Jungle Book Shōnen Mowgli

Jungle Book Shōnen Mowgli (ジャングルブック　少年モーグリ, Janguru Bukku Shōnen Mōguri^?) is an anime adaption of Rudyard Kipling's original collection of stories, The Jungle Book. It aired in 1989, and consists of a total of 52 episodes.

Music

The Japanese opening and closing themes, "Get UP ~Aio Shinjite~ (Get UP ~I Believe in Love~)" and "Chikyuu No Ko (地球の子 lit. "Child of the Earth") are sung by the Japanese vocalists Toshiya Igarashi and Shiori Hashimoto respectively. The French version features similar opening and closing themes.

The English opening and closing themes, "Wake Up" and "A Child is learning, " are both sung by the American vocalist Suzi Marsh. The anime was dubbed into Hindi and was broadcast as "The Jungle Book" by DD National in India during the 1990's.

The Hindi version "Jungle Jungle Baat Chali Hai" (जंगल जंगल बात चली है), featured original music by Vishal Bharadwaj (with words by noted lyricist Gulzar), and also one of the singers of the title song "Jungle Jungle Baat Chali Hai" was Amol Sahdev, which made it quite popular at that time.

Languages

These are the Japanese and English versions of The Jungle Book: The Adventures of Mowgli (Janguru Bukk Mowgli/Shōnen Mowgli)

• English: The Jungle Book: The Adventures of Mowgli
• French: Mowgli: Le Livre de la Jungle
• Danish: Junglebogen
• Dutch: Mowgli: Jungle Boek
• Finnish: Mowgli: Viidakkokirja
• German: Das Dschungelbuch - Die Serie
• Greek: Το Παιδί της Ζούγκλας
• Tamil: Jungle Book (ஜங்கிள் புக்)
• Hindi: The Jungle Book (जंगल की कहानी )
• Malayalam: Jungle Book (ജംഗില്‍ ബുക്ക് )
• Norwegian: Mowgli
• Polish: Mowgli: Ksiega Dzungli
• Hungarian: A dzsungel könyve
• Spanish: Mowgli: El libro de la selva
• Swedish: Mowgli: Djungelboken
• Telugu: Mowgli
• Arabic: ماوكلي فتى الأدغال
• Bengali: বাঙ্গালী

Characters

• Mowgli: The protagonist of the series. He is still a young boy when he becomes lost in the forest of Seeonee. He lost his biological parents when they went out searching for him and fell to their deaths from a cliff, and into a river, after a panther named Bagheera unintentionally frightens them. Alexander, adopts him as a son and raises him as a wolf. Mowgli appears to be somewhere between the ages of 6 and 10 during the course of the show, though the first episode shows him as a toddler. He's an adventurous, fun-loving, outgoing boy. But he also goes through a sort of identity crisis, struggling to figure out just what he really is and where he really belongs.
• Alexander: Mowgli's stepfather, Luri's husband and paternal father to Akru and Sura. Blue/black furred. He becomes leader of the wolf pack when Akela chooses to retire. He has a fight with Vermillion, despite not being willing to do so, to determine the successor to Akela's leadership, in accordance with the Law of the Jungle. During a fire that grazes the forest, Alexander dies defending his pack from Shere Khan.
• Luri: Alexander's wife/widow, Mowgli's stepmother and maternal mother to Akru and Sura. Beige furred. She later becomes the official new leader of the pack and the first female leader of the pack when Akela steps down from his position once again, after originally asking Mowgli to convince Vermillion if he'd accept the request of leading. She came up with the plan of getting an ex-member of the pack named Grizzle exiled from it again, this time along with his gang, without having to battle.
• Akru and Sura:Sons of Alexander and Luri and Mowgli's adoptive brothers. Akru has brown and beige fur, while Sura's is blue and black, like his father. They are only cubs when Mowgli is first adopted by the wolf couple but are fully grown in subsequent episodes. They are both very close to Mowgli and stay that way throughout the series, even after they leave home and find mates. Akru has a tendency to be hot headed and does not always look before he leaps, whereas Sura tends to be calmer and more collective.
• Akela: The leader of the pack, notably when Mowgli is first adopted into the pack and during most of Mowgli's younger days. His coat is mostly a dark, bluish-grey hue. He is very old but very knowledgeable, and is forced out of his retirement after Alexander died. Near the series' finale, Akela would pass on himself from natural causes.
• Vermillion: Lala's father and Alexander's great friend. He competes with Alexander to be the next leader of the pack, when his father, Akela, chooses to step down. He acquires a scar on his left eye afterwards. His fur is red in colour. It is later revealed that they had also fought previously to decide which one would marry Luri. He later moves away, apparently leaving his daughter behind, and becomes the leader of a pack of wolves in a rocky desert area.

• Shere Khan: A tiger, who is the main antagonist of much of the series. Cruel and cunning, rebellious and menacing, he violates many Laws of the Jungle, including eating humans and cows, and over-hunting. He's also fearless of most things, except that he's a pyrophobe (or one who fears fire),he's frightened by guns and he withdraws when it comes to an elephant named Hathi. His loathsome for humans is part of a history that goes back to his first ancestor's encounter with one. The injury on his leg is dealt by Alexander in a fight. Later, other injuries he'd receive include: A piercing being made in his forehead after Mowgli attacks him with a long, narrow, sharp-edged rock; the wound over his left eye being made, again by Mowgli, slashing it with a blade in requital for slashing Mowgli's left thigh and harming one of his new human friends/future family members, leaving the tiger disfigured; and in the last showdown, Mowgli defeats and slays Shere Khan by stabbing him in one of his sides.
• Bagheera: A black panther, and one of Mowgli's friends. Mowgli's main teacher of the Laws of the Jungle.He is seen as a de facto member of Mowgli's wolf pack. Bagheera spent part of his childhood in the care of an English family.
• Baloo: A dark blue sloth bear, and one of Mowgli's friends. He also serves as one of Mowgli's teachers though he is more enthusiastic and has a gentler approach in some of his lessons.
• Kaa: A very wise python, and one of Mowgli's friends. He also serves as a teacher to Mowgli on a few occasions.
• Tabaqui: Shere Khan's sidekick. Unlike the other versions of Jungle Book, he is a bungling jackal who never seems to get anything right. He's also notorious for being idle, greedy, incompetent, conniving, dimwitted, dastardly and chatty. Later, he and another jackal (or hyena) meet their demises when Mowgli and Shere Khan go against each other once more, and both jackals are lethally gored by water buffaloes.
• Bacchus: A fat wolf who can never hunt properly. He is more fitted to babysitting the wolf cubs. He appears more often in the first half of the series, and is occasionally used for comic relief. He is mentioned later on however, when everyone was discussing the topic of a new leader (one of the wolves said Bacchus should lead the pack, much to some of the other wolves' dismay).
• Fargas: An old wolf who was saved by Alexander from a pack of wild dogs. His fur is pale blue (or fully white). He steals food from the pack's storage in his first few appearances.
• Lala: Vermillion's daughter and Akela's granddaughter. She has brilliant red fur, though slightly lighter than her father's. She acts like a tomboy early in the series, and refuses to accept Mowgli as a member of the pack. Later in the series, she grows to her teens and is revealed to be more fond of Mowgli. By the end of the series, she and Sura are the parents of two cubs.
• Kichi: Mowgli's red panda friend. Her parents are killed by humans. After Mowgli accuses Kichi of causing trouble (which she/he unintentionally does) and being a nuisance, she/he has a harder time fitting in with the new crowd due to already being an outsider and decides to get on the wrong foot. But her/his friendship with Mowgli would be put to the test when they're prompted to work together. Later in the series she lives together with Mowgli in his hut. In the English version, Kichi is referred to as a male. In the German version, Kichi is called Kiki.
• Linda: A benevolent English girl (although in the American dub, neither her nor her dad sound like they're English) who adopts a cub Bagheera and keeps as a pet. Bagheera tells Mowgli a story about her and we meet her through flashback sequences. She has a love for not just any animal, but him especially it seems. She also seems to have a grand understanding of animals through some connection. When her father attempts to whip Bagheera while Linda gives the cat milk, she defends him by shielding him and is slightly injured when he accidentally whips her instead, when she gets in the way. When her father confronts her and Bagheera again and tries shooting him, Linda makes another attempt to protect him by letting him out of his cage and setting him free. As he escapes to safety, she blocks the gunfire and takes the hits. She is shot; her exact fate, unknown, as Bagheera never found out if she survived or not.
• Linda's Father: A selfish, malevolent and commercially-minded game hunter who is only out for his own personal gain, determined to claim Bagheera as his prize and constantly stops at nothing to get him. He always mistreats the feline sadistically if and when disobedient, like when Bagheera wouldn't eat the meat that was presented to him. But after several attempts, they're always thwarted by his daughter, who incessantly interferes with his goal, until she sacrifices herself and is hit by the gunshots.
• Bougi/Rahhar: Meshua/Jumeirah's maternal grandfather and Mari's father who Mowgli meets before meeting his granddaughter, daughter and son-in-law. He meets Mowgli when he comes across a trap/hole in which Mowgli fell. Mowgli isn't sure whether he can trust him at first because of all the stories and reputation about humans, and their history with animals, but comes to accepting Bougi's offer to help when he heals him and gives him food. He turns out to be genuinely kind-hearted. Bougi is later slashed in the back by Shere Khan, defending Mowgli and Meshua from the tiger but eventually recovers and survives. Bougi's name in the English adaptation is Rahhar.
• Mari/Meshua: Meshua/Jumeirah's mother, Bougi/Anwar's daughter and Nil/ Sanjay's wife. When the family first meet Mowgli, Mari mistakes Mowgli for her son, but despite the fact that it's not really him, she still treats him as if he were one of her own and he grows on her instantly. She comes to love Mowgli so much so that she desperately wishes and prefers that he not take on Shere Khan. Ironically, her name is changed to Meshua (which was Jumeirah's original name in the Japanese variant) for the English dub.
• Nil/Sanjay: Meshua/Jumeirah's father, Mari/Meshua's husband and Bougi/Anwar's son-in-law. Like the other family members, he eats up Mowgli right away. When the family is kidnapped and held captive, Mowgli rescues them and helps them escape, one way of which is by saving them from the other villagers and he has his animal friends guide them to another town when the animals destroy the residents' homes. Later, in the middle of their trek, Nil succumbs to pneumonia. Nil is renamed Sanjay in the English translation.
• Meshua/Jumeirah: A girl to whom Mowgli takes a liking late in the series. She has a pet mongoose named Rikki Tikki, in honour of Rikki Tikki Tavi in one of the short stories in The Jungle Book. Her grandfather originally found Mowgli when the boy was on his own from his wolf pack, saying the boy reminded him of his grandson. Though Mowgli chooses to remain in the jungle at this time, he does meet his human friend later, along with Meshua. Meshua's family later adopt Mowgli into their family as their new son, since their other son had died. Her name is Jumeirah in the English version.
• Chill: A falcon (or kite) who served as the messenger for Akela's pack and Hati, the great elephant.
• Hati/Hathi: The great elephant, who serves as the ruler of the whole forest of Seeonee.
• Sandah/Thunder: A young male wolf from Vermillion's pack. He is blue-black in colour. Sandah hates the humans after they killed his sister, Dulia and resents Mowgli for being a human. He eventually comes to terms with him, and even though he leaves with Vermillion and his pack, he and Mowgli appear to share a close camaraderie. Sandah seems to be a lieutenant, or beta wolf, to Vermillion. Certain translations portray him as female.
• Grizzle/Bunto: A wolf with beige (or grey, as he appears in some scenes) fur and a dark brown blotch around his left eye, a baddie and former member of Akela's pack. He has the distinction of being the only wolf in the series with any markings on his face and is also missing a large portion of his left ear. He was once a good wolf who had gone bad and got kicked out years ago for not abiding by the law of the jungle, which has since made him bitter as a result, and turned to the dark side after meeting Shere Khan, who put him up to getting revenge for his banishment. Grizzle was the leader of a gang and accompanied by two other lupines, who were also his henchmen. Later, after a battle with Mowgli's friends and some of the other wolves, Grizzle is slain by Mowgli, who stabs him in the jugular with a stone-knife. Bunto is Grizzle's name in the Japanese and German versions.
• Louis/Alba: A monkey largely covered with white fur (except for his face, hands and feet), the leader of the other monkeys (who are mostly covered with apricot or peach-colored fur) and the principal lackey/tipster to Shere Khan. They also work for the tiger. Louis and the other monkeys constantly wreak havoc in the jungle and heckle the denizens. After Louis convinces and lures Mowgli away by telling him that he knows of a place where he can take him to learn more about the boy's kind, he and the other monkeys formed links or chains and carried Mowgli across the jungle to a temple (also known as "The Cold Lair"), where the boy learns about it having once been occupied by humans and how they showed their negative side, and qualities, when it came to greed for treasure, as they searched for it in the edifice. Some also tricked Kichi into playing with them as an attempt to draw her/him into Shere Khan's clutches, and the monkeys also bother Mowgli again when the wolves act coldly towards him, and later destroy his hut. He, along with several, other monkeys, harass Mowgli and demolish his hut under the order of Shere Khan. He is eventually caught and confronted by Mowgli, Bagheera, Baloo and Kaa, who warns him to put an end to that and turn down any other instructions Shere Khan may give him. Louis is known as Alba in the English dub.
• Kim/Dusty & Sargah/Jocko: Two wolves whom end up in league with Grizzle and his cronies. The two decide to overthrow Akela so Jocko himself can become leader of the pack. They are father and son, Jocko being the parent, who has a dark blue/light blue hue, and Dusty is his offspring, who is dark grey/beige. Being wide-eyed (literally and figuratively), both are also credulous. Jocko isn't very courageous, he's rather skittish and nebbishy (Dusty also seems to get his usual deportment from him apparently). In the Japanese version, their names were originally Kim & Sargah.
• Maki: An orange, female wolf and Akru's mate. Maki is a great singer and, at one point, she's seen giving singing lessons to Akru. She is a minor character and appears late in the series.
• Buldio: A man from the village and another baddie in the series who always tells tall tales about his supposed encounters with the jungle animals. After one story involving the tiger Shere Khan that he tells the other villagers, Mowgli begs to differ and refutes it when he sets out, and attempts to have the final showdown with Shere Khan. After Mowgli slays Shere Khan and returns to the village with the tiger skin, Buldio convinces the other villagers that Mowgli is a sorcerer. Especially after Buldio and some other men, and boys, observe his ability to call his animal friends seemingly through the will of magic and they turn against Mowgli (except for his newfound, adoptive, human family). Later, when the village is attacked by the animals, Buldio tries so shoot Bagheera, Sura and Akru. Mowgli then grabs Buldio's rifle as Buldio pleads: "Don't hurt me!" Mowgli then breaks the rifle scaring Buldio out of the jungle forever. After that, Buldio is not seen again, but is mentioned by some villagers, stating that they were "all under Buldio's evil influence". It is presumed that he either left the jungle, or died in the jungle.
• Buldio's Grandson: A boy who, along with several, other boys, pick on Mowgli being the new kid in the village and there are rumors going around about the jungle boy being under some kind of spell. He gets his malevolence from his granddad and joins him and other men, and boys, in searching for the jungle creatures, especially Shere Khan, as well as partaking in the kidnapping of Anwar, Sanjay, Meshua, and Jumeirah. His name in the English version is Ganshum.
• Abdullah: A villager who bands with Buldio, Riswan and several others to hunt down the jungle animals. Later, they kidnap Mowgli's adoptive, human family and take siege of the village. Abdullah was last seen fleeing from the village when the animals came and destroyed the villagers' homes (and was seen apparently getting lightly gored by a buffalo).
• Rizwan/Gallo:Buldio's friend and another man from the village who'd later cross paths with Mowgli the second time. He convinces Mowgli to let bygones be bygones for what he tried to pull on him earlier and invite him to have some food and a drink, without any need to heed cautious suspicion. But it turns out to be a trick, as Riswan laced Mowgli's drink with sleeping powder and Riswan, and two other men plan to sell Mowgli to a circus. His name is Gallo in the German version, but it's uncertain whether it's the same in the Japanese version as well.
• John J. Hargreeves: The white, English owner of the Bombay circus to whom Riswan sells Mowgli. Mowgli hatches his plan for escape to get passed them, as he outwits Mr. Hargreeves and his two hounds, and battles them on his way to freedom.

Voice Cast

Japanese seiyū:

• Urara Takano- Mowgli
• Banjou Ginga-Baloo
• Hiroya Ishimaru-Bagheera
• Issei Futamata-Tabaqui
• Mari Yokoo-Luri
• Masaru Ikeda-Alexander
• Miki Itou-Kichi
• Shigezou Sasaoka-Shere Khan
• Youko Matsuoka-Akru
• Yuusaku Yara-Vermillion
• Yuzuru Fujimoto-Akela
• Ai Orikassa-Lala
• Akiko Yajima-Meshua (a.k.a. Jumeirah)
• Akio Ohtsuka-Sandah
• Asami Mukaidono-Baloo's mother
• Bin Shimada-Nil (a.k.a. Sanjay)
• Daisuke Gouri-Hathi
• Eken Mine-Boggy
• Hideyuki Umezu-Dusty
• Ikuya Sawaki-Chill/Linda's Father
• Kazue Ikura-Kichi's mother
• Keaton Yamada-Kaa
• Kenichi Ogata-Buldio
• Masahiro Anzai-Bacchus
• Masashi Hirose-Tha
• Michihiro Ikemizu-Mowgli's father
• Naoko Watanabe-Linda
• Norio Iwanoto-Bunt (a.k.a. Grizzle)
• Ryuuji Saikachi-Fargas
• Shigeru Nakahara-Sura
• Tomoko Numakata-Mowgli's mother
• You Yoshimura-Log
• Yuko Sasaki-Sally

English:

• Julian Bailey-Mowgli
• A.J. Henderson-Baloo
• Arthur Grosser-Bagheera
• Pauline Little-Lala
• Sonja Ball-Sura
• Suzanne Glover-Kichi
• Terrence Scammell-Tabaqui
• Walter Massey-Akela/Mowgli's father

VHS & DVD Releases

In 1990, Strand VCI Entertainment released only the first ten episodes separately on VHS under the title of "The Jungle Book". They were distributed by Nippon Video. They are now out-of-print. However, under its original title, the show has been released as a couple of DVD box sets of the entire series in its country of origin, Japan, and as select individual episodes on four DVDs (two episodes per DVD) in Australia. In India, the entire series has been released as an eight volume DVD box set in English and Hindi separately by Eagle Home Entertainment. An Italian version was released on DVD on June 16 2008. These are the few international nations (probably as far as they are known to date) in which the series has been brought to DVD. Currently there are no plans for a DVD release in America.

Titles on VHS in America included:

• 01. Mowgli Comes To The Jungle
• 02. Mowgli Comes To The Jungle-The Adventure Continues
• 03. Alexander's Son
• 04. More Important Than The Law Of The Jungle
• 05. A New Friend
• 06. Kichi Is Alone
• 07. A Cold Fang
• 08. Sorry, Baloo!
• 09. An Old Wolf's Visit
• 10. A Devil In Mind

Titles released on DVD in Australia include:

Volume 1: Mowgli Is Born/ Mowgli Goes Hunting

Volume 2: Mowgli's Journey/ A Trip Of Adventure

Volume 3: A Cold Fang/ Sorry, Baloo!

Volume 4: Return Of The Brave/ Chilly Woods

Notes

See also

List of Jungle Book Shōnen Mowgli episodes

for Spanish and Spanish Latin enters Web-http://ellibrodelaselvashonenmowgli.es.tl/El-Libro-de-la-Selva-Shonen-Mowgli.htm

External links

• Jungle Book Shōnen Mowgli at the Internet Movie Database
• Jungle Book Shōnen Mowgli (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia