A review by louandlife
Act-Age, Vol. 1 by Tatsuya Matsuki

5.0

Advanced Reader Copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

I was so pleasantly surprised at how much I loved this manga. This has become one of my manga favourites and I will definitely be keeping an eye out for the rest of the series! I would highly recommend this manga if you are a fan of Skip Beat! I'm actually currently reading Skip Beat! But I've taken a bit of break as I did read almost 30 volumes in a month. Act Age Volume 1 is very reminiscent of the earlier volumes of Skip Beat!, so if you particularly like that period you should pick this manga up. I would say that it is slightly more realistic and slightly more serious than Skip Beat! though and it's a shonen manga as oppose to Skip Beat! being a shojo one.

I've started to realise that one of my favourite themes in mangas is fame, specifically people trying to become famous in acting. What I like most is having ordinary people thrown into the world of fame. This manga is working towards that as Yonagi is just going through her first few auditions in this volume. It's also fascinating to see Yonagi work as an actress because she's like the ultimate method actor. When she acts she transforms herself into that role so well that she take centre stage no matter what she does. As this is volume one in a continuing series it'll be so much fun to see how Yonagi will grow as a character. Especially seeing that she is motivated by her young twin siblings that she's essentially become the mother of.

This manga is a lot of fun and seeing Yonagi go through the training of becoming an actor is gripping because you want to see if she will make it. You also want to see what her mentor, the famous director Sumiji Kuroyama has in store for her in the future with his mysterious role.

Overall, I highly recommend this manga. It's a light, fun read, which will hopefully make you smile and laugh. I can't wait to see what's next in the series and see the person Yonagi will become!