This is an older anime series but it is still very good. In fact when I looked it up I was surprised to find it was based on the 2nd best selling manga of all time!!!

It will definitely appeal to anyone interested in show business or the world of actors and celebrities. Glass Mask gives you a glimpse of the inner cut throat world of showbiz and the determination, talent and connections needed to make it. But it is wrapped in an interesting and heartwarming tale of two rivals, one who is poor but talented and another who was born into showbiz, wealthy and connected.

The main disappointment for me was the ending which was weak. This is probably due to the fact that the manga hasn't finished either and it is uncertain if the author intends to continue it. So the current ending seems to be something hashed together by the anime production team.

I am usually fairly critical about anime series, but I have to rate this as probably one of the top 10 maybe even top 5 best animes of all time.

The character development from the beginning is superb and the storyline flows nicely from that. The main characters are intelligent and make unexpected but definitely in-character decisions and actions. While many weaker animes are predictable, this one keeps you guessing. The protagonist is constantly being faced with what seems impossible challenges, he doesn't always win, but what plays out is believable and always interesting and surprising.

There is a strong human element in it. The usual feelings of insecurity, pride, hatred, love, jealousy, suspicion etc are very well integrated into the characters and played out as you would expect. The main characters therefore have much depth.

The underlying strength of this anime I think is that it has a deep plot that feels like it has been well planned from the beginning to the end of season 2. You can see this in seeds that are planted early on and throughout the series that don't reveal their significance until much later on.

This is definitely a must watch.

Do you hate animes where the characters make stupid out of character decisions? In other words do things that logically they wouldn't do thereby making you feel angry and that the behavior is unrealistic?

Well this is one of those annoying animes.

It starts off well. A beautiful heroine with a hidden power to save the world is discovered. Over the first few episodes she "collects" a team of hunky guys with special powers to support her, she gets recognized by the Leaders as potentially the future Queen. Nice character development so far. Other than the unrealistic notion that the rich nobleman they are living with has no maids or cooks, it looks promising.

Then the series starts to disintegrate. Instead of continuing to build the team, strengthen powers against the evolving enemy, they basically sit around and drink tea while some rival organization fights the monsters. (Can you imagine something like that happening in Code Geass, Naruto, Bleach etc. ... no freaking way.)

Even when the heroine tells one of the guys she wants to become able to protect herself (a nice opening to teach her combat moves) the guy simply reaffirms his pledge to protect her ... LAME.

Then the final straw has to be in the last 2 episodes where almost all the characters do stupid things that are really out of character. It feels as if the director and scriptwriters forced the characters do stupid things to fit the desired plot. Any accomplished author/director knows that the story develops from the characters and not the other way around.

There is so much potential with this anime, a remake with a better director and scriptwriter could make this really good. But as it stands watch it for eye candy and be prepared to feel annoyed with the characters.

I thought the first episode, which at this time is the only one out, tried to pack too much in. It introduced too many characters at the same time while never focusing on anyone. As a result it ended up feeling haphazard and I did not feel any emotional attachment to any of the characters. None of them seemed particularly memorable. I think they should have focused more on one character to develop some viewer interest in him/her. If you think about the really successful animes, they all have a main character who is introduced in the first episode and developed to the point you want to know what happens to them. That is completely missing here.

The idea of entire lives being stored in books and the idea of it being replayable was interesting. The idea of a "church" that is seems to have evil intentions and the opposing entity armed librarians ... the keeper of the books, has potential for an interesting storyline. The animation is of high quality.

In summary the first episode did not particularly grab my attention and make me feel like watching more, like many other good animes do. However, it does have the potential to be a good anime series if the next episodes are better.