrumpyOldMan.

** The {{Aesop}} of "Too Many Elephants", also from the 1965 series, seems to be that "[[GuiltFreeExterminationWar genocide is A-OK]] [[AssholeVictim if the targets are mean to you personally]]", which is [[CrossesTheLineTwice absurdly problematic even by the standards of the time]], but taking into account how recent the colonial exploits of UsefulNotes/ImperialJapan still were when Osamu Tezuka wrote the series (with the original manga being published only ''five years'' after its dissolution), one can see where this attitude may have come from.

* CrossesTheLineTwice: In several series, Kimba preserves his father's hide in his home. Unfortunately, the "hide" looks more like a corpse, so most interactions with it come off as BlackComedy - this can range from it being cleaned, [[NemeanSkinning worn]], used as a hiding spot and even as a ''chair''. One episode goes even further and has an ''[[UpToEleven entire sanctuary]]'' filled with the hide-corpses of Kimba's ancestors, which are also subjected to similar (mis)treatment.
* DesignatedHero: Kimba/Leo does some very unheroic and appalling things in the 1966 series that the audience is meant to side with him on because he's the main character - like abusing his newborn son and abandoning him in the jungle to fend for himself, or helping to escalate a bloodbath between a hunter and a group of leopards because of his own warped sense of morality. The show does have him get called out by people on this, but it still treats him like a good father who just needs to learn more, and no matter how much there are some justifications, this version of Kimba/Leo comes across as hard to feel justified as a character.
* FanonDiscontinuity: Given that the series is long this is bound to happen.
** ''Onward Leo!'' isn't well liked by many fans of the original series due to how Kimba became an AdaptationalJerkass who's an abusive parent and not the best husband either. The racially insensitive caricatures and godawful English dub also don't help.

* JustHereForGodzilla: Some people want to watch the show for the infamous oddly dark scenes like Kimba dragging the pelt of his deceased father, or the elephant genocide.

** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMptlNNBiKg SING A HUMAN SONG!]]" [[note]]The English translation of "A-I-U-E-O Mambo" in episode 3[[/note]]
** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmf7qYnhlLA Wa wa wa wa wa wa waaaaa]]" [[note]]The Jungle Chorus from episode 13, which was used in the ''WebVideo/YourMovieSucksDotOrg'' video on Kimba.[[/note]]
** X copied Kimba! [[note]]A parody of the claim that Disney copied Kimba based on superficial similarities. Common claims are how real life ripped off Kimba for having animals.[[/note]]
** "I’m being bullied because I’m white![[note]]Said by WebVideo/YourMovieSucksDotOrg referencing episode 14 when Kimba is picked on by other lions for having white fur.[[/note]]
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg-cV9t3Zhc "Oh you bit me. Oh you bit my toe. Oh my poor toe. That's not fair."]].
** "Why couldn't all the elephants be nice like Peewee? Then they wouldn't have had to be exterminated."[[note]]A line Kimba says in the infamous "elephant genocide" episode after all the elephants are killed by hunters in tanks despite Kimba trying to warn them beforehand.[[/note]]

** The ''Leo the Lion'' English dub, done in 1984 (for a 1966 series!), is filled with many [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAldih45YJY unintentionally hilarious moments.]]
** This line from a gorilla, made even more hilarious by the [[DullSurprise ridiculously understated]] voice acting. Oh, and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg-cV9t3Zhc&ab_channel=Steffie if you watch closely]], she didn't even ''[[OffModel bite his toe.]]''

** In the same clip, there's also that weird constipated-sounding groaning Rukio makes when the gorilla grabs her tail.

** "Too Many Elephants" (a.k.a. the infamous "elephant genocide" episode) has a ridiculously over-the-top sequence close to the end where the entire elephant herd is killed by humans in ''[[TankGoodness tanks]]''. Once they're all dead, Kimba gives us this line that comes across as [[BlackComedy hilariously dark]] out of context.
---> Why couldn't all the elephants be nice like Peewee? Then they wouldn't have had to be exterminated.

** The 1966 ''Onward Leo!'' series is even ''less'' faithful to the original manga and even ''more'' episodic than its predecessor, despite Tezuka having complete control over it. It only lasted 26 episodes and the DarkerAndEdgier tone, coupled with [[ContinuitySnarl several continuity issues]], characters from the original being DemotedToExtra, and the reinstatement of [[ValuesDissonance racially insensitive depictions of African natives,]] scared away potential buyers from the West. The series wasn't dubbed in English until 1984, when it received what's possibly the cheapest voice work made for American television of all time.

* TooBleakStoppedCaring: One of the most common criticisms of the 1989 show is how relentlessly dark and cynical it becomes in the second half, which is not only a stark contrast to the original manga keeping some optimism even when things were at their lowest, but also makes it very difficult to get emotionally invested in the story and characters.

** Certain aspects from the original comic did not age well, particularly some scenes that tend to depict African people as [[{{Blackface}} racist]] [[DarkestAfrica stereotypes]] from old cartoons.
** Black Africans aren't the only ones who get it bad, either; Arabs are given very stereotypical appearances and generally characterized as extremely greedy.
** At least one episode of the 1965 anime depicts spanking as an entirely acceptable way to punish a child. Starting in TheSeventies, CorporalPunishment would be increasingly controversial.
* ValuesResonance: On the other hand, both the comic and the cartoon generally have a strong anti-war, anti-authoritarian, environmental, pro-peace and equality messaging, which are topics that are still extremely relevant to this day and age.

** His abusive treatment of Rune could (at least partially) be chalked up to ValuesDissonance, since corporal punishment was considered an acceptable way for parents to discipline their children back then, but even the strictest of 60s parents [[EveryoneHasStandards would draw the line]] at stuff like [[WhatTheHellHero pretending to abandon your son in the middle of nowhere, leaving him to fend for himself and after he barely pulled through several life-and-death situations, springing into action only once he’s seconds away from being mauled to death]].

* EndingAversion: The manga is mostly a lighthearted adventure. However, towards the end, [[spoiler:several main characters start dying for little to no reason. Kimba himself [[TraumaCongaLine becomes blind, has nightmares about never reuniting with his son who ran away from home, then promptly dies sacrificing himself to save one of his human friends]].]] And after all of these horrible things happen at once, what is the final moral of the story? "[[SpaceWhaleAesop Don't ever challenge nature.]]" What's ironic is that Kimba's actions would help humanity move to a greener source of energy, which would be extremely beneficial to nature. But in the end, nature apparently decides to screw him and his family over for no reason.

** Despite the comparison being more stronger with the original series and the first Lion King movie, something that is also worth pointing out is that while both Kimba and Simba have children at one point and they are also protagonists, at least of Kimba's children only Rune, his son, has a substantial role in the plot while his daughter Rukio is tossed aside in the plot. Simba's, however, both of them have equal importance to the story. Not to mention Rune and Rukio's arcs (The former revolves around Kimba teaching him how to rule and the latter doesn't have that much on an arc) are drastically different from Kion and Kiara's (The former learns how to protect the Pride Lands with the Lion Guard, while the latter doesn't want to be queen and has a StarCrossedLovers situation with her LoveInterest).

** His abusive treatment of Rune could (at least partially) be chalked up to ValuesDissonance, since corporal punishment was considered an acceptable way for parents to discipline their children back then, but even the strictest 60s fathers [[EveryoneHasStandards would draw the line]] at stuff like [[WhatTheHellHero pretending to abandon your child in the middle of nowhere, leaving him to fend for himself and after he barely pulled through several life-and-death situations, springing into action only after he’s seconds away from being mauled to death]].

** ''Onward Leo!'' isn't well liked by many fans of the original series due to how Kimba became an AdaptationalJerkass who's an abusive parent and husband. The racially insensitive caricatures and godawful English dub also don't help.

** The first dub for the original series changed Kenichi's name to the rather corny "Roger Ranger." The 1993 dub removed the corniness by having him be renamed "Jonathan", with no mention of a surname, and the dub for the 2009 special changed his name to "Kevin O'Donnell", which sounds like an entirely normal name.

** His abusive treatment of Rune could (at least partially) be chalked up to ValuesDissonance, since corporal punishment was considered an acceptable way for parents to discipline their children back then, but even the strictest 60s fathers would draw the line at stuff like [[WhatTheHellHero pretending to abandon your child in the middle of nowhere, leaving him to fend for himself and after he barely pulled through several life-and-death situations, springing into action only after he’s seconds away from being mauled to death]].

* JustHereForGodzilla: Some people want to watch the show for the oddly dark scenes like Kimba dragging the pelt of his deceased father, or the elephant genocide.

** This line from a gorilla, made even more hilarious by the voice acting. Oh, and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg-cV9t3Zhc&ab_channel=Steffie if you watch closely]], she didn't even ''[[OffModel bite his toe.]]''

** The first dub for the original series changed Kenichi's name to the rather corny "Roger Ranger." The 1993 dub removed the corniness by having him be renamed "Jonathan", with no mention of a surname, and the dub for the 2009 special changed his name to "Kevin O'Donnell", sounding like a name anyone would have.

** The [[https://youtu.be/bmf7qYnhlLA "Wa Wa Wa"]] song.

** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmf7qYnhlLA Wa wa wa wa wa wa waaaaa]]" [[note]]The Jungle Chorus from episode 13, which was used in the ''WebVideo/YourmoviesucksDOTorg'' video on Kimba.[[/note]]

** "I’m being bullied because I’m white![[note]]Said by YMMV/YourmoviesucksDOTorg referencing episode 14 when Kimba is picked on by other lions for having white fur.[[/note]]

* MemeticMutation: X copied Kimba! [[note]]A parody of the claim that Disney copied Kimba based on superficial similarities. Common claims are how real life ripped off Kimba for having animals.[[/note]]

** The first episode of the 1989 series adapts the first chapter of the manga with the black characters being portrayed more respectfully and by "more respectfully" we mean "not as racist caricatures otherwise known as 'Blackface.'" Likewise, the MightyWhitey element of Mary as Conga/Tonga becoming leader of an African tribe is removed by having the character being a member of the tribe by birth named Conga/Tonga.

** A panel from the manga with a very leonine cloud is often cited as similar to the ghost of Mufasa that appears to Simba. But this isn't the ghost of Kimba's father, nor was it the inspiration for the dead Mufasa appearing before Simba -- that came from ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}''.

** Simba is often thought to be "Kimba" with one letter changed. In fact, "simba" is actually [[ADogNamedDog the Swahili word for lion]], and has been a StockAnimalName for lions both real and fictional [[OlderThanTheyThink as far back as the 1920s]]. This has been such a common lion name for such a long time that the English localizers were originally considering making Leo's {{dub name|change}} Simba, but decided against it because they feared the name would be too generic for them to claim as their intellectual property.

** Pauly Cracker is often compared to Zazu since both are birds, and thus many assume Pauly to be a royal majordomo with a similar uptight personality. In fact, Pauly is just a friend of Kimba's who doesn't have any such position in the court, and has more of a HairTriggerTemper personality in contrast to Zazu's more timid and loyal attitude.

* The [[https://youtu.be/bmf7qYnhlLA "Wa Wa Wa"]] song.

* ValuesDissonance: Certain aspects from the original comic did not age well, particularly some scenes that tend to depict African people as [[{{Blackface}} racist]] [[DarkestAfrica stereotypes]] from old cartoons.
* ValuesResonance: On the other hand, both the comic and the cartoon generally have a strong anti-war, anti-Nazi, environmental, pro-peace and equality messaging, which are topics extremely relevant to this day and age.