Review of Blue Period

Quick TLDR: Most peoples problems with the show stem from it being focused on the "art" aspect and less about the interactions and developments with the characters. (small spoilers) My views also somewhat fall into that category. I feel this show fell into the trap of introducing too many side characters. For me all the time spent on Yotasuke-kun was kind of wasted because he didn't provide that much insight but got the most screen time. He would say, "You got better" or some other random thing and Yatora was the one who did all the thinking and realizing. I still really enjoyed the build up inthe beginning but I stopped really enjoying it when three, or so, episodes in a row were all focused on his cram school paintings and art progression. In my opinion they wanted too much and didn't have enough space for everything they wanted to get done.

(slightly bigger but still small spoilers)
They wanted to have this underlying moral to the story, have complications each character was going through, have the conflict with the MC, and focus lots of time on the "art" aspect. You can't have your cake and eat it too. If you want to focus on the "art" you shouldn't focus your beginning on building relationships with the characters that much because it's ultimately not going to be about them. The beginning should not have introduced Ryuuji-kun as much as it did, the development we expected to happen demanded more screen time and more interaction between Yatora and Ryuuji. The conflict didn't feel resolved when they went to the beach, instead it felt like it was magically fixed because they drew themselves naked. Yotasuke-kun's progression amounted to almost nothing in the end. After all that screen time he was still practically an emotionless, arrogant genius (in terms of drawing). I feel like, if they dropped quite a bit of the side characters screen time, they could have spent a bit more time focusing on the "art". For example, actually showing how he used the techniques instead of just showing some random snippets of the paintings progression.

Or on the reverse side (which I think most people would have wanted). You spend less time on the "art" and more time on the characters. Spend more time on Yatora's relationship with Ryuuji and Mori-senpai. Have Yotasuke-kun actually show emotion near the end and maybe even smile. Round out the screen time with his actual friends, the delinquents. This would have become more of a "coming of age" story about how they learned about what type of subject they wanted to pursue and learning about themselves.

No matter which direction they decided to go, I think it would have been more cohesive and satisfying to see either one of these. But instead we got a mix and I personally don't feel satisfied from the latter half of the series. Overall the parts we did get were good enough that I still want to give this a decent score but it could have been better.