"The looking glass" - what is this reference?

Question

In the fourth InuYasha movie, "The Castle Beyond the Looking Glass," and in the movie, "Blood: The Last Vampire," this 'looking glass' is mentioned. It seems to be a magical divide between the demon realm and the human realm. But where does this reference come from?

Answer 1

There are two major Japanese myths involving mirrors. One is the Yata no Kagami, which is a mirror that lured the sun god out of a cave (if I remember correctly). The other is the mirror of Matsuyama, where a girl believes she sees her dead mother in a mirror, when it's really her own reflection.



I remember one anime using a mirror that looked like the Yata no Kagami. If I remember correctly, the mirror captured people and held them in another word.



However, if it's a true "looking glass" and not really just a hand/round mirror, then it might be a reference to "Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There" by Lewis Carroll. I know it's a rather popular theme in anime/manga today, but I don't know how popular it was during the time those series came out.

Answer 2

Good question no clue where to look.

Yes we have alice in wonderland of imaginary impossibility

We have snow white and the queen and her looking glass



My best guess is that mirrors represent vanity. The world of looks and ego and all the horrors that people conserve looking in a mirror... And also their flaws and ugliness the things they don't like to see.

And I imagine that this brings on realms of evil. Like vampires that con not see them selves in a mirror.

Or the world that could lay beyond it. And what kind of world would it be. The evil of a persons vanity or the ugliness they process? Seems a logical guess but i gather it be a close one dave

Answer 3

It's like a parallel universe of sorts. The idea that we can look in a mirror and see another "us". From there, the possibilties are endless. When we walk away from the looking glass, then so does our other self. But the question is, what is that other self going to be doing? What fate awaits them in their looking glass life>

Answer 4

A looking glass is a mirror.



It may or may not reference the squeal to Lewis Carolls Alice in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass