Fiction House Classics’ Human Characters

Fiction House Classics’ Human characters. 

Gift Hunting

Gift Hunting for the most interesting secondhand items is an international pastime. Not just that, it is one of the most integral parts of both geek and broad internet pop culture too. 

Old Shōnen Books: Apart from secondhand Japanese Transformers and elderly Licca Dolls in spades, old Shōnen Books are amongst some of the most easily sold secondhand items in Japan, so are the secondhand museum-centric ‘Mooks’ which acknowledge them as a vital but, in international terms, relatively obscure literary format. Unlike the first two however, unless they’re mangas, old Shōnen Books are usually harder to find outside of Japan. 

Shōnen Pulp Novel: The Shōnen Pulp Novel comes in two sub demographic forms, the Junior Shōnen Pulp Novel and the Senior Shōnen Pulp Novel, which gave way to the modern Senior Shōnen light novel format. 

Shōnen Emonogatari: Of the demographic Emonogatari forms, the most commonly remembered one is for the Shōnen demographic. After all, the Shōnen Emonogatari was basically the rather strange distant cousin of the venerable Kamishibai and the lesser known Shōnen Pulp Novel, which gave way to the modern Junior Shōnen manga and more significantly so, the modern Junior Shōnen light novel. 

Abridged Asian Musings

This is an abridged list of Asian Tarzan-related films that DeviantArt newcomers can reference. 

The post-1970 Asian Tarzan works 

A. Hameed’s Tarzan radio drama - From the mind behind Ainak Wala Jin comes his own (unofficial) remake of the 1932-34 Tarzan radio drama. It’s a pretty unique remake of a radio serial, in which it’s spoken in the standard Pakistani variants of both Urdu (although related more closely to the more populous Hindi, it’s technically a Hindustani sociolect) and Punjabi. 

Babbar Subhash’s Adventures of Tarzan - This schlock masterpiece took much of its title from that of the last Elmo Lincoln Tarzan film. Released onto cinemas in the Christmas weeks of 1985 (for New Years Week 1986), the most famous of unofficial Tarzan films spawned a couple of spin-offs, a scrapped sequel, a scrapped remake and a Nepali language continuity reboot mockbuster. 

Things that are safely not named after Tarzan for legal reasons 

Before Yoichiro Minami’s death

Buruuba - Based only loosely upon (but more likely spun off from) the Baruuba books written by Arsene Lupin Aficionado Yoshimasa Ikeda, Buruuba as a movie is a schlock masterpiece which deserves an international cult following, mostly because of how obscure it is at least outside of Japan. 

Zimbo - Even though Zimbo as a film is one of the first foreign Tarzan expy films in colour, the original colour print is a medium which is technically gone forever, due to the plausible types of filming material being explosively dangerous, so only the black and white dupe print survives, albeit in a poor condition. Its sequels Zimbo Comes To Town and the succeeding Zimbo Finds A Son also have their masters been considered irreparably lost as well. However, its Kannada remake, released in the year of the first and prettiest Woodstock fest ever filmed, is otherwise generically named Kadina Rahasya.

Afterwards 

Kadina Raja 85 - Released in April 1985, Kadina Raja is more like a part time ripoff of Kenya Boy in both tv series and anime film forms than its predecessor, which is a mere riff on the tale of Zimbo, combined with some elements of Tiger Boy. 

Bollywood’s Jungle Love - As implied by how Raja was being raised by a pride of lions (which was after being unintentionally abandoned by his unlucky birth mummy, in a kingdom led by greedy Amazons), The Ultra Studios-distributed Jungle Love Film seems to be based a bit more on Buruuba, than on either the Cold War Zimbo films or the Tarzan books themselves. That said, it’s still a very loose (unofficial) reimagining of all three. Zembla is also a contributing inspiration for the movie, although it gets denoted to a minor role instead. 

The furry club

Dear furries, not only is Watership Down a part of the holy furry sextet for youths along with One Stormy Night, Chirin’s Bell, The Animals Of Farthing Wood, Gamba and RedWall, it is iconic. 

The two JUNGLE Films of Tiger Prabhakar

Twenty years ago, Tiger Prabhakar passed away. 

The first jungle film that Tiger Prabhakar starred in was the first Kadina Raja (aka Kadina Rahasya), which was released at the end of March 1969, though he made a small cameo as one of the Queen La expy’s minions. 

His second jungle film was the second Kadina Raja, released in 1985, where he played a Tarzan expy named Raja. There’s a cunning Jane Parker expy named Usha and a fiery redhead antagonist who also happens to be an Ayesha expy. 

The plots to both films of the same name are as different as night and day, mind you. 

Public Domain Updates

In The 2020s, there is going to be a huge exodus of works whose creators died in the 1950s, but which are on the verge of becoming domain for most nations of the world.

In 2021, the Tarzan stories of ERB finally became public domain friendly in Europe, so are a few Sandokan stories. 

In 2025 and 2035 the direction of Mother India and its predecessor Aurat will become public domain friendly for India and Croatia. In 2041, 2051 and 2061, the parts of both screenplays written by Meboob Khan’s friend Wajahat Mirza will become public domain. 

In 2028, Niels Meyn’s Jukan series becomes public domain in almost all of the European Union. 

In 2031, John Russell Fearn's Anjani duology becomes public domain in Australia and the European Union except Spain. 

In 2040, 2050, and 2060, Tezuka’s stories will become public domain friendly for the markets of Taiwan, India and Australia. Unfortunately, most of the major story characters are still trademarked. 

The twisted portfolio

Here is the portfolio containing most of the names that not many people remember. 

Proposed Khara Masterpieces Series 

Proposed Brain’s Base Theatre Series 

The Jungle Book (2 seasons, 52 episodes): based pragmatically on the Jungle Book (source book series)

In The Rukh (1 mini season, 13 episodes): based loosely on In The Rukh (source story)

Proposed Madhouse Classics series and movies 

Hari The Lad And Kari The Elephant (2 mini seasons, 26 episodes): based on Hari The Jungle Lad and Kari the Elephant (source novels) 

The Wild White Stallion: based on The Wild White Stallion (source novel) 

The Village Foreseer: based on Prince Of The Jungle (source novel) 

The Adventures Of Grichka (4 mini seasons, 52 episodes): based on Grichka (source novel series) 

The World Masterpiece Theatre gang

The legendary World Masterpiece Theatre and its competitors are well endowed with a legacy of successors in their wake. 

Even though it’s owned Nippon Animation, the WMT (if that’s possible), may not always be there to make us laugh and cry anymore, at least in the declining field of free broadcast tv. In other words, it’s partly because of Les Miserables Shoujo Cossette and the animated adaptation of Porphy being the final instalments from the same old block. 

The WMT is pretty much retired, which sadly makes so much sense in a world where a couple of intelligent phone addicts (like me for example) and smart grannies are disgusted by the ultra mainstream gobbling down everything in its path.