Jungle no Ouja Taa-chan 1

In 1912, Edgar Rice Burroughs introduced the world to a man who would come to be known for many names: Greystoke, King of the Apes, King of the Jungle. In the years after, legends of the great wild man would be brought forth in many media: novels, movies, television and, of course, comic books. Even in the land of the rising sun where manga reigns supreme, the legend lives on...but in a very peculiar, unusual and really...really...bizarre fashion! From gag master Masaya Tokuhiro comes this late 1980s/early 1990s Jump saga...where one of the great characters of fiction becomes one of the strangest heroes in shonen!

Jungle no Ouja Ta-chan (King of the Jungle Ta-chan)
By Masaya Tokuhiro

(TN: Before we begin, there are quite a few ways that "his" name can be pronounced. Obviously from the intro, you can tell that the "hero" is supposed to be Tarzan [sort of], but the way his name is pronounced depends on your interpretation. On Mangahelpers, it is "Taa-chan", emphasizing the long "a"; while some sources call the series "Tar-chan", shortening "Tarzan" to "Tar". [even if there are weird differences between the real Tarzan and...this guy.] Even Tokuhiro doesn't quite help: the first chapter refers to him as "Tah-chan", emphasizing the a with a "silent h". For my translations, I decided to just go with "Ta-chan", mostly to keep the concept of him being "Tarzan" [or "Tarzan-esque"] but without adding a silent letter like an "r" or "h" nor extending the "a" so it will be as close to "Tarzan" as it can be. It can be translated by whomever does this in a manner you see fit but in the scripts, he will be "Ta-chan")

Volume 1: It’s the King of the Jungle
No. 1: It’s the King of the Jungle

5.
Caption: Africa
Narrator: There are worries even for him, who continues to protect the peace and order of the jungle.
SFX: Va~~va~~

6.
Ta-chan: Jane, can’t you get up soon?
Jane: That’s a disagreement about me.
Narrator: Jane when they got married was beautiful……
SFX: Kucha kucha acha acha

7.
Narrator: Every day was happiness. They were also full. Ta-chan wanted to remember those days.
Ta-chan: Here, it’s boiled but eat this down, Jane.
Jane: What is that?
SFX: Kucha kucha
Ta-chan: It’s belly-button lint of impala.
(TN: We’re going to be getting a lot of references to animals, primarily African, in this series, and I’ll be trying to define those that are a tad stranger or lesser known. In this case, an “impala”, also known as the “African antelope”, is “aepyceros melampus”; it originally was considered a type of gazelle such as its name in Zulu, but it was so different from other gazelles and wildebeests that it was given its own taxonomical classification)
Caption: Has lost weight
(TN: It’s tough to say why exactly that caption was used for the impala, whether it is specifically an impala that has lost weight or specifically for losing weight for Jane…but I assume the latter with the approach)
Narrator: Ta-chan shouldn’t have had that disagreement that was twisted. Ta-chan wanted Jane to lose weight.

8.
Jane: Go into the jungle and search for food while it isn’t dark without being a dummy!!
Caption: Comforted by an elephant.
Ta-chan: AAAAAAAH!!
(TN: Um…before anyone starts up…yeah, there’s a lot of nudity in this series…male and female…and it ran in a prominent shonen magazine…and some of it…um…well…you have been fully warned)
Jane: I really regret marrying a man who doesn’t have culture.
SFX: Mosha mosha kucha kucha mosha mosha
SFX: Se se se

9.
Ta-chan: Ah, bee larva. These are Jane’s favorite food.
(TN: Strangely Ta-chan refers to the bee larva as “hachi no ko” or “bee children”)
Voice: Kya—save me!!

10.
Girl: Th…thank you very much in this dangerous place. What is the best way for me to give thanks?
Ta-chan: I am Ta-chan, protecting the peace of the jungle. That was an ordinary thing…that is all.
Girl: Ah, hold on Ta-chan!
Girl: Ca…can’t you meet with me tonight? I’ll be waiting at a nearby camp.
Girl: I want to thank you with all my might with what can be done by me. (I’m still a virgin…)
SFX: Muzu muzu muzu
Caption: Worms of unfaithfulness
(TN: I thought for some reason that there was a literal name for those worms, but it’s just in connection to the term “uwaki no mushi” or “uwakimushi”, only literally with worms showing Ta-chan’s potential unfaithfulness to Jane…then again it’s obvious why)

11.
SFX: Kucha bicha bicha kucha kucha gucha gucha musha musha
“Girl”: I’LL THANK YOU WITH ALL MY MIGHT WITH WHAT CAN BE DONE BY ME……
SFX: Muzu muzu muzu
Jane: So don’t do it.
Caption: To be continued.

12.
THIS IS THE 7 POWERS OF TA-CHAN!!
1. His eyes are greater than an owl
2. His head is smarter than a chimpanzee.
3. He’s calmer than a Japanese monkey
4. His arm-strength is stronger than a gorilla.
5. His heart is stronger than a hippo.
6. His legs are faster than a cheetah.
7. Its mating season all year round.
SFX: Kui kui kui

TN: So...um...yeah, welcome to my new WSJ translation project: the late 80s/early 90s action/comedy/WTF epic known as "Jungle no Ouja Ta-chan". I really have a hard time saying anything to start out because...well, look at what we're starting with! This series is just one of the weirder things that I've done...and I've done Bo-bobo. It's not weird per-se in a bizarre manner at this point, more because...well, it feels more like a seinen gag manga than something more appropriate for shonen. Well it's not as "adult" as the other series that shall not be named at this time (grumbles somethings under breath that sounds like "Desire"), but considering this is a guy who runs around with a loincloth (and isn't shy about showing it off) and has a wife that was once beautiful but who is now short, fat and hungry...well, you have to start somewhere, I guess.

But before you just throw this away and say "well Ataru's doing another series that doesn't matter to me that is going to go nowhere and is just WTF-ery", just listen to me for a bit. Honestly, this series wasn't even on my schedule when I plotted it out for what to do after I finished some other stuff originally, but a friend on the web pointed out that they had it and...being the WSJ historian I am, I decided to look it over. As strange as this series gets, it is still a fun-looking series with a lot of memorable characters. And...in a weird way, it actually has some things that I actually prefer and find interesting in manga. For one thing, the series eventually will become a more action-based one as Jump series tend to do. Sure...it will take over a hundred chapters to get to that point (which is two years in Jump time), but when it does...not only does it work incredibly well, but it does something a lot of other originally comedy-based series tend to do: it stays fun. As badass and awesome as the characters could get, there are still a lot of comedy and WTF moments even in the action part of Ta-chan that prevent it from losing a lot of it's humor like...well, most Jump series that become action-based. Another reason I wanted to do this series is I sort of have heard things about Tokuhiro and have always wanted to do one of his Jump series. Actually I sort of wish I was doing his first Jump hit, the comedy "Shape Up Ran" (a comedy about a bodybuilding girl) first, but Ta-chan is more notable and available compared to that, not to mention it had an anime and appeared in Jump Ultimate Stars.

But probably one of the most unexpected reasons as to why I want to do Ta-chan so badly at this point is one that sort of gets lost or forgotten amidst the history and the things people read and see about Jump. You see, even in this first chapter, there are certain strange things that you notice about the series: the cartooniness, the obsession with anatomy, the busty beautiful girls...and the animals. Tokuhiro has a love of all of them and brings them all into Ta-chan, particularly his description and revelation of all sorts of the animals of Africa and beyond (because what Tarzan tale would be complete without animals?) Well...a few years down the line, Tokuhiro will eventually take an assistant who would help him on Ta-chan. This assistant also has a strange cartoony style and will gain a lot of pointers from what he learns while with Tokuhiro: about anatomy, busty girls, and even animals. And while this assistant would more be well known as the assistant of another, more famous mangaka, he would eventually take his former master Tokuhiro's concepts and styles and use them in a major series which would revolutionize modern Jump. And the name of that assistant: some guy called Eiichiro Oda...

Now OK, I'm not saying Ta-chan and One Piece are blood brothers, but this is sort of another reason why I want to do Ta-chan: considering that Oda did learn from Tokuhiro, I want to show or reveal what Tokuhiro knew that Oda learned along the way. Oda obviously didn't learn everything about the craft from him, but somehow as Ta-chan goes on, I hope we get a few hints as to what the kid who would change the world learn from...well, drawing fat old Jane and Ta-chan's wiener.

So...um, yeah, that's it for this chapter. Sort of not too much to say here outside "WTF" at certain moments (and the whole silly gag of the girl wanting to give herself to Ta-chan...and Jane getting lunch from it), but hopefully there will be more to talk about as the series develops. I just hope not too many people kill me for my choices in manga to translate...