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GLASS_MASK
March 20, 2017
Reading "The
Glass Mask", a
multi-volume This was left unfinished for many years:
manga from the I've heard the author became a cult leader
mid-70s... of some sort, who explained she might
finish this some day "if god told her to".
Recently she's re-started the story with
the intention of wrapping it up soon.
Perhaps we need to get the author
of "Skip Beat" interested in religon...
This is one of the predecessors
to "Skip Beat": both are stories
of a young woman who impresses
everyone with her ability as an
actress, displaying an ability
to completely transform herself METHOD_ACT
into another person.
Outside of that, there's only a
little resemblance between Though there are I think a few
between the two stories. "homages" to Glass Mask buried in
Skip Beat. For example, a
I could run through the many prominent character in Glass Mask
differences: the lead character is a dark-haired woman with half
in "Glass Mask" is a of her face scarred, who keeps it
standard-issue Shoujo Nice Girl, hidden with her hair, similar to
with nothing remarkable about the original version of the
her save her acting ability. character Mio in one of Skip
She has nothing like Kyoko's Beat's stories-within-the-story,
dark streak (her army of grudge "Dark Moon".
demons); nor does she have
anything like Kyoko's deep roots Also, in a relatively recent "Skip
in traditional Japanese culture. Beat" a character muses to herself
The romantic triangle furniture about how in Kyoko she may have
is completely different as well: found an "immortal butterfly" with
in "Glass Mask" it's obviously invisible wings-- that's a bit of a
secondary to the main story of nod to the "Glass Mask" idea I would
the growth of an actress, and say: the actor dons an invisible
the Nice Guy competitors to what mask.
will obviously be her main love
interest are remarkable drips--
even the one who's supposed to
be a teen idol-- who drop out of In "Glass Mask", the man who is
the race with out much of a obviously going to be the main
fight. love interest is an older guy
with a nasty streak who has a
One of the bigger differences I reputation for being cold...
think is a matter of touch: such is the way of shoujo manga,
"Glass Mask" frequently has the where nice guys don't just
lead character acting in stories finish last, they barely make it
that are already somewhat out of the starting gate.
familiar (classic plays about
classic stories), and yet the
author still methodically steps
through the stories *multiple*
times (learning about the role,
rehearsing the role, dealing with
opening night emergencies...).
In contrast, "Skip Beat" if anything
tries too hard to avoid boring the
audience and bounces around the
story-within-a-story a little too
much, occasionally leaving the reader
feeling a little confused.
A disturbing element of "Glass Mask": A silly element of
the main character often seems to be on the "Glass Mask":
a quest to surrender her humanity, to our heroine impresses
suppress all human capabilities. She everyone with her
plays a doll, immobile on stage; she *mime skills*.
plays a robot; she plays a deaf, dumb Ah, the seventies.
and blind girl-- her ultimate goal is to
play the roll of "The Crimson Goddess":
a woman with the spirit of a tree.
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