Lord Sesshomaru's Mokomoko: Tail or No
I seem to have hit a nerve on a touchy subject, with my earlier post regarding making a vertebrae for a costume tail... namely for Lord Sesshomaru's Mokomoko. aaaahhh.... I should have expected this. Anyways my inbox on LJ and my email are both telling me that fans of Lord Sesshomaru the man wearing a fur boa are now mad at me for referring to him as a man with a tail. Well, if they had read my post, they would have known that I said I was a fan of Rumiko's manga version of Sesshy, not the altered anime version of him. In the manga he has a tail. In the anime he wears a fur boa some days and has a tail other days... weird.
Hey, it's a fictional character, but if people want to argue the matter than, hell I'll tell you why I call it a tail, and prove it too, but don't say I didn't warn, you... I am a writer, used to writing monstrous essaies about fictional characters before even using them in my books, and I do the same thing for fictional characters created by other writers, so here we go... let's see if I can fit this all in one post! =P
It does seem odd however, that there are folks who could say it is not a tail, considering the fact that the only way to do him any serious harm is to in fact injure his Mokomoko. When the Mokomoko is wounded and bleeding all over the place, Sesshomaru falls down paralyzed. You are gonna tell me that a fur boa is going to start bleeding or cause him pain! LOL!
The reason Lord Sesshomaru attracts more oogle-eyed, love-struck, crazed fan girls than any other Bishie boy is: his mokomoko, that big furry fluffy thing, that is the cause of so many battles and debates among his fans who fight fang and claw over what in the world a mokomoko actually is.
I once saw a fan created picture that quickly explained the fan girl obsession with Lord Sesshomaru. It was screen shot taken of Lord Sesshomaru while looking very fierce and was combined with a second screen shot of a woman "in love". Over this altered picture was the words: "Fear me, damn it!" followed by: "But you're so cute and fluffy!".
Women love furry things. Women love all things cute and cuddly. Women love all things soft and fluffy. Women go wild over men draped in fur boas. Wait, why is a man wearing a fur boa?
Of course those of you who only know Lord Sesshomaru from the TV show and not from the book, will be interested to know that while the show portrays him as a man wearing a 4 foot long fur boa, the book from which the show was based on, portrays him as a man with an 8 foot long tail which he drapes over his shoulder to keep it from dragging on the ground.
Also in the book, but not on the show, is the fact that he can only be mortally wounded if his tail is injured, which has happened twice resulting in his near death each time, again, not in the show, only in the book. (See picture below, with Sesshy and his bloody wounded tail.)
Another thing that points to the fact that the mokomoko is actually a part of his body, is the fact that when he transforms back into his natural state (that of a 40 foot tall white dog) he still has the mokomoko, which can be seen to be some sort of a lion's mane.
If you've never seen the difference between the skimpy boa of the show, than you'll be quite shocked at the sight of the monstrously huge tail of the book version of Sesshomaru.
I got to say, the original book version of Sesshy is much better than the "edited" tv show version of him that came along seven years later.
- Chibi Art and The Mokomoko:
Official VIZ created Chibi art shows several different versions of Sesshomaru as a child, aged about 7 or 8 years old. The most interesting thing about Chibi art is the many ways in which they portray the Mokomoko.
Chibi art has shown him with his fluffy thing being a traditional dog-tail (the only time we ever see him portrayed as such). Baby-Chibi art has also shown us a naked Sesshomaru, and shows him as an infant with a tail on his butt, like a dog.
Chibi art has also shown it as being the mane-like mokomoko "tail thing" attached at the back of his right shoulder, which is how it's usualy shown.
And than again, there is Chibi art showing him wearing a fur stole thrown around both shoulders.
Which Chibi art do we believe as accurate? Well, since all of these are drawn by VIZ's manga-anime artists, we must than assume that they are all correct, and that Sesshomaru is a shape shifter (which we already know he is) and can put his tail where ever the hell he wants it to be and take it off should he decide he doesn't wish to wear it at all. Weird.
One of the things I like best about Lord Sesshomaru the Dog Demon of Death and Destruction is his long lovely fluffy tail. Call me a perfectionist, but I've never seen a Sesshomaru costume that did his beautiful tail justice .
All too often, the costume wearer just drapes a piece of fur over their shoulder as if they were wearing a shawl. That bugs me, because it's not some shawl or cape thing he's wearing, in fact he's not wearing it, because it is a part of him; it is his tail.
Yes, I know it confuses some people, the fact that he's got it draped over his shoulder, however, this is in fact his tail, which is pulled up through his kimono, exiting through an opening in the right-hand sleeve, than thrown over his shoulder, in order to keep the 8 foot long fluffy white tail from dragging on the ground as he walks.
As I said, too many costumers treat the fur on the costume as though it were a piece of clothing, and not a part of his body. As we know from the series, he uses his tail like an extra hand to grab hold of his enemies and squeeze then mush in the same way a snake would do, (I'd like to see you animate a shawl into doing that... deadly tail points! YAY!) and it can be (and has been) injured . . . hey, a cape or a shawl doesn't bleed when hit by a sword, but a tail does!
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