Glass no Kamen

If the art is in the way, get over it.

now moving on to the story itself. I'm a Glass Mask fanatic. I've watched both this and the 2005 version, plus the tv drama and ova, and I've read the manga, which is still continuing for those who don't know.

You have to watch the story, especially this older version, with an open heart, not as a critic prepared to voice your opinions.

I thoroughly enjoyed the story. In fact, there isn't another story that I enjoyed as much as this one. Skip Beat comes next.
I'm not someone who's into showbiz, so the showbiz factor is ... not the reason why I enjoyed the story.

The story is centered around Maya. Maya is the soul of the story.
There is a great amount of character development throughout the story, not just in Maya, but in other characters as well. There aren't really any weak characters in the story. In the showbiz world, it's all about putting darwinism to the test.
Maya is one of the strongest yet kindest female lead I've ever stumbled upon. A character as beautiful as Maya is really a rare find.

I don't recommend watching this version first though if you are used to modern drawings and animations. I watched the 2005 version first then this one. Honestly, I love them both so I can't say which is better.

Visuals:
1) considering this anime aired originally in 1984, the art style is very classic. Personally I don't mind it at all.
2) the animation is obviously dated but it never interfered with the enjoyment that the anime gave me
3) unfortunately I noticed several occasions where animation mistakes were made. As simple and spoiler-free example, I can mention that on the 18th episode, a green haired character had for 5 seconds black hair.


Sound:
1) all the seiyuus cast in this anime are now considered genuine legends in the industry so expect top notch performances. Also, most of the cast had participated in other animes ... together and that chemistry is noticeable.
2) the soundtrack is also very, very classic. I wouldn't say it was memorable but it fits with the majority of the music from the animes that aired in the 80s.

Story and characters:
1) The anime will show Maya's evolution through 3 years of her life as she chases her dream of becoming an incredible actress. Three years in 22 episodes (the 23rd episode is a literal recap so you can skip it) means that you should expect a pretty fast pace as you watch this anime.
2) Expect to see emotional and physical abuse
3) Expect to see grooming and pedo-vibes
4) very refreshing to see an actual story about someone's career and not just a typical story about the underdog winning miraculously everything, which to be honest is what I was expecting.
5) really like to see a healthy rivalry portrayed. Once again it was very refreshing to watch
6) motivated me to learn about some novels and real life people, despite not being accurate about Helen Keller's life.
7) there's a specific episode where a character will do something so out of character that it's mind-blowing. As you can imagine, my immersion went out the window.
8) I wish Maya had more self-confidence


What keeps me from recommending this anime to everybody is this:
The abuse inflicted and the pedo/grooming stuff going on absolutely killed a big amount of the enjoyment that the anime had been giving me. Not only that but a story that revolves around acting shouldn't feel like the opposite of acting. It tries to convince you that in order to portray a character that suffered a gunshoot wound, you absolutely must shoot yourself so you can act better. This makes absolute no sense but still finds its way into the narrative.

So, watch this if pedo-stuff doesn't bother you. It's very entertaining and nothing like the other shoujo's I've watched. But don't watch it if pedo-stuff enrages and disgusts you. It gets s 6/10 from me.

I've heard of Glass Mask being one of the more popular long-running titles of the shoujo demographic thanks to its focus on Maya's budding acting career, thus had interest in wanting to see how this adaptation fares and must say this got rather frustrating to watch.

A major barrier to this adaptation of Glass Mask for me was the heavy dependence on melodrama to add conflict into the series. There were a few ways that this 1984 adaptation of the series does this. One way consists of Maya being encouraged by her mentor, Chigusa Tsukikage, to adhere to understanding her role to a rather extreme degree. ... In acting, emotionally identifying completely to a role is called method acting. I've heard of behind-the-scenes stories where actors like Leonardo Dicaprio, Christian Bale, and Jared Leto did quite a bit of method acting to get into many of the major roles they would become famous for. However in the world of Glass Mask, method acting is milked to a rather ridiculous degree for Maya to get immersed into any roles she takes on for theatrical performances, enough as such where it usually causes physical and psychological abuse to her. In one particular case where she is learning to take on the role of Helen Keller for The Miracle Worker, Maya resorts to sensory deprivation by blindfolding herself and stuffing her ears with cotton balls to simulate living life being blind and deaf while tripping and falling into things.

The second way was that many of the plays that Maya participated in faced some sort of sabotage through different events or jealous rivals. This is a recurring plot device that Glass Mask milks in a forced attempt to create drama and test Maya's abilities to improvise over the sabotage and win over the crowd during her performances. I didn't feel these did anything to aid in developing Maya's character growth as an actress, as they felt tacked on in a lazy attempt to add forced drama to the plays that Maya participated in.

The third and worst way that melodrama gets milked is the heavy amounts of angst that Glass Mask likes to milk. Any negative situation, regardless if it's minor or major, leads Maya to get way too overemotional in response to it. Rather than this angsting having me sympathize with her, it made me want to slap Maya since she takes every little thing happening to her way too personally thanks to the anime's rather questionable choices in story direction.

But perhaps the biggest problem I had with this adaptation of Glass Mask as a whole is that it doesn't do a good job of having me convinced that Maya grew as a character in her experiences as an actress. The series gets too immersed into the emotional extremes that she goes through to overcome any major hurdles as such that it doesn't devote enough focus to lighter moments that explore the motives of other characters supporting Maya's growth or Maya reflecting on the events within her present crisis to learn how to overcome it, thus allowing audiences to connect with her as a character. A rather noticeable flaw with Maya's acting throughout Glass Mask is that she gets too immersed in her role as such where she isn't conscious of the nuances and actions of the other performers she is supporting in the advancement of a play's plot. This does get addressed at a few points in Glass Mask, but the series never devotes time to having Maya learn how to overcome this flaw and still unconvincingly tries having you believe she was a budding actress with strong potential.

The series also tries to play up a romance angle for Maya with a couple different male characters within Glass Mask. One character gets too limited development and screen time to make that potential relationship mean anything. While the potential with the mysterious "Mr. Purple Rose" is a little more convincing and nuanced in its developments, the series regrettably ends inconclusively before it can get into this relationship any further.

If there is one plus I can give for Glass Mask, it would have to be Ayumi Himekawa. Her character as a friendly rival of sorts to Maya is a deconstruction of the "rich girl" character type seen in many anime titles. Ayumi isn't portrayed as a haughty character with bitter jealousy for Maya's increased fame nor does she exploit her wealth for personal gain or to get an edge over Maya in any way. She sees Maya as an equal to her and a source of motivation to improve on her own abilities as an actress, and there are a few points where she reprimands a few jealous crew members who attempt to sabotage Maya's performances in any capacity. Ayumi's character had quite a bit of dimension compared to Maya and it's a shame that Maya's character is rather flawed in this adaptation of Glass Mask, as the chemistry between the two could have made for interesting developments if Glass Mask wasn't too focused on the emotional extremes of Maya's developments.

Overall, I find this adaptation of Glass Mask to be quite flawed. The series dabbles too heavily into melodrama at the expense of Maya's development to have me convinced of her character's growth and development as an actress, and could have been a far better series if not for this. I've heard that there's a 2005 remake of Glass Mask that is a superior adaptation of the shoujo manga compared to this adaptation. I might be tempted to see that one down the line to see what it's like. But as for this 1984 adaptation? I wouldn't bother watching it again due to the many issues it has with its storytelling.