ブログのしゅくだい #13: ブルーピリオド

 

Above is the self-portrait that Yatora created for the first round of the art school exam.

    This anime followed a high school boy's (named Yatora) journey to becoming an art student. Initially, he felt as if he was floating through life aimlessly, simply doing well in school and completing tasks because it made things easier for him in the long run. One of his class mates makes him assist with cleaning up the art club room after school, and he falls in love an art piece made be a girl the year above him. He decides that he wants to go to art school and works ceaselessly to get into Tokyo University of the Arts, as it is the only art school he would be able to afford. The school has a huge number of applicants and accepts less than 10 students into the program Yatora wants to get into, so he works incredibly hard in hopes of achieving his new dream. The art in this anime was strikingly beautiful as well.

    This anime is known as a seinen, meaning that the target is young adult men 18 and up. The story stays firmly in the realm of realism and provides an interesting look into the world of Japanese art students that I would have otherwise never known about. I was only able to make out a few simple phrases and sentence structures here and there, as much of the speech was casual and realistic compared to more fantastical anime. The show highlighted the incredibly intense academic culture of Japan which bared many similarities to that of elite American institutions but applied even more pressure to students. I think this show profoundly expanded my cultural knowledge of Japanese youth in the modern day

This is a piece Yatora creates with his entire being in an emotionally raw state

This is a piece that Yatora's senpai creates around the concept of devotion and prayer