The Masterpiece

It's not just paper and ink...


Murasaki no bara!

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"!
 

Glass no Kamen publication timeline

Many thanks to halivi for this fantastic timeline

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:

Tankoubon (Hakusensha)

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

Bunkoban (Hakusensha)

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.

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