The 3rd TV series Tezuka created with Mushi, Kimba was the first colour anime series made in Japan. Highly memorable for Australian kids who saw it during its early 70s broadcast, Kimba con­tained a certain harshness and sadness atypical of animation then and still now It is based on the Zen notion of the greatness of nature: 'the great fish eats the small'. Many episodes fea­tured death and injustice, as the brutality of man is starkly contrasted against the survival codes of jungle animals The familial social and genetic complexities of a lion famiiy (Kimba and his father Leo) who learn to speak English and intro­duce vegetarian diets to carnivores are amazing flights of the imagination. Unavailable in the west since the mid 70s, one can compare this seminal series with Disney's recent The Lion King to study just how east meets west.