Blue Period 11

SELF-PORTRAIT Yatora makes the best of a bad situation during TUA's first exam, and he must surpass these efforts for the second. But after all he’s gone through, Yatora is feeling a little out of sorts. To get back on track, he’ll have to step out of the studio and into new lighting… With the help of an old friend, Yatora bares his soul and some skin to take on his latest challenge: the nude self-portrait.

Yatora now has new materials in his tool box and a wider range of expression under his belt. But a week before the first exam, Ooba-sensei says he’s missing a crucial edge… With so much at stake, Yatora’s self-doubt brings him lower than ever before. Still, he has his fire, his resilience—and he might just get a lucky break, too.

Emily wants to be an artist. She likes painting and loves the way artists like Pablo Picasso mixed things up. Emily's life is a little mixed up right now. Her dad doesn't live at home anymore, and it feels like everything around her is changing. "When Picasso was sad for a while," says Emily, "he only painted in blue. And now I am in my blue period." It might last quite some time. A Neal Porter Book

Relief is short-lived for Yatora after his first competition, where his piece was higher ranked than he expected, but far from his dream school’s standards. While he’s prepared to give Ooba-sensei’s challenges everything he’s got…what if all he’s got is still not enough? With 100 days until university exams, he must seize what’s beyond—beyond his singular drive, learned technique, and hard work—to produce an answer only he can.

CHILD'S PLAY Yatora's first year at TUA has left his soul and his bank account drained. To recover, he takes a part-time job at a community art class, working for none other than his former mentor, Saeki-sensei. However, teaching painting to young students is a creative challenge on its own!

Winner of the 2020 Manga Taisho Grand Prize! A manga about the struggles and rewards of a life dedicated to art. Popular guy Yatora realizes he's just going through the motions to make other people happy and finds himself in a new passion: painting. But untethering yourself from all your past expectations is dangerous as well as thrilling... Yatora studies hard and gets good grades, and he parties hard, staying out late drinking and watching soccer with his friends. He checks all the boxes he needs to be the perfect high school student. But it all starts to feel empty, and he begins to wonder what part of his life expresses who he is...or even if he has a unique voice at all. Then he wanders into the art room one day, and a lone painting captures his eye, awakening him to a kind of beauty he never knew. Compelled and consumed, he dives in headfirst--and he's about to learn how savage, unforgiving, and exhilirating creating art can be!

ART-MAKING Yatora prepares for the first-year show, where he'll have to pass an open review from intimidating professors and celebrity guest lecturers. To make matters worse, the self-directed nature of the assignment is more stifling than freeing, and he's no longer sure: Does he even like art? Why did he ever start? An all-nighter in Shibuya may hold the answer, but Yatora's not with his usual boys...

Winner of the 2020 Manga Taisho Grand Prize! A manga about the struggles and rewards of a life dedicated to art. Popular guy Yatora realizes he's just going through the motions to make other people happy and finds himself in a new passion: painting. But untethering yourself from all your past expectations is dangerous as well as thrilling... CITYSCAPE After a disappointing first assignment, Yatora is encouraged by Maki and is determined to move forward. His next assignment is a scenery of Tokyo. As he takes on new materials and methods, he also becomes exposed to new ways of seeing the city he thought he knew so well. Can Yatora finally evolve beyond the “exam art” that got him into art school…?