Glass Mask is from an older age of shoujo where women were made to be rivals with each other and the drama was used with a heavy hand. However, before Oshi no Ko was showing off the dark sides of modern show business, Glass Mask was pulling the mask off the less glamorous, competitive face of stage actresses.
Alternative Titles:
- Glass no Kamen
- ガラスの仮面
Year Anime Premiered: 1984; 1998; 2005
Animation Studio: Maiden Japan; Tokyo Movie Shinsha
Number of Seasons: 1; 1; 3 OVAs
Source Material Country of Origin: Japan
Source Material Available: Manga
Entry Last Updated: July 22nd, 2024
Where To Start The Glass Mask Manga After The Anime?
Glass Mask has attempted being adapted to anime three times. Theses include:
- Glass Mask 1984 – A 23-episode TV anime that adapts up to Chapter 62.
- Glass Mask: The Girl of a Thousand Masks – a 3-episode OVA, adapting the first three arcs of the manga. These OVAs adapt through Chapter 18 of the Glass Mask manga.
- Glass Mask 2005 – A 52-episode TV anime that adapts up to Chapter 221.
So which anime to pick? Most choose 2005 anime because it is newer, but it also tells the most fast paced version of the story. However, it does also adapt the most story.
The 2005 anime hits all the core plot points, but skips a lot of content in between that helps build out the complex characterization of the two main characters. It is mostly recommended that, because the manga doesn’t actually have an ending, you just read the manga from the beginning because no anime adaptation of the manga story have been great.
Do note that if you are a 2005 anime watcher that the manga has an old school shoujo art style that the more modern anime art covers up. The OVA and 1984 anime are done in this style, but for 2005 anime watchers, the switch in art style can be jarring.
Is The Glass Mask Manga Over?
Glass Mask is technically on hiatus, but it has been “on hiatus” since 2012 with the latest chapter being 271.
Will There Be A Glass Mask Season 2?
With the anime just zipping through the story, the anime also being quite old, and the manga not actually having an ending, more Glass Mask anime seems highly unlikely.
The bridge burning that ends the 2005 anime is in chapter 222 and only the start of chapter 62 is in EP 22 of the 1984 anime.