Manga First Impression – Blue Period

So lately I’ve been ordering a lot of manga. I’m in the mood to discover my next big manga love story. I’ve also not been reading as much webcomics. At least not family-friendly ones. As such, I figured I would switch my webtoon recommendations for manga first impressions until I build up a nice stock of webtoons to recommend once again. That way, maybe you can discover your next big manga love. Maybe that love will be for art with Blue Period

Why I Picked up Blue Period

I actually saw a Twitter thread where people were discussing what manga they would like to see adapted and a few said Blue Period, just because of how different it is. I like new things!!! I knew about Picasso’s blue period so I figured it had something to do with art but that’s it.

Official Summary

Winner of the 2020 Manga Taisho Grand Prize and a Great Graphic Novels for Teens selection by the Young Adult Library Services Association!

A manga about the struggles and rewards of a life dedicated to art. Popular guy Yatora realizes he”s just going through the motions to make other people happy and finds himself in a new passion: painting. But untethering yourself from all your past expectations is dangerous as well as thrilling…

STILL LIFE

Yatora is the perfect high school student, with good grades and lots of friends. It”s an effortless performance, and, ultimately… a dull one. But he wanders into the art room one day, and a lone painting captures his eye, awakening him to a kind of beauty he never knew. Compelled and consumed, he dives in headfirst–and he”s about to learn how savage and unforgiving art can be…

My First Impression

A Sports! manga about painting!

What I liked

It really is different in the narrow sense as I have not seen a manga about painting before. I’m sure one does exist though. But I also am not kidding with my first impression. The narrative structure, character types and tropes do follow a lot of staples of the Sports genre. And as you know, that’s not a bad thing in my book.

There’s something meta about the detailed explanation on drawing techniques and how independent illustrators and manga artists may get some things less than right.

Any drawbacks?

I wish there were colours. That sounds like a stupid complaint but I seriously thought that at several different points and I just read volume 1. Colour is an integral part of the story. Yatora thinks about it a lot and it drives his perceptions and self-exploration. Colour is literally part of the story and with a black and white manga, I couldn’t help but feel like I was missing out.

Of course, I can just imagine the colour, and that might even be the point. But I still wish it was there. It’s the sort of narrative that could do amazing things with the colour story.

I’m intrigued. I want to read more. If you don’t like the Sports genre because you don’t like sports that much or you think BL may be part of it the Blue Period is a perfect way to see if you would enjoy the structure and classical tropes. If you do like Sports anime then by all means try it out.

Am I the only one who sees these parallels? If you’ve read the first volume of Blue Period, do you agree?