それをまとって (Wear The Sky!) by 古味慎也 (Komi Shinya)
Natively Link 空をまとって 1 | L26
Genres: Coming of Art, Art, Dramedy
Triggers: Lots and lots of nude paintings. That is the entire premise of this manga. Themes dealing with nudity and sexuality
Read the First Chapter Here for Free!
Background on the artist:
The writer and artist, Komi Shinya, has been a staple mangaka for the Grand Jump magazine line for almost a decade now, his big major work in the past being Sci-Fi manga EX-ARM, which I read a few chapters of when it came out ages ago, and which ran in the magazine for two years before being switched over to Shonen Jump +. Later, he would serialize a spin off called EX-ARM EXA in Grand Jump Mucha, which is how I got to know his name. If you have heard of these series, you might be aware of the absolutely horrendous adaptation (or so I’ve read) done by Crunchyroll Studios.
The animation is apparently legendarily bad, which is a damn shame because Komi-sensei is an amazing artist (but I can’t post like any of the EX-ARM covers because they all NSFW, this will be a theme for this write up). This man can draw! And his passion is clearly in drawing beautiful girls doing cool things (once again, this theme will be coming up again). Look them up on your own time, but here is a cute picture in the interim!
Manga Summary:
(image cropped for reasons that will become immenently clear)
From MangaDex: “A high school student, Haro Ogawa, is a self-taught oil painter who is trying to paint the ultimate nude. After an encounter with a “witch,” he sets his sights on applying to art school…? The mystery that resides in the human body, the ultimate “beauty” is painted on canvas! A skin-colored coming-of-age drama!”
Yep. You read that right. This is a coming-of-age art manga about a boy who just really really likes painting nudes.
He isn’t sexual (though the manga certainly contains plenty of sexuality) about it, but he is absolutely obsessed with them. He wants to paint the perfect nude painting, but after a chance encounter, ends up deciding to apply to Tokyo University of the Arts by only painting nudes in order to paint the perfect nude of the woman who inspired him from when he was a child!
Now. I know what most people might be thinking. There are people reading the screen and muttering to themselves, ‘well this just sounds like the hentai version of Blue Period’… and to be honest, those people are kind of right.
Sean’s Thoughts:
Before I compare this manga to Blue Period, let me first say that I do absolutely recommend reading this manga. The art is absolutely gorgeous, Shinya-sensei has a lot of experience as an illustrator, and both the character art and the art made by the characters is a treat for the eyes.
Additionally, while the story and much are the art is centered around nudity, this is not a hentai. The main character is (almost entirely) asexual, and truly just loves nothing more than painting nudes. And while there is nudity, well, I can’t exactly call this manga ‘wholesome’, but the nudes he paints are treated much more seriously as a form of art both by the mangaka’s drawings and the story. The paintings he paints are obviously NSFW due to their content, but a big part of the story is how the art he paints isn’t a form of sexual objectification but of true artistic intent. You will have to trust me on this, but the art he paints is definitely much much more artistic rather than erotic.
I didn’t think I would like this manga, since I absolutely LOVE Blue Period and this seemed like a carbon copy of it. I can say write now while there are obviously many similarities, the experience of reading each is VASTLY different.
Blue Period is this intense character study that focuses on anxiety, growing up, dreams, goals, and finding your way in the world in a truly realistic way. It is a masterpiece of writing, and the art does a great job of capturing the anxiety that Yaguchi feels.
Wear the Sky is not that. It contains those above elements, but is much more… 少年らし, if that makes sense. Its a bit more childish and simplistic, and the art is definitely more eye-catching.
Weird Comparison to SHAFT anime
(A comparison I thought of making to these is so oddly specific but I thought I should share it. Putting this in SHAFT Studios anime terms, Wear the Sky is the Bakemonogatari compared and Blue Period is like March Comes in Like a Lion. I don’t know if that helps anyone, but if it does, well there ya go)
As for Wear the Sky, while it isn’t as developed or mature as Blue Period, the manga is not even a year old yet, so it deserves to take some time to find its footing! Overall, I’m a sucker for any manga about making art, so I’m definitely sticking with this one! Only about 13ish chapters have been released so far, so you can catch up very quickly! I’m looking foward to the newest chapter tomorrow!
TLDR:
Pros:
Gorgeous Art
Nice Simple Coming of Age
Learn about Painting and Art in Japanese
Very Very Very Pretty
Cons:
Lots of Nudity
Not as Deep as Blue Period (So Far)
Pretty Predictable (So far)
Hope that people are interested and want to give this manga a try! For me, I’m enjoying it quite a bit, and might go back and try reading EX-ARM again!
(Sorry I don’t think I captured the artistic abilities of Komi-sensei. My excuse is that like everything he makes has a half-naked girl on it, so that isn’t exactly ideal for posting haha)
(Also sorry I used some English images for the post, posting pictures of my paperback wasn’t worth it lol)