Osamu Tezuka gained popularity as a manga writer and illustrator up through the 1950s. He is widely credited as the most influential animator in Japan and, indeed, his career parallels the rise of the Japanese animation industry. Inspired by his great love for cartoon animation, Disney in particular (it's said he saw Walt Disney's Bambi 80 times), he set up Mushi Studios, his own production company, (1961-1973) which became a springboard for a number of influential animators who were to follow, including Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira). Unlike Disney which some people say has replaced its pioneering vision with a corporate mentality, Tezuka's vision remained fresh.

Due to NBC's insistence that Kimba should consist of separate episodes that could be shown in any order, episode numbers were assigned without regard to story continuity. Thus, Kimba is helped by Dan'l, Pauley & Bucky in episode #4 but he doesn't meet them until #8; Kimba is almost as big as a full-grown human in #17 but still a small cub in #47. Here is a list of time intended chronological order of the series, compiled by Robin Leyden and Wendell Washer after a thorough analysis of all 52 episodes, and after lengthy talks with Osamu Tezuka, Ray Owens, and Billie Lou Watt themselves. (The original NBC sequence numbers are given in parentheses.)