Blue Period by Tsubasa Yamaguchi
Genres: Coming of Age, Art, Drama, School Life
Triggers: Anxiety
Background on the artist:
Tsubasa Yamaguchi was a unknown mangaka before Blue Period, mainly known for doing the manga adaptation of She and Her Cat, before getting the chance to serialize her first long-term original work, Blue Period, which has been running strong since 2017. It has an anime on Netflix, won the Manga Taisho and the Kodansha Manga Award, and has over 15 million copies sold! A massive massive success for a slice of life manga about a boy who wants to go to art school. A fair amount of the manga is based on her experiences going to Tokyo University of the Arts, the same university that the main character Yatora ends up applying to.
Manga Summary:
The story revolves around Yatora Yaguchi, a high school student who, despite excelling academically, feels unfulfilled and aimless. His life takes a turn when he discovers the world of art and decides to pursue a career as an artist, while he battles guilt and imposter syndrome over his last-minute decision to start making art.
Okay so this is a bit different from what I normally do in this thread. Normally I highlight manga that are hard to find in English, and are lesser known gems that I want to share with you.
Blue Period is not that.
Blue Period is a very successful manga, especially for a monthly seinen magazine like Afternoon, whose works normally donāt breach into the non-Japanese internet. By contrast, aside from Vinland Saga, Blue Period is arguably the most famous manga currently running in Afternoon. There are tons of videos and video essays talking about it from a variety of different angles, so I wonāt bore you with my takeā¦
Okay, I lied, just a quick take.
Blue Period to me is the platonic ideal of all coming of age manga. It is beautiful and stressful and uplifting and so much more. I cannot sing its praises enough. It is this perfect mix of artistic exploration and anxiety about finding your place in the world and feeling like you donāt fit in. It talks about the challenges artists face, money, competition, societal expectations, self-doubt, and so much more. The characters are all so realistic and grow and change and donāt always succeed but keep moving forward. I learned more about art reading this manga than any art class Iāve even taken.
I read this right after graduating college and getting my first job, and it felt like the first manga that felt like it really understood what I was going through, even though our experiences were totally different. I donāt think Iām alone in that respect, a lot of people really connect to Yatoraās journey. People who have read Blue Period, what was your experience with it?
But yes, you should really read this manga. That isnāt a take, itās just a fact.
Seanās Thoughts/Should You Read This?:
So, I have been reading this manga for years in English, and I just now switched over to Japanese. And honestly, I barely notice the difference! Honestly the biggest slow down is the technical terms and the intricasies of Yatoraās anxieties, but those are mostly just little slow-downs and donāt usually require deep investigations to understand, though that might be because I had so much context from the English version already! 
Overall, I would say the experience is basically the same in English and in Japanese!
TLDR:
You shouldnāt read this if:
- You need action in your stories.
- You need a confident MC
- You really really need furigana. You should be fine without it but if you really really really need it then maybe read something else first. but then just read it in Englishā¦ pretty pleaseā¦
You should read this if:
- You are a human
- Yes that was a serious recommendation. I really do think all people, especially all younger people, should read this manga.
- I mean you should definitely read it if you like slow burns, character studies, coming of age stories, art, et cetera.
- But really, you should read it. Its just really good. So do it.
What do you all think? This is probably the most famous manga Iāve covered on this thread so I would love to hear everyoneās thoughts!
Read the first chapter for free here! oh look, no excuse to not give it a try!
