"The Imaginary Okapi" is on WatchDisneyJunior.com

[Carl]

[quote="Tsuki"][quote="Elton John"][quote="Tsuki"]I enjoyed this episode. Loved the leopard!!! But what annoys me is why are all predators bad guys? [/quote]

The lion characters are all good as well as fuli

Or did you mean why are none of the villains 'prey'?[/quote]

I mean other than lions and cheetahs .[/quote]
Don't forget about Jasiri. She's not a bad guy, and is a predator that isn't a lion or a cheetah. Predators are the villains in general because the show is about preserving the Circle of Life and prey animals aren't really going to send it out of whack except potentially by reproducing too much, and overpopulation might be a bit tricky for them to solve on a show like this--not saying they couldn't, but y'know.

Though it would be cool to see some antelope villain threatening to impale someone or something...

Furthermore, I wouldn't necessarily call Makucha a "villain." He was the episode's primary antagonist, but had he been hunting Ajabu where they're from, would he be considered in the wrong? I doubt it. The Lion Guard was worried about his presence only because the herds wouldn't know to fear him, and when they interfered with his hunt, he said that it wasn't worth it and left willingly. He's not acting like Janja or any other villain really, so while he's certainly an antagonist, I don't consider him to be a villain or to be evil. As a matter of fact, I think his actions are about on the same level as the zebra who was pregnant in that one episode--she was clearly an antagonist throughout the episode, but she wasn't a villain. Just my thoughts on that. (One could also argue that the jackals are antagonists and not villains as well, but Reirei has some rather devious views so that one's a bit more questionable.)

Anyhow, I loved Makucha's and Ajabu's designs. They were really neat and the voice acting for the two of them was great too. I was also impressed with the animation in this episode because it's definitely improved from the series' beginning. I actually loved Beshte's rap, as it had a very nostalgic late '90s/early 2000s feel to it, and the beat seemed fitting for a hot, nice environment. The song put me in mind of the kind of thing you'd associate with trips to the beach in the summertime, but with a bit of tone to it that seemed very TLK. I thought it was excellent. I really hope we see more of Ajabu and Makucha in the future.

[gothprincesskiara]

ok so there has still been some arguing on my Facebook role play page so I thought I would help explain it here too

Well I have watched it again and written down some notes to investigate more on the matter.

FIRST OFF, lets look at the 2 words RARE, SPECIES. and see what it means please read the information here at the link. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare_species

Now keep that in mind while I explain the fallowing.....

Now going through the episode in order and going through all the notes I wrote down, and it all makes sense.

1. Ajabu is from a far away place. and he said where he is from, hiding is the best thing for an okapi to do, why? go to Question 2.

2.Ajabu says there arnt that many Okapi from where he is from, they are RARE! read that Rare species link again please then continue to #3. and where Ajabu is from, he says leopards have been hunting Okapis all the time, maybe too much to the point where they became RARE!

3. Okapis are a Jaguars favorite food, SO if they are rare then they may have been over hunted by the leopard(s). so now its harder for them to get Okapis and thats how they became rare from where Ajabu is from.

4. Makucha was FIRST SEEN HUNTING GAZELLES. So there was no ecuse for him to be hunting Ajabu if he was going to have Gazelle. but then the Lion Guard interrupted his hunt, moving on.

3. Maybe Beshte told the rest of the Guard the Okapis where rare and Kion made the assumption that, since the Okapi are rare, maybe Kion wanted to help his species by introducing the Okapi into the Pridelands to help repopulate the Okapis. TO do so he would let Ajabu stay safe in the Pridelands where his life would not be hunted by leopards. if Makucha hunted Ajabu, it would be a waste of an Okapi and the more endangered the Okapis become. So more might come into the Pridelands and repopulate.

4. Leopards dont always have to say hello with there teeth, Im sure most leopards know, the Circle of Life unlike Makucha who doesnt consider that the Okapis are rare and endangered.

5. Last note, Makucha did what was best for the Circle of Life, leave the Okopi alone and left to find more easier more populated prey.

I thought very hard through this in a biological point of you when it comes to endangered species, when it comes to endangered species you go from endangered to rare which is called the bottle neck effect. I learned this in Biology and zoology! So,when it comes to this episode it all fits, at least for me, I think they are setting a good example for children on keeping animals safe from EXTINCTION. and that is what im all about!

Case closed for me.

[moonsugar33]

I'm a little behind (I watched Too Many Termites first a while ago), but I finally watched this episode! Oh boy, it was great.

Although I felt the backing vocals came on a little strong in places, I loved Beshte's rap. When I first heard that he had a rap I kind of feared the worst, but it turned out to be really good and I was pleasantly surprised- heck, if I knew more about music I'd be remixing it as we speak!

I usually really dislike Bunga, but this was definitely one of his better episodes. If he was written like this all the time I'd like him a lot more. He's silly without being blatantly obnoxious, and his jokes made me giggle!

Makucha's design was fascinating. That coupled with his voice? I couldn't take my eyes off him. I can't wait to see some fanart in the traditional TLK style but he certainly didn't look bad anyway.

I like that the antagonists of this show are being more and more shown to be incompatible with the moral code of the Circle of Life rather than just competitors. Although as gothprincesskiara noted, he did in the end leave Ajabu and the Pridelands; but I really doubt with such a smorgasbord of delicious unwitting prey he'd be content to leave the Pridelands after eating Ajabu if it weren't for the Guard's deterrence anyway.

All in all, a good episode!

[Squeely]

Good episode, Machuka really stole the show here. I'd love to see more of him, though if we don't, they gave some fairly solid reasons as to why we wouldn't, which is a nice touch. Ajabu is completely adorable and I do hope we see more okapi as well.

I give it Beshte's sick beats out of ten.

[Gaze]

finally watched this episode!!

first off....Makucha is SO cool. his design and voice are pretty much perfect. as much as I love Fuli, seeing another big cat character with this good of a design makes Fuli's design all the more disappointing. it's a small detail, but I especially liked that the leopard's eyes match the TLK style well. Fuli and Beshte's solid colored irises without a darker pupil have always, to me, seemed juuust out of place enough to be vaguely distracting.

however, as others have said, the continued villainization of predators is a little irritating. I do appreciate that this episode explained why it was harmful for a leopard to be in the pridelands - not because leopards are inherently bad, but because the prey animals wouldn't perceive them as a threat. Makucha's relentless pursuit of one individual animal, of a species that is said to be rare (and thus presumably overhunted), does make him seem ruthless enough to be considered evil for reasons other than just his species. but the "leopards say hello with their teeth" line implied that we're supposed to be viewing the entire species as villains. I'd just like the show to live up to its "Sisi ni Sawa" message a bit better!

Ajabu was SO adorable. as soon as he popped his head out of that bush I said aloud, "he's SO cute!" I'm glad he's a citizen of the Pridelands now and hopefully we'll be seeing him more. but I have to wonder if he's just going to be 'exempt' from being eaten by predators, lol.

[Elton John]

Judging by a new ep description there's going to be another leopard character in the vein of jasiri. So something to look forward to.

[Squeely]

Minor nitpick, but I do find it odd that prey wouldn't know to run from a leopard. I'd think prey animals would be able to tell when another animal is a predator, even if they haven't seen it before. Especially since a leopard isn't anything that new. They're used to lions and cheetahs, which share tons of similarities with leopards. I wouldn't think it would be hard to piece two and two together.

[PrincessKiara]

[quote="Squeely"]Minor nitpick, but I do find it odd that prey wouldn't know to run from a leopard. I'd think prey animals would be able to tell when another animal is a predator, even if they haven't seen it before. Especially since a leopard isn't anything that new. They're used to lions and cheetahs, which share tons of similarities with leopards. I wouldn't think it would be hard to piece two and two together.[/quote]

I agree, this bothered me as well when I watched this episode, I found it hard to believe that they wouldn`t understand or recognize a threat in the form of a predator when they saw one. Especially when leopards and cheetahs look so similar.

Otherwise, I really enjoyed this episode, Ajabu was a really cute character and Makucha was fascinating, I hope we see him again. The male Zebra (I read somewhere his name was Thurston) is my favourite side-character, I love how they followed up on his remark that zebra meat is the tastiest (he`s mentioned it before at some point) and how offended he was when he learned he wasn`t the one Makucha was after.

One other thing that irked me a bit was how they said that Okapi`s are not native to the Pride Lands, and so none of the members of the Guard had ever seen one before. Okapis are shown in both TLK and SP, so that doesn`t make sense.
After making this post, I came to think that I couldn`t actually remember seeing Okapis in TLK, only SP. I went to look at some screencaps from TLK where several animals are gathered, and couldn`t see any Okapis. Strange! They are shown in SP on more than one occasion, though, for example at Kiaras presentation and the Upendi scene, which means that there must have been Okapis around still by the time Kion was born.

[Squeely]

^My headcanon is that they travelled to attend Kiara's presentation. I dunno, I could see that sort of thing being a pretty big to-do even for non-Pridelanders. The lion king does have some say over surrounding territories. Maybe okapi rarely visit the Pridelands, and Kion and friends had simply never run into one.

[PrincessKiara]

[quote="Squeely"]^My headcanon is that they travelled to attend Kiara's presentation. I dunno, I could see that sort of thing being a pretty big to-do even for non-Pridelanders. The lion king does have some say over surrounding territories. Maybe okapi rarely visit the Pridelands, and Kion and friends had simply never run into one.[/quote]

That is a good theory, I`ve never thought of it that way.