Sorry if it's already been answered but how come some of the Phantom masks in Japan, especially earlier in the production's history, are so dark? I know we can't ask Björnson and there's probably no writing about it but just wondering? Thank you !!
It is an extremely good question. I have never heard or seen an official explanation to it. The very first explanation I read was that white was the colour of mourning in Japan, so they made the masks darker. But that doesn't quite make sense. As far as I can tell, Masachika Ichimura's first masks were white:
...not to mention Christine's white dressing gown and white wedding dress... So... it doesn't feel like quite right that they would change the Phantom's masks due to this.
It looks to me like they tried a bunch of versions to darken or dull down the mask. The 1990s appear quite experimental. Give or take some light effects, these are some variations I've seen:
Very dark metallic mask, I think this is Yuichiro Yamaguchi:
Also Yamaguchi? Photo from 1992:
Unidentified, 1990s:
Jun Sawaki, 1990s:
Unidentified, Hiroshima 2017:
But also... quite white masks, especially in recent years. Here's Osamu Takai, 2017:
And the most recent mask from 2024:
What I DO get a sense of is that they do bold shading even today, but that the masks are not as dark as in the 1990s. Some are even pretty standard white. But why they did the dark / metallic / grey / heavy shaded ones early on... I frankly don't know.
