Sunday 28 February 2021

The Wizard themed Mockbuster featuring Bastian Steel as a Warlock

Not written until September 2022. 

Let’s take a look at a strongly urban ‘Youth Halloween’ themed wizardry show featuring Bastian Steel, a popular Indonesian music star/soap actor of the same name. Along with a couple of Teen Pop Dramas (and teen pop films like Germany’s doubly infamous Daniel: Die Zauberer), it has a light novel friendly name which may embarrass the names of many popular trendsetters to the hilt.

Created by Serena Luna, a schlock tv maven (albeit little known in Anglophone Minority World countries like Australia), it is a ‘so bad it’s entertaining’ show named ‘Bastian Steel is not an ordinary guy’, aka Bastian Steel Bukan Cowok Biasa! It never just rode on the coattails of both the Harry Potter books and films, it was also a profitable daily show by SineMart, which has made a lot of (otherwise fairly intelligent) rural youths into watching it for slightly over a whole month in 2014. 

There are other things which partially explain this (38 episode long) daily mess of a show. Like any other popular Sinetron out there, its producers are very budget conscious, but have slapped their visual effects artists with a super strict overtime related deadline. Not to mention that was both a merchandise driven show with national trendsetters and an advert for the Disneyfied version of Halloween in Indonesia. 

Friday 26 February 2021

Meet the Sheela trilogy of oddballs

There was a trilogy of quickly made Indian part-mockbusters, which are all quite repetitious if surprisingly accurate gender bender adaptations of Tarzan of the Apes as in the book itself. Despite being somewhat pale, and highly superficial part time imitations in comparison to their Hollywood inspiration, Sony's Sheena: Queen of the Jungle, they're actually far closer to the story that started both an infamous franchise and swarms of clones like Sheena than they are to the latter's film adaptation by what's now Sony Pictures. 

Even though the first one is a hilarious film in its own right, it was surprisingly well researched, if otherwise flawed, for its pre-Internet usage time, thus it spawned a similar Tamil Kollywood adaptation which in turn begat a lighter and softer but more distant Bollywood remake. It also helps that the otherwise notoriously similar theme songs for all three films are hearty gems. 





Monday 22 February 2021

Darr: Characters

The Characters of Mock the Hooters: the Animation, the animated series adaptation of Hooters Road Trip and Darr, a creation of famed actress Honey Irani and esteemed Urdu writer Javed Siddiqui.

The Patekars

Sunil Patekar - Sunil Patekar is the anxiety ridden only son of loving but estranged, slum dwelling commuter parents from Pune. He is in the process of becoming an office worker, after dropping out of the sucky if not downright dangerous Kenaf school.

The Monnappas

Parvati Monnappa - A fellow office worker from Karnataka. 

The Prasads

Lakshmi Prasad - Lakshmi was one of the two short lived half sisters of Madan Gopal Singh, who was friendly rivals with Madan Gopal Singh’s lovingly smothering stepmother, even as she quite ironically was only three years older than the latter. She sadly got honour killed by her own maternal uncle, just a month after being forever chained by their own mother for rightfully trying to protect herself and her own younger sister from the wrath of the school principal herself. 

Devi Prasad - Devi was one of Madan Gopal Singh’s two half sisters, who was only about a year younger than Madan Gopal Singh’s stepmother, who ironically remained her best and staunchest friend. She was an asthmatic person born with two small, somewhat underdeveloped lungs and who nonetheless also died of excessive neglect, also by her own mother, the Babla school principal. The month of her death was when said monstrously abusive mother’s serial smoking habits caused the first house of Madan Gopal Singh’s father to burn down. 

Jayant Prasad - Besides being one of the Babla school’s few officially insane (read: highly mentally ill) teachers and pupils, Jayant Prasad was both a soldier and the school principal’s poor boyfriend who, despite his misgivings, did mean well to his own daughters, as they all shared a very short and tragic life together. 

The Gopal Singhs 

Madan Gopal Singh - The tortured, darkly hyper empathetic, and screwed up son (by unethically screwy and deplorable, sexually violating penetrations) of a nobody and a really corrupt female school principal, Madan’s life is one of the most torturous in the story. His dad was suffering from a ton of mental health issues, mostly due to nearly all the bad luck that he endured at the Babla school in Bihar. The same cannot be said of his birth mother, who perhaps was herself born an empty shell inside. She was smoking tobacco for a long time, resulting in her unwittingly killing his own much older half sister, an asthma sufferer, via that same old shit and culminating in her male pupil’s first house being destroyed for good. Being a screwy (albeit partly closeted) bisexual, his dad committed suicide at his boss’s office and after that had understandable sex with his poor beloved (technically kind of former) stepmother for only a few years (that was before she died of hospital related neglect), resulting in him having a daughter before even turning 21. 

Veela Singh: Madan’s infant daughter. 

The Reddy Majumder Family 

Poonam Mukherjee Reddy: Poonam Reddy is Kiran Reddy’s loving older sister in law and Vijay’s seemingly homely wife. 

Vivek Majumder - Vivek Majumder is Rahul’s antagonistically narcissistic dad, who has to come on top and who ultimately becomes a corrupt if otherwise successful company boss following his former boss’s withdrawal due to tons of scandal. As a result, Rahul is quite rightfully estranged from him for a good reason. 

Rahul Majumder - Rahul is the charming middleman boss of Madan and Vikram, who doesn’t have as much of a screwed up past as Madan does. As he has the typical narcissistic tendencies, his obsession with Kiran is at times unhealthy mostly because she looks a lot like his mother (but without having the HED), although it understandably comes from the fact that his parents were much more tragically affected by sickening events than their very own son ever will be in his own life expectancy. His dad was such a hugely grandiose narcissist that when Rahul was just a kid, he left both him and his mother for Seattle. His mother, who had a case of emotional dysregulation disorder, was even more awfully affected, neglecting poor Rahul for a long time, only for him (at 11 years old) to witness her death in her fellow pupil’s burning house on tv in mild terror. He is finicky at times but has found some solace in hanging out with Vikram and Madan. 

Avinash Reddy: Avinash is Kiran and Vijay’s widower cum Vietnam veteran dad, who happens to be a Thugdere. He means well but struggles to live with his ptsd due to also losing his otherwise authoritative wife to cancer. 

Vijay Reddy: Vijay is Kiran’s fun loving, ADD-diagnosed and otherwise rather mostly sane older brother. However, he does get cuckolded by Poonam occasionally and later decides to divorce from her due to a few irreconcilable diffs. 

Kiran Reddy: The resident anti villainess tomboy, who strongly encourages Rahul to become a good person and then ultimately has to marry him. She was basically Sunil Patekar’s main female bully in the Babla school. 

The Mehra Family 

Vikram Mehra - Madan’s overtly psychopathic ex best friend, who frequently gropes on the latter’s buttocks (but not in a really funny way) and has a pretty slick tendency to take selfies on his disc film based camera, which he called ‘Snippy’. 

The Oberoi Family 

Maya Oberoi: Sunil Patekar’s other former bully and his horny fiancée turned wife. 

Saturday 20 February 2021

Old Taito and Square Enix Games

Here are the potential adaptations to old Taito and Square Enix games. 

Solo series 
Onna Sanshiro - The Typhoon Girl’s Journey To Nowhere
Lady Master of Kung Fu and Nunchackun - Treasure Hunter Nunchackun 
 
Potential non-DQ, non-FF, non-PK, non-FMA, non-BB franchises 

Safari and (the Sōji Yamakawa created volumes of) Kenya Boy (+ the third word Safari) - Kenya Boy Safari: The Animation 
Jungle King/Hunt and one of the Kenya Boy spinoffs - Jungle Hunt: The Animation




Thursday 18 February 2021

South Korean cartoons of the 2000s

Pororo and Cubix are perhaps the most famous of the mid 1990s-early 2010s wave of South Korean animated tv shows out there. 

While South Korean animations are still finding their footing on the international stage, it’s nice to see that the South Korean animation industry has stinkers as well as glories. 

Although it’s a Mainland Chinese-South Korean coproduction with unremarkable character designs, Hey Yo Yorang actually is a witty show. The jungle themed episode has a pair of Tarzan and Jane pastiches, which was made possible because in 2001, the Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan books had already become (retroactively) PD in both PRC and most African nations.




Sunday 14 February 2021

Mother India: The Rebirth Of An Icon

Despite Mother India containing a lot of what are now considered stereotypes in much of the minority world, it indeed was somewhat fair for its day in a rather telling light, which is mostly because there were films in the nineteen thirties, forties, fifties and sixties which are universally sexist even by the standards of such decades. 

Funnily enough, at the time of writing there is Aurat (the original, whose title means ‘woman’ in Hindi), Mother India (the considerably lighter and softer one in colour), Bangaru Thalli (the Telugu one) and Punniya Boomi (the Tamil one). Due to sharing the same director, the directing rights of both Aurat and Mother India will become public domain in most nations except Mexico and the US (which means sixty and seventy years after Mehboob Khan’s death); thus, an animated adaptation will practically be an actuality. 

Said animated adaptation will technically be a scary comedy series imitating a Lifetime Movie of the week in the form of a web serial. Its plot will really contain Radha missing her siblings while being (rather unfunnily) groped by cuckolding men, consensually having sex with a dowry disaffected husband who’s also an intelligent adult (albeit only two thirds her age) and having babies with him too. These things are all near the tip of the iceberg, which blandly contains; Radha being a disgruntled and horribly underpaid biscuit factory worker (for a fictional company not called Parle due to legal reasons). 

Also, it will subtly represent why most people still need to accept change regardless of social standing, while a few others are still outright pricks. 



Friday 12 February 2021

My favourite Tarzan clones!

From the JJ Nevins site

Janess, Polaris. Polaris Janess, one of the earliest of the Tarzan knock-offs and one of the best executed, was created by Charles Billings Stilson and debuted in All-Story Weekly in 1915. Janess' parents, a glory seeking explorer and a dutiful wife, are stranded at the South Pole, with his mother dying and Janess Sr. crippled, thus leaving Senior to care for the infant Polaris. (As I said, Polaris is a Tarzan knock-off) The duo survive life at the South Pole for the years it takes Polaris to reach manhood; they survive despite horrible snow storms and the attacks of polar bears. (Polar bears at the South Pole? It's a pulp; don't ask, just accept) (They live on polar bears, walruses, and seals) Polaris grows up to be perfect in mind and body, his father having taught him well. Then, alas, Father Janess dies, leaving Polaris to make the long walk back to civilization and to carry certain Papers back to civilization. He saves a beautiful woman, Rose Emer, and meets other men, and discovers a lost city, and has other Tarzan-like adventures.

Sorak. Sorak was created by Harvey D. Richards (Aka Noel Sainsbury Jr) and appeared in the four book "Sorak Jungle Series," which began with Sorak of the Malay Jungle, or, How Two Young Americans Face Death and Win a Friend (1934) and continued through 1936. Sorak was essentially Tarzan, but in the jungles of Malaysia. He was accompanied by a friendly tiger. Among his adventures were an encounter with Cro-Magnons in Malaya.

Sheena. Sheena, the original queen of the jungle, was the daughter of a white explorer. The explorer died in the Congo, leaving Sheena to raise herself. She had long blonde hair and blue eyes, wore a fetching leopard skin outfit, and used knife and bow against bad guys.

Tarzan. I don't really need to go into any depth about Tarzan, Lord Greystoke, do I? Raised in the jungle by apes, white lord of the jungle, all that? I'm not going to write anything else; instead, I'm going to direct you to this site.

Tarcaneta. Tarcaneta appeared in "Tarcaneta" (Tarzaneta), a strip in Strip, a Yugoslav magazine which began publication in 1935. Tarzaneta--I mean, Tarcaneta was created by the Russian artist Nikola Navojev; she was a "half-naked, half-wild girl from the jungle," a distaff version of Lord G. 

Jan of the Jungle. Jan (not to be confused with the Atlas Comics character of the same name) appeared in a six part serial in Argosy running from April 18 to May 23, 1931. He was very much in the vein of previous and later Tarzan knockoffs. Doctor Bracken, a brilliant scientist but one tetched in the head, proposes to the beautiful redhead Georgia Trevor. This makes him mad, makes him mean and mad, and he vows revenge. He gets it when she gives birth to a son, Jan. He steals Jan and takes him to his lab in the depths of the Everglades. He plans to have Jan raised by a chimpanzee mother, the goal being that he would be a chimp in ape form, trained to kill redheads. (Gotta give it to Bracken, he's not just a little crazed, he's a full-blown psychotic)

Jan somehow maintains his sanity and when he is 16 breaks free of the lab, accompanied by Chicma, his chimp mother, and Borno, a Haitian who had worked as a janitor at the labs. They escape by boat but are caught in a Hurricane and blown ashore in "South American jungle country." Jan learns the skills of the jungle for two years while Chicma and Borno...well, don't do much but wait, really. Then Jan saves sixteen-year-old Ramona Suarez from a panther attack, the first save of many for her and him. (Or is it her and he?) She lives nearby on her father's rubber plantation. They of course become a couple. Jan has various adventures, finds a lost colony of Mu, becomes a Prince of the Sun, is reunited with his family, and makes his way to India.

Bantan. One of several Tarzan rip-offs, Bantan, "the bronzed giant," debuted in Bantan--God-Like Islander (1936), written by Maurice Gardner. The orphaned three-year-old Arthur Delacourt is washed ashore on the South Seas island of Beneiro. He is found by the native chief and raised by him, but educated by the local French missionary, Father Lasance. When Arthur, now called Bantan by the natives, reaches 18 he begins his adventures (the usual Tarzan variety, only on South Pacific islands, many unknown to maps and man and full of Lost Civilizations, dinosaurs, amazons, and weird science) in a series of novels which run through the 1970s.

Ozar of the Aztecs. One of several Tarzan knock-offs, Ozar was written by "Valentine Wood," aka Walker A. Tompkins. Ozar appeared in Top-Notch in 1933. An American scientific expedition venturing deep into the mountains of Mexico find a lost tribe of Aztecs. The entire expedition is slaughtered with the exception of an infant (the expedition brought a pregnant mother with them for some unaccountable reason). The Aztecs see in the baby the "predestined ruler of Karnux," said destinies speaking of a pale-skinned, fair-haired ruler. The Aztecs keep the child, now called Ozar, alive for twenty years, so that he will fulfill the "Five Sacred Commands of Mexlitl, the Sun God." Ozar does, in the end, in part by slaughtering the priests who are plaguing the otherwise peaceful city of Karnux. (Peaceful Aztecs. Suuuuure) Ozar kills dozens of warriors and priests, but in the end, Karnux is liberated. I mean, free.

Kioga. Yet another of the Tarzan copies, Kioga "the Snow Hawk" was created by William L. Chester and appeared in a seven part serial that ran from April through October 1935 in Blue Book Magazine. Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln Rand are boating off the coast of Alaska with their "Indian friend" Mokuyi when a current pulls them into the Arctic Circle, to a strange land north of Siberia. This land is surrounded by a ring of volcanoes, and the volcanoes and the current warm the land so that it is inhabitable. The Rands land and are met by the Shoni tribe, a friendly group of natives who are descended from Native Americans. (The Shoni call the land "Nato'wa") The Rands stay there for a while until they are killed during an attack by a hostile tribe. The infant Daniel is adopted by Mokuyi and his wife Awena and given the name "Kioga." Unfortunately, Kioga is driven from the tribe when he is only six because of anti-white prejudice. Kioga survives in the wild, accompanied only by Aki, his pet bear, and the rest of Aki's clan. Later on Kioga befriends Mika, a silver-coated Arctic puma. (Don't ask) Kioga eventually becomes king of the forest bears and "war chief of the Shoni tribe" after they have welcomed him back. Of course, he also saves a woman from hostile mutineers; this woman, Beth La Salle, naturally falls in love with him.

Kwa of the Jungle. Kwa, a Tarzan copy, appeared in Thrilling Adventures in 1932 and 1933. His father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. Rahan, who was pregnant with Nathaniel, were flying across Africa when they crossed over a large, round valley ringed with mountains. Unfortunately, the plane crashed into this valley, the Valley of Mu. The father died on impact and the mother survived only long enough to give birth to Nathaniel, who was then adopted and raised by apes and given the name Kwa by an old chimp, Kek, who teaches him to speak with the animals of the jungle. He grows up to be Tarzan, essentially, although his background is much less haughty than Lord Greystoke’s. Kwa’s grandfather lives on a small estate at the edge of the African jungle, and Kwa regularly passes through as he begins the transition to American society. There’s plenty of action, though, and Kwa continues to find the city of Ophir and befriend the other apes and to fight the "Beast Men".

Ki-Gor. Ki-Gor was published in Jungle Stories from the Winter 1938-1939 issue to the January 1954 issue and was first written by John M. Reynolds. Ki-Gor was one of the most popular of the Tarzan imitations. Ki-Gor was actually Robert Kilgour, the son of a Scottish missionary who was killed in the jungles of Africa. Ki-Gor lived alone in the wilds and raised himself. In the first novel he saves Helene Vaughn, a society girl and pilot, whose plane crashed in Ki-Gor's jungle. She, red-haired and beautiful, acts as his Jane, but eventually he helps her return to civilization. She returns the favour by marrying him, and they return to the jungle together to keep the peace between various warring tribes. Ki-Gor fought everything from hostile natives to giant sea serpents to dinosaurs to talking gorillas to Arab slavers to zombies. Ki-Gor had two close friends besides Helene. The first was Timbu George, aka George Spelvin, an enormous African-American who was a former ship's cook but ended up becoming the chief of the M'Bala tribe in the "East Congo." Ki-Gor's other friend was N'Geeso, chief of the "Kamazila Pigmies"; N'Geeso was only four feet tall but was a ferocious fighter. Ki-Gor is blond with grey eyes and darkly tanned skin. Of course, Ki-Gor also has a little monkey pal and occasionally rides on a friendly elephant.

Bomba the Jungle Boy. Bomba was created by Howard A. Garis and debuted in Bomba the Jungle Boy (1926), lasting through 20 more novels into 1938 and in 11 films, from 1949 through 1955. Bomba was a fourteen-year-old boy who had been found in the jungles of Brazil, in the upper Amazon, by Cody Carson, an aging, possibly demented naturalist and botanist. Cody taught Bomba English and helped raise him, but he fell prey to an amnesia-causing fever, leaving Bomba to search for his parents (who he found after ten novels--they were the Bartons, a famous painter and opera singer pair). Bomba was in most ways a Tarzan copy, albeit one far more successful than the Ka-Zars and Polaris Janesses of the fictional world. Bomba was a handsome white boy, bronzed and well-muscled and an ace at Tarzan-type tasks, from swinging through the jungle on vines to shooting arrows to cosying up to the local tribe, the Araos. Naturally, Bomba had his savage side, and thought nothing of killing pumas, snakes, and jaguars. He could also communicate with the animals, especially the apes which somehow lived near him, despite the fact that the simians in Brazil were much smaller than the simians of Africa. Bomba's animal pals were Kiki and Woowoo, two parrots, Doto the monkey, and Polulu the puma. Bomba's arch-enemy was Nascarora, chief of the local tribe of head hunters.

Monday 8 February 2021

Bicho Do Mato: Characters

The characters of Bicho Do Mato 

The Pausini Jubas 
Lo Pausini Juba - the son of Aki Juba and Luca Pausini Senior, Lo is the incredibly horny hero of the story, known to have a black girlfriend named Luna De Castro. 
Aki Juba - Luca’s dead mother. 
Luca Pausini Senior - Lo’s dead father. 
Emilio Juba Pino - Lo’s snobbish maternal male cousin, who frequently gropes on Cecilia and her own friends since he was only ten. 
Fernando Pausini - Lo’s paternal uncle. 
Alfredo Pino - Emilio, Bettina and Leopoldo’s dad. 
Mora Juba Pino - Bettina, Leopoldo and Emilio’s mother and Ricardo’s insanely criminal shotgun wife. 
Ricardo Pino - Ricardo Pino was Fernando’s close friend.
Bettina Juba Pino - Dona Vanda’s own foster daughter, who is the second product of a horrifying shotgun wedding between Alfredo Pino, an Italo Brazilian man, and Aki’s bad sister Mora Juba. 
Leopoldo Pino - Lo’s younger cousin and Emilio’s younger brother. 
Laura Zola - Along with her younger sister Lili and brother Tulio, Laura reluctantly became one of Gustavo Ramalho’s employees. 

The Morricone family 
Barbara Zwaricz Morricone - Barbara was from Rio Grande Do Sul, and was a lady who forcibly married an unlucky judge, only to murder him, their two sons and older daughter in law in cold blood. In another twist, she also successfully prevented her unhappy daughter Zulmira from meeting her son and younger husband again, but that’s until she died of natural causes, as hoisted by her own destructive body, which in turn was attacking her already flat brain the whole time. 
Zulmira Morricone Zola - Tulio’s wife, Ottavio’s perverse mum, Barbara’s privately bisexual only daughter and oldest child. 
Cecilia Morricone - Juba’s tough cookie friend. 
Daisaku Morricone - Barbara’s incredibly unlucky part-Japanese part-Italian husband, Cecilia and Rui’s grandfather, and the father of Gin and Vinicius. 
Rui Morricone - Cecilia’s overweight but shy and kind younger brother, who’s mostly best friends with the inventive Leopoldo Pino. 
Gin Morricone - Vinicius’ beloved younger brother, Jacinta and Cajuru’s dead uncle, Cecilia and Rui’s late father, and Barbara’s younger son. 
Vinicius Morricone - Barbara’s dead older son, Yara’s late husband, Jacinta and Cajuru’s father. 
Yara Pinto Morricone - Yara Morricone is Jacinta’s mother.
Jacinta ‘Jaci’ Morricone - The daughter of a part-Italian Brazilian man and the lively local Yara. Her younger brother is Cajuru Morricone. 
Cajuru Morricone - Jacinta’s younger brother and Yara’s son. 

The Pintos 
Carlos Pinto - Carlos is Yopanã’s older brother and Lo Juba’s right hand cop friend. 
Yawa Pinto - Iruka and Tina’s respectful medicine man uncle, Regina’s estranged husband, Carlos, Maibi and Yopanã’s father. 
Maibi Pinto - Yopanã’s lovely younger sister. 
Yopanã Pinto - Iruka and Tina’s tough guy middle cousin and Maibi’s older brother. 
Tiniá ‘Tina’ Pinto - Iruka’s cool mannered and likeable younger sister. 
Iruka Pinto - As Iruka means ‘Dolphin’ in Japanese, it fits the curiously randy nature of Lo’s local best friend. 

The De Castros 
Joao De Castro - Eduardo’s more laidback older brother. 
Luna De Castro - Joao and Eduardo’s younger sister, who ultimately hooks up with and marries Lo Juba afterwards in the wedding finale season. Before she married him, she had consensual sex with and being impregnated by him a month earlier; thus she birthed a baby girl 8 months later, albeit one who looks a lot like her ginger haired paternal grandfather. 
Eduardo De Castro - Although a fair and just doctor in training, he otherwise has to defend himself from a ton of corrupt people everywhere. 
Maria Elisa De Castro - Eduardo’s older wife, who suffers from ovarian cancer, a health condition somewhat closely associated with the relative inability to produce healthy babies after reaching age 40. 

Ramalho Rodrigues and his friends 
Dona Vanda Mazzina - Tulio’s confidante and Margarita’s mother.
Margarita Mazzina - Dona Vanda’s daughter and Guilherme’s flirty girlfriend.
Lili Zola - Laura’s mean and snobbish younger sister, who often behaves like her equally corrupt dad, the otherwise not murderous Augustin Zola. 
Tulio Zola - Tulio is Lili and Laura’s brother and the dad of Ottavio Zola. 
Regina Chaves Pinto - Yawa Pinto’s estranged wife. 
Alzira Camacho - Regina’s mean and sociopathic best friend. 
Gustavo Ramalho Rodrigues - The Heavy and main antagonist of the story, Ramalho doesn’t really care about anyone until he saw his own victim-secretary Susana finally having consensual sex from, of all people, his own ex-sidekick Ottavio. 
Raul Zola - Tulio, Lili and Laura’s nicer paternal uncle and Augustin Zola’s older brother. 
Augustin Zola - Tulio, Laura and Lili’s widower father, long married to his much older, long suffering, ptsd prone late wife, herself an ethnic Swedish mail order bride. 
Ottavio Zola - Ramalho’s insanely horny young ex-sidekick, who’s happy enough to have consensual sex with his secretary Susana even after he killed off his boss. Although he’s such a rich brat, he does love his friends, especially the poor Rafa. After Susana murdered their boss just for killing off his fellow employees, both she and him are in a (happy enough) prison shotgun wedding and bore themselves a baby boy afterwards. 
Nicolas Viana - Ottavio’s incredibly inventive autistic friend, Graça’s confidante and Rafa’s younger brother.
Rafa Viana - Ottavio’s plainclothes best friend. 
Susana Zola - Ramalho’s secretary turned Ottavio’s older wife. 
Brandão Hunziker - Ruth’s equally unpredictable (if otherwise hyperempathetic) bisexual father, himself the unlucky shotgun husband of a psychopathic tech boss with plans to take over the whole district. As the result of a family life gone horribly squick, his emotions are too overdeveloped for his own safety, and his own screwed up parents were too busy to even take care of him, which explains why he went solo since he was ten and had to raise Ruth alone in such horrible ways. 
Ruth Hunziker - Brandão’s screwed up yet incredibly horny bisexual daughter, who is trying to reunite with her already unlucky former female friends; although she’d have to do that by enacting gross and unfortunately non consensual sexual tactics. Even by her own fairly blue and orange standards, she just can’t comprehend both disabled helpless animals and completely depraved monsters, as the only major thing that she does know is to not even toe the two lines of moral horizon that Barbara Morricone technically went into. What she ultimately did to her newfound girlfriend Graça De Melo may not be considered a sexual violation anyway, but it’s still pretty painful nonetheless. 
Carl Friedman - One of Ottavio’s chummy friends. 
Louisa Friedman - Carl’s workaholic single mother. 

Cecilia’s Friends 
Graça De Melo - Graça De Melo is Cecilia’s insecure (privately lesbian) Cafuzo best friend, who secretly had to endure having consensual sex with Ruth near the end of the story. 
Daniela Camacho - Alzira’s spunky daughter and Carl’s girlfriend. 
Hercílio De Sa - Georgina’s somewhat reckless father and Anita’s loving husband.
Anita De Sa - Georgina’s mum and Hercílio’s stern but firm wife. 
Georgina De Sa - Daniela’s estranged buddy from Minas Gerais. 
Claudia De Sa - Being Georgina’s sister, Claudia is a haughty young manager working for Lili’s dad’s corrupt company. 
Juliana Freitas - One of Cecilia’s friends, Guilherme’s Sister and Frederica’s daughter.
Jurema Couto - One of Lili’s quaint employees, Jurema is implied to be from southern Rio De Janeiro.
Marcia Dos Santos - Maurinho Dos Santos’ Niece.
Maurinho Dos Santos - Maurinho is a heel face revolving door amongst the good guys. Sometimes he’s corrupted by the murderous Barbara Morricone, but he’s otherwise still a frizzy clown. He is Marcia’s uncle. 
Frederica Freitas - Juliana’s wise mother, Laura’s stubborn confidante. 
Paulo Da Silva - Paulo is the twin brother of Ana Da Silva, but who happens to be a witty mannered mulatto guy being good friends with Nicolas Viana. 
Ana Da Silva - Paulo’s sister. 
Lourdes Miranda - Lo’s schoolteacher. 
Guilherme ‘Gil’ Freitas - Frederica’s son and Juliana’s naughty little brother.




Thursday 4 February 2021

Jungle Dramas with wild men and women

A list of jungle dramas with wild men and women

Tida Wanorn aka Daughter of the Apes (both Amy Jacobs and Pin Ngeoncharoen versions) - Even though this franchise has fictional cryptid apes played (in ironic fashion) by actual orangutans (browner Bornean ones in the original, ruddier Sumatran ones in the spinoff reboot), it is a tried and true moneymaker amongst Lakorns (aka Thai language soap operas) originally aiming (primarily) at middle aged rural ladies in the northwest, north-central and northeastern parts of Thailand. The first one, lasting about three years, is 61 episodes long while the second one, a mild continuity reboot, is only 40 episodes long (which is understandably due to being based loosely upon the first two seasons, since the original show’s third season is technically the blandest of them all). Also noted is that both stories are quite different from each other, in spite of featuring different characters with all the same names attached. The original got a much more depressing ending, mostly because it was being worn down faster than anyone could imagine at that time, whereas the reboot thankfully got a happy enough, if still bittersweet, ending. 

Prince Of The Wolves - Originally aiming at middle aged housewives is a pretty funny story with a fanbase composed partly of a few recent Jungle Book anime fans, and partly of Amber An’s own countless fans. Also helping is that it’s perhaps a noble attempt (although a weakly executed one nonetheless) at making a spiritual sequel to both Mowgli: The New Adventures Of The Jungle Book and its film companion The Jungle Book: Search for The Lost Treasure. Also helping is that it’s also a decent follow up to the internationally famous Jungle Book: Shōnen Mowgli tv anime series, which aired from 1989 to 1990 in its native Japan. 

Yago: Pure Passion and Pure Passion - The original Argentine version is otherwise rather superior to its own (much blander) Mexican remake, mostly due to the fact that it’s got better developed characters and much better rounded storytelling. 

Bicho Do Mato (both original and reboot) - The original version seems to have such a cast of characters considered off limits today, so that its superior reboot replaced them with a character who lives in the Pantanal with a family of badass indigenous locals. 

Tuesday 2 February 2021

The Yoichiro Minami Catalogue: Books

The books of the Yoichiro Minami Catalogue 

Books that have 'Moju' (3 books)
Capturing the Beasts (猛獣を生捕る): This is a companion story to The Roaring Jungle. 
The Deadly Beast Hunt (決死の猛獣狩り): The huge raptors are the breakout stars of this book, and it’s those beasts who would frequently appear in the Baruuba books from 1948 onwards. 
The Fierce Beast Hunting Adventure (猛獸狩冒險): It’s actually just a subtitle for the Jungle King/To Catch a Tiger. 

Books that have 'Kairyu' (1 book)
The Dinosaur Kingdom (魔鏡の大怪龍): Baruuba (or an equivalent) likely appears in the story. Soon to be renamed as The Cryptid Kingdom (魔鏡の未確認)

Books that have ‘Amazon’ (2 books)
The Great Amazon Secret (大アマゾンの秘密) 
The Great Amazon Monument (大アマゾンの魔塔): Baruuba (or an equivalent) is a recurring character in this story. 

Books that have 'Kinjito' (3 books; 1 book being the abridged original edition, 2 others being the expanded edition)
Winding Through The Big Green Monument (緑の金字塔): A Japanese boy makes uneasy allies with Peruvian locals in this serial. 

Books that have ‘Maumi’ (5 books) 
The Devil Sea King (魔海の王者) 
The Magical Sea Treasure (魔海の秘宝): It’s actually the full name in Kanji. 
Beyond the Sea of Magic (魔海の彼方) 
The Devil’s Golden Sea Tower (魔海の黄金塔) 
The Devil’s Sea Treasure (魔海の宝) 

Books that have ‘Mujinto’ (3 books)
The Deserted Green Island (緑の無人島) 
A Sailor On The Deserted Green Island (水夫長平無人島漂流記)  
The Deserted Green Island Adventure (無人島の冒險): A soft reboot to the Deserted Green Island story. 

Books that have ‘Mitsurin’ (4 books)
The Roaring Jungle (吼える密林): Joseph Wilton and his friends attack the homes of unlucky animals in this gross adventure. Will be reprinted as To Catch a Hungry Lion (空腹の獅子を捕まえるために). 
The Jungle King (密林の王者): Another companion story to The Roaring Jungle. Will be reprinted as To Catch a Hungry Tiger (空腹の虎を捕まえるために), in order not to be confused with a 1948 story based on The Roaring Jungle. 
The Jungle Mystery (大密林の怪奇) 
A Huge Ship In The Jungle (密林の大怪船) 
The Jungle King (密林王): Actually an abridged adaptation of The Roaring Jungle/To Catch a Lion. 

Books that have 'Koto' (3 books)
The Secret of the Lone Island (孤島の秘密)
A Pirate of the Lone Island (孤島の怪賊)
15 Boys on the Lone Island (孤島の十五少年)

Anonymous Books 
An Ocean Adventure Story (海洋冒険物語) 
The Magic Shiva Statue (シバの魔神像) 
The Demon Island (魔神島) 
The Great Pirate’s Treasure (大海賊の秘宝) 
The Devil’s Hall of Fame (魔神の大殿堂)
The Lion King’s Treasure Sword (獅子王の宝劍)
The Arctic Star (北極の妖星) 
The Magical Phantom Tower (魔境怪塔の巻)
Under the Southern Cross (南十字星の下に) 
The Great Adventure King (日東の冒険王) 
The Terror of Cannibal Island (食人島の恐怖)
The Single Eared Leopard (片耳の魔豹) 
The Kingdom in the Air (空中魔城) 
The Treasure of the Great Kingdom (大魔境の秘宝) 
The Magic Kingdom’s Iron Palace (魔城の鐵假面) 
The Ogre Bandit (大鬼賊) 
The Phantom Ship (まぼろし船) 
The Monsters From Hell (魔境の怪人)
The Skull Mask (髑髏仮面) 
The Drifting Beast Ship (漂う猛獣船) 
The Ghost Tower (幽霊塔)