Though he’s good at just about everything he puts effort into, Yatora finds himself completely bored with life. It isn’t until he is invited to participate in the world of art that he finally feels alive. In such a competitive world, is passion and effort enough to secure a future?
Before we start the review…
Who wrote this manga?
This manga was written by Tsubasa Yamaguchi. You can check out her Instagram here.
Info about the volumes (ongoing)
- There are currently 16 volumes published in English.
- There are currently 18 volumes published in Japanese.
You can check out Volume One of this series for yourself below.
What’s this series about?
Yatora is a rather interesting young man. Though he looks like a delinquent, and enjoys staying out all night drinking with his friends, he’s also an honours student. At a young age he realized that as long as he puts a good amount of effort into something, there isn’t much that he can’t do. While he isn’t exactly passionate about most of the happenings in his life, the satisfaction he gets from completing a task is still rewarding.
As he doesn’t really have a passion pulling him in any one direction, when the topic of university comes up, he isn’t sure how to proceed. He knows he needs to pick a major that will allow him to live a good life—and one that won’t worry his parents—but it’s still a big decision.
While he’s still mulling over his choices, he’s given a project in art class one day—to draw one’s favourite scenery. While up until now he had been treating art as a bird course, he decides to put some effort into this project. It takes him a while to decide on a subject and actually start working on it, and by the end he isn’t exactly happy with the result—there was a time limit of only 2 days! Still, when he hangs his project up on the wall with everyone else’s, he feels “seen” for the first time in his life. His friends recognize exactly what he tried to depict, and he even gets some compliments from his classmates and teacher.
It’s this feeling of working on something for himself, and having others recognize his efforts that kick of his newfound interest in art. While he is a little late to start getting serious, his passion drives him to improve at an almost scary pace.
My thoughts on this volume (spoilers!)
As I’m rather partial to my romance and horror manga, I had Blue Period on the back burner for about a half year. I actually only read it because I’m trying to work through my English manga. As I read, Yatora quickly became one of my favourite male protagonists in anything I’ve read so far. Though his journey is deep-seated in the arts, his story and difficulties are incredibly relatable to just about anybody.
While he comes across as a normal high school student at first glance, we quickly learn that isn’t the case. Yatora seems to be just going through the motions—while he isn’t really passionate about his life, it doesn’t appear that he’s all that unhappy either. He cheers for soccer players with his friends, but in the back of his mind wonders why he’s cheering so much for someone else’s accomplishments. He smokes cigarettes while out with his friends, but admits that he only smokes in order to fit in. He’s a boy that has no inspiration in his life, so he’s doing what he thinks he should be doing.
It’s when he fully embraces his interest in art that the story takes a turn, and we get to see Yatora at his brightest. While he was always good at what he did, he never really cared all that much. There’s something incredibly satisfying in putting effort into something you clearly care about, and then seeing the fruits of your labours.
Once he comes to terms with the fact that he’s so passionate about art that he wants to give up a secure major and aim for art school, his next challenge is telling his parents. I feel like this is one of the most relatable parts in volume one, as deciding on a university and major is one of the biggest decisions a person can make in their lives. With Yatora deciding to forgo anything heavily academic in order to focus on the arts, after spending so much time keeping his grades at scholarship level… There’s no way his parents wouldn’t take that as a shock.
I was incredibly happy to see this volume focus on Yatora discovering himself, and the frustrations that come with not being good at something you’re passionate about right from the start. I was afraid there would be a long “disapproving parents” arc once the topic was brought up, and was so relieved when that wasn’t the case.
My favourite parts of this volume (spoilers)
💛 “If what you see is blue, than let it be blue, whether it’s an apple or a rabbit.”
💚 Yatora coming off as a somewhat intimidating delinquent character at first, but actually being one of the most friendly out of the entire cast!
💙 Yatora coming across the girls in the art club reading BL secretly, and him confirming that “yeah guys are more interested in looks, while girls are more interested in relationships, right?” He’s literally such a good guy I’m crying.
❤️ Yatora crying when he realized how happy he was when his friend recognized what his favourite scenery was!!
💙 Yatora crying when he was frustrated about the lack of criticism his art teacher gave him—she criticized literally everyone else’s project, and really just gave Yatora a “good job!” It’s because he only just started focusing on art! Not because he didn’t do a good job!
💚 Yuka’s entire character—I was not expecting that reveal at all, but it had me liking the series all the more after.
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