Act-age

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Act-age was one of the most promising series in Weekly Shonen Jump throughout 2019 and 2020, and one of my personal favorites alongside One Piece and Chainsaw Man.

It really was a head-turner in many ways: a colorful, female-heavy cast, unconventional topic, plenty of quality character drama, unusual art, no forced romance or any sort of physical fights as a means to move the plot forward—and at the same time it dutifully adhered to the basic shonen sensibilities, such as rivalry and continuous progress on the path towards fulfilling a grand ambition. It was, to use a term coined in Bakuman, an excellent example of a ... non-battle battle manga; a rare case of a purely character-driven shonen work that was neither a romcom nor a slice-of-life.

Alas, with the author arrested for the dubious hobby of groping middle-schoolers while passing them on a bike, the manga was promptly axed. The illustrator who worked with him allegedly decided against continuing it on her own, unlike what would normally be expected when one drops out of a writer/illustrator collaboration. A rational, respectable decision on her part, though sad nonetheless, since the story was essentially terminated midways, with no advance notice or even a semblance of a closure. It deserved so much more.

Oh well. If the prospect of reading a promising story that will never be completed does not turn you off, do read it. What we've had up to this day was wonderful. But perhaps we can get Oshi no Ko to fill some of that void?

Lets get this straight from the beginning. This story is NOT a masterpiece, nor will I EVER call it a masterpiece.

Act-Age is something much more than a masterpiece.

Act-Age is... unique. Something I never would have guessed I'd call a manga.

This is not a manga to be read casually. In fact, if you enjoy reading manga casually, then do NOT read this manga. That's my warning. This is something that WILL change you, no matter how much you try to prevent it from doing so.

The characters shine brightly, in ways I've never seen before. This is such a complex build up and breakdown of a character, ... of multiple characters. The MC is refreshing and not quite like any MC I've seen before, because she truly puts EVERYTHING that makes up her life into her acting. There isn't a single ounce of her left, and it can be truly exhausting to see from the mere fact that the emotional turmoil is completely real for her, rather than just an act. The art is something that only reflects that. Initially, while I did like the art, I thought it was just something that's slightly above average.

I've never so felt mistaken.

The art style is, especially in one of the last arcs, sharp, detailed, and hurtful. If Berserk has an art style that can be compared to a volcano erupting, burning down everything in sight, when drawing Gut's rage, then this can only be compared to the ice age. So brittle, so fragile, so likely to drown you and freeze you. I can truly understand feeling absolute FEAR when it comes to viewing the MC's rage, even as you feel calmness and want to weep when it comes to the touching story of Galactic Railroad.

Easily one of the best manga I've ever read.

I've never felt so much regret when it comes to a discontinued manga.

Fuck the author for his actions.

After multiple recommendations I expected so much more. Now, a level of immaturity is ok and it can even be endearing in shounen, but in characters, not in the plot. And that’s what is reversed here – the main character is shown as unrealistically proficient, and the narrative is annoyingly juvenile in tone.

The idea is great – by god, I want more more shounen not about hitting people in the face and shounen with female leads. The world of a budding actress seems to be an exciting setting for a manga. Talent agencies, auditions, TV, cinema, theater, musicals, their energy, color, variety, beauty, and the ... many different people working, living, visiting there - such a wealth of situations to explore! There’s also the underlying idea that diving too much in other personalities may be damaging for the unprepared, but others may be eager to exploit the burning unsafe talent, which is an enticing conflict.

Too bad that this particular manga is set in a different universe, where method acting is a rare arcane knowledge and acting standards are low, so our heroine who’s stumbled on the mystery of “you can call forth your emotional memory to act better” is a messiah. Despite having no training or any, even amateur acting experience. No respect for the ol’Stanislavski. The way acting mastery is treated here seriously reeks of super-powers. Later it improves with the appearance of mentors, but she is a gem from the start, which they just reverently slightly polish.

Too bad that this manga is hell bent on ridiculous aggrandizing of the heroine. At one point about 10 pages are dedicated to people on the streets discussing how gorgeous, balanced and fast she is when she runs past them. People praising her in their heads comprises roughly 25% of the text in this manga. Her only fault is being too focused on acting and maybe leaning on her past experience too much, so they teach her to be more expressive and fake. The rest of the cast is rather one-note, and while it seems to change a bit later, Act-age is still by far not a battle of personalities. Plus most of stronger personalities come in the form of quirky teenage misunderstood world-class geniuses, which our heroine cracks open.

Too bad that the situations depicted are unrealistic. The protagonist rears two small siblings on her own, with not much on-screen work dedicated to it aside from “the adorable family she fights for”. All kinds of barriers are broken by others for her sake – she gets a metric gigaton of special attention. At one point in the beginning she gets “kidnapped” for the comedic effect, brought to a filming studio and when asked to act she agrees. (As I’ve mentioned the best way to somehow connect to this manga is treating it as happening in a separate universe, where human trafficking for porn doesn’t happen.)

There’s just way too many false notes in Act-age for enjoyment. It’s not like it’s THAT unique – there is Kasane, Skip Beat!, idol drama manhwa.

Two things I am willing to give to this manga’s writing though are the fact that our heroine is not made to act stereotypically girly, her gender, refreshingly, doesn’t come up much at all, and that the quirkiness in her and other characters is shown to be ok – they are not judged for being passionately weird. Actually, there isn’t many bad people in the cast, they are simply different, which is also fresh.

The art is decent – the linework is clean, readable and pretty. The art is very character focused, most frames contain faces with screentones, later on backgrounds start to be more elaborate, but they never develop personalities. I’d call it very nice, pleasant and well-made, but not unique or outstanding.

That’s what the whole manga is actually – Act-age isn’t a breakthrough, like it was advertised to me, sadly. The relatively fresh main topic falls flat because of the superficial writing, especially glaring in the context of many great dramatic works set in the world of cinema/theater/showbusiness. When you think about a raising actress you expect rivals, high stakes, painful growth, sacrifices, dealing with public image, complicated relationships. Almost none of this is shown here properly – the heroine just breaks through everything, everyone gets amazed and eager to help her. It’s irritating to read through, and Act-age offers nothing for counterbalance – no special characters, no special art, no special narrative tricks. As such, I commend Act-age for what it has tried to do and concur that some readers may enjoy it, but I am disappointed in it and won’t advise it to people.