The Blue Lion

The Blue Lion also known as "Zamba of the Blue Mane" (青いたてがみのザンバ) in Japanese, is the 3rd episode of Leo the Lion (Onward, Leo).

Plot[]

During a hot day in the sun, Coco flies and calls out to Leo, alerting to him that his mate Kitty/Leah was sick or suffering a “sun stroke.” Leo immediately rushes to his den to find Dan’l watching over a sleeping Leah, and asks him if she will live. Dan’l states that he is optimistic, but dealing with situations like these are tricky, then says that there is nothing much that can be done, but getting Cara Cara leaves could help.

After obtaining the leaves, Leo finds a young zebra Stripes who lost his mother and is confronted by the surrounding lions. The grey male claims that they saw the zebra first and was going to go for the kill, then challenges Leo to fight over him. As he was about to attack, he was stopped by the voice of their leader, a blue lion named Zamba. Zamba offers to fight one-on-one and states that the white lion insulted his friends or his pride and he must pay for doing so. Leo did not want to fight Zamba, but had to anyway, as he attacks him. The fight containing the clawing and clashing of fangs lasts for a bit before Leo leaps up and whacks Zamba in the face, with the crowd of lions watching in shock or surprise. The white lion calls out on Zamba and his pride for ganging up on one helpless baby zebra, referring them as “cowards and bullies.” Taking it as an offense, the pride leader yells to Leo that he had fought battles for all his life and no one has ever called him a coward until now, and tells him to remember that. Once Leo and Stripes left, Zamba turns to his lions and demands to know who gave the order of leading the group. He takes down the shaking and scared brown lion and possibly killing him, and decides to attack the jungle in response to being called a “coward.”

Leo advises Stripes to let his parents know where he is when he wanders off to play before letting him run back to his herd. When the white lion returns to his den, Leah wakes up, happy to see him, and says that she already felt better. She is appalled from seeing the claw marks on his chest and scolds him for always leaving the jungle to fight with the likeliness of never coming back alive. Leo denies that it was nothing serious and does not hurt a bit, although his responses of Leah licking his wound shows otherwise. On the way to find the medicine at the hot springs, Tomy and Coco fight by kicking mud at each other and Dan’l discovers Zamba with his pride on the cliff above them. The blue lion proclaims to be their new master and attacks Dan’l. Tomy and Coco sprint to inform Leo of the incident in tears. The baboon explains that Zamba and his lions were traveling two hundred miles to the south to find a country of their own and it is probable that anyone that got in their way will suffer a terrible fate. Angered by the cruelty and determined to put a stop to it, he plans to face him, but was stopped by his mate, who was against Leo going into a “one lion against ten” battle and says that Zamba was going to leave anyway to convince him to not take such a risky chance. But as time went on, it was clear that Zamba was not leaving anytime soon, as they continue to hunt and kill more and more animals. Leo could no longer stand by and let Zamba continue his cruelty and is about to deal with him, in hopes that talking to Zamba will be enough get to him to leave. He makes a promise to Leah that he won’t fight him before heading to find the blue lion. Tomy and Coco follows Leo, with Dan'l saying that with those two, he's in trouble.

Upon arriving at an echoing mountainous land, Leo attempts to talk Zamba into leaving and heading out to find his own kingdom, but the cocky lion demands him to make him and challenges him in a fight. Although he knocks him down and slams his opponent into a rock, Leo still has to keep his promise that he would not fight him, which Zamba scorns and shames him for making such a promise. He continues attacking Leo and the latter keeps taking the hits he gives him. Just as he pins him down and declares that everything in Leo’s jungle is his to take, he is taunted by Tomy and Coco, then chases them away, declaring to be the strongest lion in the world. While the blue lion was distracted, his uncle, Garrith, is able to save Leo and take him to a nearby river in the dead of night, out of not only "being a lion," but to thank him for not fighting the blue lion. While he does not know why Leo refused to fight, he tells the white lion that he knew that if Zamba and Leo fought until the very end, only one of them would be dead, as there is no going back for Zamba and it is impossible for him to change. Garrith does not blame his nephew for it, for he knows why he became the lion he is now. He tells Leo the story about Zamba, hoping that it could save the latter’s life in understanding his struggles.

Tomy and Coco, who fled to Leo and Leah’s den, describe what happened in Leo and Zamba’s confrontation, but feel ashamed for fleeing and leaving Leo to fend for himself with a high risk of dying. They came back to the area, but Leo disappeared upon return, then the sobbing duo get kicked out by an angered Dan’l. Everyone is in shock when Leo comes back home alive. The animals are stopped by Leo, who suggests not to get others involved to fight Zamba. He tells them the story of Zamba, a lion who started out as a crying cub rejected by his own pride because he was born blue. He was frequently bullied by other lions for his differences and had to try his best to become stronger and learn to survive alone. He lived alone and the only thing he lived for was the thought of fighting back, which resulted to Zamba growing up to be a powerful, but brutal lion. Leo is able to relate to Zamba, as he understands what it is like to be alone. It was thanks to his friends that he did not fall into that same dangerous path, but he no longer wants to fight the blue lion, for it was like fighting himself.

After some time, Rhinoceros confronts Leo and threatens that he will come after Zamba if Leo continues allowing him and his lions to run free and cause chaos. Leo is also alerted that Stripes and his family were gone and Zamba threatened to eat them if he saw them again. Tomy and Coco reveal that Garrith was killed by his nephew for saving Leo's life. Rightfully sickened and outraged, Leo goes to challenge Zamba in a fight once and for all. Leah, Dan’l, Tomy, and Coco ran to the site and watched. After a fierce battle of claws and strikes under the orange sky of nearing dusk, Zamba gets the upper hand near the top of the two mountain spires and is able to toss the battered white lion off the cliff. The animals immediately rush to Leo’s side and stand against Zamba, which the blue lion did not mind, since he enjoys torturing little animals. He becomes bewildered and shocked to see that the white lion survived the fall and managed to climb back up. He backs away from him until the edge of the mountain gave way, making him fall through and plummet into the gorge. His pride watches him fall to his doom and flees as Leo and his gang slid along the side of the mountain to find him.

On a ledge, Zamba is found lying on his belly and Leo states that Zamba could have asked to be their friend. The lion laments that he tried so many times and hundreds of different ways growing up, but attempts were all done in vain. Everybody hated him because he was different, so all he could do was making them fear him. Zamba asks Leo to forgive him before letting out his last breath, dying in front of the group from his fatal wounds. The animals look on in shock and sit around him in silence to honor the fallen lion as the sun slowly sets until it disappeared under the horizon.

Characters[]

seen by appearance

Kimba (Leo)

Species seen

Giraffes
Zebras
Lions
Antelope
Elephant
Foxes
Raccoons
Birds
Squirrels
Parrots
Leopards
Warthogs
Hyenas (mentioned)
Rhinoceroses

Trivia[]

Although Zamba grew up without the support of friends, he still called the lions his pride his "friends."
In the English dub, Leo states he was once referred to as “Kimba,” meaning “little coward” in the language of animals for not wanting to fight, which is confusing because there have been cases where Leo did go out of his way to fight and there was no specific meaning to the name. Panja also requested Eliza/Snowene to name their son "Kimba" just moments before he died.
- In the Japanese version, however, he refers to himself as “white flower.”

Gallery[]

Resources[]

Title and air date: Tezuka in English

Director - Media Arts Database