Small Screen Safari.

During my twenty-two years in Newburgh, WNEW, WOR, and WPIX were the go-to channels for anime series. WPIX offered "Eighth Man," "Speed Racer," and the subject of this thread, "Kimba, The White Lion."

I was totally taken with the lion cub who strove to rule the jungle, and keep his loyal subjects out of danger. Although most episodes showed Kimba in his own habitat, some took place in un-named cities that could easily be Johannesburg or Nairobi. So devoted to this show was I that when I went to the dentist to have a cavity filled, missing that day's episode was more painful than the drilling! At least I got home in time for the tail end of it. Oh, if only DVR's existed in those days.

Later, during my first year in Boston, I came across the sequel, "Leo The Lion" on CBN, now ABC Family. Noticing that the opening showed VERY familiar clips, I thought, "This is just like Kimba." Eventually, I found out that Leo was in fact the adult Kimba. But I still yearned for the original, with Daniel Baboon, Pauley Cracker, Kitty, Leona, Speedy, Fancy Prancy, and all the others. At this point, it seemed unlikely that I'd ever see it again. I didn't even go there with later iterations from 1993 and 2009. Instead, I bought the original on DVD, as well as some "Leo The Lion" videotapes. Guess you could say I liked them both. Still, I often wonder what "Leo" was doing on a religious channel.

When I mentioned "Kimba" to some of my coworkers, I found out there were two who loved it as much as I did. And when I read an old issue of Soap Opera Digest, a soap actress admitted it was her favorite anime as a child. So it does have a huge fanbase.

Recently, I came across the old series on Hulu, and decided to give it a second look. That's when I saw things I'd somehow overlooked when I was little. The show was quite graphic for its time. It showed animal bones, serious injuries, and yes, even blood. None of this, however, made me change my feelings about the classic. I still love it, and may yet play those DVD's all the way through.

The best part of this thread, BTW, is that I expressed my true feelings about "Kimba" without mentioning you-know-who.