Jungle no Ouja Taa-chan 3

She's Ta-chan beloved (but chubby) life partner, but how in the world did Jane even find herself meeting and falling for the jungle king in the first place?

No. 3: Jane’s Past

21.
SFX: Kucha kucha musha musha
Narrator: Ta-chan’s wife, Jane, was long ago the super-foremost top model in New York.
Jane: I got fat.
SFX: Kusha kusha
Jane: I was active in Penthouse.
SFX: Kusha
Jane: And in Playboy.
(TN: These two magazines probably are well known to all the readers but for those who don’t know what they are:
-Penthouse Magazine is a men’s magazine notable initially for softcore pornography when established in the UK in 1965 before being brought over by founder Bob Guccione in 1969 to the US. The magazine usually treaded on the line between soft and hard-core images compared to its two major rivals, Playboy and Hustler, but by the time of this issue in 1988, it was still considered softer but with full depiction of female genitalia. For a time between 1998 and 2005, the magazine did have hardcore acts, but is back to softcore)
-Playboy Magazine is considered as one of the biggest and most notable pornographic magazines when founded by Hugh Hefner in 1953. Though notable for its softcore porn, it also has a long history of other notable content including short stories by many of the great writers of the eras)

22.
Narrator: Further, she appeared on the front cover of the foremost magazines overseas.
Narrator: In England
Narrator: In France
Narrator: In China
Narrator: In Japan.
Editor: We have no reason we’d do—that!!
Tokuhiro: We’d co—me to sell more if we did.
(TN: This bizarre joke for the most part seems to reflect the image of Weekly Shonen Jump than it more reflects shonen manga magazines in general. Unlike rivals like Shonen Magazine or Shonen Sunday, who have pictorials of beautiful females within them, Jump never uses females to sell its magazines. Then again…since they’re shonen magazines, it’s not like any of them would actively display full frontal nudity on store shelves anyway. Incidentally, I really don’t know if any of those other magazines…well aside from Jump, exists)

23.
SFX: Kasha
Narrator: So what sort of chance would this woman get to know Ta-chan…
Photographer: Jane, can you go to Africa for some gravure photographs for Playboy this time?
Jane: Wow—that’s dreamy Robert. I haven’t gone to Africa yet.
Caption: Africa
Jane: Robert, this is wonderful. It’s like my heart has gone back to when I was a girl among Mother Nature.
Robert: That’s good. Let me introduce you: this is a local man who will carry the luggage for the film unit and we’re employing as a guide.
Robert: It’s just a little bit, but he does seem to understand words—
Jane: Nice to meet you.

24.
Robert: Hey you, hold on to Jane’s handbag as well.
Jane: That’s not particularly fine. Since he’s carrying those bags himself, isn’t both of his hands already full?
Jane: Just a moment: give me back my bags. I’m not going to suspend it in that place and we shouldn’t come to have him serve us!
Robert: Return the bag. You lack the common sense in hanging it in that place.
Ta-chan: Hmm hmm
Jane: Where did he understand those words!!
Caption: Tightly

25.
Robert: Oh, that’s good. Don’t follow that there are lions behind you. It’ll be fine because they mostly don’t attack humans.
Robert: Good, that’s it.
Jane: But, Robert, they’re coming closer. Is this really alright?

26.
Caption: Self-timer—
SFX: Jii~~~~~~~
Jane: Kya—someone save me!!
Ta-chan: AAAAAAAH

27.
Narrator: And so the two fell in love.
Caption: Present
Jane: Well, I’m wearing my outfit from long ago. It makes me sex-----y.
Caption: European Rabbit
(TN: The “European Rabbit” (Oryctolagus cuniculus) is a rabbit originally of Spain and Portugal (where it is now near-threatened) but has found niches in many other parts of the world, most infamously in it’s massive conquering of Australia from 24 in the 1850s to 600 million over a century later. It is also known as the rabbit used for pets)
Narrator: A tale of long ago.

28.
Me and Animals: #2

When I was in grade school, I bought a pinkish yellow chicken at a night shop and when I raised it, it became a large-crested rooster.
One night, father cooked the chicken and put it in a pot.
It was delicious.
It’s pitiful that we have to kill living creatures, but even pigs and cows are animals that we eat!!

Tokuhiro: When this came to be two stages, no-one spoke of it as pitiful. It’s strange—

Caption 1: Its head’s been chopped off and it’s blood taken out.
Caption 2: When placing in a hot place, you pluck out the feathers to make it interesting.

TN: I have to say this: even if it had nothing to do with the story, the whole chapter was made with Tokuhiro's editor screaming at him for putting "nude Jane on the cover of Jump"...and his response of "well won't it get more customers"? As strange as this series gets, it still has a unique sense of humor that is really funny once you get past all the weird erection jokes. (though the fact that Ta-chan wanted to hold Jane's bag with it was...well almost funny) And let me just say this: Jane really was a looker back in the day and I sort of do wish there was a way she could regain that...but somehow she's happier fat...and by Ta-chan's side. We may not like it but...I think Jane just likes all the free food the jungle offers more than her looks.