#super sailor venus icons | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

postpunkpontypandyphantomthief · 2 years

Text

Similarities that TMNT has with Sailor Moon

Starting with the source material: Both TMNT and Sailor Moon had darker storylines and scenes in their original comics, TMNT's Mirage comics had a lot of death, swearing and violence and so did Sailor Moon.

their first cartoon adaptations were a lot more light-hearted, revolving around monster of the week scenarios with some slice-of-life elements

Toei animated season 1 of the first TMNT cartoon,

they later went on to animate Sailor Moon years later

Their signature style is notable in some scenes,

where the turtles expressions have a very retro anime look to them it's also seen in the not Toei episodes.

their signature style is notable in some scenes, where the turtles expressions have a very retro anime look to them it's also seen in the not toei episodes

They both have a evil professor as one of their villains, Professor Tomoe for Sailor Moon

and Baxter Stockman in TMNT

They both have an animal mentor, the Sailor Senshi have their Cats and the turtles have Splinter

They both have an ally/love interest, Sailor Moon has Tuxedo Mask

and TMNT (specifically in the old series) have April O' Neil

The love interests initially didn’t get along at first.

Mamoru would bicker with Usagi before they learned about their other identities and warmed up to each other

and old cartoon April initially didn't like them at first, thinking they were behind the foot clan's city chaos.

the character roles are very similar

Rei is a lot like Raphael (being a tough snarky fighter)

Makoto is a lot like Leonardo (being the voice of reason)

Ami is a lot like Donatello (being the intelligent one)

and Usagi and Minako have traits of Michelangelo

While there are more sailor Senshi than ninja turtles, there have been more members introduced in the newer iterations Venus De Milo,Jennika,Lita etc from what I've researched,

Jennika reminds me of Haruka

and Lita reminds me of Hotaru and Chibiusa

in some TMNT iterations, the turtles are reincarnations

in Sailor Moon, each sailor senshi was once a princess during the Silver Millennium, their sailor scout/civilian counterparts are also reincarnations

They have quite a variety of outfits the Sailor Moon girls always wear a stylish outfit in each episode whether in civilian or sailor scout form the turtles wear outfits as disguises when near humans, and in later iterations, they have stylish looks for their upgrades too.

They are both pop culture icons and massive hits, especially for the decades their animated adaptations were made in

Turtles for the 80s-early 90s

Sailor Moon for the 90s

Both have stage shows, Sailor Moon has a ton of musicals

while the Turtles had their concerts and a few musical VHS releases

both had PSA's in their early animated adaptations

TMNT had an anime ova in the 90s called Mutant Turtles: Superman Legend, in it there are mystical fairies and power-ups (via magical crystals) similar to Sailor Moon's silver crystal

Dark Mu from the 90s TMNT ova

is similar to Beryl and mistress 9 in powers and she looks like Rei

in the old TMNT series, Shredder would mostly attack the turtles externally, through schemes, machines or working with other henchmen like Krang,Bebop, Rocksteady and Baxter Stockman

the Sailor Moon villains attack the Senshi in a similar way before they eventually face them

Despite their popularity, both were very controversial shows, especially in the UK

TMNT had parent complaints, nunchucks getting removed and UK censorship.

Sailor Stars wasn't dubbed in the 90s and Sailor Moon S and Super S were never aired in the UK

They both had teenage characters

the main inner sailor scouts being 14-16, with haruka and michuru being 16-17

and title aside, the 2012 turtles are canonically 15, as for the 80s and 2003 turtles, I'm gonna assume they're a bit older

Both had short lived live action tv adaptations

Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation (1997)

and Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (PGSM) (2003)

Both are connected to Evangelion

Sailor Moon voice actors also being in Evangelion (such as Kotono Mitsuishi)

TMNT had Evangelion replace its timeslot when it stopped airing in Japan

Hideaki Anno provided animation for Sailor Moon

Rise of TMNT having some eva references

Both had references to western and Japanese culture

Sailor Moon is a Japanese anime that sometimes references western pop culture

80s-90s TMNT is partially a Japanese production and has episodes that reference popular movies

2003,2012 and 2018 TMNT have anime influences

TMNT references a lot of real ninjutsu techniques (like Impact smoke bombs and Kuji-in)

and Sailor Moon (being a Japanese show) has a lot of references in the shinto symbolism, the character names, the food, the activities etc

Leonardo and Splinter can often sense telepathically when danger is near

Rei from Sailor Moon has a similar ability

the characters in Sailor Moon and TMNT have both met or worked with people from future timelines

In episode 136 of Sailor Moon, Usagi dresses up as a ninja, in an outfit that references how her name means bunny rabbit

There is a Japanese samurai rabbit comic character called Usagi Yojimbo/Miyamoto, there are frequent crossovers where Usagi works with the ninja turtles

Rei bickers with and taunts Usagi a lot (in the 90s anime )

Raphael in TMNT is known for doing this to Michelangelo

despite this, they are still loyal and loving to each other

Rei and Raphael are the tough angry ones and Usagi and Mikey are the playful ones.

the dorky, sweet best friend who isn't part of the main team

in TMNT, Irma has this role and in Sailor Moon it’s Naru/Molly

the sailor senshi (especially Usagi and Minako) enjoy video games,

the turtles do too

there's a member of each team who is clumsy and silly (and mocked for it) while also being capable strong fighters in Sailor Moon, it's Usagi and in TMNT, it's Michelangelo (especially in the 2003 and 2012 iterations)

they also both love food

both have younger team members from the future (who are related to them in some way) and train to be part of their team

The sailor senshi have Chibiusa and Chibi chibi

in the TMNT 2003 fast-forward season, there's Cody Jones

and Casey Jones II in the Rise movie

they both have episodes/scenes where the characters switch ages

Sailor Moon Act 39 Dream 1 of the manga dream arc,episode 158 of the 90s anime and Sailor Moon Eternal

Adventures in Turtle Sitting and Back to the Egg from the old TMNT series

alcohol references

there's an episode of the 90s Sailor Moon anime where Usagi got accidentally drunk, in the dic dub it was implied that she just drank too much "juice"

In the Mirage comics, the turtles drink beer, including Raphael when they visit an Alien bar.

#tmnt #teenage mutant ninja turtles #sailor moon #pgsm #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rise of tmnt movie #tmnt 2012 #tmnt 2003 #tmnt 1987 #fred wolf tmnt

48 notes · View notes

gaianoire · 2 months

Text

an independent roleplay blog for QUEEN BERYL from BISHOUJO SENSHI SAILOR MOON. low activity / mun is 21+ .

🌏 i prefer the manga so that is the one i will be pulling from the most ! 🌏

side blog to @lunarnoire .

guidelines

i. this is a independent roleplay blog for queen beryl from bishoujo senshi sailor moon.

ii. this blog is low activity because of my personal life (work/life). this blog is also mutuals only and is a sideblog currently to @lunarnoire. all follow backs will come from there!

iii. no god-modding and/or meta-gaming! i’m aware that queen beryl is, obviously, a villain and as such does things villains do like… well basically gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss ™. this is my second time roleplaying a villain (i write black lady too) so i don’t want to step on anyone’s toes especially given beryl’s nature.

iv. i tend to match my partners in terms of length but sometimes my replies may be on the longer side. (i tag long posts with #long post if you need to filter it). i do accept criticism on my writing and how i can get better as i am to here to also improve my craft aside from having fun! i’m gonna be upfront with you guys right now and let you know that i have… issues with commas. i don’t use them as often as before but those little swiggles… daunting.

v. nsfw content like smut will not be present here!

vi. in regards to ships, the same thing from vii. applies here. if you’d like to plot something out between characters that isn’t pre-determined in bssm (at least the dark kingdom arc where queen beryl appears) such as family bonds or platonic, please message me so we can plot things out beforehand and then work our way through threads and development!

vii. regarding mains/exclusives… i do not practise exclusivity anymore due to bad past experiences! i’m still iffy on practising mains for the same reasons, so for right now mains are reserved for friends only. i apologize in advance, but it’s really more for my safety and comfort than anything. also if i’m being honest here… i tend to get to my threads depending on the order i draft them in so oldest first then newest which is another reason why i’m unsure on the status of mains here.

viii. regarding ocs and multimuses, you are welcome here! i typically do not follow if i cannot easily find your about page, rules, and muses page via mobile as i tend to be on mobile more than desktop.

ix. in closing, you are always welcome to message me if you have plot ideas or if you wish to thread, etc! if i miss any threads, replies, asks…, please let me know! if you have questions, please let me know! you can call me kairi. i’m over 21 and sailor moon has been with me all my life. 🥺❤ i’ve read the manga, watched both crystal and the 90s animes as well as all the recorded musicals, and i’m even a member of the official fan club! my other fave characters aside from black lady specifically are aino minako/sailor venus/sailor v, sailor galaxia, sailor ceres, michiru kaioh/sailor neptune, and fish eye! i just really love sailor moon… 🥺❤❤

x. this blog is not affiliated with toei animation, naoko takeuchi / p.n.p.. my headcanons and writing are my own. sources are from various official sources provided by toei and/or p.n.p. or they are from missdream or mintymoondrops or spriters-resource. my graphics (so icon border, page break image and stuff like that) / psd are made my me. my icon border was made put together by both myself & @.maidenkissed. my blog background was made by @.maidenkissed cuz i was really going through it when i was making one.

about

NAME: queen beryl

AGE: 20 something

DOB: november 1st

NATIONALITY: japanese.

SPECIES: human**.

GENDER: female.

OCCUPATION: queen of darkness, queen of the earth, queen of dark kingdom.

HEIGHT: 160cm, 164cm, 167cm, 168cm.*

HAIR: rose red, seafoam green as super beryl, jet black pre-corruption.

EYES: pale orange, fiery red as super beryl.

FACECLAIM: yuri nishina, akiko miyazawa, midori hatsukaze, nami tamaki, makoto aikawa, juri hirayu, rinko matsubara, aya sugimoto.

VOICECLAIM: keiko han, misa watanabe.

according to an dic adventure doll released by bandai during the 90s, beryl's likes are anarchy, bedlam and chaos. she dislikes sailor moon and the other senshi. her hobbies are snooping, spying, and sabotage and her special strengths are the ability to control her henchmen. her favorite food is liver ; her favorite color is black ; her favorite animal is a scorpion; and her favorite topic of conversation is world domination. it also lists her birthday as november 1st and her age as "twenty-something". i view beryl around the same age as whatever queen serenity is supposed to be - at least physically - so i will be using this old doll info from the dic dub at my disposal. lol

** - i view queen beryl as a human as she is from the earth kingdom during the time of silver millennium and was reborn as a normal human in the present age before , both times , being ultimately corrupted by queen metalia. beryl was a sage before metalia, an invader from the sun, noticed the conflictions and darkness in her heart and ultimately used that to her own ends. beryl is corrupted by the evil that is metalia and to symbolize this, her hair is no longer black but is instead brilliant red, her teeth sharpen into fangs, her nails into claws, her ears become pointed (naoko says her ears are like black holes in the materials collection), and horns grow out of her shoulders.

it's been a while since i watched the musicals but i remember beryl going through some real character growth and going through redemption in the musicals based on the stars arc. she is allies with galaxia and has a change of heart after witnessing / realizing her beloved, endymion, is dead. she helps sailor moon and the other senshi in the fight against galaxia and chaos and i believe that, in the end, beryl would've chosen redemption over the darkness if it meant endymion was safe. also cuz i don't think it's fair that the four heavenly kings are offered redemption or freed from their brainwashing depending on which canon you watch, but beryl is rarely, if ever, offered the same courtesy. i haven't decided if this will just be relegated to my musical verse(s) or not. i'll come to a decision once i finish rewatching the musicals. lol

the series never really goes into much depth about who beryl was before metalia, but i like to think that given what scraps we are given, beryl was a benevolent sage of endymion's court who adhered to the laws that both peoples of the moon and earth followed - which were ultimately broken by princess serenity and prince endymion with their forbidden love. beryl knew of their secret meetings and was jealous, however she never acted on this jealousy but instead suffered in agony wondering why her dear endymion did not have eyes for someone like her. this caused her to eventually come to dislike the princess of the moon which, in turn, caused metalia to offer beryl the means of which to take her love for her own. beryl, distraught and full of warped hatred, gives into metalia and becomes beryl , queen of darkness. with her newfound powers, she brainwashes the four heavenly kings to fall completely and utterly under her control. in a sense, i view her as the opposite of usagi - like a foil to her. i think pre-metalia , beryl was probably similar to usagi in a lot of aspects, but ultimately her love would become her downfall whereas usagi's would be her strength.

in the manga and crystal, beryl is wary of metalia and the power that she offers. beryl would rather betray metalia and be queen of the earth with endymion at her side then serve metalia.

my sister and i joked about this once when we were watching either crystal or pgsm together, but like??? what if beryl could also use her tiara as a boomerang like usagi too??? and so this attack would be called dark metalia boomerang!

i know crystal has usagi/sailor moon defeat beryl but i hated that so much cuz they took away a beautiful moment for minako to shine as a leader so in my crystal verse, i'm headcanon...-ing that minako/sailor venus was the one to defeat beryl.

im currently re-reading and re-watching the series (manga, both animes, live action, and musicals) so i might add more stuff here during my re-watch if i find it relevant. i also plan to sit down and play another story some time, too, but i'm not sure how long beryl is in that game. i tend to do this every year or so because sailor moon is my favourite series too! so there is that. lol

my interpretation of beryl is largely INFLUENCED by the MANGA and the musicals. i grew up watching the 90s anime. the first season as well as the promise of the rose movie are my favorites. i love, love, love, love the manga though, but i am not adverse to engaging with the 90s anime as like i said i grew up with it. i also love the musicals, too, and crystal. the dream arc is my favorite arc of sailor moon and i really love the sailor v manga too and my delulu dream is that someday toei will do another attempt at a sailor v anime and possibly even there will be a sailor v musical!! and game!!

*these are the heights of her myu actresses in order that they played her so yuri -> akiko and then the third one is for makoto and the last is for aya as i could not find heights for her other actresses.

my favorite musicals for beryl are eien densetsu and its revision (this is one of my favorite musicals in general outside of nogimyu and the dracul series as well as the nelke myus with satomi and hotaru as usagi.) and nogimyu. i don't remember much of beryl in the others outside of gaiden dark kingdom , the very first sera myu. i think the other bandai myus she appears in after eien densetsu are basically just eien densetsu with changes. outside of the manga/crystal, the primary source i will be pulling from for beryl is the eien densetsu musicals , nogimyu, and la reconquista.

Silver Millennium was a time of peace in the solar system. Each planet enjoyed the peace that the silver crystal brought up and all was well. There was that ancient rule that the kingdoms of the moon and the earth were forbidden from interacting and so the kingdom of the moon watched over the inhabitants of the earth ever diligently. Beryl was a kindly, beautiful sage. She was employed in the court of Prince Endymion and his parents - the king and queen. As Beryl was of different social statuses than the prince, she could only watch him from afar - only interacting with him during her royal duties as sage but those interactions with the prince were far and few between. She could say she knew the king and queen much better but alas. She only truly wanted to know Endymion.

She fell for the handsome and regal young prince. Her every thought was consumed by his presence to the point where she had befriended his loyal retainers in an effort to become closer to the prince and to learn his deepest secrets. She only had eyes for him, but alas. He never had eyes for her - only viewing her as a friend or perhaps a sister. His eyes were for the princess of the moon, Princess Serenity, and her alone.

Beryl discovered his feelings for the radiant princess one day. She was always watching him from afar when not doing her duties and had learned his secret - a secret only her retainers and her mother, and his retainers knew. No one else.

Beryl was consumed with feelings she had never before. It was a raging, bottomless jealousy that roared like a blizzard inside of her. She felt nothing but disdain and contempt for the princess of the white moon. She thought that without her, perhaps she and Endymion could be together.

These dark feelings caught the attention of Queen Metalia - a figureless evil entity from the sun. She wormed her way into Beryl's heart , plotting even further seeds of malicious feelings inside of her. she told beryl that endymion could be her's and her's alone with the tremendous power that she could give her.

power. yes, that's what she needed. she needed power to obtain what she wanted most. her love.

she took metalia's offer and she is offered wonderous dark powers to obtain her love and to help obtain metalia's goal.

beryl uses her newfound powers to turn endymion's trusted retainers, the four heavenly kings, under her command. with metalia's powers she also brings the entire earth under her control and endymion's parents lose their very lives in the process.

traveling to the moon with an army behind her, the denizens of the earth fight against the denizens of the moon. beryl eventually loses her life to sailor venus and her holy sword, lamenting that she was not able to have endymion to herself.

when queen serenity uses the power of the silver crystal at the cost of her life to seal away metalia and wish for her daughter to have a normal life, beryl and the other denizens of earth are sent there as well until they are eventually reincarnated in the future.

beryl is reincarnated like so many others from the time of the silver millennium and pursues a career in archeology. she travels the world for her profession and uncovering ancient relics and ruins makes her nostalgic for a time long passed that she no longer remembers. during these travels, she encounters the reincarnated four heavenly kings and through a cruel twist of fate becomes friends with them. they all find kinship over the mutual feelings that they have over a life they've long forgotten - wondering if it is just their imagination or if there is something more.

unaware of her awakening, aino minako awakens as sailor v with the help of her companion, artemis, and soon beryl feels something stir deep within her. a kind of hatred she has never known. before she would look on at the moon with a sense of passivity - never understanding why so many people worshipped the moon. now she would look on it with disdain and disgust - cursing the very thing so many loved. and deep within her breast would burn a love so damaging, it choked her. where was this man she believed to be her soulmate? where was he?

beryl returns to japan after work had brought her to the ancient ruins of greece. she had to get away from those structures... those structures that made images dance behind her eyes of another life. she was sure this time that that time was real, but how could she prove it?

as she asks this question, a disembodied voice calls her. it tells her to travel to the north pole, to d point where all of her questions would be answered. and so beryl drops everything to make her way to a place rarely traveled to - if ever.

the voice continues to call for her and soon she finds what she is looking for - a giant cave leading to the deepest, most darkest place anyone could imagine and as she travels further and further into the cave, she discovers the remains of her beloved's kingdom and soon finds an ancient door. the voice is louder this time, desperate, and beryl opens the door and is greeted by the entity known as metalia. she restores beryl's memories and powers - this time beryl is transformed completely. her once jet black hair turns rose red; her ears become more pointed and the insides look like black holes; her teeth sharpen into fangs; her fingernails point out into claws; stones grow forth from her shoulders and she feels herself grow taller, grow stronger, and when her eyes open, she is

BERYL, QUEEN OF DARKNESS.

metalia instructs her to find the four heavenly kings and bring them under her command once more - and she does. she finds them in their respective regions that they once had governed in ages past and so the dark kingdom is revived.

from then on, beryl and the four heavenly kings seek to gather energy to give to queen metalia as they search for the legendary silver crystal to gain control over the world.

beryl would eventually lose her life to sailor venus once more and her memories before she was corrupted come back and her love once more chokes her and beryl dies thinking only of endymion again.

verses

SILVERMILLENNIUM. this is my verse set during the silver millennium in sailor moon.

DARKKINGDOM. this is my verse set during the manga.

DPOINT. this is my verse set during the 90s anime of sailor moon.

CRYSTAL. this is the same as DARKKINGDOM as sailor moon crystal follows the manga - albeit with a few differences to my chagrin in the beginning.

REVIVAL. beryl appears in numerous musicals but this will be the general 'verse' that i will use for the bandai musicals. beryl appears in the :

summer 1993 dark kingdom revival musical and its winter (1993) revision.

summer 1997 eternal legend musical and its winter (1998) revision.

summer 1998 beginning of the new legend musical.

summer 2003 starlights musical and its winter (2004) revision, the advent of princess kakyuu.

in the eternal legend musicals, the four heavenly kings are once again under command of beryl as well as a mud puppet of endymion. in the new legend musical, the amazon trio is under her command. the starlights musical has the four heavenly kings under her command once again and the same goes for the the advent of princess kakyuu. i am 100% game for writing in one of the stars musicals as a type of stars au for either the manga or 90s anime. please just let me know first!

RETURN. beryl appears in numerous musicals but this will be the general 'verse' that i will use for the nelke musicals. beryl appears in the :

summer 2013 la reconquista musical.

summer/fall 2018 nogimyu musicals. fall/winter 2019 nogimyu musical.

the super live (2018-2019 & 2023).

spring 2024 nogimyu musical.

ANOTHERSTORY. this is my verse sset during the video game, sailor moon: another story, however i haven't actually played the game outside of the like first... 10?? minutes so i don't really know much about beryl's role in this game.

FALSEQUEEN. this is my verse set during the live action tokusatsu drama series, pretty guardian sailor moon or PGSM.

credits

cafekitsune / Toei / Naoko Takeuchi / P.N.P. / Marco Albiero / missdream / mintymoondrops / spriters-resource / maidenkissed.

#ǫᴜᴇᴇɴ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ ᴇᴀʀᴛʜ (ᴏᴏᴄ);#*creations

0 notes

yacchannanamin · 3 years

Text

Sailor Moon Icons!

Feel free to use!

#sailor moon #sailormoonedit #sailor moon icons #super sailor moon #super sailor chibi moon #sailor mercury #sailor mars #sailor jupiter #sailor venus #sailor uranus #sailor neptune #sailor pluto #sailor saturn #my edits

120 notes · View notes

goeffimeros · 4 years

Photo

[ Usagi icons / like & reblog if you saved .]

#sailor moon #sailor moon icons #sailor moon crystal #sailor moon crystal icons #icons #usagi #sailor moon usagi #usagi icons #soft icons #headers #anime #anime icons #sailor moon rei #sailor neptune #sailor mercury #sailor venus #sailor chibi moon #super sailor moon

141 notes · View notes

sanrio-kawaii · 4 years

Photo

✧⇁ [🌙] 𝒂𝒆;; 𝑺𝒂𝒊𝒍𝒐𝒓 𝒎𝒐𝒐𝒏,

@glitterpsd

65 notes · View notes

myu-resource · 6 years

Photo

Super Senshi e no Michi Pencil Board - Inner Senshi

Original pictures

#icon #sera myu #sailor mercury #sailor mars #sailor jupiter #sailor venus #ayako morino #morino ayako #misako kotani #kotani misako #kanoko #nana suzuki #suzuki nana #henshin super senshi e no michi

24 notes · View notes

xusayeby · 1 year

Text

ᥫ᭡ 𖥻 ICONS + HEADERS ۰ ໋࣭ヾ

⸼ՙ˖𝆬🧡ᐩ۪SUPER SAILOR VENUS

#sailor moon #sailor moon eternal #sailor moon icons #sailor moon headers #minako aino #sailor venus #super sailor venus #minako aino icons #minako aino headers #sailor venus icons #sailor venus headers #super sailor venus icons #super sailor venus headers #anime icons #anime headers

14 notes · View notes

silvermoon424 · 2 years

Note

🌟,🌠

🌟 - Favorite magical girl transformation?

I gave my top 5 favorite transformations a while back! But if I have to choose just one.... I have to go with the iconic Moon Prism Power, Make Up!

youtube

This was my very first transformation sequence and what jumpstarted my loved of the magical girl genre. I'll never get tired of watching it!

🌠 - Favorite magical girl attack?

Another impossible choice!! But I have to go with Rainbow Moon Heartache:

youtube

I love everything about this, from Super Sailor Moon's fuku to the music to the sound effects to the attack animation! It's just really, really lovely 💖

Runners-up include Mars Flame Sniper, Venus Love-Me Chain, Tiro Finale (PMMM), Pluvia☆Magica (Magia Record/PMMM), and Precure Innocent Purification (Happiness Charge Precure).

#magical girl #magical girls

19 notes · View notes

sailorfailures · 4 years

Photo

I fell in love with these postcards from the Girl’s Night Out popup cafe the moment I saw them! I knew I had to get my hands on them, and the lovely @blaze-rocket was able to help that happen.

I cannot get over how perfect these postcards are. To me, this is what Sailor Moon is; a testament to the little moments from the series that made us fall in love with the characters, especially how their personal preferences were reflected in their fashion choices. In a world of merch where it’s easy to just slap a random crescent moon on something pink and say “look, it’s Usagi,” the designer responsible for these graphics went the extra mile to take imagery from the show itself that needles its way deep into our nostalgia-cortexes.

How many references do you recognise? Quiz yourself against this comprehensive (image-heavy) list! 👇

The inners’ postcards all reference the eye-catching sign for Game Center Crown, the iconic arcade where Motoki Furuhata worked and the gang would all congregate to play games and share information.

Starting in R they switched to hanging out at Fruits Parlor Crown, a cafe attached to the arcade staffed by Motoki’s sister Unazuki, which the Inners’ postcards all also reference. They would often get brightly-coloured drinks there, but the drinks pictured on these postcards seem to specifically line up with the real drinks available at the Girls Night Out popup cafe.

Sailors Neptune, Uranus, and Pluto’s postcards all reference “Café Étrangère,” which was the name of the cafe they were seen dining at in the Sailor Moon S movie. Even the logo is replicated faithfully from a scene only a few seconds long.

All the girls’ clothes are hanging on coat hangers shaped like Luna/Artemis/Diana.

Ami / Sailor Mercury’s references:

Ami’s casual outfit is an unusual choice since she only wore it a handful of times over the entire series, and half the times she wore it, it was given a different colour scheme with a green jacket instead of the yellow version pictured here.

Her “mini data computer” is her most iconic tool/weapon/accessory, revealed in episode 009, directly after her introduction.

The pink package is how Usagi and the other girls wrapped up her transformation stick and communicator watch as Ami’s going-away present in episode 062.

The ice cream may be a reference to the same episode, as she shared a cone with Chibi-Usa before she left, and returned to the store to protect her friends from the Droid Nihpasu.

The flash cards are a method Ami commonly used to help her study, and are particularly similar to the ones shown in the SuperS short “Ami’s First Love”.

Rei / Sailor Mars’s References:

Rei wore her casual outfit fairly frequently, starting and most notably in the beginning of the Sailor Moon R movie.

The small red o-mamori charm is from Hikawa Shrine, seen frequently but introduced in episode 010.

The paper ofuda ward was used frequently by Rei to fight evil, even before she could transform, but most notably in the attack sequence for “Akuryou, Taisan” (“Foul Spirit, Begone”).

To my knowledge the purple bag isn’t a specific reference, but Rei did throw a similar purse at a Cardian as a makeshift weapon in episode 048 before she got her Guardian memories back.

The gift-wrapped shopping boxes are the exact same ones as carried by Rei in the Sailor Moon Sailor Stars opening sequence before she trips and falls, right down to the patterns on the paper...

... which in itself may be a reference/callback to Rei’s tendency to make Yuuichirou carry her shopping (maybe so she doesn’t trip).

The phoenix-shaped pendant is a reference to episode 183; it’s made of glazed ceramic, crafted by Rei’s cousin Kengo Ibuki, given to her as a child after she convinced him not to smash it even though he his pottery a “failure”.

Makoto / Sailor Jupiter’s References:

Makoto didn’t start wearing her casual outfit until around S, but she wore it frequently after that, especially as she became more confident wearing “feminine” clothing. They even remembered her iconic gold wrist watch worn over her sleeve!

Her uniquely decorated bento bag debuted in episode 026, her introductory episode, along with the rounded green cutlery. The pouch has been featured a few more times since and its design is a mainstay in almost every Sailor Moon canon.

The teal hairtie and the rose-shaped earrings are two of Makoto’s iconic accessories, some of the only non-magical fashion accessories in the entire series to stay the same whether the character is transformed or not (the other being Minako’s infamous red bow). Her earrings also served a dual purpose as makeshift projectile weapons in episode 025.

The blue book is 月夜の天馬 (Tsukiyo no Tenma, “The Moonlit Pegasus”), a novel which was written by Tomoko Takase and introduced in epsode 134. Makoto knew Tomoko from her old middle school, before she transferred, and was the first one to read her first draft after retrieving it from bullies. She encouraged Tomoko to try and get it published. Makoto meets with her again and helps her overcome her writer’s block to finish her sequel, 天馬幻想 (Tenma Gensou, “Pegasus Fantasy”).

Minako / Sailor Venus’s References:

This is one of Minako’s most-worn casual outfits, especially if you consider the additional outfits based off it. Despite its prevalence, she didn’t start wearing it until the beginning of S.

Minako’s red hair ribbon is her most iconic accessory, but did you know why she started wearing it? The Codename: Sailor V prequel manga explains that she started wearing the ribbon instead of her usual red hairtie on the suggestion of her “first crush” Higashi. But when he turns out to be an enemy in disguise, she decides she looks good with a ribbon anyway, and keeps wearing it for her own benefit.

The red mask is a reference to Minako’s role as Sailor V before joining the team as Sailor Venus. Sailor V was known as a mysterious vigilante superhero and a fictional video game character as early as episode 001, but in episode 033 Minako revealed herself to the rest of the Sailor Team, dramatically removing her mask one final time.

Minako was known to be a skilled volleyball player, especially in the manga, and it was especially relevant in episode 100 where she had to delicately return the serve of an energy sphere containing the Pure Heart of her old volleyball crush, Asai.

The sign with Minako’s name can be seen hanging off the front of her bedroom door in episode 192.

[Manga scan courtesy of Miss Dream.]

Usagi / Sailor Moon’s References:

Usagi wore this outfit in the Sailor Moon R movie, making it a memorable choice. Although the movie aired roughly midway through R, Usagi didn’t start to wear this outfit casually again until the S season.

Usagi is shown eating a lot of food, especially sweets, but she seems to have a particular fondness for crepes, snacking on them in several different episodes.

In episode 143 we can see that Usagi is very technologically trendy - for the times. She’s carrying that blue-and-pink pager which she and Mamoru use to contact each other by way of goroawase, that is, deciphering messages based on the different pronunciations of numbers, a precursor to modern texting. Mamoru pages her the numbers 84 51, which could be read as hachi yon go ichi; reading only the first syllables, and substituting go for the related sound ko, Usagi would interpret the message as hayo koi, which sounds a bit like “come quick” - she’s late for their date. Oops!

By the way, pagers were often called “pocket bells” (pokeberu) in Japan, and became so rapidly popular they even found their way into the lyrics of Rashiku Ikimasho, the ending song for the SuperS season; 「泣きたい時にはポケベルならしてよんで、戦士の休息」 [Nakitai toki ni wa POKEBELL narashite yonde, senshi no kyuusoku] “If you feel like crying, send a page thru the Pocket Bell, take a break from [being a] Guardian”

Chibi-Usa / Sailor Chibi Moon’s References:

Chibi-Usa doesn’t technically have a school uniform, but her casual clothes are often styled after sailor suits as a reflection of both her idolisation of the figure of “Sailor Moon” and of her desire to be seen as older and more mature than she appears. She changes “uniforms” every season, and this pinafore outfit is the version she wears in SuperS. She wore the other outfit in the SuperS premiere episode.

The handgun is from episode 060, Chibi-Usa’s introduction to the series and arguably one of the most iconic absurdist scenes in all of Sailor Moon. The gun itself is actually a toy, probably a transformation of the Luna-P sphere, which Chibi-Usa uses to try and threaten Usagi into giving her the Legendary Silver Crystal. When she “shoots” Usagi, the bullet is revealed to be nothing but a suction-cup flower, also pictured. (By the way, if you were wondering, Chibi-Usa’s fake gun is based on a real Colt M1911A1.) She transforms the Luna-P into a toy gun to shoot Sailor Moon again in the Sailor Moon R movie, this time as a way to motivate Usagi to fight.

The Luna-P sphere was a mysterious gadget Chibi-Usa kept with her for the duration of R and parts of S. It’s unknown where it came from, but it could be assumed to have been created from advanced 30th century technology. It was a combination toy and tool which could transform itself into a variety of objects, formulas, and even weapons, though none were shown to be particularly powerful. It could also be used to communicate with Sailor Pluto at the Time-Space Door. When Chibi-Usa was manipulated into becoming Wicked Lady in episode 085, the Luna-P sphere also transformed into an “evil” and much more dangerous version.

The Space-Time Key was a special tool given to her by Sailor Pluto that allowed her to travel between the past and the future, though it was difficult for her to wield effectively.

The sunhat was given to Chibi-Usa by Ikuko, so she treasured it greatly. In episode 112 it got blown away and was retrieved by Hotaru Tomoe, which allowed her to meet Chibi-Usa and marked the beginning of their close friendship.

The blue-and-red package was a gift containing two manga books (”Drop Drop” vol. 1 & 2 by Ukon Katakuri) which Chibi-Usa intended to give to her new friend Hotaru in episode 113.

In episode 127, Chibi-Usa returned home to the future, and the girls all made her some going-away gifts. Ami made her a floppy disk (lol) to help her study, Rei made her a casette tape (double lol) of her music, Makoto packed her a lunch, and Minako made her a photo album of their time together. Usagi hand-sewed Chibi-Usa the rabbit-shaped backpack using a real outfit she used to love when she was a child.

Michiru / Sailor Neptune’s References:

This is a somewhat unusual choice for Michiru’s casual outfit, as she only wore it for two episodes, and that’s only because they made up a two-part story. But perhaps because the episodes were so pivotal - with Haruka and Michiru almost learning Usagi’s true identity - the outfit itself became more memorable.

Not only do they include Michiru’s violin, but they included the lemon she bounced off the instrument as she played to show off her skills in episode 093.

The teacup, teaspoon and saucer are the same set Michiru was seen drinking from at Fruits Parlor Crown in episode 094.

Michiru and Haruka both reference episode 095, where they had to enter a “true love” contest as part of their investigation. The contestants were asked to find their partner’s hand in an anonymous lineup, and Haruka was able to identify Michiru’s hand immediately.

Michiru used Haruka as a model for an illustration in her green sketchbook in episode 106.

Michiru’s Talisman is the Deep Aqua Mirror, revealed in episode 110 and used in her attack Submarine Reflection. She could also use it to receive prophetic visions. Visually, it was based on real-life art nouveau hand mirrors, and symbolically represented the mirror from the Three Sacred Treasures.

Haruka / Sailor Uranus’s References:

Conversely, Haruka wore this outfit a lot. Maybe more than she should’ve.

The teacup and saucer is the same set Haruka was seen drinking from at Fruits Parlor Crown in episode 094.

Haruka’s postcard also references the lovers contest in episode 095 (see above).

The purple scarf is from episode 096; Haruka was wearing it as a necktie when she almost ran into Makoto on her motorcycle. Haruka used the scarf to bandage Makoto’s road rash, which she returned later, though now smitten.

Not only is Haruka’s motorcycle included, they also referenced (one of) her car(s), the 1968 Toyota 2000GT.

Haruka’s Talisman is the Space Sword, revealed in episode 110 and used in her attack Space Sword Blaster. Symbolically it represented the sword from the Three Sacred Treasures.

Setsuna / Sailor Pluto’s References:

Setsuna didn’t have a school uniform, since she wasn’t a student, so she got to double-up on her casual outfits. Her mauve outfit is her most recognisable, wearing it so often it may as well have been her uniform. In fact, she was rarely seen wearing anything else until Sailor Stars, where she started experimenting with other outfits, including the Time Lord-esque suit on the right.

The potted plant is a Tellun, the energy-draining plant created by Tellu in episode 121. Setsuna was investigating it when it attempted to attack her, but she was protected by her Talisman, the Garnet Orb (also pictured, representing the jewel in the Three Sacred Treasures). She then went on to destroy the remaining Tellun plants and defeat Tellu with the help of Sailor Moon, Sailor Chibi Moon, and Tuxedo Mask.

The teacup and saucer are the same set Setsuna is seen drinking from at Cafe Etranger in the Sailor Moon S movie.

In episode 182, the girls are discussing the mysterious arrival of Chibi Chibi while eating ice cream on a hot summer’s day. Setsuna appears out of nowhere to confirm their suspicions... carrying that popsicle of her own.

Hotaru / Sailor Saturn’s References:

Hotaru tended to wear the same thing, mostly all-black, but she did occasionally adventure into rich colours like this bottle green two-piece outfit and iconic raspberry beret.

The sunhat belonged to Chibi-Usa; it symbolises the beginning of their friendship, when Hotaru caught it after it blew away in episode 112.

Chibi-Usa gave Hotaru the rabbit backpack in episode 116, using it to pass a note inviting her on a picnic.

Hotaru collects lamps, and the two referenced here are seen in her bedroom, which she keeps dimly lit to manage her pain.

The window might seem random, but it was random in the series, too - it’s one of the curtained window which looks out from Hotaru’s bedroom, and when a Daimon experiment goes terribly wrong in episode 118 and transforms her house into a Bamboozled-like inter-dimensional maze, one window overlooks a vast ocean while the other overlooks a strange jungle.

Hotaru’s weapon as Sailor Saturn is the Silence Glaive. It’s said that she possesses enough power to destroy the world with a single drop of her scythe.

That’s it! You made it! How many references did YOU know? 🌙

#sailor moon #long post #I couldn't have done this the easy way. I couldn't have just posted the pictures and been like 'ooh look pretty'.#it was fun though and I actually learned some things in the process #I feel like I slipped through time somehow and designed these for Toei and then blacked it from my memory #again: sincere apologies to those on mobile

2K notes · View notes

chiseler · 3 years

Text

Gnostic Boardwalk

Canonical stature is a fragile and contingent thing, which is why powerful institutions seek to shore up the various canons of art with rankings and plaudits. We’ll play along by asserting that one of our favorite “B” movies was originally screened by Henri Langlois at the Cinematheque française with Georges Franju in attendance. Night Tide (1961) was an unlikely contender for this particular honor—shot guerrilla style on an estimated $35,000 budget, and intended, by its distributors at least, for a wider, less demanding audience seeking mostly air-conditioned escapism.

With its hinky cast—nonfictional witch, Marjorie Cameron; erstwhile muse to surrealist filmmaker Jean Cocteau, the undersung Babette who usually appears en travesti; and lecherous, booze-addled, fresh-faced Hollywood castoff Dennis Hopper—Night Tide invades the drive-in. A tarot reading at the film’s heart gives Marjorie Eaton her time to shine, traipsing into nickel-and-dime divination from her former life as a painter of Navajo religious ceremonies. Linda Lawson might have issued from an etching by Odilon Redon, with her raven locks and spiritual eyes, our resident sideshow mermaid. Not surprisingly and despite such gentle segues, the film itself traveled a rocky road from festivals to paying venues.

Night Tide had spent three years languishing in the can when distributor Roger Corman smuggled the unlikely masterwork into public consciousness, another of his now legendary mitzvahs to art. And the sleazy-sounding double bills that resulted also unleashed an aberrant wonder: the movie’s compact leading man, a force previously held captive by the studio system—looking, here, like some homunculus refugee from the Fifties USA. Dennis Hopper, in his first starring role, would later recall that it represented his first “aesthetic impact” on film since his earlier appearances in more mainstream productions such as Rebel Without a Cause and Giant had denied him meaningful outlets for collaboration.

It’s the presence of its featured players—certainly not their star power—that lends the film its haunting and enduring legacy, and elevates the term “cult classic” to its rightful place in the pantheon of cinema. But we argue that Night Tide remains outside these exclusive parameters—upholding an elsewhere-ness that defies commercial, if not strictly canonical, logic. Curtis Harrington’s first feature film escapes taxonomy, typology or genre—gets away—fueling itself on acts of solidarity instead. If Hopper contributes his dreamy aura, then Corman rescues the seemingly doomed project by re-negotiating the terms of a defaulted loan to the film lab company that was preventing the film’s initial release. His generous risk birthed a movie monument that would add Harrington’s name to a growing collection of talent midwifed by the visionary schlockmeister responsible for nursing the auteurs of post-war American cinema. And here we enter a production history as gossamery as Night Tide itself.

Unlike his counterparts entrenched within the studio system, Harrington was an artist – i.e. a Hollywood anachronism, with aristocratic graces and a viewfinder trained on the unseen. We see Harrington as Georges Méliès reborn with a queer eye, casting precisely the same showman’s metaphysics that spawned cinema onto nature. By the time moving pictures were invented, artists were moving away from a bloodless representational ethos and excavating more primordial sources for inspiration. The early stirrings of what surrealist impresario André Breton would later proclaim: “Beauty will be CONVULSIVE or it will not be at all.”

Harrington owned a pair of Judy Garland’s emerald slippers, and according to horror queen/cult icon Barbara Steele, also amassed an eclectic array of human specimens: “Marlene Dietrich, Gore Vidal, Russian alchemists, holistic healers from Normandy, witches from Wales, mimes from Paris, directors from everywhere, writers from everywhere and beautiful men from everywhere.” On a hastily constructed Malibu boardwalk, Hopper would be in his milieu among the eccentric denizens of California’s artistic underground—most notably, Harrington himself, a feral Victorian mountebank of a director who slept among mummified bats, practiced Satanic rites, and hosted elaborate and squalid dinner parties. One could almost picture the mostly television director in his twilight years as Roman Castavet of Rosemary’s Baby; a spellbinding raconteur with a carny’s flair for embellishment and enticement. Enthralled by the dark gnosticism of Edgar Allan Poe that had started when the aspiring 16-year-old auteur mounted a nine-minute long production of The Fall of the House of Usher (1942), Harrington would embark on a checkered film career that combined his occult passions with the quotidian demands of securing steady employment. Night Tide, a humble matinee feature whose esoteric underpinnings would spawn subsequent generations of admirers, united the competing forces of art and commerce that Harrington would struggle with throughout his career. Like Méliès, Harrington pointed his kinetic device towards the more preternatural aspects of early motion pictures to seek out the ‘divine spark’ that Gnostics attribute to transcendence, and the necessary element to achieve that immortal leap into the unknown. What hidden meanings and unspeakable acts Poe had seized upon in his writing were brought infernally to life with a mechanical sleight-of-hand. It was finally time for crepuscular light, beamed through silver salts to illuminate otherworldly and other-thinking subjects.

Curtis Harrington

By the time Harrington had embarked on his feature film debut, a more muscular celluloid mythology based on America’s proven exceptionalism was in full force, taking on a brutalist monotone cast in keeping with the steely-eyed, square-jawed men at the helm of a nascent super-power, consigning its more feminine preoccupations to the dusty vaults where celluloid is devoured by its own nitrate. Harrington would resurrect the convulsive aspects of his chosen vocation and embed them deep within the monochrome canvas he’d been allotted for his first venture into feature filmmaking, and combine them with the more rational aspects of so-called realism. In the romantic re-telling of a familiar myth, Harrington was remaining true to gnostic roots and the distinctly poetic language used to express its cosmological features.

In Night Tide, Harrington would map the metaphysical terrain that held up Usher’s cursed edifice as a blueprint for his own work that similarly explored the intertwined duality of the natural and the supernatural. The visible cracks that reveal a fatal structural weakness and a loss of sanity in both Roderick Usher and his doomed estate are evident in Night Tide’s conflicted heroine compelled to choose between her own foretold death underwater, or a worse fate for those who fall in love with her earthly human form.

A young sailor (Dennis Hopper) strolling the boardwalks of Malibu while on shore leave offers the viewer an opening glimpse into the film’s metaphysical wormhole, and a not so subtle hint of the director’s queer eye, stalking his virginal prey in the viewfinder. A beachfront entertainment venue is, after all, where one would casually encounter soothsayers and murderers, sea witches and perverts, as the guileless Johnny does, seemingly oblivious to the surrealist elements of his surroundings as he makes his way on land.

Harrington’s carnival-themed underworld is both imaginatively and convincingly presented as a quaint slice of post-war America, effortlessly dovetailing with his intended drive-in audience’s expectations of grind house with a dash of glamor—not to mention his own avant-garde leanings, which remain firmly intact despite Night Tide’s outwardly conventional construction and narrative.

Harrington is able to present this juxtaposition of kitsch Americana and the queer arcana of his occult fascinations. Indeed, Night Tide’s lamb-to-the-slaughter protagonist could have wandered off the set of Fireworks, Kenneth Anger’s 1947 homoerotic short film about a 17-year-old’s sadomasochistic fantasies involving gang rape by leathernecks.

Anger would later sum up his earliest existing film as “A dissatisfied dreamer awakes, goes out in the night seeking a ‘light’ and is drawn through the needle’s eye. A dream of a dream, he returns to bed less empty than before.” Harrington (a frequent collaborator of Anger in his youth) seems to have re-worked Fireworks, or at least its underlying queer aesthetic into a commercially viable feature film that explores his own life long occult fascinations.

Both Anger and his former protégé would view the invocation of evil as a necessary step towards the attainment of a higher level of consciousness. Harrington coaxed a more familiar story from the myths and archetypes that informed his unworldly views for a wider audience; a move that would be later interpreted by sundry cohorts as selling out. Still, Night Tide shares a thematic kinship with Anger’s more obtusely artistic output as acknowledged by the surviving occultist, who confirmed this unholy covenant at Harrington’s funeral by kissing his dead friend on the lips as he laid in his open coffin.

The hokey innocence of Dennis Hopper as Johnny Drake in his tight, white sailor suit casts a homoerotic hue on the impulses that compel him to navigate a treacherous dreamscape to satisfy a carnal longing, just as Anger’s dissatisfied dreamer obeys the implicit commands of an unspeakable other to seek out forbidden pleasures.

As he makes his way on land, the solitary, adventure-seeking Johnny will be lured into a waiting photo booth, his features slightly menacing behind its flimsy curtain, and brightly smiling a second later as the flash illuminates them. Johnny has entered a realm where intersecting worlds collide, delineating light from shadow, consciousness from unconsciousness. The young sailor’s maiden voyage into the uncharted waters of his subconscious is made evident in the contrasting interplay captured by the camera, where predator and prey overlap in darkness. Here, too, we get a prescient preview of the deranged psychopath Hopper would subsequently personify in later roles, most significantly as the oxygen deprived Frank of Blue Velvet—a man who seems to be drowning out of water. But here, Hopper convincingly (and touchingly) portrays a wide-eyed naïf, still unsteady on his sea legs as he negotiates dry land.

As a variation of Anger’s lucid dreamer in Fireworks (and later Jeffrey of Blue Velvet) Johnny will have abandoned himself quite literally (as his departing shadow on a carnival pavilion suggests, before its host blithely follows) to his own suppressed sexual urges; a force that eventually compels him towards denouement.

Moments later, inside the Blue Grotto where a flute-led jazz combo is in progress, Johnny spots a beautiful young woman (Linda Lawson) seated directly across from him. Her restrained and almost involuntary physical response to the music mimic his own, offering the first indication of a gender ‘other’ residing in Johnny; an entombed apparition cleaved from the sub-conscious and projected into his line of vision. Roderick and Madeline Usher loom large in Harrington’s screenplay and Usher’s trans themes lurk invisibly in the subtext. Harrington is arguably heir apparent to Poe’s vacated throne, pursuing similar clue-laden paths and exploring the dual nature of human and the primordial creature just beneath the surface poised to devour its host.

The near literal strains of seductive Pan pipes buoyed by the ‘voodoo’ percussion sets the stage for Harrington’s reworking of the ancient legend of sea-based seductresses and the sailors they lure to their graves.

Marjorie Cameron (or ‘Cameron’ as she is referred to in the opening credits) makes a startling entrance into The Blue Grotto as an elder of a lost tribe of mermaids seeking the return of an errant ‘mermaid’ to her rightful place in the sea. Cameron, a controversial fixture in L.A.’s bohemian circles and one-time Scarlet Women in the mold of Aleister Crowley’s profane muses, would later appear in Anger’s The Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome, and as the subject of Harrington’s short documentary The Wormwood Star (1956).

The inclusion of a bonafide witch, along with a host of less apparent occult/avant-garde figures, is further evidence of Night Tide’s true aspirations and its filmmaker’s subversive intent to sneak an art-house film into the drive-in, and introduce its audiences to the heretical doctrine that had spawned a new generation of occult visionaries influenced by Edgar Allan Poe. Decades later, David Lynch would carry that proverbial torch, further illuminating the writhing, creature-infested realm underlying innocence.

Johnny approaches the young woman who rebuffs his attempts at conversation, seemingly entranced by the music, but allows him to sit, anyway. Soon they are startled by the presence of a striking middle-aged woman (‘Cameron’) who speaks to Johnny’s companion Mora in a strange tongue. Mora insists that she has never met the woman before, nor understands her, but makes a fearful dash from the club as Johnny follows her, eventually gaining her trust and an invitation the following day for breakfast.

Mora lives in a garret atop the carousal pavilion at the boardwalk carnival where she works in one of the side show attractions as a “mermaid.” Arriving early for their arranged breakfast, her eager suitor strikes up a conversation with the man who runs the Merry-Go-Round with his granddaughter, Ellen (Luanna Anders). Their trepidation at the prospecting Johnny becoming intimately acquainted with their beautiful tenant is apparent to all except Johnny himself, who is even more oblivious to Ellen’s wholesome and less striking charms. Even her name evokes the flat earth, soul-crushing sensibilities of home and hearth. Ellen Sands is earthbound Virgo eclipsed by an ascendent Pisces. (Anders would have to subordinate her own sex appeal to play this mostly thankless “good girl” role. She would be unrecognizable a few years later as a more brazenly erotic presence in Easy Rider, helping to define the Vietnam war counterculture era.)

As Johnny ascends the narrow staircase leading to Mora’s sunlit, nautical-themed apartment, he almost collides with a punter making a visibly embarrassed retreat from the upper floor of the carousel pavilion. Is Johnny unknowingly entering into a realm of vice and could Mora herself be a source of corruption? Her virtue is further called into question when she not so subtly asks Johnny if he has ever eaten sea urchin, comparing it to “pomegranate” lest her guest fails to register the innuendo that is as glaring as the raw kipper on his breakfast plate. Johnny admits that he has never eaten the slippery delicacy but “would like to try.” Moments later, Mora’s hand in close-up is stroking the quivering neck of a seagull she has lured over with a freshly caught fish, sealing their carnal bond.

Their subsequent courtship will be marred by an ongoing police investigation into the mysterious deaths of Mora’s former boyfriends, and her insistence that she is being pursued by a sea witch, seeking the errant mermaid’s return to her own dying tribe. Her mysterious stalker will make another unwelcome entrance after her first appearance in the Blue Grotto—this time at an outdoor shindig where the free-spirited young woman reluctantly obliges the gathered locals who urge her to dance. The sight of ‘Cameron’ observing her in the distance causes the frenzied, seemingly spellbound dancer to collapse, setting off a chain of events that will force Johnny to further question her motives and his own sanity.

Mora’s near death encounter through dance is an homage of sorts to another early Harrington collaborator and occult practitioner. Experimental filmmaker Maya Deren had authored several essays on the ecstatic religious elements of dance and possession, and later went on to document her experiences in Haiti taking part in ‘Voudon’ rituals that would be the basis of a book and a posthumously released documentary both titled Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti. Note the Caribbean drummers whose ‘unnatural’ presence, in stark contrast to the more typical Malibu beach party celebrants, hint at the influence of black magic impelling the convulsive, near heart-stopping movements that eventually overtake her ‘exotic’ interpretive dance.

The opening sequence of Divine Horsemen includes a woodblock mermaid figure superimposed over a ‘Voudon’ dancer. The significance of this particular motif was likely known to Harrington, a devotee of this early pioneer of experimental American cinema. Deren herself appeared as a mermaid-like figure washed ashore in At Land (1947) who pursues a series of fragmented ‘selves’ across a wild, desolate coastline. Lawson with her untamed black hair and bare feet could be a body double of Deren’s elemental entity traversing unfamiliar physical terrain to find a way back to herself.

Mora’s insistence that she is being shadowed by a malevolent force directly connected to her mysterious birth on a Greek Island and curious upbringing as a sideshow attraction compel Johnny to investigate her paranoid claims, hoping to allay her fears with a logical explanation for them. The sea witch (or now figment of his imagination) will guide the sleuthing sailor into a desolate, mostly Mexican neighborhood where her departing figure will strand him—right at the doorstep of the jovial former sea captain who employs Mora in his tent show as a captive, “living, breathing mermaid.”

The British officer turned carnie barker is in a snoring stupor when Johnny first encounters him, snapping unconsciously into action to give a rote spiel on the wonders that await inside his tent. Muir balances Mudock’s feigned buffoonery with a slightly sinister edge. When Johnny arrives at his doorstep to find out more about the ongoing police investigation into her previous boyfriend’s deaths, the captain’s effusive hospitality takes on a decidedly darker tone when he guides his visitor to his liquor/curio cabinet where a severed hand in formaldehyde, “a little Arabian souvenir,” is cunningly placed where Johnny’s will see it. The spooky appendage serves as a reminder to Mora’s latest suitor of the punishments in store for a thief.

Captain Murdock’s Venice beach hacienda is yet another one of Night Tide’s deviant jolts: a fully fleshed out character in itself that speaks of its well-travelled tenant’s exotic and forbidden appetites. The dark, symbol-inscribed temple Johnny has entered at 777 Baabek Lane could be a brick-and-mortar portal into this mythic, mermaid-populated dimension that Johnny’s booze-soaked host thunderously defends as real.

Before falling into another involuntary slumber, Murdock will try to convince Johnny that while he and Mora merely stage a sideshow illusion, “Things happen in this world”—or, more to the point, Mora’s belief that she is a sea creature is grounded in fact.

Murdock’s business card that Johnny handily has in his pocket while tailing his dramatically kohl-eyed mark is oddly inscribed with an address more likely to be an ancient Phoenician temple of human sacrifice (Baalbek) than a Venice Beach bungalow. A lingering camera close-up offers another tantalizing, occult-themed puzzle piece—or perhaps a deliberate Kabbalah inspired MacGuffin. The significance of numbers as the underlying components for uniting the nebulous and intangible contents of the mind with the more inert, gravity bound matter, existing outside it, as the ancient Hebrews believed, wouldn’t have been lost on Night Tide’s mystically-minded helmer. Mora’s explicitly expressed disdain for Johnny’s view of the world as a rationally ordered, measurable entity that could be mathematically explained, reinforces Harrington’s world view, his love of Poe, and those French Symbolist artists who interpreted him.

In Odilon Redon’s Germination (1879), a wan, baleful, free-floating arabesque of heads of indeterminate gender suggests either a linear, ascending involution, or a terrifying descent from an unlit celestial void into a bottomless pit of an all-too-human, devolving identity. Redon’s disembodied heads gradually take on more human characteristics, culminating into a black-haloed portrait in profile. The cosmos of Redon’s etching is governed by an unexplained, inexplicable moral sentience, which absorbs the power of conventional light. Thus black is responsible for building its essential form, while glimmers of white, hovering above and below, prove ever elusive; registering as somehow elsewhere, beyond the otherwise tenebrous unity of the picture plane.

Night Tide has its own unsettling dimensions, of course, this black-and-white boardwalk where astral, egalitarian bums want to tip-toe; and, somehow, practically all of them do. Not a movie but an ever-becoming place, crammed into low-budget cosmogenesis unto eternity. We won’t discuss the ending here, since it hasn’t happened yet.

by The Lumière Sisters

19 notes · View notes