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Mara to Mirror
Maenads
They were female attendants or priestesses to Bacchus. From the BSSM manga, they were sleeping priestesses of Elios' temple in Elysian.
Magatama
Tama is a soul or spirit that gives life and energy to the person or object it resides in. Tamafuri is a ritual to reactivate the tama or spirit. Magatama are curved-shaped beads that have been found at ritual sites and tombs. It is believed their ancient use in rites was to lure the kami or spirits. The outer shapes of the mandala-like symbol of the tennyo in Ayashi no Ceres look like magatama, which is fitting as the tennyo are very ancient. The mitama in Blue Seed are shaped like magatama. They also show up in OVA 3 of Dream Hunter REM. Hinoto from X has small magatama shaped symbols around the eye symbol on her forehead.
Magi
These are the three kings or three wise men who visited the baby Jesus. In the series Neon Genesis Evangelion, the Magi is the super-computer that runs everything. It is made of 3 parts, Melchior, Balthasar, and Casper. It was designed by Ritsuko's mother, and she says it contains the three aspects of herself, as a mother, as a scientist, and as a woman.
Magic Circle
A sacred space in which magic can be conducted, and power centered. Inside the circle may be inscribed with magical words or symbols. They are also used to protect the magic caster. Both Sakura in CCS, and Urd and Skuld in the AMG OAV conduct magic within a magic circle.
Mana
"Nearly all languages had a cognate of this word, the basic meaning of which was maternal power, moon-spirit, magic,
supernatural force, and a title of the Goddess. Mana came back into English from anthropological studies in the South Pacific, where the word was described as follows:
Mana is the stuff through which magic works...proceeding immediately from the nature of the sacred person or thing, or mediately because a ghost or spirit has put it into the
person or thing...The cult of the relics of the saints springs from the belief that their bodies, whether living or dead, possessed Mana."*
In Ayashi no Ceres, the mana is the tennyo's hagoromo, it is part of them and their life force, without which they eventually die. It makes sense that the mana is a source of power and life, and that
it was originally thought to be maternal power as all tennyo are female.
* Taken from the Encyclopedia Mythica (pantheon.org).
Manami Sukuna-Ikeda
Sukuna in Karura Mau has the ability to calm the Mizuko-no-Rei. At one point in the movie she sings a lullaby and floats a tiny boat on a stream with tiny figure and sphere. The elder Ikeda brother
looks on and though he wanted to kill his mother (killed step-father) he doesn't now and gives up his maks and guise of kireki-user for evil priest.
From movie fansub endnote: Wife of slain assemblyman Ikeda, she is originally from the Sukuna clan, and married into the Ikeda clan amid controversy.
Mandala
The Mandala is used in meditation. Before a person can reach enlightenment, they must pass through the outermost circle of the Mandala, purifying fire, the fire of wisdom. At the center is a symbol of the Buddha, surrounded by the eight corners of the Earth (West, Northwest, North, Northeast, East, Southeast, South, and Southwest). Together the symbols make a lotus shape. The monk uses a mandala in OVA 2 of Dream Hunter REM to stop the spirits.
Maneki Neko
The beckoning or lucky cat. These little statues with paws raised in the Japanese gesture of beckoning are used in the home to invite good luck, or in stores to invite in customers. They may appear in a variety of colors though tri-color is the most popular. There are many stories passed around of the origin of the maneki neko. One is that a shop owner cared for a cat and in return the cat sat outside, beckoned to the passersby, thus helping the shop owner for his attentions. The image of the cat and bell on collar or bib is a popular image in anime, going back to the popular and well-known image of the maneki neko. The power and legend of bakeneko featured on an episode of Ranma 1/2 centers on his bells. Cologne has a maneki neko statue in her shop/eatery.
Manten and Hiten
First appear in volume 3 of Inu-Yasha. Thunder demon brothers, they killed Shippo's father for a shard of the Shikon Jewel.
Marduk
The Marduk Institute in Neon Genesis Evangelion was named from Marduk, the god who founded and the patron god of Babylon, and the supreme god.
Mars
The son of Juno, and husband of Neriene (goddess of strength). He was also attributed to fertility and protection of herds and fields. Other symbols of the deity were the lance, , wolf, and woodpecker. "When war broke out, the general solemnly invoked his aid by smiting his holy lance and the holy shields with the cry, Mars, awake!" (Seyffert, 380). Military honors were given in his name and sacrifices offered during and before battles for success. March was his sacred month, with his main festival held then. Sailor Mars is one of the senshi in Sailor Moon.
Mask
They are frequently used in Japanese theater. In some cultures ritualistic masks are imbued with a spirit. One of the uses of shaman masks in Korea was to expel demons, and to represent
invisible deities and spirits.* From Mike Thomas, "Zombies are created with a porcelin mask, which, when the zombie gets reanimated, either falls off, or becomes the zombie's face."
Masks are also frequently used to hide identity.
In anime masks are many times used for concealment, as with Tuxedo Kamen in Sailor Moon or Sailor V's mask to hide her identity. But the mask in anime also carries a degree of connection to
the supernatural. Larva (a shinma) in the Miyu OVA is punished for not killing Miyu by having his face and voice sealed behind a mask; in the TV series he receives the mask after
making a promise to Miyu to stay with her and break her cycle of destiny when she chooses, and his mask is a symbol of that promise and that he is bound to her. He can speak and remove it at will in the series unlike the OVA. The demon Takamiya (from Twilight of the Dark
Master) wears a mask while in human form. Chichiri in Fushigi Yuugi sometimes will pull a mask off his face.
Maram Masters wear masks in the Alice 19th manga. The power of a Maram Master is determined by the mara that a person gives their soul to.
A cursed noh mask appears in volume 3 of Inu-Yasha. Once it's put on it can never be removed but in death. Not even fire can destroy it and any attempt to harm the mask leads to a strange death.
*www.culturelink.or.kr/article/shaman/Park%20Jintae.htm Shaman Ritual and Mask Play in Korea
Matantei Loki Ragnarok
Manga series influenced by Norse mythology. From Chris: The charachters are Frey, Thor, Loki, Freya, Loki's son the big snake (Midgard), and Hemidell the guy who guards the rainbow bridge with the great site. Aparently it takes place after Loki is banished from Asgard. And Oden is sending people to try to kill him.
Matsuri
Matsuri are festivals of Shinto origin. The matsuri act as a communion between the gods and people, and among people. Matsuri is shown in Blue Seed.
Mephisto
He appears in the second half of OVA 1 and Shin OVA 2 of Dream Hunter REM. His name may possibly come from Mephistopheles, a name for a devil. This character appears in Faust.
From Dave Endresak: "Mephisto Ferris, a diabolical man who was doing experiments on young girls, and who has invented a method of immortalizing
himself, so to speak, by converting his own being into ectoplasmic form. After doing this, he resides only in the Dream World... therefore, it becomes extremely difficult to defeat him
permanently."
Mercury
Mercurius in Latin. The name comes from the Latin mercator, a merchant. He was a deity of commerce, science, innovation, scholars, and intelligent speech. He was said to carry the caduceus (which is the staff that now stands for medicine). On May 15th merchants sprinkled themselves and their merchandise with water at his festival. Sailor Mercury is one of the senshi in Sailor Moon, she is also the scholar of the group, and plans to go into medicine.
A Midsummer Night's Dream
From Chris: Episode 19: A Midsummers Night Dream Three characters names from the Shakesphere play A Midsummers Night Dream appear in this episode of the same title. Bottom, who wears the head of a donkey. Hermia and Lysander.
Mimir
Provided by Superpuu using Pantheon.org. "Mimir is the giant in Norse mythology who
guards the "Well of the Highest Wisdom", situated in Jotunheim under
of the roots of Yggdrasil, the World Tree. He stands half-immersed in
the water and on his powerful shoulders he is supporting the Kjolen
Mountains. It is said that he has been standing there since the
beginning of time and that with the passing of millennia he became
part of the mountain itself.
The chief god Odin sacrificed an eye for a drink from the Well. In
some sources, however, it is the head of the god Mimir who guards the
Well of Wisdom, and not a giant. In the sagas of the Nibelungen,
Mimir is the name of the dwarf who made the sword Balmung for
Siegfried."
Also from Superpuu: Mimir was the wisest god of
the Aesir and one of the two gods sent as hostages to the Vanir.
After the Vanir discovered they had been tricked by the Aesir, they
hacked off Mimir's head and send it back to the Aesir.
Odin took the head, smeared it with a mixture of herbs, so that it
would never decay, and placed powerful spells on it. The forces Odin
called upon were so great that not only the head was brought back to
life, but it was also able to speak to him. From that moment on he
regularly consulted the head which revealed many occult secrets to
him.
Mimiru is in .hack.
Minotaur
From Greek mythology, had the body of a man and the head of a bull. King Minos kept him in a labyrinth. Appears in ep. 2 of Bastard and in ep. 48 of Sailor Moon.
Mithril
Mithril was the Elvish name for true silver or Moria-silver in J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. It was a very valuable metal. In Hyper Police, mithril bullets are said to be silver bullets made by fairies.
Mizuko-no-ryo(rei)
These ghost babies are seen at the beginning of the Karura Mau film and kill assemblyman Ikeda before his wife's eyes. They were summoned for murder or as a dark curse.
From movie fansub endnote: Malignant reis of miscarried or aborted fetuses.
Mnemosyne
Mnemosyne was the goddess of memory. She was also the mother of the Nine Muses in mythology. Usually mother and daughters are worshipped together. She gave humans the power of memory, and owns all tales (even though none were written about her). Sailor Mnemosyne guards the River of Memory, and it is through her that the senshi are returned their memories from Lethe in the BSSM manga.
Momotaro
"Son of a Peach." An old couple found a peach that had washed up in a river, and when it opened it revealed a beautiful child,
a gift to the couple from the gods as the couple so desired a child of their own. At 15, Momotaro set out to kill devils that were
capturing and devouring innocent people. On his journey he encountered a dog, pheasant, and monkey who all became
companions to him. Upon reaching the North-Eastern Sea, Momotaro killed the devils plaguing the land and returned the kingdom
to peace. In episode 11 of Urusei Yatsura, a group of oni go back in time to kill Momotaro before he can grow up to slay their kind, and when Lum
finds him he's accompanied by the three animal companions. I'm also reminded of Minky Momo's companions when thinking of this legend.
From Kit: The myth gains a twist in Yu Yu Hakusho, during the Dark Tournament Saga. One of the opponents is a man named Kuro Momotaro. He uses special spheres to give him armor that resembles a dog, monkey, and bird.
Mononoke
"The spirit of a thing" according to Nausicaa.net. And according to the Kodansha encyclopedia: "Vagrant spirits of the living or the dead believed to possess a person and cause death or illness...A person's spirit was believed to detach itself from the body permanently at death, or temporarily during times of emotional stress. Such a spirit was termed mononoke when it possessed another person either from anger, jealousy, or vengeful resentment" (v. 5, 247). Lastly, there is a quote on page 66 of the Catalpa Bow that though not about mononoke itself, does relate to mononoke and the gods in the film: "Japanese belief that a spiritual being, whether numen, ghost or animal, will remain benevolent so long as it is treated right. Once neglect the nourishing rituals and the being will change its nature completely, becoming a source of curses rather than of blessings." Mononoke are the subject of the film Princess Mononoke.
Moon
The power
associated with the Moon and deity Selene was enchantment. The
color white is symbolic of the Moon and Diana, as well as the
metal silver. For many cultures, the Moon is a feminine symbol. It
also symbolizes the soul, eternity, and immortality.
Moon imagery abounds in the Sailor Moon series, the main heroine being based on mythology herself. Also, a duality between the sun
and moon might be portrayed as with Yue and Kero in CCS or Serenity and Endymion in BSSM.
In Faeries' Landing, the moon is the gateway between the faerie realm and human world. In volume 2, Fanta says: During the nights of full moons and half-moons, the gates of Avalon open. The moon of course is constantly linked to magic, and to fairy realms, such as fairies that appear in or love the moonlight. In this series, faeries is an encompassing term for beings with magic or who aren't directly part of the mortal world (the nymphs or maidens, Goodfellow, etc.). For those who've seen Magical Emi, this is another series that uses the term thus, Santa Claus, nature spirits, etc. are all a kind of fairy.
In Jewel BEM Hunter Lime the Gate to the Magic World also happens to be the moon. The gate only opens between the human and magic world once
a month. This of course is reference to the cyclical nature of the moon and the cyclical nature of forces tied to it: menstruation, certain rituals for magic at certain moon
phases, and of course happenings attributed to the full moon (werewolves for example). To bounce off the last link, it is mentioned in the show that
when the gate is opened extra energy is released, which causes the magical spheres (orbs of energy lost at the start of the series) to have more
influence or to possibly manifest as a monster.
Moon of Woman (Vampire Hunter D)
In the first film the moon is red and called "Moon of Woman" and on that night vampires are said not to feed because they believe blood impure. In tradition and folklore the moon is often linked with women because of a woman's monthly cycle, thus "Moon of Woman" in the film. Also, in some cultures menstrual blood was thought unclean and so this carries over to the movie where it is thought that blood drunk on that night would be unclean.
Moth
Menomaru (first Inu-Yasha movie) is a kind of moth kami.
Mother
The following applies to the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion:
The image of the mother is presented throughout the series.
Womb: Images of the womb or being inside the womb are connected with the Evas. The cable that attaches to the Eva is called an
Umbilical Cable, and the L.C.L. liquid that fills the Entry Plug the pilots sit in is like amniotic fluid and has the smell of blood. Also, in Eva-01's
case, Shinji's mother's soul is inside the unit, which makes it even more womblike for Shinji to be inside it.
The Sea: Images of the sea show up several times in the series.
The sea seems to be a symbol of the mother again, a subconcsious yearning for or a return to that state inside the womb. It's something
quiet and peaceful, soothing amid the chaos around Shinji and the fighting.
Technology: The two mothers that literally became part of their technology also had been so a part of their work during their life that
at the end of it, they lived on inside it. The mind of Ritsuko's mother lives on inside the Magi, the super computers that run everything. She
said of it that she modeled the three parts after the three aspects of herself, as a mother, as a woman, and as a scientist. Also, Shinji's mother's
soul became trapped in Eva-01 after she was absorbed into it during a test.
Absence: The other interesting image is the physical absence of the mother. The mothers of the pilots are dead or gone, as are the mothers
for the other characters as well. This creates an unnatural state, where no mother is present to the child, and also creates a kind of
spiritualizing of the mother, as instead she watches over from the subconscious as in Shinji's case or is present in memory or spirit, as in
Ritsuko's case, where Ritsuko finds herself making the same mistakes her mother made and following in her footsteps as both a woman and
a scientist.
Eve: Lastly, the Evas are partly named from Eve, who biblically is the mother of humanity according to Genesis.
Mummified Body
This is an example in Ayashi no Ceres of how legend changes and is reshaped as events are passed down through history. The grandfather explains to Aki that the mummified body of Ceres has been kept by the Mikage family since her death, and instead of rotting away, was preserved at first. His version, the one passed down, stated Ceres killed Mikage and died herself soon after but not before giving birth to a child, this child survived from milk that continued to flow from her breasts for 1000 years. The Mikage family since kept the body and worshipped it as a sort of protective deity that brought them prosperity. Kagami thinks otherwise after Ceres' husband awakens in Aki and kills their grandfather. Ceres' spirit was bound to earth just as her body, and thinks the Mikage family may have been wrong all these years as he now understands why Ceres continues to be reincarnated. The actual story turns out to be that Ceres finally killed her husband when the power she lent him turned him from a kind man to an evil one, and without her robe died with her young children in her arms under the pine tree.
Mu'Onna
The Nothing Woman. From volume 2 of Inu-Yasha. She is made of the vengeful spirits of mothers who lost their children to famine or war. But she is also a demon born from a mother's love for her lost child. And because of this she loses her life protecting Inu-Yasha as she sees him as her own.
Murasame
"In Japan, two "magical" blades exist. These are Masamune (Mah-sah-moo-nay) and Murasame (Mer-ah-sah-may) swords. If you put the two blades in a river with floating leaves,
the Masamune blade would repel the leaves and let them flow safely down the stream, while the Murasame blade would attract and cut them up. The Murasame blade is
supposedly cursed, but very powerful. It is so innately cold, that water disperses off it when drawn and exposed to air. The Murasame blade alone is cursed and powerful."*
Murasame is the name of Gara's sword in Bastard.
*http://www.hybridbe.com/fa_20202.shtml
Myoga the Flea
From Inu-Yasha. Once a flea who knew Inu-Yasha's father. He guards the grave now, and joins Inu-Yasha's group.