nathandouglasdavis

This is a captivating manga. Kei Yonagi is a high school girl with an abnormal psyche that allows fem to be an exceptional actor: fe's able to completely immerse femself in a role, becoming characters to a creepy and unhealthy degree. Sumiji Kuroyama, a director, discovers fem at an audition and decides to personally help fem reach feir full potential as an actor. Fe starts out only being able to act when it's a type of situation fe's previously experienced, when it involves emotions fe can relate to, but as fe works on various projects alongside other talented actors and directors, fe's able to adapt and grow--learning skillsets for playing a wider range of roles. In the build-up to feir performances (Death Island, The Galactic Railroad, Princess Iron Fan), fe always discovers inadequacies within feir acting and finds ways to overcome them. This builds up expectation and curiosity as to how the actual performance will go, so that once we reach them, it's like an explosion gripping my heart with the need to see how feir prodigious acting will manifest...though I don't think explosions can grip things...

One of my favorite moments is when fe dropkicks feir fellow actor.

[Originally reviewed at chapter 85]

[Updated upon completion]

Addendum: I wasn't huge on how the Princess Iron Fan story was just a gathering of several previous rivals or how there was an implication that Kuroyama's big movie would likewise just be a gathering of previous talent that Yonagi had interacted with. So I definitely appreciated how the latest storyline (the one that got cut short) consisted entirely of new rivals--Satsuki Meino and Ren Tamaki. I should also mention that I found the conclusion of the Princess Iron Fan story arc to be a bit anti-climactic, but the story (and my interest in it) seemed to recover decently well after that. The art is pretty good, but I find the way the faces and eyes are drawn to be...heavy-handed or something. I dunno, it just feels off. It's cute how the story emphasizes how bad at lying Yonagi is, despite being an actor.

It must be mentioned that the manga got cancelled, so there is an abrupt and unsatisfying ending. That being said, I still think the it's worth reading and still deserving of a high rating even with no conclusion.

Story--10 > 9; Art--6 > 7