If you grew up when I did, and was online at the age I was, you most likely remember the internets overly bizarre fascination with Ninjas. For some reason everything was Ninjas. Pirates vs Ninjas. Ask A Ninja. The list goes on and on and on. And, while I'm certainly not against Ninjas, not in the abstract anyway, I also was never a huge fan of Kung-Fu films in general. I liked a few here and there, but they overall just weren't my cup of tea. It just isn't really my genre, and I say that as a giant film geek. But that's absolutely what this mask reminds me of. The lead from a sort of Muppet led kung-fu film, which I would absolutely watch, no questions asked.
Overall, it's just cartoony enough to not be boring and just goofy enough to not be realistic (okay, I mean, let's be real, this sort of thing was never going to be realistic), it's just a fantastic overall design. I love that they gave him large pointy elf ears in addition to everything else, even though it absolutely wasn't necessary (and they are, admittedly, a tad hard to see in this photo). But the overall shape of his face, the somewhat conniving maniacal look he portrays, his wonderful teeth and eyes, this guy is a mask ripped right out of the pages of an early 90s comic book. All of his cartoonish features mixed with that long silver flowing hair really makes him feel like some sort of ancient warrior trained in the deadly art of Frog Fu.
This kind of mask is what I'm always talking about when I talk about the lack of creativity nowadays. Now we've simply amassed a wall of costumes based on pre-existing IPs and memes, and it's so absolutely sad. I mean, kids have been dressing up as Spiderman forever, that'll never change, nor should it, but the absolute death of originality when it comes to Halloween costumes is extremely disheartening, and Master Frog Manchu here is a perfect example of why that creativity needs so badly to be protected and continued at all costs.
And his HORNS. God lord I didn't mention his HORNS. Just look at those bad boys. Do yourself a favor and take a good long gander at these horns that, while 100% not necessary, also 100% add to the overall awesomeness that is this design. They didn't have to give him horns, but someone looked at it and said, "Hey let's slap some horns on this bad boy" and you know what, I wish I knew who that person was, because I'd buy them dinner. He already had a winning design here, between his fantastic fat teeth and his wonderful eyes and the hair, but then they said fuck it, let's add horns for no reason other than we can, and you know what? Good enough reason for me.
If you paired this mask up with a kimono, and maybe a sword on the hip of two swords crossed on the back, you'd have one absolutely killer costume. I could see this character sitting in a swamp somewhere, meditating, waiting to hop his way to vengeance. There's a million great ways to design a costume around this mask, you just need some imagination. To be fair, I don't think it's entirely right to blame the death of originality in masks entirely on a consumer market demanding things they already know they like and are comfortable with, and are affordable not just to make but to buy. I think a lot of the blame also falls squarely on the industry itself, who probably didn't see great returns on all the hard work they were putting in year after year making badass mask after badass mask and instead, once they watched the booming popularity of pop culture in the early 2000s, realized there was an easier road to financial figures their stockholders would appreciate. I can't say I blame them, they are a business after all, but that's the problem when art becomes commodified and the people who pour their heart and soul into something they love are told it "isn't worth the effort they're putting into it financially". It's heartbreaking. As an artist, I would know.
And therein lies the death of greats like frog wizard kabuki here. He simply can't stack up against a corporate empire seeing better investments on recognizable, cheaper to produce and instantly accessible masks based on characters that already exist. He's a relic, a product of his time, a memory of a long forgotten era where people put their appreciation of art over their adoration of monetary gain. Gone are the days where we recognized something not for its economic value, but for its artistic integrity. Frog Manchu simply couldn't handle living in the modern world, and so he vanished in a puff of smoke, a croak on the wind, and returned to the swamps from whence he came from to live out the rest of his days.
Some say, on the coldest nights, in the quietest hours, you can still hear the sound of his swords, the ribbit in his voice, as he waits. Waits for the day he will return. He's coming, to cut down all those who took everything from him. He won't stop until every generic mundane mask based on a pop culture character has been sliced into a million ribbons. Until the peels of ribbon and plastic that make up his enemies lay at his feet. He is silent as the wind. He is deadly as the night.
He is Master Frog Manchu.
And he's coming to reclaim Halloween.
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