Act-age

An increadibly interesting series that hooked me in with the first volume. A story based a naturally increadible actress striving to be something more. With fun characters, increadibly tense scenes and some amazingly made story. I found this series to be one of fun and thought.

Story – 7
A Story based around the reactions of others and the way that the main character influences production. With a main character who doesn’t understand her skill and learns others abilities to propel herself. I soon fell for the story and sat in awe at the beautiful writing of this series, but it may have a problem with attentively in the later volumes, even on chapter 30 I have begun to feel bored, with the same reactions and story plots.

Art – 9
Boy is this art good, I know that manga has to have some superb art, but this art really allowed me to immerse in the story. there are some chapters that I felt like I was watching a movie.

Character – 9
I love the characters, with stories of jealousy and amazement spread about, it feels like you’re watching real people. I’m only going to focus on the main character in this story.
Kei Yonagi, is a high school girl that wants to become a successful actor, but with economic problems due to dead parents, she faces some problems in the early chapters. The way this character is built is amazing, just amazing. It feels amazing to watch her act, to learn and to feel. The way she competes with others feels good as well. You begin to see her co-stars as her enemies and it feel great.

Overall – 8
I love this series, the characters are amazing, with some amazing chapters that left me in awe. The characters are good and the art is perfect for the series, but I feel that if the story doesn’t become more intense in the later chapters, it may remove from the characters and become less interesting. I would recommend this series whole-heartedly.

Act-age was one of the most promising series in Weekly Shonen Jump throughout 2019 and 2020, and one of my personal favorites alongside One Piece and Chainsaw Man.

It really was a head-turner in many ways: a colorful, female-heavy cast, unconventional topic, plenty of quality character drama, unusual art, no forced romance or any sort of physical fights as a means to move the plot forward—and at the same time it dutifully adhered to the basics of the shonen sensibilities, such as rivalry and continuous progress on the path towards a grand ambition. It was, to use a term coined in Bakuman, an excellent example of a non-battle battle manga; a rare case of a purely character-driven shonen work that was neither a romcom nor a slice-of-life.

Alas, with the author arrested for a dubious hobby of groping some middle-schoolers while passing them on a bike, the manga was promptly axed, and the artist allegedly decided against continuing it on her own, unlike what would normally be expected when author has to drop out of a collaboration. A rational, respectable decision, though sad nonetheless, since the story was essentially terminated midways, with no advance notice or a semblance of a satisfying closure. It deserved so much more.

Oh well. If the prospect of reading a promising story that will never be completed does not turn you off, do read it. It's worth the time.

“Whenever something sad or painful happens, we try to become different version of ourselves almost to the point of forgetting our true selves, right? That’s why people like us become actors, right?”

ACT-AGE is a manga series that published on Weekly SHONEN JUMP magazine. but unlike another JUMP manga that are either battle action, sports or romance comedy series, this manga tell us about profession and its competitive career world, in this case about ACTING. Also what thing that made this series different from another JUMP manga is Act-age have genuine female MC, while almost every shonen manga have male MC. Even with female MC, this series is really fit to be shonen manga because its focus about acting skils, rivalry, explained "power" system and also good characterization. This series already have 2 arcs that tell us about film and stage play/theatre production.

Story : 9/10
This is story about Kei Yonagi, 16 years old female MC who just live with her 2 siblings without her parents She have a great talent about acting but also very risky to her mental state "method acting". While another MC is 35 years old Director Sumiji Kuroyama who have dream to made 1 ideal film. He finally found the actress with his qualification, that is Yonagi. Early chapter have okay setup to story like "what is acting", "first job" etc. But once this series went to first arc, it was beginning to be interesting. Great and likeable rival/partner character each arcs, interesting and unique information about acting and also what make me like this series is despite being a profession series, Act-age still can give you suspense and tension like battle manga because the struggle that our character have while made a film or stage play.


Art : 9/10
Act-age is one of great artstyle manga in Weekly SHONEN JUMP atm, and it comes from 21 years old female artist, Shiro Usazaki, her weapon while draw Act-age manga is beautiful eyes of each character. Also she draw each character expression with good detail, even from the visual alone, we can differr when characters did acting and when characters display their true selves, once again just from visual alone. Another great things about Act-age artstyle is when the manga get color page and her color drawing is really great.

Character : 9/10
Kei Yonagi is genuine female MC on shonen manga, yes she is a female but she is not melodrama character. her pure nature because she is just high school student and amateur actress made her really likeable character also as MC she really learn about her skills and also her partner in acting. Rival/partner character is also great and unique. We get power ceiling character in Chiyoko Momoshiro, top actress in her generation, and there is reason why she was top actress, also her acting method that 180 degree different from Yonagi method. Our second arc deutragonist Araya who have same method as Yonagi but more polished and have more experience, also have unique habit and also interesting backgroung. While we also have character Akira who is the son of former top actress, have parents issue and also always compared to her mother and media always treat him as "nepotism" product.

Enjoyment : 9/10
What make me enjoy the series is the tension and suspense when each character play their role. Also the struggle in film production or stage play production make the story isn't easy for MC and anothe character. Conclusion of each arcs is very beatiful and you won't expect that from acting manga. Thats why this series can survive on biggest manga magazine in the world Weekly SHONEN JUMP.

Overal : 9/10
ACT-AGE already be one of my favorite manga of all time and i hope a lot of reader will read this great series

After multiple recommendations I expected so much more. Now, a level of immaturity is ok and it can even be endearing in shounen, but in characters, not in the plot. And that’s what is reversed here – the main character is shown as unrealistically proficient, and the narrative is annoyingly juvenile in tone.

The idea is great – by god, I want more more shounen not about hitting people in the face and shounen with female leads. The world of a budding actress seems to be an exciting setting for a manga. Talent agencies, auditions, TV, cinema, theater, musicals, their energy, color, variety, beauty, and the many different people working, living, visiting there - such a wealth of situations to explore! There’s also the underlying idea that diving too much in other personalities may be damaging for the unprepared, but others may be eager to exploit the burning unsafe talent, which is an enticing conflict.

Too bad that this particular manga is set in a different universe, where method acting is a rare arcane knowledge and acting standards are low, so our heroine who’s stumbled on the mystery of “you can call forth your emotional memory to act better” is a messiah. Despite having no training or any, even amateur acting experience. No respect for the ol’Stanislavski. The way acting mastery is treated here seriously reeks of super-powers. Later it improves with the appearance of mentors, but she is a gem from the start, which they just reverently slightly polish.

Too bad that this manga is hell bent on ridiculous aggrandizing of the heroine. At one point about 10 pages are dedicated to people on the streets discussing how gorgeous, balanced and fast she is when she runs past them. People praising her in their heads comprises roughly 25% of the text in this manga. Her only fault is being too focused on acting and maybe leaning on her past experience too much, so they teach her to be more expressive and fake. The rest of the cast is rather one-note, and while it seems to change a bit later, Act-age is still by far not a battle of personalities. Plus most of stronger personalities come in the form of quirky teenage misunderstood world-class geniuses, which our heroine cracks open.

Too bad that the situations depicted are unrealistic. The protagonist rears two small siblings on her own, with not much on-screen work dedicated to it aside from “the adorable family she fights for”. All kinds of barriers are broken by others for her sake – she gets a metric gigaton of special attention. At one point in the beginning she gets “kidnapped” for the comedic effect, brought to a filming studio and when asked to act she agrees. (As I’ve mentioned the best way to somehow connect to this manga is treating it as happening in a separate universe, where human trafficking for porn doesn’t happen.)

There’s just way too many false notes in Act-age for enjoyment. It’s not like it’s THAT unique – there is Kasane, Skip Beat!, idol drama manhwa.

Two things I am willing to give to this manga’s writing though are the fact that our heroine is not made to act stereotypically girly, her gender, refreshingly, doesn’t come up much at all, and that the quirkiness in her and other characters is shown to be ok – they are not judged for being passionately weird. Actually, there isn’t many bad people in the cast, they are simply different, which is also fresh.

The art is decent – the linework is clean, readable and pretty. The art is very character focused, most frames contain faces with screentones, later on backgrounds start to be more elaborate, but they never develop personalities. I’d call it very nice, pleasant and well-made, but not unique or outstanding.

That’s what the whole manga is actually – Act-age isn’t a breakthrough, like it was advertised to me, sadly. The relatively fresh main topic falls flat because of the superficial writing, especially glaring in the context of many great dramatic works set in the world of cinema/theater/showbusiness. When you think about a raising actress you expect rivals, high stakes, painful growth, sacrifices, dealing with public image, complicated relationships. Almost none of this is shown here properly – the heroine just breaks through everything, everyone gets amazed and eager to help her. It’s irritating to read through, and Act-age offers nothing for counterbalance – no special characters, no special art, no special narrative tricks. As such, I commend Act-age for what it has tried to do and concur that some readers may enjoy it, but I am disappointed in it and won’t advise it to people.