#random commentary

Blue period is a very good manga. There’s a lot of research that went into it, but you can also tell how much of the author’s own feelings go into the manga. I will probably write a review on it at some point. This one is a bit harder for me to process than some others, because of the story’s subject matter. I will say that the thing I miss most about reading it is the way it describes the process of making art, and the revelations of the main character regarding the nature of art.

I have a feeling that Blue Period may play a large role in my life. I’m not sure yet. I know that it will change me, somehow. Every story changes me a little. Eventually, I think, the more one reads, even manga, the better one becomes able to understand the nature of the world around them.

What do you really want? It’s a question that many people are asked, and very few know the answer to. For the main character of Blue Period, what he wants is to satisfy his curiosity— he wants to know- what is art, really? His advantage is that it’s his sole motivator, and he has no pride in his work, only a ceaseless drive to unravel that answer.

Maybe that was my mistake, going into art school with a very set, predefined notion of what “art” meant and was, one very different from everyone around me.

There’s no one or easy answer to the question of what art is. What people consider to be art varies widely from person to person, from country to country. And yet there remains a few defining parameters consistent across cultures. Art is a human creative endeavor, one that seeks to convey an idea or meaning; not something purely decorative (which falls into the realm of design, or illustration.) Art is fundamentally a means of communication. I think this is where I first became confused in art school. For me, the meaning behind art had always been secondary to its appearance. Art was a practice in intense reproduction from my mind’s eye; a practice of generating imagery from nothing in particular, something that had many details and could provoke thought, a wide array of thought that fell mostly into the realm of fantastical. Art was about generating ideas. Art was about all of the leaping off points, not necessarily about a unified and set message.

Art has no “practical” purpose. Instead, it serves an ideological one, telling you what the author believes about the world, maybe how it is, maybe how it should be, or how it has been. But it always has a central theme that, if not immediately discernible, can be recognized through the text in the artist’s description or statement. Art is about reflecting society, and reflecting ourselves.

Maybe it’s no secret why I have had such a love hate relationship with art. Unlike Yaguchi, I was not curious about what art could be. I thought I knew. And as my fundamental drawing professor taught me, when you think that you know how something looks, you will always draw it inaccurately.

And yet, art does interest me. When I can pick the questions that it asks, on my own terms. It’s difficult to justify art to oneself. It shouldn’t be. Creating art is a fundamental tenant of human self expression. Art is who we are.

I’m rambling and it’s late. I guess my point is, you can’t understand something unless you are willing to be curious about it, and really open to receiving answers in the form of information that you really didn’t expect. You have to be openminded.

You have to be willing to see art in unexpected places; in places where it wasn’t intended, where there was no human controlling the setup. The things that you personally recognize as art, which serve no artistic purpose originally, define your perspective and define you as a person. This is what you, as an individual, can utilize to make art.

art belongs to everyone. But it can only belong to the people brave enough to reach out and grab it. It belongs to those who want it, who need it. So it belongs to those who don’t create it, too. But the only art that you can claim as your own is the art that comes from your unique perspective; something built off of self reflection and in direct communication with the world around you.

And art is not about creating something; it’s about trying to get at something else, and creating something in the process.

I guess I never understood that before.

The scene where Yatora draws himself naked, and then learns that he sees his body, and the human form in general as pathetic, made me realize that it’s really easy to not know what your perspective even is until you are in the midst of reaching towards art.

I found it hard to think of art as a language, but it very much is. Once I started thinking of art in the same way I already think of writing, I believe that my art began to improve.

I think a lot of this series is Yaguchi learning, bit by bit, that traditional art is a tricky union of skill, technique and intent, trying to combine the three in perfect balance— and often failing in one capacity or another. That’s what makes the series good; it’s realistic. Most of artwork is a failure in one way or another.

I could say so much more, I could probably sit here and type until tomorrow dawns about all of the things this anime surfaces within me. But I’ll leave it there for tonight.

That '98 anime was a lot of fun, but it was started before the manga author had the chance to finish the manga. So, you know, it was fun and it was also AU from the source material.

Those same folks are now very confused and upset that Trigun Stampede is not the same anime and not covering the same topics. First, Stampede is based more on Trigun Maximum - the end part of the manga. Second, Trigun Stampede is also an AU of the source material. Do you know what? That's okay.

Oh well. It's too late for that. I had all day to do it but I forgot

Ehhhhhhhhh