Blue Period

Episodes 10-11

Yatora doesn't always make the best decisions. No one does, really, but there's an argument to be made, at least from the show's perspective, that accompanying Yuka to the seaside shortly before the second TUA exam wasn't in his best interests. The transition between episodes ten and eleven seems to bear this out, with Yatora collapsing with what I would bet money is a migraine brought on by stress and exhaustion, the light coming into his eyes causing extreme pain. He manages to get through that first (of three) days by sleeping through part of the exam, but it could be that his choice to be a good friend over a solid student is going to doom him.

That would be the case in most other shows featuring a high-pressure exam, anyway, or at least a few of them. But in Blue Period, Yatora's decision to go with someone who is clearly hurting and to try and talk to them and make sure that they're okay may just turn out to be the best choice he's made in a long time. I've said before that I don't want Yuka to just be a catalyst for Yatora's success in art, and I do feel like episode ten treads very close to that line, but in this case, I think the benefit may be mutual.

Yatora's been stuck inside his own head, in his own worldview, for most of the series, and part of that has manifested as him not understanding Yuka in the slightest – and not necessarily trying to. But when he meets them after they've gone through their horrible experience with their parents, something seems to click. Suddenly Yuka's not just that weird guy who one day started calling himself something different and dressing in a more feminine style; they're a person who's got a lot going on and is trying to find an answer, just like Yatora is. And like any person, Yuka's capable of being hurt when people don't even try to understand them.

Hearing what's been going on in their house is eye-opening to Yatora, who clearly never really thought about it. Yuka's reason for choosing Japanese art – their grandmother – is both a symbol of their love for the one kind person in their family and a desperate attempt to legitimize something that their parents denigrate. Despite what Yatora has thought, Yuka's still trying to find themself and their way in the world, and the revelation that just because they've been making art doesn't mean they've been making the art they want to or love is something that they badly needed to learn. But episode ten also shows Yuka that Yatora is trying just as hard in his own way, and more importantly validates Yuka by giving them a chance to actually explain their thoughts and theories. I don't know if anyone ever just listened to Yuka before, or at least did so with the intention of really hearing them out. It's still more about Yatora than Yuka, which isn't great, but it's also a cathartic moment for both of them.

It's also one that has a major impact. Yuka deciding to embrace fashion design, where their heart truly lies, is maybe one of the first times we've seen them do something that makes them happy, while Yatora is forced to think beyond his notions of bodies, nudity, and nakedness. Yuka suggests that they draw (well, that he draw; they get sort of roped in) their naked bodies, and Yatora, to his credit, only hesitates a little. In episode eleven, when it turns out that the second exam is to draw a nude, he realizes that he's actually less comfortable with his naked body than Yuka is with theirs: Yuka views the nude as something to be decorated with clothing while Yatora believes nakedness should be hidden. Both ideas are the same in practice – wearing clothes – but the theory behind them is completely different, with one suggesting pride and the other shame. Yatora felt only mild disgust at the sight of his nakedness (he didn't even draw his face, where Yuka drew their face and upper body), but as he looks at the nude model, standing comfortably clothes-less in a roomful of strangers, shoulders back, head high, he suddenly gets what Yuka was saying. It's like he finally is able to see like an artist, something he clearly wasn't confident in his ability to do, which we can gather from his mild surprise that drawing from a live naked model isn't at all sexual. Yuka has helped him to understand that bodies aren't necessarily inherently sexual or beautiful or ugly – they just exist. It's up to the artist what to do with that mere fact of bodies' existence.

Given that Yatora is working with at least three hours less than the rest of the exam takers, this may be a revelation that came too late. From an exam perspective, yeah, he didn't make a great choice going with Yuka (although I'd argue that a person's life is always worth more than a test), and he may pay for it now. But the oddball approach has worked for him before, and whatever he's planning to do with the turpentine he's just poured all over his sketchbook may turn out to be the absolute right call. Either way, he's thinking and learning, which is the point of education in any field. Even if he doesn't pass the exam next week, he'll have grown as an artist, and that ultimately may be the most important piece of the show.

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Blue Period is currently streaming on Netflix.