Last update made on:

12th January 2006

 
 
Below are listed Japanese Kimba DVD (and LaserDisc) releases. These releases have only Japanese audio track, without English subtitles. Also, the DVDs are in U.S. NTSC format, and are region-2 encoded.

1998.

Jungle Emperor Leo (LaserDisc)

This isn't the release of the "Jungle Emperor Leo" movie from 1966, it is the release of a completely new movie. The story for this movie was taken from the "Go ahead Leo"("Leo the Lion") TV series, which means that here we are talking about Leo(Kimba's name in the original version), Rya(Kitty's name in the original version), Rune and Rukyo.
Duration: 99 minutes
Produced by: Tezuka Productions, 1997
Released on: 21/01/1998
Where to buy it online? I didn't find any webpage where this LaserDisc can be bought.
 

2001.

Jungle Emperor Leo (DVD)

This isn't the release of the "Jungle Emperor Leo" movie from 1966, it is the release of a completely new movie. The story for this movie was taken from the "Go ahead Leo"("Leo the Lion") TV series, which means that here we are talking about Leo(Kimba's name in the original version), Rya(Kitty's name in the original version), Rune and Rukyo.
Duration: 99 minutes
Produced by: Tezuka Productions, 1997
Released on: 25/10/2001
Where to buy it online? It is available on CD Japan's website; click here to view and/or order. In addition to the movie, on the same website you can order the CD with movie soundtrack.

2001.

Jungle Emperor Leo: Symphonic Poem (DVD)

This is not a remake of the original episodes, but the story of Kimba (actually, just the first episode of the 1965 TV series) told in a totally different way - completely without words. Instead of it, you can experience a beautiful musical storytelling. The music in this movie is made by Isao Tomita (composer of the musical score/background music for the 1965 TV series) - he made it by rearranging his music from the 1965 TV series. This music was released on LP in 1966 and 1976, and on CD in 1985 and in the 90s, before using it as the music soundtrack for this movie. The pictures in this movie are new and specially made for this music and this occasion.
Duration: 60 minutes
Produced by: Tezuka Productions, 1991?
Released on: 21/11/2001
Where to buy it online? It is available on CD Japan's website. Click here to view and/or order.

2001.

Jungle Emperor Leo (DVD)

This is the official DVD release of the original 1965 Jungle Emperor Leo (Kimba the White Lion) TV series which contains all 52 episodes. It also contains the original cast of voices and music soundtrack.

The first DVD-box set contains first 25 episodes, while the second one contains the remaining episodes 26 to 52.

Number of episodes: 52
Duration of each episode: 25 minutes
Produced by: Mushi Productions, 1965
Released on: 21/11/2001 (box 1), 29/06/2002 (box 2)
Where to buy it online? It is available on CD Japan's website (click to view and/or order: DVD-box set 1, DVD-box set 2).
However, I would suggest the recently released Jungle Emperor Leo complete box (see below) that contains all episodes from the 1965 "Jungle Emperor Leo" and from the 1966 "Go ahead Leo!" series and sells for a much lower price (circa $180 instead of over $600 for previous DVD-boxes with the 1965 and 1966 series).

2002.

New Jungle Emperor Leo (DVD)

Although it was made in Japan from 1988 to 1989 as a remake of and a sequel to the original "Jungle Emperor Leo" and "Jungle Emperor Leo - Susume, Leo!" series, it didn't have bigger releases until this one. This was Osamu Tezuka's (author of Jungle Emperor - Kimba the white lion) idea of making the completely new Kimba series, which he didn't see finished and released because of his unexpected death in 1989. These 1989 Japanese TV series were on TV in Japan from 1989 to 1990 and in France in 1990.
The first DVD-box set contains first 28 episodes, while the second one contains the remaining episodes 29 to 52.
 
Number of episodes: 52
Duration of each episode: about 20 minutes
Produced by: Tezuka Productions, 1988-1989
Released on: 25/07/2002 (box 1), 22/11/2002 (box 2)
Where to buy it online? It is available on CD Japan's website. Click to view and/or order: DVD-box set 1, DVD-box set 2.

2003.

Jungle Emperor Leo - Susume, Leo! (DVD)

"Jungle Emperor Leo - Susume, Leo!" is the original name of what was called "Leo the Lion" while it was broadcasted on TV in the U.S. in 1984. It is the sequel to "Kimba the White Lion", but Kimba is grown up here, and is called Leo (Kimba's original name).

The DVD-box set contains all 26 episodes on 5 DVDs.

Number of episodes: 26
Duration of each episode: 25 minutes
Produced by: Mushi Productions, 1966
Release date: 21/05/2003
Where to buy it online? It is available on CD Japan's website (click here to view and/or order).
However, I would suggest the recently released Jungle Emperor Leo complete box (see below) that contains all episodes from the 1965 "Jungle Emperor Leo" and from the 1966 "Go ahead Leo!" series and sells for a much lower price (circa $180 instead of over $600 for previous DVD-boxes with the 1965 and 1966 series).

2005.

Osamu Tezuka Animation World (DVD)

This DVD-box set contains 3 movies by Tezuka/Mushi Productions: the 1966 "Jungle Emperor Leo" movie (finally!), the 1964 "Astro Boy: The Brave in Space" movie and a rare anime, 1965 "New Treasure Island".

This DVD release is important since it is the first (official) release of the 1966 "Jungle Emperor" movie.

Total duration: 220 minutes
Produced by: Mushi Productions, 1964, 1965, 1966
Release date: 02/04/2005
Where to buy it online? It is available on CD Japan's website. Click here to view and/or order.

2005.

Jungle Emperor Leo complete box (DVD)

This is complete japanese Leo (Kimba) DVD-box set released as part of the "Osamu Tezuka Anime (Animation) World" series containing 15 DVDs with all episodes (from the previous DVD releases) of the 1965 "Jungle Emperor Leo" and of the 1966 "Go ahead, Leo!" episodes.

The difference between the previous DVD boxes and this one is the price ($180 for this box compared to over $600 for the previous three DVD boxes).

Number of episodes: 78 (52+26)
Produced by: Mushi Productions, 1965, 1966
Release date: 21/09/2005
Where to buy it online? It is available on CD Japan's website. Click here to view and/or order.

Back to the top of the page