Audio Problems Fixed | ||
| It seems there were some serious problems with the audio player I used. Well, that should all be fixed now, and you should be able to play the theme songs from the 1966 version of Kimba, the 1993 version of Kimba, and all the various songs on my Audio page. Each song should have a little play button you can click.
updated 29 June 2010. |
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What Would You Like to See Here? | ||
| What would you like to see added to this site? I'm taking requests and suggestions for new additions. Use the Email link in the menu at the left to send in your ideas. (If you don't see a menu at the left, click here.)
The latest additions to this site came from questions and suggestions. They are a picture of Billy Bully from the episode Catch 'Em if You Can and the theme from Saudi Arabia for the second season of Kimba (aka "Leo the Lion").
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Kimba no longer on TV in the US? | ||
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With the demise of the Spanish-language television network La Familia, there apparently are no Kimba showings left on the air in the US. Can anyone tell me otherwise? Updated 21 July 2010. |
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Kimba Makes a "Guest Appearance" on Fringe | ||
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This past Thursday (November 5), in a brief scene in the FOX TV show "Fringe" (episode 6, "Earthling"), a girl was shown watching Kimba the White Lion on TV. Shown were scenes from Kimba episode 14, "Journey Into Time", and the dialog was: It's nice to see Kimba making an appearance on network TV --and the original version, too, voiced by Billie Lou Watt & company-- even if it was just a brief cameo. You can see this episode on the FOX web site (click the Fringe logo at the left).
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New Book About Osamu Tezuka | ||
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The Art of Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga
Osamu Tezuka, creator of Kimba the White Lion, is considered the greatest manga artist Japan has ever seen. He drew over 170,000 pages of manga during his lifetime, and produced nearly six dozen television shows and theatrical films. Helen McCarthy, a manga/anime historian, has published a book that documents Tezuka's work over the course of his life. All of Tezuka's signature works are here, from Astro Boy to Kimba the White Lion to Phoenix, along with all the others, presented chronologically. Tezuka's art is also placed in context with Asian and world events. The Art of Osamu Tezuka has 272 pages, and about 350 color illustrations. Included with the book is a 45-minute DVD with a documentary (never-before-aired outside of Japan) covering Tezuka's career in manga and animation.
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Symphonic Poem Reissued in Japan | ||
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Isao Tomita's Symphonic Poem, based on themes he wrote for the original Kimba/Jungle Emperor TV series, has been reissued in Japan in a new CD + DVD 2-dsic set.
Unfortunately, the CD is likely to be a disappointment for English-speaking fans because the new recording has narration (in Japanese) on top of the music throughout the entire recording. This is a significant departure from the older CD and LP of this music, which had a narration track before the music, and the music was entirely in the clear. The DVD is Region 2 only, which means US fans will need a region-free DVD player to play it. The DVD does not contain the animated film of the Symphonic Poem; instead it contains the drawings Tezuka created for the 20-page book included with the original LP release of the music. However, the DVD can be set to play the music without any narration. There are English subtitles to take the place of the narration. The DVD also provides isolated instrumental tracks of the various motifs used in the Symphonic Poem. This new set is part of the celebration of Osamu Tezuka's 80th birth anniversary.
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21st Century Kimba, and a New Page on This Site | ||
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First there was the original Kimba The White Lion. Then came a movie, a second season of the TV show, a completely reworked TV series, an hour-long movie, another theatrical movie, and now in 2009, a TV movie. All these are listed on the All The Other Shows page, which is a gateway to all sorts of neat stuff about each show. The shows on that page are listed in chronological order, and Jungle Emperor Leo 2009 has been added to the bottom of the page. The new page for the 2009 show has a plot summary and all the available information. New character pictures have been added just now! Japan's Fuji Television Network is celebrating its 50th anniversary as well as the 80th anniversary of Osamu Tezuka's birth with a series of new TV adaptations of Tezuka's most popular stories. As part of this series, there was a new Jungle Emperor/Kimba the White Lion movie. It has been almost 20 years since the previous TV adaptation of this story, and 44 years since Jungle Emperor/Kimba the White Lion first premiered on TV as the first color animated series in Japan. As soon as someone plans an English-language DVD release of this movie, it will be announced here! Source: TezukaOsamu.net |
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New DVD Mini Set | ||
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On October 6, Right Stuf International will release a new Kimba DVD "mini set" containing 5 discs with 25 episodes of the original series.
A mini set offers fans an inexpensive way of enjoying the restored Kimba episodes. You don't get the deleted scenes, you don't get the book from the big box set, but you do get the episodes in all their newly-restored glory. You can pre-order the Kimba mini set from either Amazon.com updated 27 August 2009. |
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ORIGINAL Leo the Lion Restored on DVD | ||
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A project to restore the Leo The Lion TV series is now complete. This series is called by some "Kimba: Season 2", and it is the sequel that Osamu Tezuka made in 1966, showing Kimba as an adult. All 26 episodes are now available on DVD, in English, completely uncut for the first time and looking and sounding great. (Previous DVDs of this series have had rotten picture and sound.) Click here for full info. | |
OH, NO! Say It Isn't So! | ||
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The Travel Japan blog is reporting that the Seibu Lions baseball team--sorry, the Saitama Seibu Lions baseball team (they changed their name last year)--has decided to change their team logo this year.
Their old logo (left), and mascot, which they used for 30 years was the adult Kimba (known here as Leo the Lion). And very handsome he was, too, in my opinion. The new logo (right) shows a lion's paw/hand holding a baseball. I have to agree with the blog writer in the opinion that the new logo is nothing special. Long Live Leo The Lion!
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New Book by Fred Ladd, Executive Producer of Kimba | ||
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Just published is a book by Fred Ladd, the American executive producer of Kimba The White Lion: ASTRO BOY AND ANIME COME TO THE AMERICAS: An Insider's View of the Birth of a Pop Culture Phenomenon, co-written with Harvey Deneroff. The book is Fred Ladd's story of his involvement in producing the English-language versions of Kimba the White Lion, Astro Boy, Gigantor, and other pioneering anime series, and his dealings with Osamu Tezuka and others. It is his personal history of the beginnings of anime for the US. It wasn't as easy as you might think!
Available now. Click the picture of the book to order. |
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Any Kimba Fans in England? | ||
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For the FIRST TIME the 1966 KIMBA MOVIE (picture at left) was shown subtitled in English at the Osamu Tezuka festival in London this past September. Naturally, now that a subtitled version of the 1966 Kimba movie exists, we all hope for a DVD release. As soon as someone steps forward to release this on DVD, it will be announced here! updated 26 November 2008 |
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Not Kimba, But Still Great: | ||
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One of Osamu Tezuka's last projects was the film "Legend of the Forest", in which two separate, but related stories are animated in time to Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony. Two sections of the film were completed, corresponding to the first and fourth movements of the symphony. Now, Anime News Network reports that Tezuka's son intends to create new animation to go with the 2nd and 3rd movements, thereby "completing" the film (it plays pretty good in its "uncompleted" state). The first section of the movie is a both a story and a history of animation, as the characters evolve through the styles of many famous animators from the beginning of movies to the present. The last section of the movie is more conventional, a sort of ecological fantasy. Please note two caveats about the poster shown in the ANN article: The poster is old, and the web address it shows is defunct (it is now owned by some cybersquatter). Also, despite what the poster for the movie shows, Kimba is _not_ in the film. (item added August 15, 2008) |
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Calling All Australian Kimba Fans! | ||
| A petition has been started to get Kimba The White Lion back on TV in Australia. If you live in Australia and would like to see Kimba on TV again, click here and add your name to the petition! (July 19, 2008) |
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CollectionDX reports that Organic Hobby will be releasing four PVC figures from the Tezuka Moderno Labo series for the US market. In addition to the figure of Kimba, pictured at the left, there will be Princess Sapphire (Princess Knight), Dr. Elefun (Dr. Ochanomizu), and Three-Eyed One (Sharaku) figures. (April 12, 2008)
New: A DVD with 3 "Kimba El León Blanco" episodes from the 1960s. This is NOT the same DVD that is frequently offered on ebay. These Spanish Kimba shows were produced by the same company that produced Kimba The White Lion originally in the 1960s for the US. They have top-notch voice acting (one of the actors sounds to me like one of the English actors; maybe he was multi-lingual) and all the original music by Isao Tomita. All episodes are complete, with nothing cut out, just like when they were first shown. Plus they have a very cool Spanish theme, sung to the tune of the classic English Kimba theme (preview it below). These films are very rare, and it's great to have them available again.
It's now available! The most often-asked question about this set is: Does it contain the ORIGINAL 1966 episodes with Billie Lou Watt as Kimba?
The first Kimba episode exists in two versions, both with the original actors we know and love, including Billie Lou Watt as Kimba. One version was recorded on November 10, 1965, the second on August 29, 1966. It is the first version that has been lost until now. There are some fascinating differences in the dialog, different accents for some of the characters... they were whole different productions. The restoration effort for this lost version has been completed. Click here to read about it and get your own copy.
The original Kimba series (original 1966 version) on VHS tapes is becoming harder to find. Check out what's left of these brand-new factory sealed tapes here.Kimba and AstroBoy at SymphonySpace | ||
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On Saturday and Sunday, November 28 & 29, 2009, the New York International Children's Film Festival presented a public showing of episodes of Kimba the White Lion and Astro Boy. More information at the SymphonySpace web site.
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"Tezuka On TV" at the Smithsonian | ||
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On Sunday, December 6, 2009, the Freer Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, screened episodes from three classic Tezuka TV series.
The shows were: Princess Knight Vampire Marvellous Melmo The Three-Eyed One More information at the Freer Gallery web site: http://www.asia.si.edu/film/tezuka/ This program was part of a month-long exploration of Osamu Tezuka and his works.
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Public Kimba Screening in Washington DC. | ||
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The [Washington,] DC Anime Club, in collaboration with the Japan Information and Culture Center, Embassy of Japan, hosted a showing of Jungle Emperor Leo on February 27, 2009. This was part of a new film series based on both anime and manga.
Produced eight years after Dr. Osamu Tezuka's death, this movie is based on his epic "Jungle Emperor" manga. Jungle Emperor Leo tells approximately the last half of the original story. Previously, the first half had been adapted into the 1965 Jungle Emperor TV series (Kimba The White Lion outside of Japan), and the second half had been loosely adapted into the 1966 Susume Leo TV series (Leo the Lion in the US). In some ways, the Jungle Emperor Leo movie is noticeably more faithful to the manga story than the latter TV series had been; in other ways -- most notably the relationships between the animals and humans -- it is very different. You can read more about Jungle Emperor Leo here.
The DC Anime Club was established in 2003 to introduce and educate people in the Washington, DC area about East Asian culture through viewing and discussion of anime manga. The club also works to provide a positive, alternative activity to the youth in the area by exposing them to foreign culture, encouraging artistic expression and creativity, and providing opportunities for participation in community activities and leadership. |
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