My favourite foreign dramas

1. Kachorra - Possibly my surprise favourite, as Natalia Oreiro was BIG in the Czech Republic. For a family friendly telenovela, it is full of amazingly dark comedy melodrama. More than just the goofy fashion, the characters are also well conceived and developed, as well as the theme song. 

2. Sweet Fugitive - The Portuguese soft remake of Kachorra is one hell of a ride, where the titular anti villainess is trying to survive in a place full of people more corrupt than her.

3. The Roses of Dublin - This beautiful drama focuses on the gorgeous scenery of Ireland itself. 

4. Hotel Elfie and Girlfriends (tie) - These two manic German dramas are about women trying to survive in a corrupt workplace. 

5. The Island of Dreams - This German drama focuses on a fictional island where tourists come and go with ease. 

6 Tida Wanorn 1-3 and Reboot (tied) - Apart from its annoyingly catchy theme song, it’s a fairly decently rounded story about a brave girl abandoned by her own screwed up family in the jungles of a generic Southeast Asian country. 

7. Prince of The Wolves - Prince of The Wolves is a rather edgy Jungle Book retelling, not about Mowgli, but about Du Zhe Ming. Zhe Ming is a brave young man who grew up with what are supposedly wolves (which are actually played by sled dogs if anyone looks at them closely) in the tropical forests of Central India (played in ironic fashion by Taiwan of all Asian countries!), after being rescued by them in his real family’s doomed camping trip to India (as in the country) itself. 

8. Fathiyah 1 and 2 (tied) - Despite the lack of good quality CGI, It’s a pretty entertainingly funny story about a girl who went missing when she was a baby, only to grow up wild and tough because she was being raised by both elephants and macaques in the jungles of southwestern Sumatra! 

9. My Mowgli Boy - This really loose homage to the Jungle Book seems to be about a half wild young man named Mo Ge Li, who reluctantly moves into the city. 

10. Bicho Do Mato (Reboot) - This Brazilian Telenovela contains a pretty good (although flawed) conservation message and has characters who are much better developed than in the original. The pretty blonde hick protagonist is just as brave as the family of indigenous Pantanal locals who raised him, and that’s okay.

11. Yago: Pure Passion - Yago: Pure Passion is about a tough and rude blonde young man raised by his Guarani foster dad, deep in the subtropical jungles of northeast Argentina. 

12. Uga Uga - Tatuapu is the story’s tough but sympathetic blonde antihero protagonist, whose rich birth family is just as screwed up as that of Fathiyah’s in the Tarzan Girl show. As a little three year old kid, he saw his parents being questionably assassinated by a bunch of (incredibly) mad Native Amazonian warriors, who otherwise had to regret mistaking them for actual agricultural loggers.  

13. Teach Me To Live - Claudine (aka ‘Asai’) is the missing wild heiress protagonist of this manic Argentine show, which is filled with hijinks galore. After surviving a horrid plane crash in the troubled (although otherwise brave) Angolan exclave of Cabinda as a baby, she was brought up and raised by chimps within the jungles of its Mayombe ecoregion. 

14. Verano Azul - Verano Azul is a beloved Spanish drama about a fictional beach and its residents. 

15. Beach Boys - A J-drama about a bunch of guys who have a long holiday in the Ryukyu islands. 

16. Tarzan Girl - Tarzan Girl is a meh show about Fathiyah, a teenaged wild girl raised by elephants and macaques in southernmost Sumatra. In order to find her kidnapped dad, she reluctantly comes to Jakarta in the island of Java, where hijinks ensue. 

17. Pure Passion - This is a middling Mexican take on Yago: Brown Passion, which is about a rough young man named Leo Hernandez, who grew up with Mayan natives in the jungles of Chiapas in the far southeast of Mexico. 

18. Jacaranda - This is an otherwise okay albeit rarely seen show about a blonde character who happens to be an adventurous tomboy. 

19. Star Maiden - This Made in Singapore Star Wars cash in is about a pink haired rebel princess trying to survive in a galactic conflict between the invaders and their colonised kin.  

20. I’m Your Magic - Sofie is the otherwise bubbly teenaged witch protagonist of this boring Sally the Witch and Princess Comet cash in from Indonesia. 

21. Dia Anakku - Dia Anakku is an even more manic Indonesian spin on Teach Me To Live. It’s about a wild young adult named Kinar, who happens to be raised by Sumatran Orangutans in Bukit Lawang after horridly having plane crashed there as a baby. 

Shelbyville, Port Charles and Springfield revision

Shelbyville Lane

Teagan Wiggum - Teagan was a fashion designer, inventor and the adoptive daughter of Harold Shelbyville, the founder of Mudhole Heights. She had eight children with Toby Wiggum and died at 80 in 1860.

Tommy Shelbyville - Tommy was an office accountant and the adoptive son of Harold Shelbyville.

Ashley Scorpio - Daughter of Johannes Springfield and Cushaw.

Jessamine Webber - Not to be confused with Jessamine Hellman. Sister to Ashley Scorpio.

Toby Wiggum - Teagan's husband.

Federico Scorpio - Ashley's husband and father of five children.

Norbert Webber - Jessamine's husband.

Sandy Wallace - Tommy's wife.

Vesuvius
Angelo Scorpio - Angelo was the first Scorpio child to die, and the one to die at the earliest age possible, at 14 years old.
Isabella Scorpio - Isabella was the middle child who died later than Angelo, at 18 years old.
Rogelio Scorpio - Rogelio was a spinster like Thelma.
Thelma Scorpio - Thelma Scorpio was the longer lasting younger sister of Isabella. She was a spinster and lived the longest at 91 years old.
George Scorpio - George was the youngest child of Ashley and Federico Scorpio. He died at 77 years old.

Wiggum Wives
Martha Baldacchino - Martha was a street girl and then a Mafia moll before becoming a wife. Plump and raspy, Iggy Wiggum inherited his nasal voice and body type from her!
Tessa Henson - Tessa was both a wife and a good friend of Elmer Jose Luis Wiggum.
Magdalena Mendez - Magdalena was a religious person, taking her husband to church everyday.
Denise Davis - Iggy Wiggum’s wife, who was born into the Davis Family of GH fame. Denise wasn’t a great wife but liked her children, although she had not so great feelings for them later on.

Wiggum Husbands
Robert Wiggum - Robert was snobbish towards Magdalena, but nonetheless had a good relationship with her.
Ignatius Wiggum - Iggy was a flying Hell fish member.
Elmer Jose Luis Wiggum - Elmer was bilingual in both English and Spanish, even though he spoke a bit like Homer Simpson.
Joe Louis Wiggum - Joe had chocolate brown hair and was rather amoral when cornered. He also spoke a bit like Goku of DB fame.

Wiggum Sisters
Cassandra Wiggum - Cassie looked a bit like her dad. She also had wavy hair.
Samantha Wiggum - Sammy wasn’t as plump as Iggy, but she did have a raspy voice like him.
Tilly Wiggum - The eldest Wiggum sister, Tilly was pretty mean to the other sisters, but nonetheless helped them out in the worst of times.
Taffy Wiggum - The second youngest Wiggum sister, Taffy was about ten years older than Iggy.

Scorpio Descendants
Alexander Scorpio - Milhouse’s older brother.
Milhouse Scorpio - Milhouse was Mac and Robert’s father. Arriving in Australia during WW2 as a soldier, he found love in Juliet Mauboy, the daughter of a Timorese worker and an Australian Aboriginal nurse.
Juliet Mauboy - Juliet was Mac and Robert’s mother.
Joey Scorpio - Mac and Robert’s cousin from America.
Hana Park Scorpio - Although not related by blood, Hana is included because she has survived the odds.

The misadventures of Ken the wolf Boy

The characters
Sylvia Vel - Sylvia is from a dysfunctional elite family. Is the younger sister to Hannah.
Lila Washington - Lila is a survivor of a boat crash resulting in only herself surviving, running away into the savannah to be with friend Shu.
Babu - Before fighting against and then reconciling with Ken, Babu was a childhood acquaintance of Ken at one stage. His real first name is Andrew.
Mariella - Queen of the underground and of all the ghouls in the purgatory. Was born in New Asura, a downward backwater that was once a prototype civilisation in the northeast of Dagon, which in turn was south of the Kazinga Channel.

Kenya Boy differences

Light Novels

Light novel stories 1-14

Light novel stories 15-56 

Light novel stories 57-70 

Emonogataris 

Emonogatari stories 1-14 

Emonogatari stories 15-56

Emonogatari stories 57-70 

Mangas 

Manga stories 1-14

Manga stories 15-56

Manga stories 57-70

Tarzan in Asian Cinema Part 3

Look out for Part 3! This one signifies Tarzan's budding cinematic impact on Japan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal.

There is a pair of lost Japanese Tarzan film named The Primitive King Tarzan and The Vengeful King Tarzan, which were both released in 1938. 

Mon Jare Chay is the surviving Bengali dub of a horrible Pakistani film called the original Love in Jungle, which was the first modern Tarzan movie in both the Bengali language and in Bangladesh, as it was released in 1975, just four years after the latter’s independence from Pakistan. However, it’s about an internationally unknown actor playing a Tarzan imitation as an ecological protector. There’s also a Jane imitation, a Harry Holt imitation and an Ayesha imitation as well. Like Tarzan the Mighty Man, it is a fellow spiritual adaptation of The Weissmuller Tarzan Mythos into another language. Also known, rather erroneously, as Tarzan of Bengal by ERBZine. 

Boner Raja Tarzan was perhaps released in 1986. Featuring character actor Danny (aka Dany) Sidak as the titular Tarzan in name only, Nuton as his girlfriend and an internationally unknown actress playing an Ayesha expy, the cult classic has lots of Tarzan yells stolen from the various old films of Johnny Weissmuller as Tarzan. The film also featured a human in a cruddy gorilla costume playing a notoriously thuggish gorilla who himself stands in for bloody Kerchak. 

Jungle Diper Tarzan, released in 2010, is the rather distant continuity reboot of Boner Raja Tarzan and possibly one of the foreign films where Tarzan (or one of his in name only imitations) has spoken the least. In the film, a Tarzan in name only lost his parents to a greedy crowd of warriors as a baby and is played by someone nicknamed Rony. Instead of a spotted leopardskin loincloth or even a tattered brown own, he wears a black and white zebra loincloth, a rarity among the loincloths worn unlike any other.

His girlfriend, a chubby Jane imitation, is played by a lady nicknamed Poly and an Ayesha expy is played by another internationally unknown actress. Possibly also the last known Tarzan film made of analogue footage, but not the first to steal footage from animal documentaries or anything thereof.

The Barry Prima era

Starting with Tarzan The Jungle King and its feminine counterpart Laura Si Tarzan in 1989, it abruptly hanged on a cliffhanger with Tarzan The Treasure Watcher in 1990. All three share a lot of things in common; being surprisingly gory and violent for their time (preceding The Legend of Tarzan by over two decades), a wicked sense of kitsch driven dark humour (a human in a crud sun bear costume and a siamang sidekick of Tarzan whose sounds are dubbed badly with chimpanzee sound effects), and a distantly connected origin story of the heroic characters Sambo (who grew up with orangutans in Sumatra's hilly jungle terrain after his perhaps traitorously betrayed father and mother died of depressing beast wounds when he was six), his mentor (who told him that he was the child of a Japanese dissident and a tribeswoman), and his adoptive sis Dita. In the two films, Sambo has a girlfriend in the form of schoolteacher Gina, whose friend is the drop dead gorgeous Laura (and whose rival is Karina), and is the son of a dissident soldier husband and a tribeswoman wife whose wicked adoptive brother is Burhan the notorious.

Somehow, a sparklingly cute kid friendly tv show aired briefly in 2009, ending the Barry Prima film trilogy to a halt! Called Tarzan Junior, this parody cum distant tv show spinoff has featured the adventures and misadventures of Sambo and perhaps Laura’s plucky little son Junior in both the jungle and the city. 

Competitors include the Tarzan Betawi trilogy of Jin Dan Jun Spinoffs (airing from 2001 to 2003) featuring infamous comedian Mandra as a Tarzan in name only (raised by a doting adoptive orangutan mum to boot!), Tarzan Cantik which aired in 2014, but featuring Ariyani Fitriana as a girl called Fathiyah of all things, who is not to be confused with her previous characters, both nicknamed Fathiyah of Dia Anakku and the latter’s own eponymous show, and Tarzan Dan Zaenab which aired in 2015, which features Ucup Nirin as someone whose name is Tony like with his predecessor in Tarzan and the Sorcerer (or Magician). 

Apart from a few legends like Dara and Love in Jungle, Jangli Mera Naam, itself a loose remake of both South Indian films called Kadina Raja, is the only other serious Pakistani film based directly on the Tarzan concept (or those of his expies) so far. 

According to Swami Ji of Desi Hotspot Movies Reviews, It is possibly the most campy of all the Asian Tarzan films for many vital reasons. Released in 1994, it featured a one hit wonder named Jehanzaib in his stylish portrayal of the Tarzan influenced, jungle warrior character Faisal Annu, plus Kavita and Shahada Mini as a duo of good and bad girls. It’s so goofy, that its campiness surprisingly led to Indians making an equally crappy yet funny Hindi language counterpart of it, which was in the form of Jungle Love Story. Released in 1998, the latter film featured Ravi Kumar as a stylish and musical Tarzan boy in the vein of Jehanzaib as Faisal Annu. Preet played his female companion (herself another chubby Jane imitation, but mixed with the ballsy nature of Etsuko Shihomi as Sister Street Fighter) and an internationally unknown actress played an Ayesha expy as well.

The WADA Bari Tarzan trilogy started out with a rarely seen prototype television film in 2000, the eponymous first cinematic film and its first sequel in 2007 and 2009, which are both continuations of each other and parodying the Bollywood Tarzan films at the same time. Their popularity led to another sequel called Nathi Bari Tarzan, released in 2019. Tennyson Cooray as a tropical island Tarzan imitation was definitely one of the funniest portrayals of the characterised concept so far, but he sadly passed away in 2020. Also starring Chamathka Peiris as his girlfriend, a cute parody of Jane Parker and Ruby Shetty. 

Jungle Love, released in 2012, is a Nepali language continuity reboot of the first Jungle Love which has a memoriam of Nepalese singer+LGBTQ activist and actress Jessica Khadka, who played her last role as Nishtam's girlfriend and who committed suicide on that year. A drastic shift from the Hindi language original, it begins with a depressed middle aged woman leaving her baby son Nishtam, for adoption by a newfound father and his older son, who are both from a Raute inspired tribe speaking pseudo Nepali gibberish. 

6 years later, the dad teaches him how to respect nature as the young boy is also learning how to use martial arts, climb on trees and fighting off beasts, becoming somebody like Tarzan in the process. The second part of that film has had some of its footage copied, stolen and photoshopped from animal documentaries, while the rest remained originals. The vengeful portrayal of Nishtam as a man is surprisingly accurate to the majority of Tarzan books. What most filmgoers outside of Nepal forget to mention, is that one of the locations where it’s filmed in is a mountainous Sal Forest. 

Tarzan, released two years earlier, is the tight budget Nepali language reboot of Bollywood’s own Adventures of Tarzan. What makes it stand out from the original is that Tarzan’s birth mother abandoned him as a baby, thereafter being raised by a lonely old tigress led to growing up with both a rhesus macaque and a jungle crow as best friends, as well as starting to howl like a wolf cub. What is far more amazing about the film, is that the fairly crazy portrayal of Tarzan in the first Tarzan novel, which is made even more awesome by both the character’s rudimentary language (carried over from Greystoke) and the addition of a voiceover interpreting one of his very few words. The film is also one of the very few unofficial ones where actual lianas are climbed.

The competitors are Shikari and its sequel Shikari 2, which were both released in the late 2000s or early 2010s, hence the web camera feel. They are about a boy who was accidentally abandoned in the jungle, becoming a lovely if traumatised wild man as a result. Another competitor, Jangali Manchhe, is an unofficially loose Nepali language remake of Adavi Donga ‘85, albeit released in September 2006, which is just 21 years after its predecessor.