|
... but isn't all that stolen from glass mask? Not that I've read that, but the idea of a person who can't safely act because they get too deeply into their character sounds familiar.
I don't want to diss anyone, but maybe it looks more innovative if you only read shounen manga? I read a couple of chapters and thought it was all pretty trite and predictable. I'm reminded of Harry Potter and how only some people knew the history of the british boarding-school novel, and how reactions to potter were somewhat split along that line.
(But then... I read the first volume of Vinland saga and thought it offputtingly sexless: lots of violence, no intimacy. Turns out that was the point!)
|
| nargun wrote: | | ... but isn't all that stolen from glass mask? Not that I've read that, but the idea of a person who can't safely act because they get too deeply into their character sounds familiar. |
There are similarities between Glass Mask and act-age, which is why I actually got into act-age because I was hoping for it to hook me in the same ways that Glass Mask did. They both start young teenage female leads, they both focus on acting, and they both have one major end goal that the story strives towards. But there are differences between the two that, while they can be seen more subtle than glaringly obvious, that does set them apart from one another.
Maya and Yonagi are both acting prodigy, but whereas the idea that acting could destroy Yonagi because of the techniques she uses, there was never that concern with Maya, as she knew that the world she lived in and the stage worlds are different; they do intersect, but she can quickly go back to her normal self once the scene is over. For Maya, acting was where she found her worth and purpose in life, even willing to be disowned entirely by her mother to pursue acting, while Yonagi had a stronger strength of character outside of the acting world due to her having to raise her siblings and knew that she could do something else outside of acting, although her siblings disagreed. There's also the difference in what forms of acting they focus on. Glass Mask focused far heavier on theater acting, and while there was an arc related to Maya being a star on TV, I fully admit it was not a favorite of mine because it didn't really provide too much insight into how different that world was compared to the stage, and overall I don't think it really gave Maya much in the way of character development, at least not until closer to the end of the arc but even then that was from a twist not related to her acting. But act-age focused a lot harder on TV/movie acting, even in its arcs that involved stage acting similar to Glass Mask, and besides showing the differences between those two worlds in greater detail, it also provided far different aspects of drama and drive for the characters. There's also the heavy focus on romance in Glass Mask, and that romance does push a lot of the drama throughout the series, especially in the later arcs. act-age can show some semblance of romance but there's definitely no hardcore focus on it, so it doesn't have that as a focal point (and I'm kinda glad that it doesn't). I also think the rivalry between Yonagi and Chiyoko is a bit better than the one between Maya and Ayumi, but namely because we get to see a lot more of the growth with Chiyoko inside and outside of her interactions with Yonagi. Ayumi does show similar growths, but they aren't as strong as what we can see with Chiyoko. I also think that Yonagi and Chiyoko are on equal levels from the start, despite Chiyoko obviously being the more established actor, whereas I felt as though that, while Maya was unrefined for the earlier parts of the series, Maya always outshone Ayumi, although I'm sure that comes from the main focus being more on Maya given that she is the main character. act-age also does far better with developing the side characters versus Glass Mask, in which a lot of the troupe that surrounds Maya are largely forgettable.
Now, to be fair, I also make a lot of these comparisons based on the arcs covered by the 2005 anime, but I don't think it really changes or takes away much from the series and follows it pretty close to a T (at least based on what I can infer based on the art of the manga; I own a few volumes of Glass Mask, even though I can't read it), outside of the anime-only ending, of course.
| nargun wrote: | | I don't want to diss anyone, but maybe it looks more innovative if you only read shounen manga? I read a couple of chapters and thought it was all pretty trite and predictable. I'm reminded of Harry Potter and how only some people knew the history of the british boarding-school novel, and how reactions to potter were somewhat split along that line. |
My tastes does lean more towards the shojo and josei genres, although I do read and enjoy plenty of shonen, from the likes of CLAMP and Hiro Mashima, to Arina Tanemura and Haruko Ichikawa. But I felt as though act-age fit the mold of both the shojo and shonen lines, as I said before, and that's one reason why I loved it so much: it did both. Glass Mask - and Skip Beat, which I also think act-age could be compared to, but I fully admit that I never got into Skip Beat and dropped it kinda quickly - is squarely in the shojo category; I don't think there's anything with it that would appeal to a broader demographic outside of people that enjoy the drama and romance that the series bring. act-age, on the other hand, did have the qualities to appeal to that wider audience, and it's a shame that it's now all squandered because of the writer's atrocious actions.
|
