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
