#the moonlight mask | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

2001hz · 11 months

Text

Shuji Terayama: 'the moonlight mask', a study of different cases of transformation (1978) ph. yasukini iida

#shuji terayama #shuji terayama archive #the moonlight mask #1978 #makeup #popii hana #black and white #photography #yasukini iida #avant garde #japan

774 notes · View notes

chernobog13 · 7 months

Text

#Monster Chiller Horror Theatre #Count Floyd #Second City #SCTV #Mammoth Kong #kaiju #Moonlight Mask #Gekko Kamen #tokusatsu #monbster #Hallowe'en #Halloween

185 notes · View notes

jorgeburgos8 · 4 months

Text

Finishing my research in Kitakami, I was exploring the mountains… when I came across something that made my blood run cold.

#digitalart #digital #digital drawing #digital art #poke lab #pokemon #professor #pokemon professor #bloodmoon ursaluna #bloodmoon #red moon #moonlight #night #forest #mountain}#mist #fan art #kitakami #teal mask

50 notes · View notes

wardevilwins · 7 months

Text

There Is No Such Thing As Justice With Chainsaw Man

正義の味方: the Ally of Justice. This is a concept that runs through Japanese hero stories, from cop dramas to Kamen Rider and now to Chainsaw Man. It begins in 1958 with the mysterious figure of Moonlight Mask.

Moonlight Mask (月光仮面) is Japan’s first Superhero Tokusatsu (practical effects based film such as Ultraman, Kamen Rider, Godzilla, etc.) The series follows a simple formula, one of the “Skull Masks,” a group of international spies that wears well…skull masks, will be running some evil scheme in their effort to acquire the “Joe-engine Bomb,” a secret weapon developed by Japanese scientists.

When the Skull Masks’ villainous ways put innocents in danger, there appears the masked man, Ally of Justice, Moonlight Mask, riding on his motorcycle, with automatic pistol in hand. He only shoots to disarm, never to kill, forgives his enemies and never takes a life. He uses his superhuman (?) strength to protect the weak.

One interesting aspect of Moonlight Mask is that no one, not even the audience, has the hero’s hidden identity confirmed. It is implied through the storytelling that the great detective Juurou and Moonlight are one and the same, but even the credits don’t reveal his identity: Moonlight, played by “?”

This concept of Justice — a faceless, benevolent protector — is the foundation of Japanese super hero stories. You can see its influence in the Kamen Rider, Super Sentai and Sailor Moon, and you can see it’s negation in Chainsaw Man.

Denji is notable amongst Shonen heroes for his unclear ethics. More than his unfiltered sexuality, his lack of education or his meager material conditions, this is what makes him especially relatable.

Other heroes in the Moonlight Mask tradition are driven by a particular sense of morality, of Justice, and they act to protect that idea of what is right and wrong. But the rules they are bound by exist beyond the law and order of civil society. Moonlight Mask never kills, not because killing is illegal, but because it is wrong. His motto: “Don’t hate, don’t kill, forgive.”

Denji does not have a meaningful code. Nor does he have a particularly meaningful dream. His goals are mundane and his morality is common. He doesn’t want to hurt people, he doesn’t want to let them die, and he is kind. But this isn’t motivated by a coherent philosophy. And it doesn’t spur him to action. It is, if anything, a point of confusion.

This makes Denji realistic, because individuals rarely have a coherent ethical system by which they evaluate their choices. People make the choices that they do because of who they are, whether those choices are coherent or not. Choices aren’t computations or evaluations, they are the endpoints of a story.

This is Fujimoto’s brand of existentialism, not unlike Kierkegaard’s, but with less freedom. Denji creates the meaning of his existence from what he sees around him — he decides his own dreams — but this doesn’t grant him the sublime freedom to take a leap of faith. Rather, it is an act of necessity, something that you cannot help but do. You need to dream to keep moving forward.

Ethics, then, is not a dispassionate evaluation, but an encounter between a person’s intrinsic drive for a better life and the reality of the world. Regardless of choices being right or wrong, people still do what they do for reasons rooted in the life they have lived. This is the reality of how choices are made, rather than an ideal designed for passing judgement.

On the contrary, the villains in Chainsaw Man are exactly those people who believe that they can pass judgement. The Allies of Justice are not heroes who protect the weak, they are villains who use their moral code to justify selfish action. And that is the root of evil: they are dishonest with their selfish life.

Yuko is an example of this. Yuko wants to save Asa because she wants to be seen as a hero, like Chainsaw Man, but she justifies it by casting herself as an Ally of Justice, a protector of the weak, like Moonlight Mask. Unlike Moonlight Mask, she doesn’t follow some abstract code. Her inflated ego leads her to justify violence, and ultimately transforms her into a devil.

Asa, on the other hand, is genuinely selfish in her actions. She makes choices based on what she wants to be right, regardless of the outcome. She doesn’t hide her selfish intent behind a moral excuse; she is selfishly moral: she acts as she wants the world to be, rather than giving in to what it is.

This is closer to Kierkegaard, but again, there is no faith. Asa doesn’t have to believe the world is good. This is the selfish aspect. She decides what the good choice is based on her moral intuition, then tries to make that real, even if it is a risk. This is Fujimoto’s heroism: the bravery to be wrong.

This Justice, this heroism, is consistent but dependent. It’s not the same as relativism because Yuko was wrong. She wasn’t being honest with her dreams. She was selfish, but not living selfishly.

This is why there is no Justice with Chainsaw Man. Because what is right isn’t about an abstract Justice which you defend. The hero isn’t a faceless detective, stripped of his name, who appears from the shadows the save you from a similarly faceless evil. The hero is just a kid, just some girl, just a person who has lived a life which has led to a moment, and in that moment makes a choice, adds to their story.

Chainsaw Man isn’t a story with Justice, it is a story about Justice. A story about how Justice is created in the search for happiness. And right now, Denji has lost his drive. He has lost sight of who he wants to be — which is good to some degree, as he l still clings to sexual impulse — but has yet to discover what good he wants to create, what he wants to believe the world should be.

There is No Justice With Chainsaw Man

Yet.

#chainsaw man #denji #justice #analysis #tokusatsu #moonlight mask #Yuko #Asa #ethics #morality #existentialism

64 notes · View notes

sailorsenshigifs · 2 years

Text

613 notes · View notes

lauronk · 3 months

Text

can i make a fic about jellyfish just as long as a fic about plants?

well i'm sure as shit gonna try

#jelly fic #still doesn't have an actual title yet #this one is like tlou with a sprinkling of stardew valley #dance of the moonlight jellies #all these words and there's been mentions of jellies but no actual jellies yet #maybe in another 2k words or so #this one might be out by the weekend #because my weekend plans just fell through bc my partner got the rona again so when i'm not at work i'm stuck at home #wearing a mask at the computer while he is locked in our spare room because i'm showing as negative #tl;dr i have lots of writing time now and i intend to put it to good use #gonna finish jelly fic #gonna work on what the original jelly fic was but now is a fic of its own #gonna work on bus fic part 5 #on the road again (there i go)#gonna do some more brainstorming for bthb #just so many things to do #i'll shut up in the tags now though #night night #the last of us fanfiction #tlou fanfiction #joel and ellie #fanfic struggles

20 notes · View notes

emsartwork · 1 year

Photo

super loved @drops-of-moonlights glissandix so i wanted to take a stab at it with my winx-sona! two color variations becuase i couldn’t decide heehee

#yes i stole the mask and hair from kda akali in that one lol music video it was too good to pass up #drops-of-moonlights #glissandix #winxsona #winx oc #idk if this would super fit in to drops' au but i tried haha #winxems #sort of

123 notes · View notes

zponds · 11 months

Text

#sailor moon #bishoujo senshi sailor moon #sailor moon anime #sailor moon classic #sailor moon r #pretty guardian sailor moon #moonlight knight #tuxedo mask #mamoru chiba

34 notes · View notes

cynicalmusings · 1 year

Note

IMAGINE A MASQUERADE BALL WITH XIAO???

…see, you’ve done the very dangerous thing of reminding me of the 100 followers special continuation i was planning that includes xiao and heizou… and a little of my cinderella au with him, too.

but i need to brainrot about this now.

thing is… we could go down the usual route of fantasy masquerade ball with big fancy chandeliers and a nice ballroom, but i feel like a spin could be put on it to make it more interesting.

namely, cyberpunk; a setting that i think fits xiao very well. (let me generate some ideas for a second…)

maybe this masquerade ball is inspired by old fragments of books and paintings uncovered in the wreckage of historical buildings, and a group of people are trying to resurrect it, just for fun. it’s likely nowhere as grande as the ‘proper’ ones, and takes place in some abandoned warehouse or the basement of a pub. the music is an electronic, bass-y version of some classical pieces, performed by a mini-orchestra of electric classical instruments. there are some asymmetrical make-shift chandeliers welded from old bits of metal hanging from the ceiling, sporting some LED light bulbs.

people come wearing all sorts of clothing; most try to imitate the gowns and suits worn in the old days but with a spin of cyberpunk, with metal masks and hand gauntlets, while a few wear visors and their typical fashion.

xiao’s mask is no doubt based on his yaksha mask, put together with metal and cogs and some pieces of wood, and there are neon blue lights around the eye sockets, which mirror his original mask’s glowing eyes. the fangs are made of steel and bronze.

the atmosphere is lively, although the location is quite dark. as they dance, people try to guess who the person behind the mask is. xiao prefers not to know.

xiao is a really, really good dancer. he meets you in one of the dances, and you’re floored by his dancing. his movements are fluid and graceful, almost like water, and each step and twirl is precise, like he’s been doing this all his life. he’s actually quite courteous while dancing, too; he’s a guy who prefers actions over words, so it’s no wonder that he lets his dancing speak for itself. he finds it so much easier to carefully spin you around than start a conversation, in which he’s certain he would come across as brash.

meanwhile, you try your very best to figure out who this person is, and whether you’ve met him before, but his identity eludes you. you only spend a brief time together before the music changes and you’re both met with new partners, but somehow he still stands out to you the most.

after the dance, the crowds disperse, and you try and look for him, absentmindedly taking off your mask because the dance is over. for a moment, you catch a glimpse of glowing blue in the crowd, meeting your eyes from behind a familiar metal mask. when you blink, he’s gone, and you don’t find him again afterwards.

(meanwhile, xiao probably just ducked behind some wall or pillar because he was not prepared for you to be so stunning behind that mask and needed a second to gather his thoughts.)

#i’m imagining xiao practicing dancing in that abandoned warehouse from snippets of artwork and text about how it was done #he sneaks in in the middle of the night and dances to himself until dawn #and what if one day you go to that warehouse for whatever reason as well #and see him just standing in the middle of the warehouse and dancing #he MAKES the warehouse a ballroom #you almost forget that it’s a metal block of a building and imagine that there are tapestries on the walls and gold chandeliers overhead #there’s probably a convenient beam of moonlight hitting him from some hole in the ceiling #and you forget what you came there for because you’re completely entranced by this sight #maybe you knock something over and xiao realises someone’s there and quickly dons his mask to avoid recognition (he doesn’t know it’s you)#and then some other stuff happens which i’m too tired to come up with right now #case and point: cyberpunk xiao.#sent: astrididi #r answers #xiao x reader

106 notes · View notes

moonlightjusticepodcast · 1 year

Text