Blue Period volume 1 - Tsubasa Yamaguchi

 When I saw this anime on Netflix, I was immediatly hooked to it, and even think for me personally it was the best one of 2022.

So of course I wanted to read the manga now as well.  I can relate to the main character Yatora and the story for it's cheer artistic value, even though personally I never went to art school unfortunatly.

My parents didn't believe in arts being a viable future choice, but none the less even on my amateuristic level I can enjoy painting and the likes immensely to calm the brain.

 

Yatora Yaguchi is a slacker punk, but also a very good student ranking constantly in the top of his class. One day he runs into the art project, an angelic painting, from one of his fellow students, and immediatly is captivated by it.  It keeps chasing his thoughts, and when he gets high praise for a painting he made in art class, a blue view of the city, he feels like for the first time he had a real conversation.  Art school is starting to trickle into his toughts as such for a career plan.

 

But a talk with the art teacher makes him decide, he is going to aim to get into Tokyo University of Arts, the only non-private university and as such affordable for his family's budget. He starts his journey by joining the art club at his school. Here, he learns the basics of drawing through still life pieces, before going into summer break with a heap of tasks.  he finishes them though, making progress in his skills.  While he fears his mother might not condone his career choice, when she comes into his room when he is sleeping on his desk she sees his pieces and decides to support him.

In order to start training for the entrance exams, he decides to attend prep school over the winter break.  Here, various students come to hone their art, and having to make a choice of which form of art he wants to pursue, he chooses oil painting.  He goes out shopping with his classmate and friend Yuka, a boy who dresses up as a gorgeous girl and who is also in the art class.  In the preparation course, he meets Takahashi, albeit an asocial boy he has a huge natural talent.

And so the first volume ends, and it did indeed spark the discussion here at home about chasing dreams.  I can tell that if all things permitting, I will probably on my old age still go and attend art school for the year 2024-25, but that is a story for another time in the future...