Review: Glass Mask Episode 2 ‘The Mask of Vivi’ – More Greatness

We continue where we left off, with Maya sitting in a theater, watching a play. But boy does the episode zoom along from there. I guess it’s been a while, but I didn’t think the Vivi arc when by so quickly. It only has an episode and a half of time!

Last week I spent most of the article discussing the concept of ‘Magic’, but not too much on the episode itself. To remedy that, this week we’ll discuss solely the episode, you won’t hear about Magic again… maybe.

An interesting thing I noticed while rewatching this episode was how much Glass Mask wants you to get creeped out by Tsukikage. She looks creepy, is stalking Maya throughout the first half of this episode, is usually framed in an intimidating manner, and creepy music plays when she shows up. Pretty dishonest about Tsukikage motivations, unless we are supposed to see Tsukikage through Maya’s eyes.


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Seriously, I have written in my notes every time Tsukikage is stalking Maya. First she watches Maya in the theater, than we peeks into the restaurant, then orders ramen just to get to Maya, and then stalks Maya in the park. Pretty creepy. Especially considering we all know Maya is going to be trained by Tsukikage. It’s an obvious trope, Tsukikage outright says it, and even does it towards the end.

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W-wow, Tsukikage, that’s… a little creepy

Maya gets a bit of development. This episode also showcases her three main talents, memorization, obsession, and ability to fully understand her character. The first is obvious (she recites a three-and-a-half hour play verbatim from memory after a single watch for crying out loud!), the second is apparent as well (Maya stays up all night reciting her few lines), and the third is also not that hard to spot (Maya intuitively understanding the sadness buried deep within Vivi).

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Still creepy

It’s also interesting to see how differently Maya approaches stories and it’s characters compared to others. The clear example being the teacher. He sees the character of Vivi as nothing but a joke generator for the other characters. Whereas Maya approaches Vivi as an actual person, and sympathizes with the feelings found from a real person is the same circumstances. Speaking of the teacher, it’s pretty clear that putting her in the role of Vivi is his form of punishment. Tsukikage may say it requires subtlety, but that’s not true, not the way the teacher wants Vivi performed.

 

We also get Maya’s inciting event! This is the moment that puts Maya on the path of acting as her future. This is obviously seeing the play, watching theater portrayed right in front of her has clearly affected Maya far more than movie and TV can.

We also get introduced to a new character this episode, that being Director Onodera. You’ll be seeing a lot of Director Onodera for the first fifteen episodes or so, he’s an… interesting character. Let’s just say he’s not all that likable.

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Maya’s Mom is a jerk

Speaking of unlikable characters, Maya’s mom is trying her hardest for us to hate her. Constantly belittling her own daughter, unwilling to watch Maya’s biggest moment due to pride, Maya’s mom is not a nice one. At all. At least Sugiko doesn’t try very hard to be a jerk, it just comes naturally for her.

That’s really it, things don’t begin to truly pick up until next episode, with the true introduction to Ayumi, but this episode has continued where the first left off, in both story and quality.

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Sugiko is a jerk

What did you think of Glass Mask Episode 2? Did you like it? Did you hate it? Are you ready to watch the next episode? Let me know in the comments! And as always, you can watch all of Glass Mask at Crunchyroll.com

 

GJ Corban
GJ Corban
Hi there, I'm GJ Corban, that stands for Gregory Jr., but I've been accidentally called CJ, DJ, JJ, and even Jesus... thrice. Other than that I'm just a guy obsessed with storytelling and the culture and news that surround it.