Glass Mask

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Glass Mask

ガラスの仮面
(Garasu no Kamen)

Genre

Romance, Drama

Manga

Author

Suzue Miuchi

Publisher

Hakusensha

Star Comics

Demographic

Shōjo

Serialized in

Hana to Yume
Orion

Original run

January 1976

Volumes

42 (Tankoubon), 23 (Bunkoban)

TV anime

Director

Gisaburô Sugii

Studio

Eiken

Network

NTV

Other networks:
Mangas Italia 1

Original run

April 09, 1984 – September 27, 1984

Episodes

OVA

Director

Tsuneo Kobayashi

Studio

TMS Entertainment

Episodes

Released

December 16, 1998

TV anime

Director

Mamoru Hamatsu

Studio

TMS Entertainment

Network

AT-X, TV Aichi, TV Osaka,TV Tokyo

Original run

April 05, 2005 – ongoing

Episodes

Glass Mask (ガラスの仮面, Garasu no Kamen^?) is a long-running shōjo manga by Suzue Miuchi, serialised in Hana to Yume from January 1976, and collected in 42 tankōbon volumes as of 2006. The story has also been adopted into anime several times, including TV series in 1984 and 2005 and an OVA. As of 2006, the collected volumes had 50 milion copies in Japan, making it the second best-selling shōjo manga ever.^[1] The title refers poetically to the mask of faces that actors wear - while expressing emotions that are not their own, the mask they wear (their acting) is as fragile as glass. If the actors are distracted, their mask will "break" and show on stage the actors' true feelings.

While many chapters have been published in Hana to Yume subsequent to the collected manga volumes, Miuchi is, for reasons of her own, redrawing chapters and initiating changes to the storyline. The most recently published volume features a cell phone, something which did not exist at the beginning of the series' run and may be evidence of a desire by the manga artist to modernize certain aspects of the series. The newest TV series from 2005 is also modernized, featuring new fashions and hairstyles (i.e.: Ayumi's elaborate hairstyle has been noticeably simplified), computers and the Internet, all of these not existing until recent years. Certain elements of the prior storyline in the Hana to Yume chapters have also led to fan speculation that Miuchi may have decided to change the storyline entirely by disregarding these chapters and rewriting them to suit the new direction she wishes to take the series in.

Certain stylistic elements of Glass Mask are quite similar to those of sports manga and anime such as Attack No. 1 and Ace o Nerae!, such as the heroine's complete and total devotion to her craft, a struggle to persevere in the face of crippling self-doubts and lack of support from family and peers, and training programs that are often quite grueling and brutal. During one rehearsal, Tsukikage is unhappy with Maya for not reaching the emotional peak needed to perform the scene and slaps her repeatedly until she gets it right. The rivalry between Maya and Ayumi mirrors that between Hiromi and Reika in Ace o Nerae!, or Kozue and Yoshimura in Attack No. 1.

A live action version adapted the first 38 volumes of the series in 1997, and continued in 1998 as "Garasu no Kamen 2." Both productions starred Yumi Adachi as Maya Kitajima.

1 Story
2 Characters
3 Anime
- 3.1 Staff
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Story

Glass Mask is a saga depicting the devotion of Maya Kitajima to the performing arts as a professional stage actress, and her competition with her skilled rival, Ayumi Himekawa. They are both pursuing the degree of acting proficiency and career success required to play the lead role of the legendary stage play "The Crimson Goddess" ("Kurenai Tennyo"). Maya is not particularly beautiful or smart in school, but her passion for acting is all-consuming, to the point where she literally puts her own life on the line several times for the sake of a role. Always told by her mother that she was good for nothing, Maya wants to prove to the world and to herself that she has worth. On the other hand, everyone expects the gifted and multi-talented Ayumi to succeed, so she is determined to reach the top on her own without the help of her prestigious parents.

As the story unfolds it encompasses the tangled human relationships of many characters, including Maya's mentor, Chigusa Tsukikage, who discovered Maya's tremendous talent for acting during her search for a successor capable of performing the role of "The Crimson Goddess", and Masumi Hayami, the young president of a large production company, who often interacts with Maya as a crafty and cold-hearted entrepreneur, while giving her faithful support and warm encouragement in the disguise of an anonymous fan ("The Purple Rose Person", or "murasaki no bara no hito" as Maya calls him for his trademark gift of purple roses). Hayami's boss, Hajime Onodera, wants the rights to "Kurenai Tennyo," which were given to Tsukikage by the playwright; since Tsukikage refuses to sell him the rights, Onodera tries to drive Tsukikage's acting school out of business through a series of nefarious schemes, and since Hayami is working as Onodera's agent, Maya (unaware that Hayami is the "Purple Rose Person") hates him. Though there is an age difference of eleven years, Masumi falls in love with Maya and gives her encouragement in subtle ways.

[edit] Characters

Main article: List of characters in Glass Mask

Maya Kitajima (北島マヤ, Kitajima Maya^?). A talented 13-year-old actress, who originally worked as a waitress in a Chinese restaurant alongside her mother. Her father died when she was a little girl and her mother, Haru (Louise in the French anime), is mentally unstable and for a long time she thinks of Maya as useless. She's discovered by the former diva Chigusa Tsukikage and starts a promising acting career under her wing. Maya's talent for acting comes from both her natural skill and emotional personality, unlike Ayumi whose skills are more technically-driven; in fact, Maya practically 'becomes' her characters when she plays, so brutal her training methods are and so intensely she performs. Her nickname is "The Stage Storm". In the French anime, Maya's name is Laura Nessonier.

Ayumi Himekawa (姫川亜弓, Himekawa Ayumi^?) Maya's biggest rival, the honor-bound and noble Ayumi was born as the daughter of a very famous actress (Utako Himekawa, one of Maya's idols) and a successful director and producer (Mitsugu Himekawa), and has been touted as a prodigy since early age. Still, ever since then Ayumi wants to shine on her own, reminded of how she got her first role just because of her family links. Ayumi is said to be practically perfect in technique, but for a long time she's unable to reach the emotional peaks Maya does when she performs. She apparently has serious eyesight problems, which unfold later in the series. In the French anime, Ayumi's name is Sidonie Lecuyer.

Chigusa Tsukikage (月影千草, Tsukikage Chigusa^?) Maya's mentor. She once was a very talented and beloved actress, but she got horribly scarred in an onstage accident (a lamp lighter hit her and burned half her face off) and had to leave the acting scene, opening an acting school instead. She takes Maya under her wing despite her mother's objections and strives to shape her into the best actress ever, so she and Ayumi can compete to become the star of the legendary play "Crimson Goddess". She has a very weak health and must be hospitalized several times during the story. In the French anime, Tsukikage's name is Chloe de Ste.-Fiacre.

Masumi Hayami (速水真澄, Hayami Masumi^?) A successful businessman and owner of the Daito company, he watches Maya act as Beth in "Little Women" with a fever and is impressed with her strong will and devotion to her acting dreams. He secretly sends her purple roses as encouragement (and Maya refers to her anonymous fan as murasaki no bara no hito, "The Purple Roses Man"), but acts cynical and even cruel in front of her. His cold exterior comes from the death of his mother, Aya, when he was a child, and his bad relationship with his stepfather Eisuke. In the French anime, Hayami's name is Maxime Darcy.

[edit] Anime

There have been three anime adaptations, first a 23 episode TV series produced by Eiken in 1984, then a three episode OVA remake of the first few chapters in 1998 by TMS Entertainment. Then in 2005 TMS began a new TV series, starting from the beginning of the story.

The Eiken anime series was a success in Italy (Il grande sogno di Maya) and in France (Laura ou la passion du théâtre). Gisaburo Sugii was the series' supervising director. The 1984 series, which has a theme song performed by Mariko Ashibe, features opening animation of Maya dressed in a blue leotard and dancing barefoot in the dark, seemingly inspired by Flashdance.

[edit] Staff

Eiken TV Series (1984)

Director: Gisaburo Sugii, Hideo Makino, Seiji Okuda, Tsuneo Tominaga
Script: Keisuke Fujikawa, Tomoko Konparu, Tomoko Misawa, Yukifude Asakura
Character Designs: Makoto Kuniho
Animation Director: Keizo Shimizu, Jiro Tsujino, Masami Abe
Opening Animation: Shingo Araki, Michi Himeno
Music: Kazuo Otani
Opening Theme Song: Garasu no Kamen, performed by Mariko Ashibe
Broadcaster: Nippon TV
Voice Cast: Masako Katsuki (Maya), Taeko Nakanishi (Tsukikage), Minori Matsushima (Ayumi), Nachi Nozawa and later Katsuji Mori (Hayami), Keiko Toda (Rei Aoki), Haruko Kitahama (Narrator, Haru Kitajima)

TMS Entertainment OAV (1998)

Director: Tsuneo Kobayashi
Script: Nobuaki Kishima, Tomoko Konparu, Yoshiyuki Suga
Character Designs: Akira Hirayama, Masako Goto
Voice Cast: Megumi Ogata (Maya), Keiko Toda (Tsukikage), Naoko Matsui (Ayumi), Juurouta Kosugi (Hayami)

TMS Entertainment TV Series (2005)

Director: Mamoru Hamatsu
Series Composition: Toshimichi Saeki
Character Designs: Akira Hirayama
Art Director: Shunichiro Yoshihara
Music: Tamiya Terashima
Opening Theme Song: Promise, performed by Candy (eps. 1-26), zero by Ikuta Aiko (eps. 27-51)
Broadcaster: TV Tokyo
Voice Cast: Sanae Kobayashi (Maya), Toshiko Fujita (Tsukikage), Akiko Yajima (Ayumi), Toshiyuki Morikawa (Masumi), Ayumi Kinoshita (Rei Aoki)