During N LITE’s Anime Expo 2025 panel, the staff announced that Osamu Tezuka’s Jungle Emperor Leo anime, also known as Kimba the White, is getting a remake. Details about the Jungle Emperor Leo remake were not confirmed yet, so stay tuned.
The original manga by Tezuka ran in Gakudosha’s Manga Shonen magazine from 1950 to 1954. Jungle Emperor Leo tells the story of a white lion named Leo, who was raised by humans.
The official Osamu Tezuka website describes the series as follows:
Right on the equator in Africa, there is a white lion by the name of Panja. He governs the jungle as the king of animals. One day he is shot by a hunter while his wife is captured alive to be sent to the zoo. On the ship heading to the zoo, she gives a birth to a boy and names him Leo, telling him “You must go back to Africa to become the emperor after your father.”
After letting him escape from the ship, she dies as the ship was sunk attacked by a storm. Leo arrives a port town in Arabian Peninsula, not in Africa, where he meets a boy by the name of Kenichi and is raised by him. A year later, Leo and Kenichi accompany an investigation team dispatched to Mt. Moon in Africa for the purpose of researching Moon Stone, a raw stone generating energy. Leo who sees the jungle for the first time shows disgust at wild animals killing each other. But he comes to regain his confidence and become the great emperor by establishing the Jungle Empire to protect weak animals.
