Monday, 12 August 2024

Tida Wanorn and its multicultural impact

Tida Wanorn is one of Thailand’s most popular Lakorn franchises, with two original seasons, a depressingly off model postscript season and a softer spinoff reboot (albeit not a total continuity wide one, anyway). It’s about a Lanna foundling, Iyawadee, raised by two escaped circus orangutans and a bunch of elephants in the north of Thailand. Despite her shortcomings, Iyawadee is a pretty compelling character more endearing than Pansy. 

Tida Wanorn, even with many kinds of maritime and mainland ASEAN trappings, seems to be inspired by. To be fair, the Thai and Laotian elements somehow get a bigger spotlight in the spinoff reboot, starring different characters with the same names. 

Thursday, 16 May 2024

Jackie Chong Adventures

Jackie Chong is a bright archaeologist, who happens to be both an otaku and a skilled martial artist. Unlike his real life inspiration, he is Shanghainese. 

Jade Chong is the expat niece of Jackie Chong, whose estranged mum and dad (Jackie’s older brother Shen) work in Hong Kong. She ages from 12 (all five seasons of the original) to 14, 16, 18 and 20 in the revival’s five seasons. She is going to be much more Mandy-like and stern in the revival than in the original. 

Shen Chong is the older cousin of Jackie. He is the son of Uncle Koi Chong, a workaholic salaryman whose horrible workload and overworking meant that his wife Yen Mao left their daughter behind in the US with Jackie. He also has some traumatic memories such as the horrific working schedule which killed his friends. 

Lucina Yen Mao is the mother of Jade Chong, who is such a globetrotting workaholic that she and her hubby left her behind in San Francisco. Due to the horrid working schedule which has killed many of her friends, she behaves somewhat erratically and is traumatised to an extent, resulting in Jade taking care of her increasingly. 

Kwai Chong is the titular Uncle Chong, who now returns to Hong Kong to live out his days. He’ll communicate to Jackie via computer texts. 

It’s also revealed that Hak Foo, now a reformed anti hero, has frequently dyed his hair red but finally lets it become filled with highlights! He currently redeems himself and becomes a full time mentor to Jade Chong. 

Yen Shin is undoubtedly Jackie Chan’s wife. 

Augustus Black has a daughter, Ava Black. She grows from 4 to 6, 8 and 10 throughout the revival. Her father is a workaholic, and her mum is dead, so she is likely rather wild.  

Where are the original villains now? 

There is also the unsettling possibility that Valmont is merely the surname of a ruthless syndicate pirate by the first two names of Castor Ignatius. He is also an orphan raised largely by a British gangster queen, who was such a piece of shit that he killed her in fright with his gun for a good reason. 

To make things sadder, his birth parents, chauvinistic as they would’ve been, were workers who died in a mine at the same time when he met his enforcers. He also tends to cry more when his sordid childhood (before meeting his enforcers) does get mentioned. 

Daolan Wong turns out to be a war veteran, who also seems to regret trying to take over the world, letting himself go of his messed up plans and leave his villainy behind, while also abandoning his wizardry once more to live a life as a muggle (as he likely is one by birth). He also poops out the screaming spirits along the way.

Because the Taiwanese Bartholomew Chiang now regrets both becoming too mean in life and having not been seen by his ex-wife for so long, he retires gracefully from the spotlight, letting a nicer and more affable anti-villain, said younger ex-wife, take his place. Her name is Ko Shi Mei and she is also Hoklo. 

His former lackey Tommy Chung, likely a mainland immigrant to Hong Kong, has also reformed to become a spirit catcher in training because Bartholomew quietly told him about his oil sheikh shareholder getting away with anything while he is only a mere Hoklo commoner (at least by birth) in the shareholder’s social climbing circle. 

Noticing that he deeply regretted not being a good guy for a long time, but despite his sympathetic pleas, Ashby Necrosis was unfortunately cannibalised to death by his wife, revealed to be a bigger monster in the making than he was. She is Lady Necrosis, a who dares to chop off her minions on a whim like no other. 

StrikeMaster Ice also has a sad time seeing his parents die, even though they were so horrible to him that he’d left them behind by the time he formed his team. Keep in mind that even he thinks his career as a villain is a stupid second attempt at getting a job. 




Sunday, 14 April 2024

Wild Fisted Champion: Characters P2

The characters of Wild Fisted Champion. Based on the Boy Champion. 

The Anti Villains

Akari (あかり): Akari was the brownish gorilla whose friends stomped onto Pamela’s dead little brother and who later would become the boss to a pack of rival gorillas. 

Yumia (ユミア): Yumia is the grandmother of Fabrice. 

Lucian (ルシアン): Lucian is the rather badly behaving abdicated chief of his village, who is replaced by his more competent nephew Linon. 

Mukina (ムキナ): There is a giant apeman named Mukina, whose name means ‘you play’ in Kinyarwanda. He was a well meant bodyguard of Yumia, but a mad scientist decidedly kidnapped him in turn along with an angsty Hiroko. Then he reunites with her, but still goes on a journey back home until he dies gracefully. 

Minor characters 

Bobi (ボビ)

Leni (レニ) 

Maranda (マランダ) 

Dodo (ドド) 

More recurring characters

Dr. Vail (ベイル博士): Dr. Vail is another scientist in the entourage of James Simonson. 

Didi (ディディ): A humble late missionary and badass preacher, Didi sacrificed himself to the volcano so that his friends wouldn’t die out as fast. 

More villains

Dede (デデ): A dark skinned pirate, Dede was from a family of upper middle class commoners, who was outcompeted and then replaced by Linon, weeks after Lucian abducted. 

Linon (リノン):

The fodders 

Nono (ノノ): 

Vivian (ビビアン): 

Claude (クロード): Claude was a well meant but rather shady trader from a family of minor nobility. 

Saturday, 6 April 2024

Barumba/Baalumba

We first learn that Bwindi Rainforest is Baalumba's adopted homeland, as he arrived there with his biological parents as a baby.

As a baby, Baalumba had to flee from the fearsome Snowman King, who ate his biological parents, a heinous act even by Snowman standards. As a result, he was raised in a canopy tree by a kind Snowman grandmother, who taught him how to defend himself against many threats.

From an early age, he loved his adoptive grandmother, who raised him in the canopy of the rainforest. One of his first movements was swinging between the trees, and by that time he also learned to swim.

Throughout his childhood and adolescence, he learned to beat his chest like a gorilla, swing between trees, dive into bushes, and build nests. He made awkward friendships with gorillas, jackals, baboons, and leopards, as well as chimpanzees and lions. But he made permanent friends with several bush and forest elephants as well.

As a teenager, the boy loses his grandmother to illness, but continues to hunt and skin old beasts as much as he can. He grows stronger and taller while surviving and eating the meat of old antelopes and fish. He and his adoptive parents continue to live next to the bush pigs after his adoptive grandmother dies.

As a sexually mature adult, he takes a gap year and encounters more humans than he ever experienced in his childhood or adolescence. He then travels to different parts of the known world with his newfound friends and rivals. After several years of traveling the world, he returns to the Bwindi rainforest via the rival kingdoms of Western Uganda.

He decides to live alone while building a treehouse in the jungle. Unfortunately, it doesn't last long. He is kidnapped by a dirty Hawaiian circus trafficking ring. He then escapes from the dirty Hawaiian circus and travels through the rainforest of his native Hawaii.

Eventually, he slowly meets his future wife, marries her, has a baby girl, and leaves Hawaii. With his wife's help, he continues to walk and finally returns to the rainforest with his baby daughter.

He has three children with a woman who is very muscular and manly, all girls. Now he is raising them in different parts of the rainforest. Unfortunately, they suddenly have to fight some terrible enemy or whatever. So they grow up over the years, become different people, and get married.

Tuesday, 2 April 2024

Wolf Fanged Boy: Characters

The characters of The Wolf Fanged Boy

Shinji Yamakawa (山川真司): 

Allies 

Sonia Jones (ソニア・ジョーンズ): 

Jill Cooper (ジル・クーパー): 

Rikiya Natsume (夏目力也): 

Senko Muroyama (室山千子): 

Shinji’s Family 

Kenzo Yamakawa (山川賢三):

Asuka Ushio (潮明日香): 

Toshiyuki Yamakawa (山川俊之): Toshiyuki is a minor character who was a part of the White Skull’s entourage in The Wolf Fanged Boy.

Shizue Yamakawa (山川静江): 

Recurring characters

June Oliver Jones (ジューン・オリバー・ジョーンズ): June is a recurring character, the long lost middle sister of Maude and Sonia.

Typical Villains 

Shigeo Kojima (小島茂雄): 

Maude Jones (モード・ジョーンズ): Maude is a rather shoddy woman, who never cares about anyone but herself. 

Fodders 

Lucia Khongmen (ルシア・コンメン): A dead tribeswoman schoolteacher from the Khasi tribe. 

Hugh Jones (ヒュー・ジョーンズ): A Welsh missionary who married the schoolteacher mother of Maude, June Oliver and Sonia.

Heinous Monsters 

Gozaburo Ikuhara (幾原剛三郎):