YMMV / Kimba the White Lion

• Awesome Music:
  • The Japanese Opening and ending were awesome in their own right, but NBC freaked at the cost Tezuka spent to create the themes to a kid's show so they tried to get something much simpler done on the cheap. The result was actually not that bad.
  • The Black Four Song is a great catchy tune that served to introduce the titular villains. Sadly, it was left out of the English dub.
  • The 1997 movie has this sequence showing Rune (wearing a bowtie and helmet) riding on robotic legs as he's visiting various people and animals. The music during that sequence is trippy and very upbeat at the same time.
• Broken Aesop:
  • Episode 14 of the 1965 anime is supposed to be an episode that teaches children racism is bad. Kimba is picked on for having white fur and called an inferior/fake lion, and much of the episode is focused on him accepting and proving himself as a real lion. The message is broken the minute the story reveals Kimba's ancestor drank a special potion that gave him super intelligence and strength, therefore making the entire white lion race genetically superior to all others by default.
  • In the 1989 remake, an arc involves Kimba learning how to enforce the law of his jungle: "Animals should not fight each other." Of course, not everybody follows his rules and try to eat each other anyway, so Kimba is caught in a dilemma: either he fights to enforce the law of his jungle and breaks them in the process or doesn't fight at all and lets everyone kill each other as they please. The moral we learn as the arc is concluded is that you shouldn't fight, at all, even in self-defense. Meanwhile, the antagonists continue to ignore that rule and try to kill each other while Kimba refuses to stop them.
• Broken Base: Is the 1989 series unnecessary, destroying everything the original series stood for, or does its more "realistic" tone make it more engaging than the sillier, light-hearted '65 series?
• Common Knowledge: Has its own page.
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • 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 Black Comedy - this can range from it being cleaned, worn, used as a hiding spot and even as a chair. One episode goes even further and has an entire sanctuary filled with the hide-corpses of Kimba's ancestors, which are also subjected to similar (mis)treatment.
  • The "elephant genocide" from episode 25 of the 1965 series—the gratuitous over-the-top violence becomes dark Narm when coupled with the scene's sheer ludicrous extremity, bizarre unintentional Soundtrack Dissonance, janky approximations of brutality from the Limited Animation, and Kimba suddenly trying to hamfistedly justify the absurd act of Disproportionate Retribution afterward by remarking that the elephants had it coming to them, which is the origin of the infamous "Then they wouldn't have to be exterminated!" line.
• Designated Hero: Kimba/Leo does a whole lot of very unheroic and appalling things in the 60s serials that the audience is meant to side with him on because he's the main character. There are many, many examples, but two of the most appalling ones (both from the sequel series) include abusing his newborn son and abandoning him in the jungle to fend for himself and needlessly turning a conflict between a hunter and a group of leopards into a horrible bloodbath for practically no reason. He even gets called out on such actions several times in-universe by other characters, but the show doesn't go any further than treating him like an ultimately good leader and father who just needs to "learn more".
• Don't Shoot the Message: Kimba, much like any other Tezuka production, was very progressive for its time and tried to convey a strong anti-discrimination message, which in modern times is heavily undermined by the fact Tezuka has chosen to depict African natives as racist caricatures in the original manga. The original anime adaptation thankfully avoids this, but its 1966 sequel wasn't so lucky.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Given how long the series has existed, it's bound to happen.
  • In terms of the original 60s run, New Jungle Emperor, Onward Leo! is nowhere near as well-liked as the first series due to Kimba taking more than a few levels in Jerkass (which is saying something next to the original), becoming a flagrantly abusive parent and husband who is almost never impugned by the show. The extremely racially insensitive African caricatures and stupefyingly godawful English dub courtesy of the Christian Broadcasting Network also don't help.
  • The ending of the manga where Kimba sacrifices his life to save Dr. Moustache, never getting a chance to see his son again. Some people prefer the adaptation of the ending in Onward Leo! where Kimba lives.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: In the English dub of the 1997 film, Mike Pollock voices Dr. Mustache. Around the same time as the dub's release in 2003, Mike had also started voicing a certain other pudgy doctor with a bushy mustache that he would later become well known for.
• Iron Woobie: Kimba. Both of his parents managed to die in the first episode when he was still a young cub... and yet he still manages to forge ahead and create a peaceful utopia.
• Just Here for Godzilla: 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.
• Memetic Molester: Claw became this after the episode Battle at Dead River where he tried to marry Kitty. When they first meet, he creepily asks her to become his bride. When she refuses, he orders his hyenas to capture her.
  Kitty: Claw, I really don't understand what's going on.
  Claw: (chuckles) You will!
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "SING A HUMAN SONG!" ^Explanation The English translation of "A-I-U-E-O Mambo" in episode 3
  • "Wa wa wa wa wa wa waaaaa" ^Explanation The Jungle Chorus from episode 13, which was used as the montage theme for the YourMovieSucks.org video on Kimba.
  • X copied Kimba! ^Explanation A parody of the claim that Disney copied Kimba based on superficial similarities. Common claims are how real life ripped off Kimba for having lions.
  • "I’m being bullied because I’m white!"^Explanation A line said by Kimba in episode 14 of the 1965 serial when Kimba is picked on by other lions for having white fur. Now infamous after being highlighted in the YourMovieSucks.org review.
  • "Oh you bit me. Oh you bit my toe. Oh my poor toe. That's not fair.".^Explanation A Dull Surprise-laden line uttered by the gorilla in the 1984 English dub of the 1966 sequel series, highlighting just how much of an utter trainwreck it is.
  • "Why couldn't all the elephants be nice like Peewee? Then they wouldn't have had to be exterminated."^{Explanation (spoiler)} A line Kimba says in the infamous "elephant genocide" episode of the original 1965 series after all the elephants are brutally killed with tanks, bombs, and machine guns despite Kimba trying to warn them beforehand.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • If Hamegg didn't cross it in the very first episode by killing Panja, then he certainly crosses it when he betrays Kimba's hospitality and steals all the animals after he knows they're sentient. In the 89 series, he later attempts to kill Leo the exact same way and ends up killing Leona.
  • Bizo and Pagoola cross it in Episode 25 of Leo the Lion. Lea is dying from the plague, so Rune has to take a cure from the humans back to her. Meanwhile, Bizo tries to destroy the cure for no reason in particular other than watching Rune suffer. When the humans stop Bizo from succeeding, he runs away crying to his father and convinces him to kill them all. Pagoola, being the massive idiotic bully he is, orders his herd of elephants to kill the humans who are trying to save Lea's life, along with the entire jungle. Bizo then watches as the whole war unfolds with a near-psychotic smile on his face, and the only thing that stops the elephants is when they get infected with the same plague that was about to kill Lea. They're so particularly nasty this episode that all the animals, including Leo himself, don't give a damn if they die and only agree to cure them out of fear the disease might spread even further.
• Narm:
  • The Christian Broadcasting Network's 1984 Leo the Lion English dub of the 1966 New Jungle Emperor sequel series is chock-full of unintentionally hilarious moments.
    • This line from a gorilla, for instance, which is made even more hilarious by the ridiculously understated voice acting. Oh, and if you watch closely, she didn't even bite his toe.
    "Oh you bit me.
    Oh you bit my toe.
    Oh my poor toe.
    That's not fair.
    I didn't try to hurt you now, did I?"
    • In the same clip, there's also that weird constipated-sounding groaning Rukio makes when the gorilla grabs her tail.
  • 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 the far more normal and less cheesy "Kevin O'Donnell".
  • "Too Many Elephants" (a.k.a. the infamous "elephant genocide" episode) has a ridiculously over-the-top sequence in its climax where the entire elephant herd is killed onscreen by humans with tanks, machine guns, bombers, and helicopters. After every last one is slaughtered (save for the one baby from earlier), Kimba gives us a line that comes off unintentionally hilarious with how grotesquely messed up the apparent moral is:
    Why couldn't all the elephants be nice like Peewee? Then they wouldn't have had to be exterminated.
  • Kimba/Leo keeps his deceased father's pelt around, frequently talks to it like Ceasar is still there with him in spirit, plays with it, and occasionally uses it to inspire other animals. This is portrayed as something completely normal, and while it's disturbing at first, after a few episodes it starts to become hilariously morbid. Especially since the 1966 series reveals that Leo's kids, Rune and Rukio, would also have a connection with their grandfather's corpse.
• Newer Than They Think: Many of the more convincing screenshot comparisons in the "Kimba versus Lion King" compilation videos are actually not from the original sixties series, but the 1997 Jungle Emperor Leo film, which came out three years after The Lion King (1994).
• Nightmare Fuel: The Owls' Lullaby. Even without knowing the lyrics, the music and the voices are so unsettling and creepy that the dub left this song intact. The lyrics? "Hurry up and fall asleep. If you can't, fake it. When you're awake, demons come to eat you." Sweet dreams, kids!
• Only the Creator Does It Right: A fan wrote a tirade about how the 1989 anime betrayed the series by being too dark and bleak, lacking the optimism that Tezuka would put into his work.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: Outside of a few select countries, people in the West mostly remember Kimba because of the controversy surrounding The Lion King (1994) allegedly plagiarizing it. As it turns out, there are far more people who are aware of the controversy than there are people who actually watched the show.
• Popular with Furries: The titular character alongside his Love Interest and future wife Kitty/Raiya/Laiya has a small but dedicated following in the west. In Japan, both characters are popular in the Japanese furry fandom especially from longtime Tezuka fans. The mascot of the Saitama Seibu Lions baseball team, which was based on the adult version of Leo, also gets quite a decent amount of attention from furries.
• Seasonal Rot:
  • 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 Darker and Edgier tone, coupled with several continuity issues, characters from the original being Demoted to Extra, and the reinstatement of racially insensitive depictions of African natives, scared away potential buyers from the West. As such, the series wasn't dubbed in English until the Christian Broadcasting Network finally picked it up in 1984, when it received possibly the most ridiculous, Narm-tastic voiceover in the entire history of American television.
  • The 1989 version starts relatively well, but around the start of the second half, it slowly departs from the core message of Osamu Tezuka and descends into a depressing, tragic story. It feels like at least one character is contractually obligated to die every single episode, the human-to-animal antagonism scale is incredibly unbalanced to the point you lose faith in humanity just by watching these episodes, not to mention the disaster related episodes featuring acidic rains and nuclear radiation. There's also a strange arc involving a magic tree which comes out of nowhere that creates a force-field to protect the jungle.
• So Bad, It's Good: While they do have genuine fans, many have started watching the 1965 anime and its 1966 sequel purely for ironic enjoyment, due to their off-the-wall storytelling, memetic moments, unsettlingly dark elements such as the elephant genocide episode and Kimba keeping his dead father’s pelt as a keepsake, the title character's often unheroic actions (especially in the sequel), and the unabashedly outdated aspects, such as the ridiculously racist depictions of Africans. The sequel more so, as it doubles down on many of these elements, especially the last two, on top of having a hilariously terrible English dub.
• Squick: Kimba talks to the fur hide of his deceased father as if it were alive, and later in Leo the Lion, this extends to his two children who treat it as if it were their real grandfather.
• Tear Jerker: See Tezuka's page.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring:
  • 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.
  • The 1966 New Jungle Emperor sequel series also gets this a lot; as mentioned before, the sheer cruelty of the protagonists (especially Leo/Kimba) trumps even the previous series.
• Values Dissonance:
  • Many aspects of the original manga did not age well, particularly the racist and heavily caricatured stereotypical depictions of African people, reminiscent of many old American cartoons.
  • Black Africans aren't the only ones who get it bad, either; Arabs are given very stereotypical appearances and 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 The '70s, Corporal Punishment was increasingly frowned upon by most people.
• Values Resonance: On the other hand, both the comic and the anime also strongly feature anti-war, pro-environment, and pro-equality subtext (even if they are somewhat bungled by the story), which are topics that are still extremely relevant to this day and age.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: Happened to those who're not familiar with the series watching a filler episode from the 1990s dub for the first time.
• The Woobie:
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Rune in Onward Leo!. He's neither as physically adept nor as brave as his sister Rukio, and Leo is absolutely awful to him.
• Woolseyism: The dub actors weren't given the episodes in order and were forced to write their own scripts. While this brought up some issues later on involving Kimba's past, they really tried to make the best possible show they could.
  • Unfortunately, the 1990s redub wasn't so lucky. It's worth noting that the original 1960s dub sells for about $110 in boxset form, while the 1990s redub is a staple in most dollar stores.
    • While fans will admit the 1990s redub sticks closer to the Japanese script generally, they disliked that the dub removed the original background music and non-dubbed voices. There's also a feeling that the original dub cast overall gave a better performance of the characters and that despite some confusion and censorship still retains much of the intended spirit of the show.

---