The Origin Of The Sharingan Contact Lens
Written by Benjamin Green Sunday, 29 May 2011 10:02
Recently, the Sharingan contact lens has become a very popular novelty in eyewear available. For those familiar with the Japanese manga comic book or anime cartoon the mythology comes from, little explanation is necessary. For those who don't know, though, it relates to a key plot element in a very popular anime series: Naruto.
The reason for all the interest is that in the cartoon, certain ninja have hereditary abilities related to their eyes. They are known as ocular bloodlines. What this does in this particular case is enable the ninja to understand, perform, memorize and counter the abilities and manoeuvres he sees other people use. There is a more advanced version of this ability that changes what it looks like, but the first stage is common to all those who have it. Several important characters in Naruto have it.
The lenses available follow suit with several of these characters in that there are various designs, each related to the condition at a different level. The basic aspect of the eye and therefore lens is the fact that the iris is deep, blood red in color. Between the iris and pupil is a thin circle within the eye. Attached to the circle are between one and three tomoe - these are Japanese symbols, resembling commas. This is general to all characters with the eye condition.
Besides the general designs, there are usually three character-specific variants. These variants coincide with the advanced eye conditions in the series known as mangekyou or kaleidoscope.
Itachi Uchiha is the first person the viewers see to have the kaleidoscope eyes. For him, there is a triple tomoe, also known as a mitsutomoe. Then there are Kakashi Hatake's eyes. His design also follows the mitsutomoe style, but where Itachi's is sharp and angular, his is smoother with extended ends to make a rounder shape. The last central style would be Sasuke Uchiha's. Unlike the first two, his eyes change entirely. The end result resembles the international atom symbol of three electrons orbiting around a nucleus, which is the pupil. There are additional characters whose eye designs may be available too.
The Sharingan contact lens is very arresting, regardless of when it's worn. Most often, though, these are worn for cosplay or Halloween. They are among the best-selling merchandise for the increasingly popular television series.