Baruuba’s Adventures: Spirits

The Spirits of Baruuba’s Adventures

Devils (悪魔たち) 

Shapeshifters in the form of many devil types are the main villainous shifting forms in many Baruuba books. However, in these stories they often possess reckless albeit fun loving villains. 

Angels (天使たち) 

Shapeshifters in the forms of many angel types, including biblically accurate angels, tend to be somewhat more horrifying than shapeshifters in the form of demons, and for good reason. 

Beast Shapeshifters (獣の変身者) 

Shapeshifters in the forms of ordinary looking beasts are likely more mundane than either angels or devils. 

Dilruba (ディルルバ) - Dilruba is one of Baruuba’s less trustworthy allies. She is a woman who was forcibly turned into a man sized Were-eagle as a result of being cursed by a wizard. 

Selma (セルマ) - Selma is Dilruba’s little sister, who was forcibly turned into a man sized Were-eagle by the wizard who turned Firdaus and Brûlée into a peacock and a gorilla respectively. 

Sajid (サジッド) - Dilruba’s recurring male ally, a man who was forcibly turned into a man sized Were-eagle by the same jackass Wizard as her. 

Brûlée (ブリュレ) - An affable Bad Guy whom Barumba met when he was trekking through the swamplands. Is likely a lonesome overweight male trying to survive being temporarily turned into a huge gorilla by a wizard who is different from the one who turned Sajid and Dilruba into man sized eagles. 

Firdaus (フィルダウス) - A sickly man who was forcibly turned into a partly leucistic peacock by the same wizard who turned Brûlée into a gorilla. 

Kurami (倉見) - Kurami was the human turned Mountain Machairodus opponent of Baruuba during his stay in the swamplands.

Yoshimasa Ikeda Baruuba supplements

The Baruuba Supplements 

Companion Books 

Baruuba the Leaper

Japanese (飛び跳ねるバルーバ) 

Baruuba the Adventurer

Japanese (冒険者バルーバ) 

Baruuba the Wanderer

Japanese (放浪者バルーバ) 

Mitzi the Home Wrecker 

Japanese (家の解体屋ミッツィ)

Baruuba Swings Through 

Japanese (バルーバが振り抜く) 

Baruuba Leaps Through 

Japanese (バルーバが飛び越える)

Baruuba Surfs Through

Japanese (バルーバがサーフィンをする) 

Baruuba Brachiates Through 

Japanese (バルーバが腕を突き抜ける) 

Baruuba and his Family (バルーバとその家族) Introductory Books 

Baruuba and his Wife

Japanese (バルーバと彼の妻) 

Baruuba and his Foundling 

Japanese (バルーバとその捨て子) 

Baruuba and his Son

Japanese (バルーバと息子)

Baruuba and his Daughter

Japanese (バルーバと娘) 

Baruuba and his Baby 

Japanese (バルーバと赤ちゃん) 

Baruuba and his Dog

Japanese (バルーバと彼の犬) 

The Baruuba Location Books 

Baruuba in the Savanna: The Savanna and its kin are a family of iconic habitats united by the big five African beasts. 

Japanese (サバンナのバルーバ) 

Baruuba in the Cloud Forest: The Rwenzori cloudforest, between Lake Edward and the Semliki swamplands, is one of Sub-Saharan Africa’s highest tropical forests. 

Japanese (雲霧林のバルーバ)

Baruuba in the Swamp: The swamplands that surround the Rwenzori range have a mostly monsoonal climate.

Japanese (沼地のバルーバ) 

Baruuba in the Jungle: Baruuba sometimes dwells in a medley of mostly secondary forests near the savanna. 

Japanese (ジャングルのバルーバ)

Baruuba in the Primeval Midland Forest: 

Japanese (密林のバルーバ)

Baruuba in the Misted Rainforest: Guess what? Baruuba was adopted and raised by Apes in the Bwindi rainforest. 

Japanese (熱帯雨林のバルーバ) 

Pounder Books 

Baruuba Pounds his Chest 

Japanese (胸を張るバルーバ) 

Baruuba’s Son Pounds his Chest 

Japanese (胸を張るバルーバの息子) 

Books 

Baruuba’s Wilderness 

Japanese (バルーバの荒野) 

Baruuba to the Rescue 

Japanese (バルーバが助けに来る) 

Real Life Models for Yoshimasa Ikeda’s characters

Opinions of Baruuba, Buruuba and others 

Half-German actor Ureo Egawa was likely one of the first six physical models for the original Baruuba himself. Then there was Richard von Coudenhove Kalergi, an actual half-Japanese Austrian politician. Having a Flemish Belgian-Greek nobleman father was one of the minor reasons why the original Baruuba’s mother was also a noblewoman. The caveat is that said mother was a Japanese one whose parent was likely a posh samurai. He was likely the character’s model in the Poplar prints of the first four Baruuba books, which lasted from 1954 to 1959. 

The late Filipino cartoonist-writer Francisco V. Coching, who is increasingly acknowledged as a real life (unkempt) Mr. Fanservice himself, was one of the character’s unexpected models (along with the usual Ureo Egawa) in the chapter book companions for Japanese primary school kids of the early 1950s. 

Even though the other two are maternally half-Japanese but tended to look a bit more European (their paternal grandmothers might have a stronger bodily role than we’d like to think), the original Baruuba had a more even bodily influence from both parents, which is clearly made canon, largely not only by Yoshimasa Ikeda’s writing, but also by both Omizu Suzuki and Goichi Yanagawa’s artworks within varying degrees. 

But it’s Ryutaro Otomo who had the biggest and longest running influence on the classic character and his own Expy Buruuba, likely for obvious reasons. First, he was an actor playing both anti-heroes and straight ones. Second, although not a manly common beauty, he was fanboyed by almost everyone who has watched and still watches films featuring him. Third and last, not only was he one of the ballsiest actors who ever walked the whole Japanese nation, the characters he played were the main inspirations for the first Baruuba’s personality in the pre-PlayStation prints. He also was a model for Buruuba in the Shōnen Club picture stories. 

Iconic swimmer and sometime actor Yoshihiro Hamaguchi was the first major model for Baruuba’s (kind of) official expy, Buruuba. However, he wasn’t as pretty looking as Akira Kubo (his indirect understudy) for the 1955 manga tie in and their then-more experienced competitor, who subsequently took the helm from 1957 onwards. 

The sixth and second longest running model for both characters might have been Rentaro Mikuni, who was the original character’s model not only in the 1957 Baruuba manga by the little known Jun Toyama, but also as Buruuba’s model in the 1960-61 Shōnen Buruuba manga by Kyuuta Ishikawa, only being partly replaced in portraying the former by the genuinely half-Japanese Masumi Okada in the 1966-67 Ikkosha prints. 

Then again, Okada himself was the only actor who properly resembled BaRuuba rather closely, apart from significant height and weight differences. 

Okinawa’s Kamen Rider sensation Shuya Sunagawa is likely the closest thing that the canonised Barumba character has to a real life model. 

As a plausible wholesale reboot, the more adult and violent Export Edition series, derived from not only the somewhat infamous Sanichi Shobo Shōnen Novel compilations, but also from the original 1948-51 prints of at least six out of seven books. The reason why there are six out of seven books is likely apparent, as the first three published books of the whole series are fairly identical in all but name, and the last one by Yoshimasa Ikeda could not be released until 1992. But since the other three are often more known than both the first two in publishing order, there are only four out of seven books in each subsequent print up until 1988 and 1992 for the end of Showa-early Heisei Sanichi Shobo compilations, which have six out of seven books. The main reason why is that the significant addition of a rather okay manuscript turned seventh book is known as one of the last Yoshimasa Ikeda books with majority-original content known to mankind. 

Although the somewhat expanded+slightly renamed 1954-59 Poplar Publishing reprints and the more minimalist 1966-67 Ikkosha reprints tend to have fewer books than the Showa to Heisei Sanichi Shobo compilations, they can still be included in the proposed making of the Export Edition due to being just as historically important as the original Tondo Shinsosha prints, which tend to have fewer surviving copies due to more wear and tear, and the aforementioned successors themselves, which are otherwise still good but tend to be riddled with somewhat questionable changes. 

The series will feature a newly canonised Baruuba who’ll be much different from both his older book print+Manga and film+Manga predecessors. He is Baruumba, the son of a southern Okinawan dad and a mixed North Rhine Westphalian-Sinti (Sintesa) mum named Jinhaku. He was born in Hawaii but arrived into the Bwindi rainforest as a baby for a study. 

The rest is history. They successfully built a stilt house, but were kidnapped out of their jungle home by murderous cryptid gangsters who would kill them later. It’s been clear that Jinhaku will become something like The Phantom.

Mermaid Melody: Characters P2

The Common North Pacific Sea Spirits 

Vix: A female water dragon spirit who is friends with Isobel. 

The Ruling North Pacific Sea Spirits 

Aqua Rex: Aqua Regina’s lover from the same spirit kind, who’s the male ruling spirit of the sea-folk. 

Aqua Regina: The female ruling spirit of the sea-folk. She is a sea smoker spirit who is likely thirty thousand years old like Aqua Rex. 

Aqua Marina: Aqua Marina is the potential successor to Aqua Rex and Aqua Regina, who would abdicate soon since they’re too tired of being below more messed up spirits. Because of this and other situations, the rivals’ warlike supporters can go berserk upon much of the habitats available to mess with. A sea smoker spirit herself. 

The Hawaiian Beast Spirits 

*Do note that out of the villainous teams in the Kenya Boy/Jungle Hunt universe, this gang of tropical spirits is likely more sympathetic than any other, mainly because of much harsher events such as the largely complete destruction of some Hawaiian tropical forests. 

Lana: Lana is a shapeshifting butterfly spirit, who was initially loosely inspired by the Mainland Chinese orchestral pop band 12 Girls. Nowadays, she’ll be inspired more often by the Butterfly monsters of Kamen Rider fame.  

Makina: Makina is a shapeshifting fruit bat spirit, who was initially inspired by the internationally beloved TM Revolution (aka Takanori Nishikawa). Since TM Revolution is currently popular mainly with general Japanese pop culture fans, she’ll instead be inspired by the Bat monsters of Kamen Rider fame.

The Panthalassa

The Coral Spirits: As their group name suggests, these spirits are anthropomorphic ghosts of prehistoric corals. 

The Pangaea 

The Mud Spirits: These spirits protect the mangroves.

The Powers That Be 

The Shitstorm: The Shitstorm was the only known absolute ruler of the current powers that be, who has most likely created Arak and the foot soldiers millions of more years before Arak created Mir and Craw. He was a disaster who birthed tons of disposable spawn, which was why even Arak would rip them to death. 

Arak: Arak is a drunken mad scientist spirit who not only rules the Solar System dominion, he has long been a nut job whom even the Great One had run away from. Arak is sixty million years old and has twelve million more years to go. 

Leu: A flying female spirit created by the Shitstorm, she is Axon’s preceding guard who dislikes their oldest sibling mainly because of how neglectful he is. Leu is also savvier than both her siblings for a few more reasons. 

Axon: A younger flying male spirit created by the Shitstorm. Although the second of four major spirits, he’s also quite a goofy chomping jackass much of the time. Being a rather villainous gadfly, he still loves messing over his fellow spirits. 

Mir: Mir is likely a bisexual spirit who watches over the waves and the coral spirits. She looks great and does have flippers, even though she’s usually much randier than the latter. 

Vue: Another flying spirit created by Arak from unrelated sources. Despite their plain sounding seafood name, they are beautiful in their own right and still come equipped with six powerful wings, but are still a sad soul who’d been wandering through many kinds of habitats for a super long time. Vue is only about twelve million years old and has sixty million more years to go, even though they are still learning more.

The Thrashing Ash Night-marchers: The Shitstorm created these big hungry spirits before he created Arak from various sources. They are a diverse group of ghosts who began their first lives as prehistoric marine animals. 

Mermaid Melody: Characters

The characters of Mermaid Melody Chronicles 

The Mermaid Pretenders 

Lucia Natali: Gingery blonde haired, cyan eyed Lucia lived somewhere in Vancouver before moving to Tofino. 

Catrina ‘Trina’ Baldwin: Medium brown haired, green hazel eyed Trina is from Halifax.

Hannah van der Merwe: An immigrant Afrikaner who escaped the Apartheid with her fellow rebelling parents. She is a Chestnut haired, green eyed fella. 

Coco Paunovic: Dark blonde haired, yellow hazel eyed Coco has both Māori and Dalmatian (Chakavian) Croatian ancestry. 

Caren Fernández: Taupe haired, grey eyed Caren from Chile lived and walked the earth for years. 

Noelle Beauvoir: Light brown haired, blue eyed Noelle lived in the Canadian Arctic for a while. 

Sara Izri: Titian haired, brown hazel eyed Sara is a Rifian lady from Morocco. 

Shelly Ives: Auburn haired, light brown eyed Shelly has some Whadjuk ancestry and lives in Perth, Western Australia. 

The Hendersons 

Kaiali’i Henderson: Auburn haired, medium brown eyed Kaiali’i is a jungle dwelling Hapa boy who lives with his parents and paternal grandparents in one of the Hawaiian islands. 

Kaipo Henderson: Kaipo is the son of a native Hawaiian craftswoman and a military vet, who also happens to be Kaiali’i’s father. He is likely about 41-43 years old.

The Amagi Family

Gai Amagi: After their parents died in an avalanche, Gai Amagi lived with his older sister and little brother Ken when they were shipwrecked together into the Congo. 

Nobuyo Amagi: Ken Amagi’s nephew and Gai’s son, who was born on the April 8 1939 Hanamatsuri. 

Rikichi Amagi: Ken Amagi’s grandnephew and Gai’s grandson. 

The O’Riordans

Angus O’Riordan: Aka the Great One, Angus O’Riordan lived a deadly yet adventurous life around the world. He met friends and worthy opponents as diverse as Kate O’Connell and Joe Moriyama. 

Will O’Riordan: Angus’s youngest of three sons, Will is likely the father of Michaela and Gavin. 

Gavin O’Riordan: Gavin the punk is Angus’s grandson and the estranged older brother of Michaela. He is likely 21 years old and frequently dyes his hair grey. 

Michaela O’Riordan: Gavin’s little sister and Angus’ granddaughter. Their parents were quite screwed up people, but they did look after them for the first years of their lives. 

Gavin’s Friends 

Melvin: Melvin is Gavin’s idol. Except for their hair and heads, they are quite similar. 

Elnora: Melvin’s little sister, who happens to resemble Michaela pretty closely, except for showing a lighter shade of brown hair. 

The Tofino Food Restaurant 

Nicola Benedetto: Nicola is a restaurant owner in Tofino, a sleepy island town not too far from Vancouver. 

Rafa Benedetto: Rafa is Nicola’s daughter, who also happens to play a mermaid just like her younger fellows. 

The School Fellows

Ramona Flack: Prissy’s nice and comfy niece, a fellow student at the secondary school that Lucia once attended. 

Priscilla Flack: Prissy’s full name is a pun on that of British pop culture icon Priscilla Black. 

Marlon Sinclair: Marlon is a college aged guy who wears a beanie hat. 

Vicenza: Vicenza is a moody tomboy in a crime ridden burb. She is still in a friendly rivalry with Maria Chiriac and Yuri however. 

Pearly Shell: 

Miria: 

Lirio: 

Carlina: Vicenza’s nicer and more observant twin sister. 

The Surfing Club Allies

Casper Jones: Casper Jones is both an indie surfer and an idol of the local beach girls. 

Jonathan Cline: Casper’s younger companion. 

Isobel and Fellow Rivals 

Isobel Raymundo: Schemingly sensual Isobel works for someone more corrupt than her. She is likely thirty to thirty two years old.

Antonia: Meaner, though similar looking friend of Isobel Raymundo. She is about the same age as her.

Ryō Takamori: An estranged friend of Rikichi Amagi. 

Melania Prodan: Chestnut haired, light brown eyed Melania immigrated from Yugoslavian period Croatia.

Aisha ‘ALaLa’ Diba: Medium brown haired, dark brown eyed Alala is a Moroccan immigrant of Rifian Berber descent. 

Wade: Big Bad of the first two arcs. 

Maria Chiriac: A Romanian refugee/adoptee from the decadence of Ceausescu rule. 

Yuri Fiodarau: A gadfly of a Belarusian refugee who has survived escaping into Canada from a then upcoming Belarusian government, now under the decadence of Lukashenko rule. 

Mimosa ‘Mimi’ Corrales: Mimosa is a foster child working on Indie Rock project the BridgeBabes. 

Shandra ‘Shishi’ Houston: Shishi is Mimosa’s longtime Buddy. 

The Bikers 

Mika: A femme gay blonde person with steel blue eyes, whose only main friend is Jimmy. 

Luka: Dark haired Luka is allies with both Mika and Jimmy.

Jimmy Thurmond: Mika’s butch gay boyfriend. 

The Seattle and Vancouver Sea Folk 

Ray Clammer: A plain donk who happens to be a Pacific razor clam. 

Cristina: Cristina is a shiny, semi wild Vancouver crystal jelly. 

Joan: Another Vancouver local who happens to be a Pacific geoduck clam. 

Alabina: Alabina is a deadly gorgeous North Pacific Sea Angel. 

Momo: A motherly dolphin. 

Pipo: A cute boy dolphin. 

The Hawaiian Sea Folk 

Akala: She is a Cats Tongue Oyster whose name means ‘Pink’ in Hawaiian. 

Plopper and Princess

A spinoff series of Simpsons related short stories may focus on two animal characters who are an odd couple, a pig called Plopper and a brown pony named Princess. 

A major Simpsons character, a black cat called Snowball the second, whose relatives are Mrs Hoover’s pet cat Hemsworth, who is her mate, and Officer Wiggum’s pet cat Mittens, will sometimes appear. 

There’s Baz, a cute troublemaker owned by Ned Flanders whose only main friends are Milhouse Van Houten’s small pet dogs, Clara the Shih Tzu and Taquito the chihuahua. 

Newton, Database’s Japanese Chin-Papillon mix, seems to be friends with Devin, who is Lenny’s pet Boston Terrier.

Shamus the brown mongrel is friends with Smiley the bulldog. Lao Tzu is friends with Shaggy, who is Barney Gumble’s big grey pet dog. 

Jub Jub the iguana is an acquaintance of Pokey the Guinea pig and Nosey the rabbit. 

The cast of Baruuba series

The cast of the Baruuba series 

Baruuba’s family 

Baruuba - 

Baruuba’s aunt - 

Baruuba’s uncle - 

Baruuba’s mum - 

Baruuba’s dad - 

The named animals in RuKiga

Enjoka - The RuKiga and RuTooro word for snake. Baruuba tends to leave most snakes alone because, although still quite dangerous and widely feared, they aren’t as venomous or even nightmarish as black tailed Jameson’s mambas. 

Semutundu - The RuKiga word for catfish. 

Empundu - The RuKiga word for baboon. 

Emporogoma - The RuKiga word for lion. 

Enzuguri - the RuKiga word for ripon barbel. 

Enkima - The RuKiga and RuNyankore word for monkey. 

Emamba - The RuKiga word for leopard lungfish.

Engwe - The RuKiga word for leopard. 

Kasurubana - The RuKiga word for elephant snout fish. 

Emale - The RuKiga and RuTooro word for catfish. 

Enjojo - The RuKiga and RuTooro word for elephant. When Baruuba was a child raised by beastly snowmen, he first met a crowd of bush elephants near the Mubwindi swamp.  

Embaka - The RuKiga word for jungle caracal.

Enkyima - The RuKiga word for squirrel.

Kasuku - The RuKiga and RuNyankore word for parrot.

Engaji - The RuKiga word for gorilla. 

Embeba - The RuKiga and RuTooro word for rat. 

Gonya - The RuKiga word for crocodile. 

Enturu - The RuKiga word for civet. 

Omuterere - The RuKiga word for genet. 

The named animals in RuTooro 

Entale - The RuTooro word for lion.

Empyo - The RuTooro word for crocodile. 

Isomba - The RuTooro word for genet. 

Entamujugu - The RuTooro word for civet.

Etuku - The RuTooro word for parrot.

Engo - The RuTooro word for leopard. 

Enkerebe - The RuTooro word for baboon. 

Ensisibirizi - The RuTooro word for squirrel.

The named animals in RuNyankore 

Akanyamwenyi - The RuNyankore word for small squirrel. 

Empimbi - The RuNyankore word for civet. 

Ekicuncu - The RuNyankore word for lion. 

Rujuguta - The RuNyankore word for genet. 

Enkobe - The RuNyankore word for baboon. 

Kaamugye - The RuNyankore word for big squirrel.