A Girl And Her Bear
Pyrénée is a 1998 French graphic novel by Régis Loisel and Philippe Sternis. It is a French Gender Flipped re-telling of The Jungle Book.
When an earthquake destroys a small town in the French Pyrenees, a bear escapes from a nearby circus and finds a small girl whose mother died in the quake.
The bear takes the girl up into the mountains, where, with the help of a blind old eagle, he raises the girl as if she were his own child, naming her Pyrénée.
This graphic novel contains examples of:
- Barbie Doll Anatomy: Pyrénée is completely nude for most of the book, but while she has nipples, she does not have visible genitalia.
- Beary Friendly: A circus bear returned to the wild and adopted an orphan human girl, raising her as his own cub.
- Beary Funny: The bear is mostly seen as a big furry dope, but there's one scene where he and Pyrénée get into a serious argument and he only just manages to hold back from killing her.
- Cave Behind the Falls: Pyrénée spends some time living with a wise old eagle in a cave behind a waterfall. The cave was once occupied by a human hermit, who left behind a cache of tinned food and some other interesting artifacts.
- Conveniently an Orphan: Pyrénée's mother dies in the same earthquake that enables the bear to escape from the circus, meaning that nobody is looking for Pyrénée when the bear takes her up into the mountains.
- Exposed to the Elements: Subverted. Pyrénée grew up without clothes so she's used to the relative cold of a mountain environment and is not bothered by it. The winter however proves much too cold for her, so she logically dons some warm clothing.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: Discussed. When Pyrénée puts a collar on the bear, he is absolutely enraged by it, not in small part because to him, that's just such a specifically human thing to do.
- Innocent Fanservice Girl: Pyrénée spends most of the graphic novel completely nude. At one point, she dons a fur coat and boots in order to survive the winter, but she gets rid of them as soon as she can.
- Line-of-Sight Name: Kind of. The Bear named Pyrénée after the mountain range where they live, which is technically always within line of sight.
- Parental Abandonment: Pyrénée is raised by a bear after her mother dies in an earthquake.
- Raised by Wolves: Pyrénée is raised by a bear and an old blind eagle.
- Scary Stinging Swarm: Pyrénée is chased into a stream by a swarm of bees when she tries to collect some honey for the bear who's raising her. She gets very badly stung since she doesn't even have clothes to protect her, but later rolls in some herbs to reduce the swelling.
- Waterfall Shower: Some publicity artwork shows Pyrénée showering beneath waterfalls. Not intended as Fanservice, because she's too young.
- Wild Child: The titular character grows up with no contact with human civilization.
- Wild Hair: Nude Pyrénée has voluminous waist-length red hair.
