(originally an analysis thread on my twitter, accompanied with manga panels that i'm too lazy to dig through so i'm just ctrl+c ctrl+v to add to my archive of writing)

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freedom & agency

this is such a relatable manga, not only in my experience as a creative but also through the broader lens of growing up. i am deeply in love with its story, characters, and dialogue: how it opens up questions of purpose, entanglements with family, the heartbreak of identity.

the timeline of events that unfold are both linear and muddled as we attempt to distinguish the points of yaguchi’s evolution; how can we definitively wrap up an arc when this is a never-ending journey of becoming? when so many of his struggles are born internally and he constantly shifts between exhilaration and hopelessness?

at the start of the series, yaguchi simply goes with flow. he’s studious and knows how to mess around with his friends, but he never really does anything outside of that. he never dares to be anything more. until shibuya at dawn. finally, he wants to try ― to be and to do more than simply the quota ― because he knows he hasn’t been living until now. at least not for himself. of course at the beginning he has his own fears of deviating from a regular university and a regular job to pursue art. he has his own learner’s curve when it comes to creation: why are my colors so dull? why don’t my shapes look as realistic? he spends his entire summer indoors creating piece after piece of still life ― overcome with an excitement akin to the childhood wonder of discovering color for the first time. he is enraptured by the feeling of lead on paper and paint on canvas. he wields new knowledge and a zeal he never thought he’d have: this is his freedom, his breaking away from predetermined norms he thought he ought to follow.

afterwards, he joins a prep school, in hopes of honing the craft and getting into tokyo university of the arts. he meets a lot of new faces, differing personalities, incredibly gifted artists who make him face the reality of his goal.

(that being said, blue period is also careful to draw distinctions between talent and skill; effort and time are equally as important to bettering yourself.)

but in this context, what does it mean to be good? or to be better? the prep school held a competition for those in the oil painting course and yaguchi ranked higher than his new friends while the third ― maki ― ranked first and was cursed to fail her exams that year. with that, yaguchi begins to question the nature of art: what am i even aiming for when those objectively better than me can’t pass? following this, yotasuke decides to quit the prep school, claiming he can’t stand how they keep pushing him to make stupid exam pieces. whereas yaguchi initially finds solace and freedom in his art, those around him feel trapped in their lack of agency, furthered by external pressures such as family and society. whereas he had to overcome the fear of being more, they already dared to be more.

maki, coming from an entire family who attended TUA and having an older sister who reached new heights, feels an intense pressure to not only uphold the legacy but also to be her own person free from comparison. she falls into a cycle of self-loathing and gratitude; deeply burdened by her fears of disappointment and failure and chance, she fails the exam.

yotasuke once tells yaguchi: “you already have it all! why do you have to get into art?! you don’t even need art..!” this suggests that both yotasuke himself and those around him see his worth only in his creative endeavors. that he doesn’t have a future beyond creation. and despite this disposition, he grows incredibly disheartened at what art has become through the criteria of academia. that the one thing he had going for him was lessened by arbitrary rules to make you pass, not to make good art. nonetheless, he passes.

lastly, i want to talk about yuka, the one who invited yaguchi into the art club in the first place. unlike the others, yuka is studying japanese art rather than oil painting. they’re doing it for their grandmother, the only one who has ever supported their identity & aspirations, even though they prefer a western style and pieces geared toward fashion. they probably never truly felt free until the self portraits at the beach, and even then it must’ve been only by a fraction.

yaguchi learned a lot about his classmate during their trip. has yuka ever had any semblance of personal agency when it came to their creative endeavors? ever since discovering art for the first time, yuka has grown to discover so many other facets of expression. this is a clear indicator of yuka’s desire for nonconformity. and yet, they’re terrified of betraying their grandmother’s wishes; they’re terrified enough of themself and what the self contains to push themself into a binary, to draw a big X on their exam.

when has art stopped giving me solace?

the line between success and expression is thin and cradled by intent. in particular, yaguchi struggles with being too static and focused on the specifics of what makes good art (i.e. good composition, value, space, etc.) in either situation of making exam art or just having fun, there’s intent whether to pass or to be free and uninhibited by expectation. gradually, the characters do deal with their internal struggles of freedom and agency, although some are less focused on since at the end of the day, blue period is still very much about our protagonist and his journey. however, these themes do remain an ever-present issue that comes in many forms beyond family and labels that i greatly admire the series for actively including and working into its various arcs.

concluding thoughts! :-) i just love blue period for how it tackles the process of finding and losing yourself whether dictated by others or self-imposed.

i realize the breadth of what i was getting into as i started this thread. how could i possibly connect all of the things the series addresses into one coherent mass? for now, i decided to focus on freedom and agency. i don’t think i did too well (pardon my self-deprecation) but i’m certainly interested in making more: maybe i’ll look into the fear of escalation, food as a love language, mediocrity, purpose, identity. there’s a lot i could still go on about. thank you for reading til now!