#Johnathan M Shiff

[multxanna]

I just started watching the bureau of magical things and imogen already pissing me off. it’s giving ondina from mako mermaids. i think johnathan m shiff makes sure he always has that one character.

[slutforchocorobos]

Since it's still mermay, H2O verse mermaid tail ranking:

(idk how this came to be so long, so it under a read more)

out of any music videos, commercials, TV shows, movies, H2O verse tails are still miles, MILES ahead in terms of construction and quality than almost any other production. (psh psh shoutout to JMB FX Studio) BUT i will blabber opinions bc i can

ON WITH THE RANKING:

#4 Mako Mermaids mermaid tails

Jonathan decided to expand everything: lore, universe, cast (so many tails and tops you guys, if I was the one in charge of gluing all those scales I would've killed myself on the spot) but his budget obviously wore thin.

so weak, so flimsy, need milk

These make me sigh to no end, why whyyy the same design as h2o when they have NO budget to afford the same tails.

Look at how they murdered my girls, the tails can no longer stand on its own, they look so sad. THE TAIL PHOTO IS PART OF THE ESSENCE OF H2O,THE MAIN DRAW OF A MERMAID SHOW. They really had to photoshop the tails on later seasons 😔. Tragic.

i appreciate that each tail has a fun unique pattern kinda animal inspired under the scales. it gives the tails an opportunity to blend with the characters and their personalities. also them tails still hit my little nostalgia bones.

#3: Mako Mermaids Merman tails

The addition of mermen was so good and the production fucked up the overall design of the mermen (no upper body fish details? for real? it really bothers me).

this tail wouldn't be so low in the list if it wasn't in the h2o verse. it's clearly the most creative design of the bunch (again getting killed by the lack of structure) but there's an established look to the tails, getting 3 similar designs with a realistic approach and a blue fantasy outlier???, not a fan of the color but I get why it happened, the shape tho????.

poor mako mermaids 😔 the tails don't have the same structural strength and intense detailing as the h2o ones. BUT COMMON ZAC IS THE MAIN CHARACTER (and on s1 the only merman). Mah boi Chai is too strong for these tails😭 look at how it bends at the ankles.

#2 H2O season 3 mermaid tails.

these have the opposite problem. these are so thick lol why do these weight 40 kilos lmao.

these look different from s1, not a problem. they look yellower and lighter in color. the fish detailing is thicker. the tail has glitter in it now?? this simplified design helped me understand the anatomy of the tail, so my art skills owe to this design a lil bit lol, and it looks pretty underwater tbh.

I don't get the change tho, the show has a darker plot, the characters have grown up but the tails have a more kid friendly look??? I don't remember toys of them.

why make a whole new set of tails when the new mermaid got transformed on the opposite side of the world and the other two already had tails

sidenote: these ruined all fan edits that wanted all 4 mermaids together (5 if you include Charlotte) bc they had to edit either Emma or Bella with the other tail and it looked weird and mismatched.

Honorable mention: H2O Season 1 Miriam costume contest tail

this one is so funny, it mocks the practicality of mermaid costumes. it looks opposite of what our "real" mermaids look like. all colorful and shiny and over the top. Also this look gives miriam a good amount of karma thanks to kim lol.

#1 H2O season 1 mermaid tails

LOOK AT THEMMMM. 2006, the start of the gritty realistic aesthetic in TV and movies, and those mermaid tails fit so beautifully in that era. the bright campy 2000s beach fashion + dark "realistic" fantasy is such a *chef kiss* combination.

the tails are designed to look as real as possible, a tail for an animal that big needs muscles, the tails need to look strong enough to push the mermaid and flexible enough to believe the fluke is still a movable body part.

The brown-orange kinda fits into the realistic fish colors plus those naturally occuring in human skin + hair. also the top gives a unified whole bodyness to the transformation 💕

THE TEXTURE, oh god those scales were glued with love istg and that fluke was carved with so much detail and care.

these tails oof they invented mermaids istg any future mermaid media owes them BIG TIME. if it's cgi the tail needs to look strong, integrated into the body, and affect the movement accordingly, if it's practical effect they need to hide them knees and ankles!!, those breaks ruin the illusion of flow and hydrodynamics while swimming ( + recognizing a human body underneath kinda breaks the immersion).

h2o season 4 when 😔😔😔

[nicamon606]

Of  course they do.

H2O and The Bureau of Magical Things 100% take place in the same universe and you can’t convince me otherwise

[frosty--giants]

How is Johnathan M Shiff still making the EXACT same show years later. H2O started in 2006, and over a decade later The Bureau of Magical Things feels like the same show! The filming style, the acting, the effects! It's like he's sending stuff to us from the past.

[cleosetori]

thanks johnathan m shiff the one true gay ally

[opalsiren]

oohh absolutely agree with you on all of this. even though zikki and clewis were planned from the beginning, they have functions outside of their romantic relationships with the mermaids. they share the secret, they're fluid and dynamic, they develop as they learn to adapt to the mermaids' lives and help them to grow. ash, by contrast, is just sort of... there. he isn't even important enough as a character to warrant a mention, let alone screen time, after emma's exit, even though he knows the mermaids's secret. by season 3 even the writers were tired of him lol

also i understand this was totally framed as a bad choice on ash's part and he did apologise, but that bit at the end of season 2 where ash tries to bodily carry emma and dump her in the sea to help her overcome her supposed fear of water? trash person.

even though emma gilbert is gay af and i will rebuke anyone who says otherwise till my dying breath, her love interest of season 1, byron, is far more compelling. he's friendly, warm, and easygoing, a perfect foil to emma's cool type A personality. if she was going to tell someone the secret, why not byron? if she must have a male love interest, why not have it be someone who doesn't attempt to violate her trust and safety and autonomy? @ johnathan m. shiff i just wanna talk

Of course! @virgowlw​

as I touched on before Ash is a very flat, one dimensional character. He was created solely for the purpose of being a love interest, and you can tell.

Take Clewis and Zikki for example, two ships that have been loved by a fandom for over a decade. They had 3 seasons to develop and grow, while Emmash had 17 episodes. The relationship is forced, and the fact Ash lacks a personality really doesn’t help. 

Simply put, he’s boring + uninteresting on screen. What can you remember about Ash other than he likes horses and Emma? I mean he doesn’t even have a last name for fucks sake.

and Craig Horner just? Doesn’t look like a high schooler?? but maybe that’s just me.

also what a dumb fuckin shipname lmao emmash ain’t got nothin on rikma