[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/glass_mask.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:Tsukikage, Maya, Masumi and Ayumi]]
->"''When we act, we wear a very fragile, easily broken, glass-like mask. No matter how well we perform the role, no matter how excellent our acting is, if our mask is broken... our real face is exposed.''
-->--'''Rei Aoki'''

Maya Kitajima is an OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent who [[HeroicSelfDeprecation sees herself as plain-looking, boring, clumsy and good for nothing]]. After getting a small part in a school play, she discovers a love for acting, largely because it allows to become someone else. In the face of opposition from her mother, she runs away from home to take up a scholarship offer to an acting school in order to follow her dream.

Maya's potential for acting is noticed by former actress Chigusa Tsukikage. Before an accident on stage that [[GoodScarsEvilScars left her heavily scarred]] and with ongoing health problems, she was considered the top theatrical actress in Japan, if not the world. She owns the rights to a legendary masterpiece play, ''"[[ShowWithinAShow Kurenai Tenyou]]"'' (''The Crimson Goddess''). The playwright considered the title role so difficult that Chigusa Tsukikage was the only actress capable of performing it, and gave her full rights to the play.

Since her injury over 20 years ago, Tsukikage has been teaching acting, while searching for an actress to take up the role and resurrect the play. The play hasn't been performed during that time, since Tsukikage is such a perfectionist that ''no-one'' has been able to live up to her standards. She sees potential in Maya, and thinks the time to resurrect the play may come soon. Especially since she's finally found a girl just as obsessed (one character describes it, justifiably, as "pathologically" so) with acting as she is... However, Maya is not the only young actress Chigusa has her eye on: there's also [[TheOjou Ayumi]] [[TeenGenius Himekawa]], daughter of a famous director and a top actress. Ayumi is beautiful, graceful, and has been acting professionally since she was 5. She's got everything Maya doesn't have, but they share a love of acting. Not to mention, Ayumi also wants to succeed ''on her own'', refusing her parents' help, to prove to everyone that she's not a DaddysGirl...

During the play's original run, it played to over 300 packed houses. The major theatrical companies aren't about to sit back and let that kind of profit potential go to another company. Some of them will stop at nothing to get their hands on the rights, but Tsukikage isn't about to hand it over.

This series started as a manga in 1976, and is considered one of the classics of {{shoujo}} manga. It's been turned into three anime series (two for TV and an OAV series), a theatrical play, a drama, and even a Noh play. The ending of the series is still open, with the mangaka, Suzue Miuchi, only [[SeriesHiatus recently returning]] to begin wrapping up the series. The 1984 anime TV series (directed by Creator/GisaburoSugii, who is primarily known as a renowned director of anime feature films) is known in France as "Laura ou la passion du Théâtre" ("Laura [[EitherOrTitle or]] The Passion For Theatre") and in Italy as "Il grande sogno di Maya"; it's also been dubbed in Spanish as "Quiero ser actriz" ("I want to be an actress") and aired under that title in Venezuela. Very popular in Europe.

The 2005 TV series was licensed by Creator/SentaiFilmworks, but only the first half of the series was released, with the company admitting they were not releasing the rest of the series due to extremely poor sales.

The series is highly influential and has been running for 30 years with no end in sight. Being an older shojo series, ''Glass Mask'' is extremely tropalicious (even without considering the content of the various plays that happen throughout the story) and the manga suffers from quite an extreme case of OnceOriginalNowOverdone. Many of today's shoujo tropes were developed by ''Glass Mask'', and it was the hundreds of shoujo that came after which played out the tropes until they became cliches. Some newer readers may think that the art is ugly or strange, but this is more of an issue with taste, since they may be unused to pre-1990s styles and ''Glass Mask'' is often considered as having one of the best vintage shoujo styles.

Due to ''Glass Mask''[='=]s age and fame, it is often referenced in various other media, many with similar themes such as ''Star Project'', to works without any similarity at all, like ''Manga/YuruYuri''. It is often ''the'' animanga that other animanga talk about. However, the series never reached American shores. It is often considered an obscure manga in America unlike the popularity it enjoys in its native Japan and Europe, and so these references tend to fly over the heads of American audiences.

In 2018, the original 1984 anime was finally released for streaming on [[Creator/AnimeNetwork HIDive]].

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!!This show provides examples of:

* AdaptationDyeJob: Unlike in the other animated adaptations, Hayami is blond in the 1984 TV anime (although the pilot film for the series depicted him with black hair).
** In the 90's OVA, Ayumi's hair is almost grey-ish and Maya's hair is still brown but it's a darker shade than usual.
* AgeGapRomance:
** Maya and Masumi, with an age difference of eleven years.
** [[spoiler:Tsukikage and Ozaki]] can give them a run for their money, though. She realized she loved him when she turned sixteen, by that time [[spoiler:Ozaki]] was already married for a long time and in his thirties.
** Ayumi and [[spoiler: the photographer Hamil]] seem to be heading this way, particularly when he takes care of Ayumi [[spoiler: after a stage-accident incapacitates her for some time]].
* AlternativeForeignThemeSong: In the French, Italian and Latino Spanish dubs of the 1984 anime.
* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Deconstructed. Ayumi considers Maya her superior in all but technique as far as acting goes, while Maya thinks Ayumi outclasses her in everything. Drives much of their competition.
* AnimeAccentAbsence: Averted. The American photographer Peter Hamil requires a translator.
* AnOfferYouCantRefuse: Subverted, in that Maya and Tsukikage both find ways to refuse. Also played straight in that several other characters don't.
%%* ArrangedMarriage: Hayami and Shiori.
* BeachEpisode: Averted, as no swimsuits are involved. Two characters simply go on a date by the seaside.
* BeamOfEnlightenment: Used frequently, especially when Maya or Ayumi has figured out a way to portray their current role properly.
* BedsheetLadder: Haru Kitajima. It may run in the family, as Maya does a variant of this not much later.
%%* BigFancyHouse Ayumi's house, and Hayami's too.
%%* BitchInSheepsClothing: [[spoiler: Shiori. Oh god, Shiori.]]
%%** [[spoiler: Suzuko aka Norie]] is even worse.
%%* BitingTheHandkerchief: Maya does this in a play competition. The judges love it.
%%* {{Blackmail}}
* BlankWhiteEyes: Played straight and inverted; characters get this look when they're surprised, but also in moments of intense concentration.
** Maya gets this look when playing Jane in ''The Forgotten Wilderness'', to demonstrate the girl's wild, wolf-like mind.
* CaptainObvious: Many of the people watching Ayumi or Maya act, feel compelled to state out loud what the actresses are doing for some reason.
* ClassicallyTrainedExtra
* {{Cliffhanger}}: We never get to see how many of the plays end. Especially tragic for the fictional ones, since you can't look it up anywhere.
* ClingyJealousGirl: Shiori.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive
* CrackDefeat
* CrashIntoHello: Maya meets Masumi by bumping into him at the theater, where she watches ''La Traviata''.
* {{Crossover}}: ''Glass Mask'' had a crossover with Shinji Wada's ''[[Manga/SukebanDeka Sukeban Deka]]'' (Which started being serialized on the same issue as ''Glass Mask''), the chapter debuted on 12th issue of ''Hana to Yume'' 1977. It later got included on the 6th Volume of ''Sukeban Deka'', but not in any of ''Glass Mask'''s volumes.
** Note: A chapter of ''Glass Mask'' story was still released in that issue despite the jokes in the ''Sukeban Deka'' Manga on how the collaboration came to be.
* CutShort: Maya gets the script for White Jungle, monologues about how different the character is and then... the movie starts airing in cinemas without us seeing anything about Maya getting into the role or anything else.
* DavidVersusGoliath (Ayumi and Maya)
* DownerBeginning: The 2005 series begins with a scene that shows us Tsukikage's ''almost'' FatalMethodActing incident, which left her [[TwoFaced scarred]] and forced her to retire early.
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Masumi's father, Hayami Eisuke, drove Ozaki Ichiren and his Moonlight theater troupe to bankruptcy to obtain his theater, the Crimson Goddess play and very likely Tsukikage for himself. Eventually Ozaki hung himself, but not before he bequeathed the play to Tsukikage. She went on to build her career on its success and refused to ever hand the play over to Eisuke's company, Daito Art.]]
* DubNameChange: In the French dub of the 1984 series, Maya is Laura Nessonier, Tsukikage becomes Chloe de St-Fiacre, Masumi is changed to Maxime Darcy, Ayumi is Sidonie Lecuyer, and Sakurakouji's name is changed to Yann Chamberlain. Averted in the Italian dub, which kept the original characters' names.
* DudeShesLikeInAComa
* DysfunctionJunction: Maya and Masumi to some degree. Tsukikage has a tragic past. Ayumi, who has had a wonderful life but is cast as an imprisoned, vengeful princess who witnessed her mother's execution for treason, goes out of her way to live horribly to get into the role.
* EmpathicEnvironment: Maya and Ayumi eventually reach levels of acting ability that allow them to essentially generate this in the audience.
%%* EnforcedMethodActing: In-universe. Tsukikage uses this on Maya constantly, and so does Maya.
* EntitledToHaveYou: Sakurakouji expects Maya to love him because he is kind to her and is tired of being her "nice guy friend". Needless to say, he suffers from Nice Guy Syndrome.
* {{Expy}}: Masumi's friend Kyoichiro Jin. Originally from ''Sukeban Deka''.
* EyepatchOfPower: No literal eyepatch, but Tsukikage wears her hair so that it constantly covers half her face, due to the scars, yet is clearly a [[BadassNormal Badass Actress]].
* {{Fainting}}: Shiori claims to have anaemia, which is a common ailment for Japanese women of the time period, but the timing of her fainting ''is'' suspicious.
* FalseCrucible: Averted. Tsukikage takes advantage of events to push Maya into a ''real'' crucible.
* {{Fangirl}}: Some of the big-name actors and actresses have whole troupes of these. They sometimes cross the line when defending the object of their obsession, generally to that person's disgust.
* FatalMethodActing: Barely averted. Tsukikage once was on-stage, and then a lamp fell on her... She survived, but was left massively scarred.[[invoked]]
* FestivalEpisode
* FreezeSneeze
* TheGameNeverStopped: A variation of this is done in one of the auditions. [[spoiler: A bunch of young actresses, including Maya and Ayumi, are auditioning for the role of Helen Keller. For the last stage of the audition, they're left in a room and told to "wait as Helen"... After a while, the fire alarm goes off and all the girls react to it, except for Maya and Ayumi, who thereby "pass" the audition. A moment of TruthInTelevision, as a similar trick was pulled on actress Patty Duke when she auditioned for the same role]].
* GenerationXerox: Hayami Masumi and his father Eisuke, Maya and Tsukikage - even though the parties in both case are not blood-related. Eisuke eternally pined after the Crimson Goddess that Tsukikage once played and Tsukikage herself but could not have her, and Masumi falls in love with Maya, one of the candidates for Crimson Goddess, [[spoiler:although he's more lucky in that Maya also falls in love with him]]. Maya and Tsukikage started their career similarly (Maya lived with a single mom who didn't support her passion and Tsukikage was an orphan until Ozaki adopted her), [[spoiler:and both are involved in a MayDecemberRomance - Maya with Masumi, and Tsukikage with her teacher Ozaki]].
* GirlPosse: The president of the high school acting club has one, and they tend to look down on Maya until she manages to show them up without really trying.
* KickTheDog: Director Onodera does this on a regular basis. Ayumi does this literally at one point when trying to get in to an evil role. A puppy, no less.
* HitMeDammit
* HotForTeacher: [[spoiler:Tsukikage and Ozaki.]]
* IdiotBall: Unnamed actors risk ruining their own play by swapping out sweets with mud in an important scene. Reason? They want to humiliate Maya who never did anything to them.
* IdolSinger: Emi Tabuchi.

* IndirectKiss
* InformedAbility: Many actors get presented as big talents and serious rivals for Maya. She outperforms them all (except Ayumi).
** Averted with Utako Himekawa who was long praised as great actress without the readers ever seeing her perform. In the Miracle Worker arc she finally shows off her skills, turns out with some emergency improvisations she is one of the few actors who can act on par with Maya
* InstantExpert: Averted. Sakurakoji decides to learn how to carve ''hotoke'' [Buddhist statues] for a role. He finds a master to study under, but is still only a novice by the time they start rehearsing the play.
* InsultBackfire
* IntimateHealing (Masumi has to give this to Maya)
* InstantFanClub (most of the big-name actors and actresses, including Ayumi and Maya)
* ItsAllMyFault
* IWasQuiteALooker: Tsukikage Chigusa.
* TheJeeves
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Hayami
* {{Joshikousei}}: The company Maya is working for at the time tries to play up the high school actress angle to generate more publicity for the movies and TV series she's currently appearing in. Maya responds to this rather poorly and ends up scaring the reporters during the interview.
* JumpedAtTheCall (Maya, who has to run away from home to follow the call)
* KabukiSounds
* KarmaHoudini: Hajime Onodera. While most other characters have gotten retribution for their deeds, his crimes are never punished [[spoiler: and he even ends up as a canidate for directing The Crimson Goddess]]
* KickThemWhileTheyAreDown: [[spoiler:Suzuko Tashiro]]
* LayingOnAHillside
* LimitedSocialCircle: Justified, in that they really don't have time for much besides their acting, so they always end up hanging around the same groups of people.
* LimitedWardrobe: While most of the cast have quite reasonably sized wardrobes, Tsukikage always wears the same black dress.
* LiveActionAdaptation. A live-action drama, a play, and a Noh play.
* LockedInAFreezer: Slightly different, in that they're not locked in to understand each other, but rather ''their characters'' since it's a part of Ayumi and Maya's TrainingFromHell.
* LoonyFan: Emi's fanclub
* LoveHurts: It wouldn't be {{Shojo}} without this one.
* LuminescentBlush
* ManipulativeBastard: Hayami, [[spoiler: Suzuko aka Norie]], etc.
* MarriedToTheJob
* {{Montage}}
* MysteriousPast: Averted. All the major characters get their pasts explored.
* MysteriousProtector: Maya's anonymous fan, "Murasaki no bara no hito" or the "Purple Rose Person", sends Maya encouraging notes and bouquets of purple roses, along with an escalating scale of other helpful gifts.
* {{Narrator}}: Appears off and on, particularly in the beginning, but eventually disappeared from the series.
* NeverGotToSayGoodbye: [[spoiler: Maya finds out that her mother died after being separated from her for several years. Their last meeting involved Haru disowning Maya for preferring to accept the scholarship to Tskukiage's school instead of staying at home and help her.]]
** [[spoiler:The Tsukikage/Ozaki romance]] ended this way. [[spoiler:He hung himself while she was still sound asleep.]]
* NoEnding: Since the manga still isn't finished. Unusually for anime, the writers didn't just slap their own ending on the story.
** The 1984 anime had poor ratings and was cancelled prematurely, and the producers made the 23rd and final episode a RecapEpisode, which was skipped in the European dubs.
* NotAllowedToGrowUp: Inverted, in that the two main candidates for the Crimson Goddess role are flat out described as too young for it at the start of the series, but aren't by the end.
* ObfuscatingStupidity: Norie Otobe does this to get close to Maya, complete with SpeechImpediment in the form of a Kansai accent.
* TheObstructiveLoveInterest: Shiori
* OffstageVillainy
* {{Ojou}}: Ayumi. Deconstructed in the way this affects both her (lots of people think Ayumi is using her parents' fame and wealth to further her career, but Ayumi will have nothing of it) and Maya (one of the reasons Maya thinks Ayumi is superior to her).
** Shiori is a more traditional one.
* OldFashionedRowboatDate: Maya has been in this situation twice, firstly with Yuu (a straightfoward example) and later with Hayami (who coerced her somewhat, but the scene plays out romantically).
* TheOnlyWayTheyWillLearn
* ParentalAbandonment: Maya's father died when she was young, and her mother effectively disowns her when she leaves to become an actress. [[spoiler: When Haru was willing to meet up with Maya and ask her for forgiveness, she died.]] Tsukikage also got this one.
* PerpetualPoverty: Averted. A significant portion of the series involves many of the main characters living in extremely cheap apartments and working part time jobs while trying to keep enough time available for acting practice. This changes with their current level of success.
* PhraseCatcher: "She's like a different person!" Also many variations on "What a scary girl." Said about Maya by many people who know her both on and off stage.
* PoliceAreUseless
* RaceAgainstTheClock: Tsukikage gives Maya two years to win an award as prestigious as one Ayumi has just won, or else Ayumi gets the Crimson Goddess role without further contest.
* RepeatWhatYouJustSaid
* TheRival: Ayumi and Maya. Ayumi actually is better than Maya in many areas, having more experience. Especially in the area of dance, giving her a grace that Maya simply cannot match. She's also determined to win fair and square, and respected Maya from their first meeting.
* SacredFirstKiss: Hayami feeding medicine to an unconscious Maya in a DudeShesLikeInAComa event combined with an IntimateHealing event. {{Shojo}} series like to overload the tropes from time to time.
* SadistTeacher: Both Tsukikage and Kuronuma fit this role, for most of the people who fall under their tutelage. Maya and Ayumi are unusual in being just as crazy as these two, so they like it and only consider them to be SternTeacher.
* SassySecretary: Saeko Mizuki is this for Hayami
* SchoolFestival
* SchoolPlay: ''Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream'' and a solo adaptation of ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet''.
* SecretKeeper
* SelectiveObliviousness: Maya doesn't recognize her own love for Shigeru until another character points it out to her.
* {{Shojo}}
* ShoutOut: Although some of the plays are made up, most of them are real. For example, you know that play competition that happened early in the series? [[Theatre/JesusChristSuperstar Guess what play got second place?]]
** The opening sequence of the 1984 anime could be considered one to ''Film/{{Flashdance}}'', with its Shingo Araki-animated footage of Maya dancing and a peppy upbeat theme song filled with GratuitousEnglish that bears more than a passing resemblance to Creator/IreneCara's Oscar-winning movie theme.
* ShowWithinAShow: Lots of them. That's the point...
* SinkOrSwimMentor: Tsukikage often goes this route.
* SnowMeansLove
* StarCrossedLovers: Maya and Hayami. And they still are... a pale example compared with [[spoiler: Tsukikage and the author of Crimson Goddess, Ozaki Ichiren.]]
* TakeOurWordForIt: Averted, in that the "Crimson Goddess" is merely talked about during most of the series, but near the end is fully detailed. Tsukikage even puts on a performance, with Genzo as narrator and the male lead.
* TechnicianVersusPerformer: Ayumi (technician) versus Maya (performer), even years of training and experience made them well rounded with the two aspects.
** Ayumi has a lot of experience and education starting from her childhood, which enables her to perform roles with grace and accuracy.
** Maya is able to create and wear masks that she could become the character, in addition to attracting audiences to look at specifically her.
%%* ThereIsAnother
* ThirtySecondBlackout: Averted. A blackout that happens during a play lasts until after the play is over, using a collection of flashlights to light the stage.
* ThisIsUnforgivable: [[spoiler: Ayumi, when she finds out Norie's trap. Maya, when she learns why Haru died.]]
* ToBeAMaster: Arguably; playing the 'Crimson Goddess' is not a ''world-wide obsession'', but certainly is within the acting world.
%% * UmbrellaOfTogetherness
%% Zero-context examples are not allowed.
* TrainingFromHell: Just about ''every'' role for which Ayumi and Maya prepare. Lampshaded, in that just about any character ''other'' than Maya, Ayumi and Tsukikage think it's insane, and occasionally say so. Often to the three in question.
* TransformationSequence: Anime only. Apparently the director thought mere acting wasn't exciting enough, and had to come up with a fancy "putting on a mask" sequence to visualize it.
* TrueCompanions: Maya and her acting friends (Rei, Mina, Sayaka, etc.)
* [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse What Happened To The Cat?]]: Early in the manga, Maya got a kitten when doing her 'living as Beth' test. It only appears for that short period of time and then is never mentioned again. What happened to it?
** Also, many actors and other characters only appear for an arc and then disappear forever. For example, the idol that said she would try to act better for her second movie after seeing Maya's performance is never heard from again.
%%* VineSwing: Mio
* WhiteDwarfStarlet: Averted in Tsukikage, who left the stage at least partly for health reasons and is still both known and popular, and some of the current top actresses have been her students. She proves more than once in the series that her acting is just as good as it used to be.
%%* {{Yakuza}}
* {{Yandere}}: [[spoiler:Shiori, after she found out Masumi was not only the "Purple Rose fan" but also deeply in love with Maya.]]
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