The Masterpiece
It's not just paper and ink...
The manga "Garasu no Kamen" (The glass mask) was serialized in the magazine
"Hana to Yume" starting from 1976.
The episodes were then collected into 41 tankoubons and then into 23 bunkobans.
More pages were published in "Hana to Yume" but those pages have never been
collected into official after-41 tankoubons.
On May 15th 1998, "Hana to Yume Platinum", a special number of "Hana to Yume" was published.
This contained some special after 41 re-drawn pages.
However, both the "Hana to Yume" versions are very different from the
official tankoubon edition. In fact, Suzue Miuchi redrew most of the scenes for the volumes,
especially for the last ones.
On June 25th 2001 the first volume of a new monthly edition of "Garasu no Kamen" was published.
It's "Gekkan Garasu no Kamen" (by Hakusensha).
It covers the same plot of the tankoubons and bunkobans but it is divided into 14 bigger volumes.
On December 16th 2004, exactly 6 years after the publication of the 41st tankoubon,
the 42nd tankoubon was finally published. The plot represented in this volume was completely
different from the one illustrated in the after-41 pages which were published in "Hana to Yume".
This disappointed some of the oldest fans especially because several scenes were cut off and most of the
others were totally redrawn.
Some special editions of the manga were issued by Hakusensha, containing selections of chapters.
September 2004: Garasu no Kamen "The Miracle Worker", My Best Remix, vol. 1 (316 pages) and 2 (301 pages).
January 2005: Garasu no Kamen "Take Kurabe", My Best Remix (445 pages).
February 2005: Garasu no Kamen "Cruel Stage", My Best Remix, vol. 1 (344 pages) and 2 (314 pages),
including Maya's crisis after her own mother's death.
On April 2006, "Garasu no Kamen Sen", a special volume containing the first 1026 pages of the manga
and a manga chronicle, was published to celebrate the new anime.
Starting from August 26th 2008, following volume 42
new scenes of "Garasu no Kamen" were published on "Bessatsu Hana to Yume" by Hakusensha.
On January 26th 2009, volume 43 was published, and so did a continuation of the story in
"Bessatsu Hana to Yume"!
Since the beginning of 2009, a new "wide" edition of "Garasu no Kamen" was re-printed.
Published monthly (about the 18th of every month), each volume contains 3 tankoubons.
On August 26th 2009, volume 44 was published, together with new episodes in
"Bessatsu Hana to Yume"!
Check the table below for the publication years.
Nobody (except Suzue Miuchi) really knows if and when other volumes will be published.
In addition, even if it did happen, the plot would probably be very different from that of
the "Hana to Yume" magazine (the plot of the official tankoubon is getting more and more different
from that of the original "Hana to Yume").
Whether different or not, Garasu no Kamen fans from all over the world are still waiting for a (happy)
ending
for one of the most passionate and beautiful love stories ever written.
Let's just hope that it's not true that Miuchi sensei stopped writing manga because of her new religion
O-en.
Garasu no Kamen has been translated into Chinese (HK and Taiwan), Thai (Na Gak Kaew),
Korean (Yuri Kamyun), Indonesian (Topeng Kaca), Vietnamese (Mat Na Thuy Tinh),
Italian (Il Grande Sogno di Maya).
The first animated version (1984) was interrupted without an ending episode,
while a happy ending was created (and approved by Suzue Miuchi) for the drama (1997 - 1999).
A new 51-episode animated version was broadcasted starting from April 2005. There are several differences
from
the original plot in this new version, but it is quite faithful to the manga.
And for those who dare to hope, I'm sorry, it has an open ending...
Publication dates of the two Japanese editions of the manga:
| Number | Date of publication |
|---|---|
| 1 | April 1976 |
| 2 | July 1976 |
| 3 | February 1977 |
| 4 | May 1977 |
| 5 | August 1977 |
| 6 | October 1977 |
| 7 | February 1978 |
| 8 | June 1978 |
| 9 | September 1978 |
| 10 | January 1979 |
| 11 | April 1979 |
| 12 | August 1979 |
| 13 | December 1979 |
| 14 | April 1980 |
| 15 | June 1980 |
| 16 | August 1980 |
| 17 | November 1980 |
| 18 | February 1981 |
| 19 | May 1981 |
| 20 | September 1981 |
| 21 | December 1981 |
| 22 | March 1982 |
| 23 | July 1982 |
| 24 | October 1982 |
| 25 | April 1983 |
| 26 | June 1983 |
| 27 | November 1983 |
| 28 | March 1984 |
| 29 | August 1984 |
| 30 | February 1985 |
| 31 | August 1985 |
| 32 | June 1986 |
| 33 | March 1987 |
| 34 | December 1987 |
| 35 | August 1988 |
| 36 | September 1989 |
| 37 | October 1990 |
| 38 | March 1992 |
| 39 | October 1992 |
| 40 | September 1993 |
| 41 | December 1998 |
| 42 | December 2004 |
| 43 | January 2009 |
| 44 | August 2009 |
| 45 | September 2010 |
| 46 | October 2010 |
| 47 | July 2011 |
| 48 | February 2012 |
| 49 | October 2012 |
| Number | Date of publication |
|---|---|
| 1 | March 1994 |
| 2 | March 1994 |
| 3 | March 1994 |
| 4 | March 1994 |
| 5 | March 1994 |
| 6 | March 1994 |
| 7 | June 1994 |
| 8 | June 1994 |
| 9 | June 1994 |
| 10 | June 1994 |
| 11 | September 1994 |
| 12 | September 1994 |
| 13 | September 1994 |
| 14 | September 1994 |
| 15 | December 1994 |
| 16 | December 1994 |
| 17 | December 1994 |
| 18 | March 1995 |
| 19 | March 1995 |
| 20 | June 1995 |
| 21 | June 1995 |
| 22 | September 1995 |
| 23 | September 1999 |
| 24 | January 2010 |
| 25 | September 2013 |
| 26 | March 2014 |
| 27 | September 2016 |
Credits:
A big THANK YOU to MASASUMI, SHION and KATE. Many thanks also to: YOUNGROK LEE, MING-YI, MO, VALERIE DAO, JIDAPA for telling me about Garasu no Kamen editions in their countries and to HALIVI for creating the image of the timeline.
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