What’s so great about Picasso’s Paintings?

These are the opening words of the series and back then I was not able to understand what it truly meant. However, upon reading deeper, I have come to an understanding about what it really meant.

Blue period opens with a character named Yaguchi Yatora who is a second-year high school student with remarkably good academic performance despite living a delinquent lifestyle. Yatora feels like his life is dull and predictable until art comes into his life in the form of a painting by his upperclassman, Mori. With his new found passion he dedicates the remainder of his high school life aiming to pass Tokyo University of the Arts Entrance Exam.

Going back to the opening sentence of the story. I think it sums up “Blue Period” all on its own. What’s so great about Picasso’s paintings indeed?

Yaguchi is tethering the line between a genius and the threat of normalcy. He strives to become a student his parents can be proud of at the same time living his teenage life to its fullest by going out with his friends, watching football games, and eating ramen early in the morning in blue saturated Shibuya. He is a “genius” as described by his peers. However, his character also shows that something is missing deep inside him and art was able to fill this void within him.

Talent is something that haunts an artist throughout their career and this is better represented by Mori’s character.

There was a scene in the manga where Yaguchi said that he is jealous of Mori’s talent. While Mori takes this as a compliment, she also said that she puts in the work to study art and art-making methods. Haphazardly calling this “talent” is like saying that I didn’t do anything to achieve this.

For someone who never held a brush in their life or have never been in touch with art, they become pompous and assume that anyone can do that. We look onto paintings and say to ourselves that this is something that even us can don. Blue Period steps on that mentality by showing us the time, effort, and hard work that goes into art. The readers of the story gets to see a side of an industry hardly seen by anyone. We always end up seeing the finished painting and never the process behind it. We never see the artist's frustration and hard work behind the scenes and I love how it was able to capture it in a beautiful and raw manner. Talent means nothing if you don not put in the hard work. The Mori who painted the painting that Yaguchi was impressed with was painted by someone who worked hard and practiced and not someone who had the natural affinity with art.

This is where Blue Period started to pick up for me. The manga is not about someone having a natural affinity in art. Someone who had all the paint brushes and tools to create something masterful the moment they held a brush. Yaguchi is a beginner. An outsider to the art scene. His struggles and journey towards the entrance exam felt so real it was scary. The characters feel fleshed out and all the more real as we are allowed to glimpse at their triumphs and failures and even have the chance to see them continuously grow through their art.

Even a prodigy fumbles and will make mistakes but the effort and hard work will make up for it in the end. I was awestruck. Even though I am not an art student like the characters, I was able to relate to it deeply. As a student studying in the STEM field, backhanded compliments of being good and naturally talented felt annoying at times as I flashback to countless nights of staying up late and several missed life events because I was watching or writing something for my labs. My talent did not do jackshit on where I am right now, all of it is hard work.

The series only goes up from there; like a rollercoaster that only goes up. We get to see Yaguchi steadily grow and witness his downfalls and realizations regarding his art. Other than Yaguchi, the other characters of the series feel real and all the more fleshed out. Art is filled with people in their own self-centered hubris regarding their art. We get to see different personalities and how one can affect the other, much like colors in a painting melding together to create a masterpiece. Deep into the series we also get to see and understand the character’s motivations and insecurities as they trudge on a different but same path as Yamaguchi.

Other than the characters, the art is very good as well! I enjoy trying to guess the paintings some of the chapter covers are based on. I really like how it captured a sense of realism by doing that. I also appreciate the different paintings and sketches used by the characters.

As I am writing this review, the series is still on-going. My opinion may change in the future but for now, I am enjoying the story tremendously. I hope you give it a chance and read this amazing manga.