Blue Period it was one of the manga released in Italy in 2020 to awaken more curiosity and approval: an apparently innovative, realistic story, which combines school manga and slice of life with the theme of painting, not so explored in Japanese works but which deserved a worthy affirmation also in the Japanese comics and animated field.
The story of Yatora Yaguchi, which began at home in 2017, has raised several approvals, winning the 2020 13º Manga Taishō and the 44th Kodansha Prize. The transposition of anime began last October, adapted and distributed in Italy and in other countries on the well-known streaming platform Netflix, ending on January 1st with a total of 12 episodes covering the first part of the manga’s story.
Yaguchi Yatora he is a young high school student with a monotonous and ordinary life: a model student, he has a group of friends with whom he spends his evenings between games, drinking and karaoke. However, he is not fully satisfied with what he is accomplishing in his life, also not knowing what to do in the future. A beautiful dawn in the middle of Shibuya seems to awaken him from this apparent sleep: the blue colors of the light that is projected on the buildings lead him to create a work for the task of art with immature outlines, but with a peculiar and magnetic coloring. Yatora understands that art is that stimulus he was looking for in his life. The story therefore focuses on the stylistic evolution of the protagonist and on the attempt to enter one of the most prestigious Japanese art schools, theTokyo Academy of Fine Arts.
- Original title: ブ ル ー ピ リ オ ド Burū Piriodo
- English title: Blue Period
- Japanese release: October 2, 2021
- Italian release: October 9, 2021
- Platform: Netflix
- Gender: slice of life, seinen, art
- Number of episodes: 12 (complete)
- Duration: About 23 minutes
- Animation studio: Seven Arcs
- Adapted from: manga of the same name by Tsubasa Yamaguchi
- Tongue: Japanese (audio), Italian (subtitles)
We reviewed Blue Period via Netflix streaming platform.
Art is the actual component and basis of this anime: it all revolves around Yatora’s determination to be able to enter the Geidai, the Tokyo public university with an artistic focus. But at the same time it is the need that the protagonist pours into art itself, that of emerging from the indistinct limbo of sensations that animate his psyche and his soul and that he manages to realize only when he picks up the brush. Art is therefore identified as the trajectory followed by Yatora, but also as absolute protagonist of the story, connecting all the other characters in a very current, convincing and realistic narrative.
The problems related to the stress deriving from the admission exams show a truthful side of the narrative, which updates and thematizes the problem of “hell of exams“(In Japanese Shiken Jigoku) which materializes with the exacerbating fear of becoming a Ronin, meaning that in contemporary times indicates those students who have been trying to enter university for many years. Seen as a social scourge by most Japanese, this status is considered a disqualification of the person both from the student sphere and from the working one (very often young people between an entrance exam and the other maintain themselves with part-time jobs for try again the following year to enter university).
As Blue Period demonstrates, the artistic field is even more competitive than the others: in Japan there are not many art universities, although they are very prestigious. Great contemporary artists have studied in the universities of Tokyo and Osaka, but the selection of the latter, being also public schools, is very rigid and a very small number of students have access to them every year. Yatora and all the other characters are constantly focused on the goal of entering these schools: not only does stubbornness help, but not even skill seems to be the privileged ticket: it is the union between these and the brilliant and evasive interiority that they guarantee an essential relief to be noticed by the examiners. The language that the anime is full of is certainly a lot technical, and those who are not really accustomed to the terminology of art might consider it confusing: but the juxtaposition of these terms to the graphic representation also allows the layman to understand pictorial mechanics.
Art as liberation, escape and representation
Yatora Yaguchi is an ordinary student, very intelligent, sure, but not so peculiar as to secure a place of honor in the plethora of the best. He recognizes this himself, complaining and genuinely envying who, such as for example Yotasuke Takahashi, possesses what appears to be a true innate talent. The anime focuses, following in the footsteps of the manga, on the path of discovery of aspiration and on that of improvement and refinement of Yatora’s painting technique. Almost all of the anime, in fact, focuses on him, reserving a marginal and reflective role to the co-stars, not delving into their past or their artistic path, assuming that they have already undertaken and formalized it for some time.
But this is not always said: excluding the peculiar case of Yotasuke already mentioned, in fact, other characters seem to fail not only in the entrance exams, but literally in the success of the realization of their conception of art: Kuwana lives under the shadow of his sister, a brilliant painter, Hashida it seems to remain below the evaluation standards despite its already established technique; but the most emblematic case is certainly that of Ryuji / Yuka, an ambivalent character who pours only the expectations of his family into art.
This character is wrapped in a not indifferent psychological halo, which mixes with that of Yatora in an indissoluble way: first of all because the two, despite the initial mistrust, become friends and confidants, after Yatora fully understands Ryuji and his unconventional tendencies. Furthermore, the art of the two, however dissimilar and distant, presents itself as the true essence of their interiority: on the one hand Yatora with his works wants to navigate inside his soul and represent it on the canvas, on the other hand Yuka also wants to show who he really is through what he likes, not through the expectations of his family. He wants to dress like a woman, he wants to become a stylist, without denying his androgynous nature, which seems to be questioned by those who judge him only outwardly. Art unites, therefore, by creating emotional bridges between individuals and which allow one to represent one’s interiority to others.
An incomplete palette
From the aesthetic side, Blue Period it seems to lack a bit in terms of animation and the final rendering of the general graphics: if the properly artistic side representing the pictorial works is rendered through a very harmonious and realistic graphic and color composition, the animations of the characters and of the settings are guilty of this graphic override. The colors are flat and not homogeneous, the visual is reduced to the bone by a graphic sector that cannot break away from the rigidity and flatness. A demerit note, therefore, for one factor, the graphic one, which could be amply developed and exploited to create an enhancement compared to the black and white drawings of the manga: being a story focused on painting, in fact, much could have been done to to give an even more distinctive mark to the anime by creating an even more consistent and incisive graphic sector, in order to create a homogeneity between painting and animation. The latter therefore creates a jarring dimension with the works represented, creating an extremely marked aesthetic gap that could destabilize the viewer.
Blue Period is the metaphor of commitment and constancy, showing a picture – symbolic, but not only – of an ordinary boy who decides to throw himself headlong into a practice, the pictorial one, alien to him and decidedly unconventional for his standard of living. The desire to represent himself through a symbolic language leads him to embark on a path of realization and learning that is anything but easy, heading towards an uncertain future but full of personal satisfactions. A story that encourages anyone who looks at it to commit to their goals, despite the obvious difficulties that life poses for us.
Who do we recommend Blue Period to?
Blue Period it is an anime for everyone, but at the same time for a few. This ambivalence can be confusing, but let’s try to dissect the reasons for it: if on the one hand the story is proposed as a metaphor of collective life that can spur anyone to engage in their passion and to make their hobby a profession, on the other Blue Period he wants to turn to those who do art as a profession or at least are passionate about painting and drawing. And not simply for the lexicon, which gradually even a layman begins to recognize and learn, but also – and above all – because only those who are fully immersed in this context can grasp all those nuances and small relationships of meaning that are faced in history . The psychology of the characters, the emotions and moods of each represented work, the symbolic meaning hidden behind each painting is certainly more appropriate for those who know art very well. This does not mean that the anime cannot be appreciated by anyone who is passionate about seinen themes, presenting itself as an excellent story that differs slightly from the classic canons of the genre.
- Unusual and interesting topic
- Pictorial representations that stand out from the rest of the visual composition
- Current realism on the condition of Japanese students struggling with entrance exams
- Graphic animation not excessively detailed and woody at times
- Techniques that could be misleading
Blue Period
A story about the power and beauty of art
Art can be considered a passion, a profession or even a therapy for the soul. Many meanings that all converge in a single observation: the ability of artistic works to express the interiority of the artist and of those who admire them. This convergence is perfectly found in Blue Period which, through the story of Yatora Yaguchi, not only represents the commitment and dedication that a person can pour into what he or she believes in, but can even represent the springboard for one’s personal fulfillment and the expression of one’s inner self . The anime, despite the slightly fluctuating animation that fails to perfectly blend the artistic works with the general graphic fabric, has a note of merit that is not indifferent to the manga from which it is taken: the color is the main component and the vehicle. of the whole story, which logically was lost in the paper tables, but which in the animated transposition allows you to fully savor the ultimate meaning of the narration in images. Blue Period it is complete in its essentiality: a young man with a dream, in search of its fulfillment and its place in the world. A current and realistic story, without mincing words and stylistic trappings, direct and beautiful in its essentiality.
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