Asakomi

Glass Mask follows the life of 13 year old Maya, who lost her father due to an illness and whose mother works as live in help at a restaurant. Maya also helps out at the restaurant by doing deliveries. She always seems to have her head in the clouds and often gets harshly scolded by her mother or the owner of restaurant.

Maya adores movies and the performing arts; they are her passion. Even the other workers at the restaurant comment on how much Maya loves movies. Unfortunately, as she is often distracted when walking by the theatre or when seeing a movie on television, she ends up taking too long for deliveries and is then subject to some pretty brutal critcisms by her mother and the woman who runs the restaurant.

The animation style in Glass Mask is an older style. I’m sure they’re trying to stick close to the original series but I can’t really say as I haven’t seen it.

I was really taken in by Maya’s character. She’s a sweet girl who just loves what she loves, and will do anything for her passion. Unfortunately, being in love with the entertainment business isn’t exactly something that’s practical in the eyes of those around her. I really hurt for Maya as she sat in her home and had her mother say to her that she’s basically good for nothing.

When asked why she loves movies so much, Maya responds by saying that when a movie is on she forgets everything else and she is drawn in. She even forgets herself. “I am no longer the useless person that I am.”

It’s no wonder that Maya escapes from life through movies and theatre when she is constantly put down by the boss, treatly cruelly by the boss’s daughter, and told things like “Someone like you won’t be able to have a decent life.”

How many of us have had similar experiences? Even if not spoken to us out loud, often through the actions of others we receive similar messages that we are not good enough, or that we’ll never amount to anything. How many of us have also sought escape in one form or another? How many of us have ever wished that we were someone else?

I look forward to seeing Maya’s journey as an actress. My hope for her as a character is that by the end of the series she will come to see that she doesn’t have to pretend to be someone else to be a person of worth, but that it is because she is who she is that the characters she plays come to life.