For Maya, tragedy seems to lurk around every corner as she reaches for her dreams.
What They Say:
Her father passed away very early and her mother lives and works in a crowded Chinese restaurant. Kitajima Maya, a 13-year old girl, has to carry the burden of making ends meet as she fights against her ill fate. However, she is able to overcome the trials and tribulations in her life with her passion and enthusiasm. She happens to encounter the reclusive actress Tsukikage who decides to train and mold her into the foremost actress of her generation.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
After Sentai Filmworks won us over with the first DVD set that contained twenty-six episodes, earning an A grade as a whole, I waited patiently from its January 2010 release to see if they'd bring out more. As time goes on and few statements seem to indicate that the show did not do well enough to pursue more, it's back to the streaming side to watch the series and to try and get back into the groove of it. Thankfully, the story of Maya and her acting inspirations are engaging and exciting to watch, so it's relatively easy to get back into the show even after a ten month break from it.
Maya's life continues to be manipulated as she tries to get out into the world more and she's simply too oblivious and naïve to really realize what's happening. A lot of it comes down to her being focused on her romance with Shigeru but even that comes with a dark edge as there are quite a few fans that want to not just take her down a peg, but to take her out entirely. Friends that she has aren't really her friends as they're taking advantage of her and hiding secrets while those from her previous troupe with Tsukikage are being kept from her through interference. Maya has such strong feelings from those that the performed with before that when she does find out, she heads right over to a performance to see it. Naturally, none of it goes well because of the way someone pushed her friends off before and the way her presence interferes with the performance. Maya's handler, Mizuki, is really doing a number on things.
While some plots move right along here at different stages, one definitively comes to a close as Maya's mother discovers that her daughter is indeed famous and well known now. That revelation has her casting off the hospital where she's being kept and deceived and she makes a rather perilous journey to see her daughter perform in something, anything. It's a heartbreaking and overly dramatic piece as it plays out and it really shows you a different way of looking at Maya when she gives her mother a performance in person. You can understand why she does it, and why Mizuki does what she does, but it feels so forced and almost cruel while at the same time making Maya look somewhat terrible that it's hard to pin down what the right way to feel it should be.
In Summary:
Maya has faced a number of challenges in her life even before her real formal pursuit of an acting career, but now she faces one that will shake her to the core. There are so many people out to get her, manipulate her and deceive her that she's not even aware of that it becomes very easy to see why she would withdraw into herself. Yet at the same time, we see how powerful the stage is to her, how much it motivates and inspires her, that you can understand the path she takes and why she does so. Glass Mask does indeed get rather melodramatic at times, but with it being all about acting and being dramatic, it's easy to overlook if it does it well. Glass Mask indeed does it well and this episode is no exception, especially as you see how different people play things to their own advantage.
Features
Japanese 2.0 Language, English Subtitles
Review Equipment
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70" LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
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