Glass Mask (ガラスの仮面, Garasu no Kamen?) is a shōjo manga series written and illustrated by Suzue Miuchi, serialised in Hana to Yume from January 1976, and collected in 49 tankōbon volumes as of October, 2012. The story has also been adapted into anime and a live action television series. As of 2006, the collected volumes had 50 million copies in Japan, making it the second best-selling shōjo manga ever. The title refers poetically to the mask of faces that actors wear - while expressing emotions that are not their own, the mask they wear (their acting) is as fragile as glass. If the actors are distracted, their mask will "break" and show on stage the actors' true feelings.
After not publishing a new chapter in the story for more than two years, Miuchi re-launched the series in Hakusensha's Bessatsu Hana to Yume (別冊花とゆめ) magazine in July 2008. The story continues from where it left off in volume 42. Miuchi has announced that she intends to end the series soon.
Read more about Glass Mask: Plot, Characters, Anime, Live Action
Famous quotes containing the words glass and/or mask:
“Thales claimed that everything was water. He also put wine into water to sterilize it. Did he really believe he was putting water into water to sterilize it? Parmenides, like most Greeks, knew that wine was not water. But while lifting a glass of wine to his lips, he denied that motion was possible. Did he really believe that the glass was not moving when he lifted it?”
—Avrum Stroll (b. 1921)
“We never really are the adults we pretend to be. We wear the mask and perhaps the clothes and posture of grown-ups, but inside our skin we are never as wise or as sure or as strong as we want to convince ourselves and others we are. We may fool all the rest of the people all of the time, but we never fool our parents. They can see behind the mask of adulthood. To her mommy and daddy, the empress never has on any clothes—and knows it.”
—Frank Pittman (20th century)