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Blue Period

Blue Period, a Netflix anime based on a seinen ‘youth’ manga, is as much about art and its appreciation as it is about finding yourself and your purpose. Outwardly, high schooler Yatora Yaguchi is an excellent student with a lot of friends, supportive parents and an active social life. But on the inside, he’s quietly jaded and empty. Only a sophomore and already he’s just ticking the boxes, finding himself… bored.

Inspired by a senior student, he’s suddenly ensnared by an oil painting, catching an excitement he’s not previously felt. Discovering that painting changes everything. Captivated, he finds himself suddenly drawn to art, having never done anything he’d considered ‘difficult’ before. When he tries it himself – creates something – he’s absolutely hooked. 

Once Yaguchi finds his interest, he explodes with a passion previously undiscovered, determined to produce and improve. But is perpetually second guessing himself as he watches other young artists create. He acutely feels a day late & a dollar short, as many others have been artists their whole lives. Reinforced by approval of his work, he’s determined to figure out this feeling and plunges into a new world, unwavering in his new-found goal – to make it into Tokyo’s top public art school.

Having launched as a manga in 2017, Blue Period demonstrates a clear character evolution through the drama as Yaguchi develops not just as a budding artist but as a human – one who learns to understand himself better, see his pros and turn his cons to his advantage. As well as discern what’s happening with others. He subtly learns empathy.

Japanese storytelling is so good at this, as is writer/illustrator Tsubasa Yamaguchi (She and Her Cat) in particular – taking something small and specific like a new-found interest – and turning it into something resonating for any student, any person, finding themselves at an impasse. It also deftly weaves in another potentially heavy storyline, meaningfully exploring fluid sexuality and self-identity without suggesting a solution or creating a label – merely how it could be both observed and experienced.

While Tsubasa Yamaguchi created the original manga work, for the anime production, Seven Arcs chief director Koji Masunari and director Katsuya Asano (Tokyo Revengers) lead with a team including script writer Reiko Yoshida (Boys Over Flowers, A Silent Voice, Blue Exorcist: the Movie), character designer Tomoyuki Shitaya (First Love Limited) and Ippei Inoue for music. Key characters include, Ryuji ‘Yuka’ Ayukawa, Yaguchi’s gender nonconforming friend; Maru Mori, the upperclassman who first inspires Yaguchi with her painting and Yotasuke Takahasi, an art prodigy and top competition for Yaguchi, spurring him to learn and create more.

As Yaguchi discovers the competitive world of an artist, he faces talented peers aiming for the same university space, of which few are granted; a personal late starting point on his understanding of the fine arts; plus struggles to obtain his parents’ approval, especially as they can’t afford to pay for costly private arts schools. With the help of his instructors, he realizes that he must prove to the testing body as well as himself, that he’s more than his inexperience, more than merely his will to work hard. That he has the potential to create something meaningful to others.

Read about Yaguchi’s colorful live action explosion onto the big screen in our Blue Period (2024) movie preview story. You may be surprised to see some of the cast. Also, click to check out our anime series Blue Period Ending Explained story.

Click to read more stories about anime or more Japanese dramas and movies.

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