Raiya
Legacy Name: Raiya

"Bright sun on high,

Shine down your rays upon my head.

I know your light

Beams down upon my Kimba, too.

But, gentle breeze,

Blow gently to caress his cheek,

And whisper that

I love him with a love that's true.

Sweet Earth, below,

Do not shake lest he trip and fall.

And butterflies,

Tell Kimba that his Kitty loves

Him best of all."

"Huh?" A cream colored lion cub looks at you in surprise. "I'm sorry, I didn't see you there. I hope you don't mind--I was just singing about my hero." She blushes softly, a pink glow visible even through the fur on her fuzzy cheeks. The butterflies dance above her as she continues speaking to you.

"Did you want to know more about him? Oh--" She's surprised again, "You want to know more about me? Well, to be honest, most of my story is deeply entwined with his... My parents died when I was very young, and being a cub, I needed to find someone to protect me from other predators in the jungle. I may be a lioness, but I'm still very small. I decided to move to my Uncle's pride near Panja's Jungle, but on the way there I ran into a wicked lion named Claw!"

"That's when I met my Kimba. He ran to help me and saved my life! He was so caring and considerate... He licked my paw and made me feel all better... I was so grateful to him, but he asked for nothing in return. He really is such a gentlelion."

"Later on, Claw came back to take over the forest and Kimba was nowhere to be found! I felt so indebted to him that I couldn't let his jungle get taken over by that awful lion, so I did the only thing I could do... I sacrificed myself and became Claw's queen, on the condition that he left the jungle animals alone. He took me back to his evil lair, and I was very frightened, but I stayed strong."

"But then, Kimba came back just in time to save the day, and he saved me from Claw again! He's the bravest, handomest, wonderfulest--oh!" She giggles, covering her mouth with a paw as her eyes shut in laughter, "There I go again! Well...I hope you don't blame me. He's just so perfect. One day, I want to marry him and have a family together! ...Do you think it's too soon to think about such things?"

She cocks her head with a slight frown as she considers her own question before smiling again. "In any case, I can't hold back my feelings! May the flowers blossom with my love and the butterflies carry it to him on their wings!"

This profile is dedicated to Raiya, the cream-colored lioness from the Kimba series! She goes by many names, including Kitty, Lyra, and Lea. It depends on what series you're watching, and where! There were three series and a movie which featured her, and she goes by a diferent name in each, while the main character (her hubby!) is always either Kimba (in America) or Leo (in Japan)! It gets a little confusing, but one thing is for sure: these lions are cute!

Raiya is Kimba's girlfriend and later wife! This holds true for every animated Kimba series except for the 2009 movie, where the entire story was rewritten and she was replaced by a bird! However, their star-crossed love hasn't been forgotten by Kimba fans, and people love Raiya to this day.

In the original 1960's era animation, Kimba first met Kitty when he had to save her from his evil arch-nemesis Claw. Kimba and Kitty instantly bonded over their similar status in life; both lost their parents at a young age and both have a connection to butterflies, which lead them home on colored wings. In the second tab, Raiya sings a song proclaiming her love to Kimba, and asks the butterflies to whisper her love into his ears.

As an adult, Raiya has two children with Kimba: Lune/Rune and Lukio/Rukio. The spelling and pronunciation of each name depends on where you live, just like with their parents!

Fun fact: in the manga, their daughter has black ear tips like her father Kimba while their son has none. In the anime, they reversed this and made the cubs clones of their parents! This was probably done to save money on drawing more animation. Here's a quick picture from the original manga of the two cubs with their original, proper, non-clone designs!

The family has their own series where their cubs go on adventures and their son eventually takes his place as the new king of the jungle while the daughter leaves to marry a lion in a neighboring pride (though sadly, that part was offscreen).

Raiya was a beloved queen of the jungle, kind and fair to all. I won't spoil the ending of her story, even though it concluded more than fifty years ago in reality, going by the manga. I'll simply leave off with this: Kitty, Lyra, Lea, or Raiya, no matter what you call her by, is a lovely lioness that deserves to be remembered.

Each piece of treasure in Raiya's treasure chest is related to her love for Kimba, butterflies, or specific episodes involving her--like a roll of film upon which Kimba saw her picture once, when humans kidnapped her,

or a golden collar like the one she inherited from Kimba's sister (who was her mentor in the 1989 reboot series!)

Even the little log she rides away on in the end of the first episode involving her is referenced in the beanbag placed in her treasure.

Take a moment to look through it all on tab IV, then see the credits for more information on tab V. As an additional note, her minion, Ai the Love Bug Butterfly, has that name because it is a English translation for the word "love" in Japanese. I've given Raiya a kaleidoscope of butterflies for her treasure page along with many little love items to touch on her most iconic themes, and Ai the Love Bug Butterfly is the perfect minion combining these two traits! I hope you enjoyed exploring Raiya's pet page and that it gave you some encouragement to check out an old anime about adorable lions. The Kimba series has historical significance as the first full color anime to be aired in the U.S. and it's worth a watch!