3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Girl with a Thousand Masks!, December 1, 2010
This review is from: Glass Mask: Collection 1 (DVD)
This box set contains 26 episodes, which is the only first half of the series released by Sentai Filmworks and the DVD features English subs with the original Japanese dub only. Although the story was written and illustrated 30 years ago, there's a timeless feeling to it and this new version is created with new setting and new modern animation.
I will give a summary of the plot for those who have never heard of Glass Mask. (Contain Spoilers)
Maya Kitajima is a young girl who has great passions for acting and theatrical dramas. One day she was discovered by a mysterious woman named Chigusa Tsukikage who realizes Maya is "the girl with a thousand masks" and decides to mentor Maya and train her to become a perfect actor in hopes of letting her play the lead role of the legendary play called "The Scarlet Angels", which Chigusa owns the rights and refuses to let any playhouse produce until she finds the perfect actor for the role. Meanwhile, a talented young actress named Ayumi Himekawa with excellent acting skills eventually becomes Maya's greatest rival. Both girls share the same dream and passion while each competing with skills and experience as an actor. The story mainly centers on how Maya overcomes endless obstacles in order to grow as an actor as well as an adult. On the other hand, Chigusa singles out every possible candidate but finally comes down to either Maya or Ayumi for the coveted lead role. But who will eventually get the role that only one of them can have? That's the gist of the story.
To me the greatest asset of the series is how intense the story is written. Unlike many whiny female leads in typical anime, Maya rarely screams, complains or gives up in front of challenges and obstacles. Every episode there're unexpected challenges for her to overcome as an actor for example, in the beginning, Maya's narrow-minded and pessimistic mother always puts her down and makes sure her daughter wouldn't accomplish anything; then we are seeing more and more Maya's career rivals emerge and are jealous of Maya's talent and then plot to keep Maya away from their goals. Facing a variety of difficulties, Maya's passions for acting never cease, instead she's always able to figure out what she lacks and eventually manages to rise to the challenge. The plot is full of dramas and never has a minute of dull. Originally I planned to watch a few episodes online, but the story was getting so good and eventually I ended up finishing the whole series in 3 days!
The series itself is amazing; on the other hand, I can't help but notice there are a few flaws in the series. I think the most obvious failings are the main character Maya is really hard to be connected on personal level. She's a clumsy, absent-minded girl who's not good at anything except for acting. On top of that she frequently has to go through a lot of unbelievably dangerous paths in order to grow as an actor. For example, one time Maya was given an opportunity to play a role of a deaf-blind person. In order to perfect the role play, she challenged herself by choosing to psychologically live like a normal deaf-blind disabled. By doing so, she had to blindfold her eyes and cover ears until the audition day and continued to live and act like a true deaf-blind even if she fell from the second-floor balcony! Although her fighting spirits and all these dramas she had to go through are able to create more dramatic effects and interests for the viewers, in reality it's hard to understand why an actor has to go through all these tough-life experience for the role while they can just follow the scripts to act! Another thing bothers me is how many supporting casts are underused. Except Ayumi, Chigusa and Hayami most frequent appeared supporting characters don't seem to be serving a real purpose for plot advancement rather than being an occasional emotional supports for Maya. There's no doubt that Maya's adventures is the centre of the story, but we would also like to see other repeated characters could be useful in some ways, or there would be no points introducing them in the first place. For instance, there are numerous secondary characters such as Maya's friends who showed up as one of Maya's initial rivals, but after they have a newfound respect toward Maya, the story then has very little room for their development anymore. For these characters, instead of being removed, they are kept as an occasional spectator for Maya's adventures. Furthermore, another obvious flaw is they are unable to bring a satisfying end to Maya's relationship with Sakurakouji, which took a lot of time to build but never grows. I find it interesting that as a couple, what Maya does most in front of Sakurakouji are blushes a hundred times and repeats his names. Unlike many girls in shoujo animes who are obsessed with love and crushes, Sakurakouji plays a secondary role for Maya's career. When the story goes on, his character is completely ignored and it's like they don't know what to do with him anymore. Finally Maya's relationship with Sakurakouji ends with a very unsatisfying breakup scene, which feels more forced than emotional.
The last complaint I have with this box set is the dvd box set case, which houses 4 DVDs. Instead of spreading the discs, they are overlapped and kept in one single hub, so the discs in the bottom are very difficult to take out due to the height of the disc hub!! So be warned when you try to take out a disc inside.
All in all, even though the series has its flaws (which doesn't?), these 26 episodes will still hook you from beginning to the end. So what if Maya isn't the easiest character to relate to or her relationship with Sakurakouji don't seem to be romantic or realistic, but it's hard not to cheer for her success and her quests to become a successful actress as well as an grown adult in the show is full of tense dramas and touching moments. Glass Mask is a must-see anime for anyone who likes shoujo anime. Trust me, you won't be disappointed.
Now when are they planning to release Collection 2?
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4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
4.5..*sigh* wish the ending was better, January 20, 2010
This review is from: Glass Mask: Collection 1 (DVD)
I love this anime. If any have you seen skip beat.. This has the same story line except this anime is a lot darker than skip beat. I love Kitajima Maya struggles to become an actress. Her struggles were very hard often time I thought how many more cruel obstacles can she take before she breaks down.. but she doesn't. I found myself ridding her emotions through each crap that she has to face..I would've givin this anime a 5 stars but I didn't like the ending. Pissed me off enought to yell at my laptop screen and scream "WHAT?!".. But overall this anime is worth buying and adding to your collection of animes or atleast a good beginning to get hooked to animes.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
A anime remake based off a classic shoujo manga series, May 24, 2010
This review is from: Glass Mask: Collection 1 (DVD)
Glass Mask is an ongoing shoujo (girl's) manga series in Japan. The series began serialization in Hana to Yume in Japan in 1976 and since then it's had about three different anime incarnations. There was the 1984 tv series, the 3 episode OVA series in 1998, and this 51 episode tv series from 2005-2006. This anime version of the series has a few changes to make it more up-to-date. The series chronicles the life of Maya Kitajima, a young teen girl who loves acting, and her rise to stardom. The title "Glass Mask" refers to her mentors words about having to wear a mask of glass as actors, which is fragile and can break if they aren't careful.
This set released by Section23 (aka, ADV) contains the first half of the series. The first 26 episodes are on 4 discs and it is subbed only. I really would have preferred at least a 5 disc release for 26 episodes, but 4 discs for 26 episodes is becoming the trend in the US anime industry. The menus are very simple, unfortunately I couldn't find a setup section on the first disc to turn on the subs. There are no individual episode chapter menus either. This really is a no-frills release, I don't even think there are extras aside from previews for other anime.
The 4 discs come housed in a single 1" spine case, unfortunately it's stored in a case with stacking hub which means if you want to get to disc 4, you have to remove discs 1-3 which are stored on top of it. I really dislike this type of case, they also used it on the re-release of Princess Yucie. Also, there are some inconsistencies in translation. The box clearly states the title is "Glass Mask" - but opening viewing the opening credits they translated the title as "Mask of Glass". I heard a similar thing happens to an episode title and a few name errors and story errors. Hopefully Section23 does a better job with box set 2 in proofing their work.
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