Get converted into art by Blue period

Apr 4, 2026

I am coffee'd.
This is one of my all time favourite animes. There's no insane metaphor about life or a commentary on the sins or war.
This anime is about my favourite thing to exist, the beginning of wanting to document what you see and feel and a need for connection - with yourself and other people. It's about art.
It's about an academically gifted kid that thinks art is a privileged discipline that thought it was for people that didn't worry about money. Only to realise once it grips you, there is nothing stopping you from making art, no matter the hurdle. It starts off with him not even letting his close friends know who he is. He exists and is mean. And then one day, in art class he is forced to make a painting as part of his curriculum. After racking his brain, one day he witnesses the empty early morning in Shibuya whilst having fun with his friends. He notices how blue, serene and calm it made him feel. That is what he paints. And he feels something.
Whilst passing by to a class he notices a senior classmate's huge painting and it draws him in. He then gives up everything to pursue a career in art.

There is a notion that people that make art are "gifted" they're born with an eye, imagination and an ability to articulate soul. But the stark contrast in the character who has never made any art until the ripe old age of 15, he then painfully picks up the skills of life drawing, colour, contrast & working through severe self doubt.
This anime has freed me. In knowing that struggling through this is the general pursuit of art and everyone, even the ones that I deemed to be gifted go through some set of skills art requires of you to be a master. It has freed me from perfectionism, suffering of knowing I'll never be good enough. The hope that I can simply get better if I keep going and keep practicing. It has led me to taking easier breaths.
Every artist, every person that makes anything has so much to work on - simply to express how they feel, to articulate their feelings in a way that allows them to connect to another person. It is a worthy labour, a worthy pursuit and a truly worthy life to dedicate to. And concepts like colour, contrast, composition and articulating ideas are things that make you a better artist. There is a lot to learn and at every stage of learning - even if you only know how to do light not colour, composition not theme, at every stage there is joy to be had. There is no magical happiness or contentment that you will experience at the end of mastering all the technical skills (if at all that state ever exists).

There is a concept in the artist's world called pencil mileage - the more you draw, the more you accumulate the miles and get close to mastery. And it is the only thing to keep in mind when starting over and over - everytime you stop making art and you feel like you've forgetten how to make art - you start with pencil mileage. Make stuff you see. There is also the belief that, its not that your hand doesn't know how to draw but your eyes that don't know how to observe. Because when a master artist loses their hands, they draw with their feet, if they lost their feet - they would draw with their nose. Yes muscle memory is important but the most important is the ability to observe things you want to articulate.

I have many a pencil mileage to go and many a ways to observe and many many a long journey to go before my mind's eye has enough stimulation from observing the world.

This anime has a way of inspiring you to look for the person that's looking in your mind's eye.
Who is this looker? What do they want to say? Why do they want to say it? What does that say about you?
Ofcourse, the how to say/make/articulate is a thing every art school teaches.
But the why, the what does this say about what you believe in? And the questioning of the self is something that I hadn't thought of in a very very long time.
There is making art when you're moved and then there's making art with everything you've got; everything it says about you; a reflective, conscious eye on everything you've made and want to make and the extremely gruesome process of using learned skills like colour, shape, composition and theme to make it and improve. This made me want an art community, the constructive feedback of the teachers that constantly challenged Yaguchi I miss so so much. I'm truly jealous of people in art communities. Maybe one day I'll have some of my own.

Yaguchi is such a relateable character to me. I also grew up somewhat academically gifted, grades that were good and I knew how to write exams. And then he gets sucked into making art and knowing he couldn't do the same things he did to study, to make great art. Getting into design was the same for me. But I will never stop. And I'm extremely excited for my journey. Especially given AI art is a thing now, it feels punk to make art and have hope and choose to do this with my time.