Review: "Blue Period"
Apr. 10th, 2023 08:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
x_los“Blue Period” was a nice, tight anime about a high school boy who decides to stop fucking around and actually become a person, via the medium of painting. He pursues admission to a competitive art school, as do several of his friends. It’s kind of light, in something like a slice of life register, but it never struck me as badly structured or patronising. At its best, it was truly emotionally engaging. I’m sick to death of high school settings, but I still have time for the questions this piece used this time in a young man’s life to raise.
Some notes:
- A teen in "Blue Period": I should draw my girl’s bewbs, really blow this old lady's mind, haha.
Ancient art teacher lesbian: I love breasts. Do you prefer pillowy or jiggly? There are certainly arguments for both!
Teen:
Art teacher: Make sure to convey their smoothness, virgin.
- I did not twig that the protagonist’s friend was trans until she was dumped over it. Maybe that's more strongly indicated in Not the Dub. She's sort of romantic-interest shaped, and I wasn’t sure whether they were going to go there. Ultimately, it’s not clear whether more will eventually come of their relationship and not terribly important: their development as people and their friendship matters, whether or not it ends up having a romantic component. They took the time to really see one another, literally and emotionally. (Something similar could be said of the upperclassman who first inspires the protagonist to paint: this show is unique in that it gives a young male protagonist really central connections with women.)
- When they said that the trans character was studying traditional Japanese painting, I assumed that was going to involve some kind of identifiable heritage approach. The work she produced for that class seemed to consist of standard still-lives: nothing separates the assignment we see for that course from a Western art seminar equivalent. In Japanese art education, this term must refer to material use or technique? Whatever craft difference occurs must happen at a technical level, to the degree that there's not really a perceptible effect for a casual observer.
- It’s interesting that they build the large canvas. Western art students would rarely be asked to do that, especially at a high school level. My sister went through all of MICA and was rarely if ever asked to stretch. They seem to be working with pre-set parts, combining them to shape it thus? Maybe Japanese art supplies are more modular.
- “Did you guys know that SHARKS have EYELIDS? Sea creatures are WONDERFUL.” Aha, the energy the prep school art teacher has.
- The pastry chef friend is so good. The way he reached out to the protagonist was touching. I also found the protagonist’s ‘seeing’ his mom via sketching her moving.
Some notes:
- A teen in "Blue Period": I should draw my girl’s bewbs, really blow this old lady's mind, haha.
Ancient art teacher lesbian: I love breasts. Do you prefer pillowy or jiggly? There are certainly arguments for both!
Teen:
Art teacher: Make sure to convey their smoothness, virgin.
- I did not twig that the protagonist’s friend was trans until she was dumped over it. Maybe that's more strongly indicated in Not the Dub. She's sort of romantic-interest shaped, and I wasn’t sure whether they were going to go there. Ultimately, it’s not clear whether more will eventually come of their relationship and not terribly important: their development as people and their friendship matters, whether or not it ends up having a romantic component. They took the time to really see one another, literally and emotionally. (Something similar could be said of the upperclassman who first inspires the protagonist to paint: this show is unique in that it gives a young male protagonist really central connections with women.)
- When they said that the trans character was studying traditional Japanese painting, I assumed that was going to involve some kind of identifiable heritage approach. The work she produced for that class seemed to consist of standard still-lives: nothing separates the assignment we see for that course from a Western art seminar equivalent. In Japanese art education, this term must refer to material use or technique? Whatever craft difference occurs must happen at a technical level, to the degree that there's not really a perceptible effect for a casual observer.
- It’s interesting that they build the large canvas. Western art students would rarely be asked to do that, especially at a high school level. My sister went through all of MICA and was rarely if ever asked to stretch. They seem to be working with pre-set parts, combining them to shape it thus? Maybe Japanese art supplies are more modular.
- “Did you guys know that SHARKS have EYELIDS? Sea creatures are WONDERFUL.” Aha, the energy the prep school art teacher has.
- The pastry chef friend is so good. The way he reached out to the protagonist was touching. I also found the protagonist’s ‘seeing’ his mom via sketching her moving.
no subject
Date: 2023-04-16 02:10 am (UTC)YES, I love that.
no subject
Date: 2023-05-10 01:39 am (UTC)I do feel lucky to have stretched canvas with the help of my teacher in art class in (american) high school. our school was kind of known for its arts program so it might have been that, or our teacher was just cool
no subject
Date: 2024-03-23 10:41 pm (UTC)I also like the manga-ka's use of collaging in pieces from different artists to the manga pages (with credit). It goes a long way towards making the manga itself feel like the art pieces are produced with a totally unique vision, rather than the drawings simply being in the style of the rest of the manga. I'm not sure this was presented in the anime.
As a note I really loved Yatora's delinquent friends supporting him and being inspired by him too! Overall I really like that Yatora's friends, while they were high school delinquents, are actually quite supportive of each other and very kind to each other. Blue Period is lovely.