I understand this is a classic and all but still.... I got through about 23 volumes so you can't say i didnt try. My main problem is that i skipped to read the latest chapter and i knew excatly what was going on. I dont feel that their is any significant development or plot twists during the course of this story. It is like the glass mask is frozen in time. And there is so much melodrama its hard to stoumach.

I am also saying this as a huge fan of skip beat. Breaking the stigma that a fan of one will love the other. I find kyoko a much more likeable character than maya, and i find the roles she plays more interesting, mostly because her characters like mio and natsu never disapear and she continues to develop them and use them to help her with diffrent potrayals. The romance in skip beat is also more fun. I dont even see the point of having romance in the glass mask. I didnt gind it sad and beautiful i just thaught it seemed overdramatic boring and forced. I can also never even imagine maya jumping into daitos arms. I cant see the two leads together i feel like thats a problem.

*** edit so i picked it back up and i am reading the newer chapters, i completely left out the middle of the manga haha. and now that spoiler alert!!

maya knows hayami's identity and everything. it is a lot more interesting. plus now the whole crimson goddess thing is beginning and i like that.
i am even enjoying the romance

... Last updated on December 17th, 2011, 7:48pm

Seriously, Just Keep Reading this manga. At first the art is a little funky (because of the old drawing style) but after a few chapters I hardly noticed. As far as Maya's journey goes, the story does get kind of repetitive. It's also fairly wordy if you don't care for the plays. Honestly after a while I just stopped reading the text and read the pictures during the 10+ chapters it took to go through a play.

The Romance is slow, frustrating, hilarious, awkward, sad, adorable, and beautiful. Hands down the only manga I've read that has tugged at my heart the way it does. You can feel the character's emotions so deeply. I've laughed, I've cried, and a variety of emotions in between, in a way that only this manga can do.

This manga is delightfully pleasing. In one instance you are holding you breath in anticipation and in the next you are breathless for laughter. This is truly mangaka Muichi Suzue's classic masterpiece! There is intrigue, mystery and thrilling rivalry. It takes you through a full spectrum of emotions and leaves you always wanting more!
The main characters have a relationship with a special dimension to it that only Muichi Suzue can achieve. Kitajima Maya has an extraordinary on stage charisma but is otherwise quite an ordinary girl. Masumi Hayami, 'the cold blooded workaholic President from Daito' is a contradictory man. He has much admiration for Maya's fiery passion for the stage yet seems to take sadistic pleasure is teasing her mercilessly! He says every thing he does is for Daito, yet all his actions are seemingly all for Maya's sake. He disrespectfully calls her Chibi-chan and allows her to speak rudely to him but lecture her on manners with for everyone else.
This is not a ordinary shoujo manga the acting and theatre aspects entertain members of both genders and are interesting and charming and touch upon a broad span of genres. You can see Maya developing certain skills and getting increasingly closer to her goal playing the Crimson Goddess as she takes in various roles in these dramas.
The art is old school style but isn't terrible, the story is simply overwhelming and this leaves you wih the art might be perfect. After reading the first chapter you won't notice anyway.
If you have read Skip Beat you will love this, there are a lot of parallels.

Overall this is a FANTASTIC MANGA, that everybody MUST READ. DON"T BE PUT OFF BY THE ART. Muichi Suzue is a GODDESS amongst Mangaka and this is a BRILLIANT AND SHINING example of her work!!

I do not know why but I just love it! I've read a lot of shoujo manga and I have to say that this is one(if not) is the best manga I have ever read. I stated with the 1984 anime and started reading the manga on manga fox when I had to wait to watch more on megavideo. At first I was like this might be as good as Ouran or Skip Beat but no way would I say that now. This is better by far!
When I find out what I love about this I will update my comment. It has been so long seen I have found a long manga witch I don't want to put down till then end. And I am only on v2.

updates:
I'm on chapter 186 and I still love this. I won't claim that this is the bast shoujo manga anymore it is in my top three favorite shoujo manga. I love the art! I had not read any manga form the 70s before and I was worried that I would not like the art but after starting this I have fallen in love with the art stile of that time.
maya ticks me off a one or two time this the first couple of volumes but her character develops. and I love to watch Masumi suffer because of his feeling (what can I say I'm a bit of a sadist when it come to guys digging their one grave like that). I really like how they include the plays in the manga, I only get bored on one play... I just throw all my random thoughts glass mask out there. but really glass mask is a classic and it surprises me that is does not have a bigger following.
even if you chose not to read the manga keep the frays "purple rose" in mind, you are likely to see references in both manga and anime.

... Last updated on July 23rd, 2011, 9:41pm

The manga is amazing! READ IT ... or at least try.

And, if you are going to watch the anime of it READ THE MANGA FIRST. Also, if you are going to watch the anime, watch the on on Hulu.com and NOT THE OVA one ... that one is horrible. The OVA one does not follow the manga exactly and it jumps around. However, the one on Hulu.com follows the manga almost exactly.

... but not one of the best. It feels rather like how Slam Dunk!, but in the drama + shoujo + romance genre with a focus on acting, rather than a comedy + shonen. The fact that I like Slam Dunk! better probably has to do with 1) the art style, and 2) the genre.
It reads like a classic, and it certainly looks like the older type of shoujo. And the art does get better, though not so much as you'd notice the shift without direct comparison. However, it does get incredibly repetitive and predictable. Eg,

Also, people's attitudes don't change realistically.

There's also a LOT of dialogue/narrative/conversation.... whatever you call it. In other words, it's text-heavy. I don't know about everyone else, but I expect more pictures than text in my manga. If I wanted text, I'd go for a book instead.
For those who would compare this to Skip Beat!... there's a lot more focus on the actual plays she does - you get the entire play, with most of the dialogue, when they perform. Which could be nice, for those who're interested in the content of the play, but personally I think it breaks up the flow of the story too much. It's not like the actual story is going to affect Maya's growth as an actress that much. Kyouko's growth as an actress is also more obvious - in Glass Mask, you get told again and again that Maya's acting isn't polished enough, but is strangely attractive... and that never changes. She learns how to portray each character, but there's no sign that she applies whatever she has learnt to new characters.
By the way, the romance in this one... is the frustrating type. You'd just wish they'd get together ALREADY and save everyone (including the readers) a lot of pain. (In contrast... Kyouko's reactions makes the Skip Beat! situation a lot more fun.)

An excellent series, and timeless, like another commenter mentioned. Excellent writing and the art grows on you. Considering I normally give up on a manga that doesn't hook me within the first five chapters, the fact that I read all 30 scanlated volumes (and they are hard to find) in two days is a feat. By the end, you really start rooting for Maya; and you can't help but like Ayumi, simply because she's so, well, upright, I suppose.



~

The anime (the 2005 one, at least), is not nearly as good as the manga is. The prime reason for this is that the manga takes it's time and adds in a lot of details, whereas the anime tries to get through all 40 volumes in 50 episodes. The result is that the anime is a sort of summary of the manga, with only half the depth of emotion and awesomeness.

... Last updated on April 1st, 2010, 11:59pm

all right so relatively speaking i'm pretty new to manga. ive only been reading for the past three or so years but in those 3 years ive read A LOT of different manga. I like many different types: shoujo,shounen, seinen, romance, action, etc. but i havent read a manga that got me so involved in the story since the first few mangas i read. This is by far one of my favorites and i hope to see more releases.

This manga affected my life. Not exaggerating. I first read it in primary school... I didn't even read in sequence (figured the sch library didn't have complete set).

Enough rambling. What I love most is Maya's love for acting, and the way she diligently pursues her dreams and always immerses herself in becoming her roles, not just acting them. The manga inspired me to try out acting (in school context of course...I continued my interest for 7 years even). In essence, the Manga taught me how to put myself in the shoes of fictional characters, and that was my starting point to studying and writing literature.

I guess the plot of a dumb genius pursuing a passion tirelessly is somewhat overused nowadays (e.g. Yakitate Japan, Shaman King, etc), but Glass Mask must be one of the first of its kind. I like that Maya always struggles before she succeeds...and I like that the focus isn't so much on the romance between Masumi and Maya (in the light of influx of less conventional relationships nowadays, Masumi's insistence seems stupid...but remember the setting of the Manga, guys), but on the acting. I love the characters...they're consistent and well done but sometimes not too thoroughly explored (there are many characters) I guess it's different from Mangas where the focus is on one group of people fighting together. Here it's Maya through and through. Sometimes characters get their flashbacks, but that's it. The perspective is more similar to life. Sometimes, you're not close to your friends/mentors, relationships fall apart and you forge new ones...things like that.

Overall, this Manga is irreplaceable in my heart. Even though I stopped reading when I was 12, the story stays in my head. I nearly gave up refinding it, but the internet is something real amazing these days.

Have to say -- a good story will be always popular no matter how old it is. I'm happy to see that Miuchi sensei decided to continue this series after over 15-year hiatus. (Haven't seen any new volumn published after Vol.41 in the late 80's or early 90's.)

If Miuchi sensei's reason to pause the series was the story establishment, I agree with her. Roughly remember after Helen Keller part (oops, sorry, a little bit spoiler) the story became disoriented. I believe she regretted that she chose the wrong direction to continue. However, since it's ongoing again, probably she had found a way out to lead the story to the ending she wants.

Now I just sit and wait for the story ending to come. How many volumns total the series would be, I couldn't guess. After so many year's waiting, I don't really care that much anymore, as long as it's a good ending.