Volume 3 of Blue Period, by Tsubasa Yamaguchi, takes us further along closer to the Tokyo University of the Arts exam. During this period a lot happens. Yatora works on doing as many pieces as possible to get ready for the exam. Yotasuke struggles with being unsociable. Ryuji’s issues continue to affect him at home.

My impression of the art style Yamaguchi uses has improved this volume. I found that my issue with the proportions of some characters has disappeared. In the chapters where Yamaguchi colours in some pages at the beginning, I found that they remind me of some art pieces I’ve seen. This made me realize that, with the way they are drawn, if all the panels are converted into colour this way it would look completely different. This has made me better appreciate the art this volume and all the ones before retroactively.

 I still like how all the characters facial expressions are drawn and Yamaguchi does well with new character designs. This volume I liked how the scene with Yatora drawing his representation of bonds was drawn. It really drew me in, and I’d love to see it in colour. The way other people’s artworks are used in the scenes continues to be very interesting to me. I’ve noticed that all Yatora’s pieces are drawn by Shota Yamamichi. This continuity was something I really liked.

The story continues to be very well done. The writing was excellent. I again must call to the scene where Yatora is painting his representation of bonds, the introspection as he paints was perfectly executed. Introspection on a whole was done well this volume, I enjoyed the lead up to the bonds painting very much. This reflects how well that using art as a vehicle to explore the psyche of the characters is, how their world view paints their view on some of the themes provided in the art prep school. As the main character Yatora has the focus with this but I hope that at some point Yotasuke and Ryuji will have moments like this happen to flesh them out more.

To focus more on characters, I found that Yatora and Yotasuke absorbed the majority of character development and focus this volume. I wish that Ryuji’s plotline had more focus on it, but I also do think that the little teases of what’s going on with him in the background was used effectively to build anticipation for the next volume. I think that if something significant does not happen here soon it would be a bit tiring no matter how realistically written it may be. I do find that this fleshed out Ryuji’s character a great deal from despite the little focus, however.

Looking at strengths this volume, I found that there where many, the story, the writing, the characters, the art all stood out a lot to me. I did not notice any weaknesses this time. This volume was better than the last for me.

In conclusion, this was a very good volume, continuing the trend of good volumes from Blue Period. I’d recommend this to anyone. At this point it’s one of my favourite manga.

I’d give this a 5/5

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