Review of Blue Period

Alright I'm writing reviews for shows as I finish them now, in addition to going back and writing one for every other show I've ever watched. This is the first one I'm writing for a show I've just finished, so it's real fresh in my mind and not a nostalgia trip. Also I've given up on grading the individual categories and just giving an overall grade, otherwise I'd be here all day and never have time to get back to watching more anime. Anyway let's talk about Blue Period. I had no idea what this show was about going into it. I didn't read any synopsisor descriptions beforehand I think I picked it because it had just finished airing when I started watching. I always try to slip a show that just wrapped up into my lineup so I can keep up with current anime somewhat while also not having to wait week to week to get new episodes. I quickly picked up on the fact that this was going to be an art anime, and to start I'd say that I enjoyed it.

I think that the obvious message of the show is passion. Protagonist-kun starts out not really having any passion for anything, he feels like all his relationships with other people are faked and he doesn't know what he wants to do with his life. Honestly I really enjoy getting caught up in these slice of life shows that do deep dives into people's passions. What motivates people, what gets them excited. Protagonist-kun has a ton of self-doubt which I think is a pretty universal message.

Some weak parts are that maybe the ending was a little too happy, or too neat. The conflict of him getting into that school he wanted or not doesn't really run into a lot of problems or setbacks. He shows signs of health problems and I thought maybe that was setting a flag for something down the line, but it's just sort of resolved without issue and after the test never brought up again. I thought like Bakuman it was going to have him hospitalized for his passion and be a true test of his dedication to his craft or whatever but is turned out it was just drama for the sake of drama with no payoff.

I think the subplot with Protagonist-kun's trap friend was more interesting than the main plot of him getting into the school, and the episode where they go off on their little side adventure was really well done. I normally hate when shows bring in anything even remotely resembling gender politics, and I prefer my Yuri and BL as a punchline rather than a serious point of drama, but I think it was actually handled very tastefully and didn't stray too far into the modern western ideas about gender with in your face propaganda.

Anyway it was a pretty good time, a nice slice of life coming of age story, 8/10.