Obscure Adventures in Geek and Nerd Culture

It is possible that the Baruuba franchise has spawned not one, but two movies which have focused on the stories’ unofficial Indian Bollywood and Nepalese Kallywood film equivalents. They are both called Jungle Love, despite containing very different plots. Earlier on, its official film companion’s long gone Mandarin dub was released decades earlier.  In the early-mid 1960s, a lost but semi-official Hong Kong Mandarin dub of the Buruuba film, known as ‘Adventures in the Animal Kingdom’, was released in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia. Like its official Japanese predecessor, the first Baruuba movie outside of Japan has so many Tarzan references that it was misleadingly billed as a Tarzan movie at the time of its July 1990 release! Unlike the succeeding Nepalese Mockbuster Hit, its hero and heroine get married with the help of their parents, as they are adults who have a consensual relationship, despite not knowing each other at first.  But the Nepalese movie is a much differen...

Grinlandia is a fictitious fantasy realm where most of Alexander Grin’s works are set. The original Russian language versions of such literary tales are currently public domain worldwide, whereas the translations and adaptations aren’t.  Since Grinlandia’s location is not pinpointed out in a precise way, it is most likely an alternate history setting.*     *On the other hand, it’s almost certain that Grinlandia’s main cities Zurbagan, Gelgyu and Liss are most likely inspired indirectly by Vladivostok in Russia, Haiphong in Vietnam, Jeju in South Korea and San Fernando in the Philippines.  Of the works set in Grinlandia, the best known are The Scarlet Sails and The Girl Who Runs Through Waves.  The Scarlet Sails is a major codifier of Russian soft science fiction mixed with middle-low fantasy. A companion story called The Girl Who Runs Through Waves was released 4-5 years later and is just as successful as the former.  There are other stories set in Grinland...

The post-2010s reprints and reissues (+adaptations) of major Sōji Yamakawa (山川惣治) works can be made mostly by Kodansha and Square Enix from the 2020s onward.  *The Primitive Champion, The Wild Fisted Champion and The Wild Fisted Star will be written and drawn by Kenshiro Sakamoto.  For Kodansha YA Entertainment Bunko and Kodansha Light Novel Bunko  The Primitive Champion (原始王者) The Wild Fisted Champion (野生の両拳王者) The Wild Fisted Star (野生の両拳星) For SQENIX Bunko Other Stories  The Safari Adventurers (サファリの冒険者たち) Kenya Boy branch The Dirty Dawn (汚れた夜明け): 4 volumes  Kenya Boy (少年ケニア): 28 volumes Jungle Hunt (ジャングルハント): 24 volumes From Japan to Kenya (日本からケニアへ): 14 volumes  Chintu the Wild Youth (野生児チントゥ): 36 volumes  *Baboon Boy needs pragmatic revisions in order to be both complete and in print again. Funnily enough, I chose ‘Chintu the Wild Youth’ as a meaningful rename for what was originally called Baboon Boy, largely because it clearly has the potential...

The projects are all reissues for Hakusensha and Shodensha. Each of the lines will be blank, whereas each of their manga adaptations are illustrated and written by a manga artist-writer. For Hakusensha (for Young Animal and Young Animal Zero, all written and drawn by Yu Aida) The Lone Island series 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) An Ocean Adventure Story (海洋冒険物語)  The Great Pirate’s Treasure (大海賊の秘宝)  The Phantom Ship (まぼろし船)  The Sawmill Alley series To Catch a Hungry Lion (空腹の 獅子 を捕まえるために): An anthology featuring Joseph Wilton. To Catch a Hungry Tiger (空腹の虎を捕まえるために): Another anthology featuring Joseph Wilton. 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 Partly Deaf Leopard (片耳の魔豹)  The Jungle Mystery (大密林の怪奇)  A Huge Ship in the Jungle (密林の大怪船...