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Doll
In Japan, dolls were once believed to be able to come alive. The
belief echoed the idea that much love given will bring life to
something. They were also known for their lifelike features. From
generation to generation dolls were handed down, sometimes
retaining wonderful condition for over a hundred years. When a
doll finally does become broken, it is finally regarded as dead and
offered up to Kojin. Its remains are laid in a small shrine before the
enoki tree where Kojin is said to reside. It is said the doll once had
a soul, and desired to bestow the gift of maternity to those who
longed for it.
From Mike Thomas:* "One of the reasons that Romans and
Greeks didn't put eyes onto statues, busts or dolls... they were
afraid that if the statues, busts, or dolls actually had eyes, that
they could come alive and be a terror to their creator. It's also
the reason that scarecrows are suppossed to have pumpkins or bags
for heads. If they have something more "realistic" the scarecrow
might come alive."
In episode two of the Vampire Princess Miyu OVA, two teenagers comment on the
lifelike features of Japanese dolls, and marionettes are the subject
of Ranka's form and magic. In ep. 2 of the TV series, Ro-Sha encases the women he abducts in wax, creating living mannequins. This has some similarities to Akiko in Takahashi's
Mermaid Series, as the girl may have possibly still been alive within the wax.
Dolls are a huge part of the storyline from ep. 19 of the Miyu TV series. There is a bit of the negative aspect of a Pygmalion type story in that Kimihara falls in love with her creations so much that she lives
with one life-sized doll in particular as wife and husband. More accurately it might be said that she is longing to be loved and in her loneliness has created male dolls of exceptional beauty as a
reflection of her longings and wishes. She says to him, "You are not a doll. You are someone born into this world for me." Later a young girl Yuki comes to work for her and had been an admirer
of Kimihara and her work. Slowly Kimihara will begin to realize affection from another human, and in the end this will be what she chooses. Yuki is seen at the end designing girl dolls, and says to everyone she can
create such beautiful dolls because she loves them. Kimihara is now her lover, and content for the moment to live as Miyu says in "the illusion of love." Perhaps the two really love each other, or perhaps Kimihara in her
loneliness and longing, and Yuki in her infatuation are both in love with the idea of love in the end. Also the shinma of the episode had taken possession of the framework of the doll Kimihara loved most. He tells her after
she's stabbed and mangled the doll out of a rage of jealousy and appeared in his true form that, "Whether you pour love or hate into a doll it gives it life." So her emotions gave power to the shinma.
Reiha's doll in the Miyu series, Matsukaze, has several layers to it. He may be a childlike link or symbol for Reiha, a bit like Miyu's ribbons. As Miyu's ribbons show her girlhood or vestige of innocence, so too might
Reiha's continued possession of her doll, though with a bit darker quality. Or he could be a parallel to Shiina. As Miyu uses Shiina as a helper, so too does Reiha with Matsukaze. There is also,
again, that element of imparting emotion into a doll and that quality giving it life, and the Japanese belief of dolls and spirits. Reiha says in ep. 23: "I wanted to preserve my anger and way it was, that was Matsukaze. No
matter how painful the memory was he was the only thing left for me to connect with my father." Note it is her father's spirit inside the doll, his will to continue to protect her. Also, from this
quote can see there is the added element she wanted it to be, as she lost her father and the only thing left of her life after his death was the doll she carried with her all her life. So the doll
became a comfort and familiar object to her. It's possible Matsukaze was given life from contact with Shinma, or it was Reiha's will or mind that gave him life (children will play and talk with their dolls as if they are real, and after such
a tramatic event it's very likely child Reiha turned to her doll for comfort). In her loneliness and sorrow she placed her love and trust in him, as children do, so he has both a psychological and magical aspect to him. Before he was a doll, but now he's
not just a toy but also her literal guardian and companion (much like Larva is to Miyu). So with Reiha's loss of childhood and awakening after into a yuki-onna (she seems to be like Miyu, imprisoned within the body of a child forever), she has a guardian
in the form of a childlike doll but powerful and not childlike in the least, which reflects the new Reiha.
A doll is possessed by a youma in ep 18 of BSSM, and
the old belief of dolls having a soul may have something to do with the dolls scattered at Hotaru's feet while possessed by Mistress 9 during the third season. In an OAV ep. of Ranma
1/2 the group visits Doll Inn and there they encounter the Vengeful Spirit Doll on display in the hall (if anyone is rude or disrespectful in its presence the doll will take its revenge). After Ranma
knocks her over and breaks her, the doll changes bodies with Akane to seek Ranma out and punish him.
From Chris: Episode 15 of Princess Tutu is called Coppelia. And it starts out: Once a man fell in
love with a doll. It came alive but the doll rejected his love. This
is a refrence to the ballet Coppelia. The little
story at the begining also reminded me a bit of the greek story of
Pygmalion.
Akiko from Mermaid's Gaze is a living doll. Butterflies on her kimono, thought to be a doll, but really she's eaten the flesh of a mermaid so her corpse stayed
preserved and beautiful underneath the wax. By the end, the reader can't be sure if Akiko had been alive all those years or only preserved
and her brother's projection of her living being like that of a Poe character, suffering under his own guilt. Butterflies are an appropriate
design for her kimono as they are both feminine in her case and as a symbol of the soul, a fitting symbol if her soul still resides in a wax body
as a doll.
*Post April 9, 2003, Tenshi-Tachi ML.