Blue Period, one of the greatest mangas I've ever read
A lot of the books that I’ve read over this year have been manga, however, one of the ones that I’ve liked the most of this year was one called Blue Period. Blue Period is an art manga by Tsubasa Yamaguchi about a 16-year-old “delinquent” called Yatora Yaguchi, Yatora starts off the series as someone who goes through life doing this as if “fulfilling a quota” in his own words, and while he does have his friends, he doesn’t have anything that he properly connects to. During an accidental visit to the art room, he sees a painting, and finds a connection to art. He then proceeds to join the art club and try out for an extremely hard college: Tokyo University of the Arts
Blue Period is such an amazing manga. The characters are built so well, each of them having their own backgrounds and connections to art. Yatora especially, he might be one of my favorite protagonists ever because of the way he was allowed to struggle and grow in this manga. Yatora starts off in art as a complete newbie who’s never really interacted with art before, and it shows. Other characters who have had experience with art, whether through family or just their own interest before. Like the teachers, who are so extremely supportive of Yatora, and Yatora, despite being the protagonist, does not surpass them in any way. Yatora is really just an excellent character, I may be repeating myself when I say this but he struggles in a way that so many manga protagonists don’t. He hits a wall with his art, a lot, despite the fact that he’s an incredibly hard worker, to the point where it’s something of a defining characteristic for him (a great parallel to the “rival” character who is defined as a “genius” but also, I’m not going to start with those two because then I’ll be here all day).
And then there’s the female characters in this manga. All of them are absolutely wonderful characters with varying personalities and body types as well! Which is so, so very rare in manga. One of the characters Yatora meets later in the story is fat, bubbly, cheerful, eats a lot and is never put down for it and she is solidly on the list of my top three characters. Also, one of the characters Yatora meets in the art room, Ryuuji “Yuka” Ayukawa, is hinted in some ways to be trans. While nothing has really been confirmed yet, their character is handled really well, and Yuka is also one of my favorites
This manga also has a gorgeous art style, so on top of all the amazing characters there’s pretty art to boot. I’d give this manga a 10/10 stars and I am politely asking you to go read it now.
YES GABBY!!! I've been wanting to read this manga for the longest time and your post reminded me that I really need to get to it!!! I read only the first few chapters and I was already moved by the stunning illustrations and themes (may or may not have shed a few tears). As someone who greatly loves art and can relate to not having something they're not passionate about, Yatora sounds like a great and relatable protagonist. I need to read this immediately, great job Gabby!
ReplyDeleteI like your review Gabby! This book sounds very interesting! I have never read a manga, but this book sounds good, so maybe I'll try it sometime.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like an awesome manga! I really like reading manga, but I haven't done so recently because I finished a few series that I liked and didn't find any new ones, but this sounds really good and I definitely want to read it now. It seems like the characters especially are really great, and character diversity, personality, and development is so important to how interested I end up being in a story. Thank you for the recommendation!
ReplyDeleteHey Gabby! I have heard good reviews of Blue Period but have never looked at the plot. I think the artist aspect of this plot will resonate with a lot of people and I know I am going to check it out. I LOVE complex female characters and it is so hard to find that in manga. Great review!
ReplyDeleteGreat job Gabs!! I literally just read Khuyen's review about another manga and now I'm reading this and want to start reading manga even more. The characters seem really cool and character diversity always makes books so much better. Nice review!
ReplyDeleteThis is such a great blog post Gabby! It's actually one of the few that have truly made me want to check out the book and not just look up a summary online. It sounds like a really cool and fun manga to read so I'll most certainly check it out when I can!
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