I must say that I disagree with this post in many ways. If you’ve read the manga, then you’ll notice that the story is actually quite genuine and mesmerizing. It’s not melodramatic if you understand Maya’s true character and her thirst and desire for becoming an actress. There are a lot of symbolism in the story and it reveals much of the real world aspects and themes like true talent/personality vs. reality/judgment of the world, the elites vs. the struggles of the underground workers, etc. Yes, it does incorporate old classic tales and such, and yes, it may seem like a ’shallow’ story on the surface, but when you read it, you can understand that deep down, there’s true beauty and love in this story. Glass Mask is one of a kind, and it definitely has a reason why it has continued on for so long. It’s loved by the public not because it’s a ‘generic shojo story’ about a girl and a boy, but it reveals the harshness of reality, but also finding dreams and your place in the cruel world that can be beautiful at the same time when you reach for the impossible.

In the manga, everything that you didn’t like about is is quite thoroghly explored. And some things that was changed from manga to anime is outrageously bad. Like when she was eating in a scene of the TV drama she got, in the anime it’s spices that is the problem while in the manga It’s freakin’ glass in the food!

Basically they should have explored the source material and used it better instead of jumping through everything. That would have made an awesome anime.

I know I’m a bit late in responding to this…

But for fans of the show and manga, it has been announced that the manga-ka (the author of the manga) will begin continuing the story where it left off (after volume 42 or so I believe) in the September 2008 issue of Hana to Yume. The story isn’t finished!

But my high rating is because of the manga and the 2005 sries. .. the 1984 version left too many plot holes and the seiyuus were not to my liking.

edit: sorry, I didn’t read your second post. Sorry about the misunderstanding, but my beef is indeed with the original series aired in 1984. They indeed probably remade it because of the dissatisfaction of the first season, especially since it seems to have 51 episodes.

Anyway, there is a 2005 version of Glass Mask and I heard it’s better.

-Tom

Although the story is totally unrealistic, I still think it’s a fun read (or watch). And in defense of the overacting, someone once asked the movie critic Roger Ebert why Japanese actors overact in Seven Samurai. Ebert said that it’s because Japanese film has roots in Kabuki theater, where overacting is a large element. So different countries, different styles I guess.