The Jungle Emperor Leo series, created by Osamu Tezuka, began in 1965 as Japan’s first color animated TV program. It gained overwhelming popularity among children and was subsequently broadcast in the United States and other countries worldwide, where it still enjoys great popularity today. Rintaro (Shigeyuki Hayashi), the chief director of the TV series and JUNGLE EMPEROR LEO, aka KIMBA THE WHITE LION (1966), which is the only animated movie in the program of the Japanese Film Festival Online 2024, talked at length about the historical background of Jungle Emperor Leo at the time of its creation, the creative aims in direction, as well as his personal stance on animated filmmaking, emphasizing that “animation is one of the tools”.

Interview / Text:Masaki Mugikura　Photo:Ryo Tsuchida　Editing:Miho Moriya(CINRA, Inc.)

The 1960s, when TV animation went from black and white to color

–First of all, can you tell us about the Japanese anime and manga industry in the 1960s, when JUNGLE EMPEROR LEO, aka KIMBA THE WHITE LION was released?

Rintaro: It was a time when Mr. Osamu Tezuka, still known as the “God of Manga,” was a successful manga artist and opinion leader in the Japanese cultural scene, having created Astro Boy, PHOENIX, and Princess Knight, among others.

But Mr. Tezuka had always wanted to do animation, so he founded his own animation production company, Mushi Production, and created Japan’s first animated TV series, Astro Boy, in 1963. I was involved as a member of the staff, but at that time, when television was finally being introduced into every household in Japan, Astro Boy was still a black-and-white work. It was very popular with children and became an explosive hit.

Rintaro: So the next step was to animate Jungle Emperor Leo. This time, trying to make the whole movie in color, Jungle Emperor Leo was launched in 1965 as Japan’s first color animated TV series. The following year, the movie version was released, and it was a compilation of the TV series, with new scenes added where necessary, crafted into a single feature film. I was so busy at the time that I don’t remember how it came about (laughs).

— (laughs). At that time you were working under your real name “Shigeyuki Hayashi”. What was your role when you worked on Jungle Emperor Leo?

Rintaro: I was involved in the TV series from the beginning as the “chief director”. The chief director is a role similar to that of a movie director today. I was in charge of creating storyboards, checking drawings, adding color and sound to the animation, and making sure the work was complete.

After directing about 10 episodes of Astro Boy, I was asked by Mr. Tezuka, “Would you be interested in working on Jungle Emperor Leo?” So, Eiichi Yamamoto, Mori Masaki and I started preparing for the Jungle Emperor Leo TV series. Yamamoto was the producer, Mori was in charge of production, managing schedules and budgets, and I was the chief director. From that work, we began to use the “producer system,” in which the producer, rather than Mr. Tezuka, takes the lead in bringing together the scriptwriters, voice actors, and other staff to create the work.

Rintaro: At that time, the Astro Boy TV series was still running, and Mr. Tezuka had a lot of ongoing manga series. So as far as Jungle Emperor Leo was concerned, Mr. Tezuka was only the “original author” and did not directly participate in the animation. Of course, he would offer ideas and opinions, but it was only the producer who would listen to them. The producer would extract the essence of Mr. Tezuka’s wishes and pass them on to the site. So basically, I think we were able to do things quite freely on the site.

How did the production team, who knew nothing about the jungle, go for the “real” thing?

—Jungle Emperor Leo was the first full-fledged animated TV series to be produced in color, wasn’t it? Didn’t you face a lot of difficulties there?

Rintaro: Well, yes. First of all, before color, everyone on the staff at the time, including myself, had been working on Astro Boy, a science fiction series set in the near future, in which robots play an active role. Then one day, we were suddenly asked to make an animal story set in Africa.

At that time, hardly anyone had ever been to Africa, and it was a very unfamiliar place for the Japanese. First of all, no one knew how animals walked or ran in Africa, and we had never thought about such things (laughs). Anyway, we collected as many photos and materials as we could, went to the zoo every day, and drew different animals one after another. We also asked a zoologist to give us a lecture every week to check our drawings of animals and how they move, so we were always learning as we created.

–I think everyone was trying things out for realism in the production process.

Rintaro: Even though we didn’t know the real thing, we wanted to do our best. I tried to draw plants as accurately as possible, such as the baobab tree that appears in the movie version.

It was also our first color movie, so we had to go to the TV station and learn from scratch how to adjust the colors and so on. Everyone was so busy that we didn’t even have time to go home. I was 25 years old at that time, and all the staff were in their 20s, young enough, so I think that’s why we were able to do what we did.

–I was reminded again after watching the movie version that there are so many different kinds and numbers of animals that appear. Moreover, each of them moves in a different way. By the way, as the chief director, what did you pay special attention to while making this movie?

Rintaro: First of all, the opening. At that time, animation focused on how the characters could move happily within a single shot, but for this opening, I was just as particular about the camera work.

The view opens through the valley to a scene of cascading waterfalls and hundreds of flamingos taking off in unison. I worked very hard on this opening, thinking about how to express the vastness of the African land. This opening scene is used in both the animated TV series and the movie version.

Rooted in French and Italian movies he loved since childhood

–What was the background to your obsession with camera work?

Rintaro: I originally joined Mushi Production as an animator, but I loved live-action movies so much that I wanted to become a director, a position closer to the world of movies. In live-action movies, there is a technique called “montage,” where shortcuts are made and spliced together. I wanted to try that in animation.

I had in mind the French and Italian movies I had watched since childhood. I want to make “movies” with animation, not animation for animation’s sake. For me, animation is one of the tools.

This idea was also shared by Katsuhiro Otomo for AKIRA (1988) and Satoshi Kon for PERFECT BLUE (1998). When I met with them, we talked a lot about live-action movies. Why did the director choose that shot to tell that story? We talked endlessly about things like that.

–So other directors working on popular movies around the world had the same thing in common.

Rintaro: And in my case, I was also very particular about not using panels from Mr. Tezuka’s manga as they are in the storyboards. The panels that Mr. Tezuka draws are really wonderful. But I didn’t use them at any cost. Of course, there is a story to be told, and I captured the essence of the story, but I wanted to create a work with my own expression.

Rintaro: We also wanted to be specific about the music, so we used a recording of a full orchestra playing. Furthermore, we didn’t accumulate recordings of the music, but had the orchestra accompany each scene of the animation. Considering the budget and the time it took, that would be unthinkable today (laughs).

–You were doing something very extravagant……

Rintaro: There was almost no precedent, so we were just doing experimental things. There is a scene early in the movie version where the main character, Leo, is swimming alone in the ocean on his way to Africa, and I really wanted to capture the glow of the setting sun reflected on the surface of the ocean. After much trial and error with the art director, we prepared three or four sheets of celluloid with lines drawn on them with 12-color magic markers. Then, we filmed by overlaying the sheets and shifting each one by one millimeter. When we did this, the lines seemed to move slightly. We tried to figure out how to create the scene we wanted to create, and we did a lot of things that were not possible with the techniques of the time.

Enjoy a classic movie with the historical background of the time

–Finally, please say a few words to those who are watching this movie again or for the first time.

Rintaro: I would be happy if you could imagine the historical background in which this movie was made. For example, Jean-Luc Godard’s movie À bout de souffle (1960) was made with no budget, no technology, no crew, and not even enough film to make the movie, all with the strong desire to “make a movie”. If you understand that, I think you will find the movie more interesting.

–In your opinion, when looking at the past works, it is important to take into consideration what they were trying to do with the historical background and the circumstances of the time.

Rintaro: Yes, I think so. There were harsh conditions in the background of the work I was immersed in at that time. However, I am sure that there are expressions that were born only because of that harsh environment.

Therefore, if people watch these works with the background of the time in which they were created, rather than simply looking at them as works from the distant past, I think they will discover new things even today, and it will be an opportunity to think about what they can do now under the limited conditions. I hope you will enjoy the movie in that way.

JUNGLE EMPEROR LEO, aka KIMBA THE WHITE LION is in the lineup for Japanese Film Festival Online 2024. 

Japanese Film Festival Online 2024
https://www.jff.jpf.go.jp/watch/jffonline2024/
June 5 (noon) to 19 (noon), 2024: Films
June 19 (noon) to July 3 (noon), 2024: TV Dramas
*Japan time. The number of films/TV dramas vary depending on the country/region.