In the manga Blue Period, Tsubasa Yamaguchi explores the issue of art and the place of the artist in contemporary society as well as the relationship to creation from the point of view of both the creator and the viewer. Doubts, aspirations and inspirations have never seemed so real. Grab your brushes, pencils and go alongside Yatora to attack the canvas that is life.
Manga is a medium that is constantly reinventing itself. In a cyclical way, new artists arrive and shake up the order that seemed established. Tsubasa Yamaguchi is one of these art revolutionaries. His peers were not mistaken, awarding him in 2020 the Manga Grand Prize (Taishô Prize) as well as the Kodansha Prize for his series Blue Period. A manga where the author, passed by the University of the arts of Tokyo, puts in abyss her experience with talent.
Yatora, a young high school student, gifted and hardworking, is bored in a daily life that seems to him dull and bland. Her art classes are a welcome break from her busy days (high school by day, friends and homework by night) and a way to get a good grade without too much effort. But his little world is going to be turned upside down the day he comes face to face with a work painted by a student in upper class. This painting will invite him to rediscover the world of art, which he had too quickly judged and catalogued… A true ode to the world of art, in all its forms, this didactic manga grabs the reader into a world that we too often tend to describe as elitist. Whether or not we have an artistic streak, Tsubasa Yamaguchi leads us to follow the adventures of Yatora but also many other young artists in the making, and to follow their first more or less confident steps in the wonderful world of artistic creation. . A title that has already left its mark in the history of manga.
It was in Tokyo that we had the opportunity thanks to Kodansha editions and Pika editions to talk to the mangaka. Selected pieces.
Linternaute.com: From high school you studied art. Where does this passion come from?
Tsubasa Yamaguchi : I’ve loved art since I was little, I can’t say exactly where this passion comes from, but I very early had the desire to invest myself in this way. I studied applied art because I wanted to progress, to improve myself.
When did you decide to become a mangaka?
There too, I had this desire since I was little, but the reality imposed itself on me. It is an environment where it is very hard to enter. So after the final exams of high school, I had put aside this will, almost abandoned this dream. But at the University, I looked again more seriously at this choice of career.
Yatora’s life changes following a meeting with her art teacher. Has a meeting changed yours?
It would be really difficult in my case to reduce it to one person like in the story of my manga. The artist and the person that I have become are the result of a host of encounters that have helped me progress, that have shaped me and made me evolve, little by little.
In an interview you compared Picasso to Osamu Tezuka. Like Yatora who challenges Picasso, do you dream of challenging Tezuka?
I didn’t think for a second about the idea of challenging Osamu Tezuka. On the other hand, he inspired me greatly.
Picasso and Tezuka have this common point of having succeeded in breaking a first glass ceiling between art and the general public. Is it important to you that art be accessible to everyone?
Yes, absolutely, I wrote Blue Period with the aim of inviting as many people as possible to take an interest in art.
Blue Period, the title, is a direct reference to the beginnings of Picasso. Should we expect the title to become Rose Period after a major evolution of Yatora?
For the moment it is not planned (laughs).
Speaking of planned or not, do you already know the end of the manga?
I have necessarily thought about it, but for the moment I have several visions which do not all converge, nothing is stopped. We can say that the end is only sketched for the moment.
The distinction between genius and person who makes efforts is very important in Blue PeriodWhy ?
Indeed, the difference between talent and effort are themes that we are confronted with almost daily when we exercise a creative profession. That’s why I made it a central theme of my story.
Yatora, Sae, Ryuji/Ayukawa all have parents that have a strong impact on their behavior/motivations. Did your parents support you in your desire to become an artist?
My parents supported me in my will and my efforts to become an artist.
You work a lot with symmetries and asymmetries. both for the characters and for the composition. tell us about your creative process?
Above all, I base myself on emotion. I try to create boxes that will provoke reactions, that will touch the readers.
Do you use the methods of the art world? For example, does the balance of a painting influence the balance of a manga page?
It’s quite variable. Sometimes I sit down and analyze the impact of a board, the layout in a very comprehensive and complex way. But in most cases I work on instinct.
Today, when more and more manga are read on smartphones, how do you compose pages for this medium?
I take both types of reading into account a little bit. My layout is mainly designed for print readers, but I always keep in mind that part of the public reads on smartphones. For example, I make bubbles big enough and clear enough that the pages can be read easily on a phone screen.
You compared your manga to a sports manga. Art, like sport, can be practiced by everyone, but only a select few can earn a living from these activities. Why is it important to remain realistic on this point?
It’s difficult to find a good balance between an overly severe representation of reality, and the desire to make it a somewhat idealized world where people manage to realize their dreams. It is true that there are many examples in these fields where talent nourishes effort to achieve its goal. It’s important for this type of manga to be realistic enough for the readership to project themselves. But we must also avoid going too far in exaggeration, in fantasy, otherwise the link between the protagonists and the readers will be too tenuous.
For the paintings made by students, you called on knowledge. Can you explain to us how you brief them for these achievements? For example, do you tell students how to approach a work according to their personality?
It is very different depending on the works, it depends on the student and the moment in his career when the drawing is made. For example, when the protagonists are still high school students, of course I made sure that the final rendering was not the work of an experienced adult. When they were studying to prepare for the university competitions, I went with my publisher to preparatory class courses either for works that were produced there, or to be inspired by them.
The theme “a work lives according to the interpretation of the person looking at it” is very present in Blue Period. Which analysis of your works surprised you the most?
I am quite often pleasantly surprised, by comments from my friends and by letters from fans. I always find it interesting to discover these looks, these readings of Blue Period, which I had not imagined when I was the author of this manga. Having the opinion of others is always enriching, and art is alive and is also written in the interpretation that everyone makes of it.
What is the look that is closest to yours in your manga? That of Hashida? of Mori?
(laughs) I wonder who has the closest look to mine. I want to tell you that all of them look like me in part without any of them being really 100% me. All my characters have a small dose of me, and also a lot of different things.
In any case, there is no character who is closer to me than another.
It is through art that Yatora finally takes a step back enough to know her parents. There is in particular a very moving scene with his mother. How did you come up with the idea for this scene?
It’s a scene too old, I forgot its inspiration, sorry.
Have you managed to understand or express through art something that previously escaped you?
Yes of course, a lot of things have changed since I became an artist. It concerns all artists in my opinion. For example, a person who draws with a pencil eventually develops a new sensitivity to colors. When you are a mangaka, you learn to discuss a work more before attacking the drawing, to exchange for example with our editor. All this changes our vision. The hindsight required by the creative process ends up rubbing off on us as well. I can’t give you a specific example, but I know that the practice of art has changed my way of perceiving and appreciating reality. For sure.
Finding your place in the shambles of society, finding your passion, is a universal message, why did you make it one of the main themes of your manga?
It may seem easy to say in hindsight, but it’s a theme that seemed natural to me, that almost imposed itself on me.
In Blue Period and even in your exchanges with Kenta Nakajima, for example, the question of the value of art, of the difficulty of earning a living as an artist is paramount. Why is this question important to you?
We have an image, artists, painters who live in their own bubble, focused on their “art” and who do not realize the financial aspects of life and even less of their art. This cliché of frugal artists whose works only increase in value after their death is a very widespread and tenacious cliché. Even in Japan it is very strong. I really wanted to address this issue: can an artist live, today, decently from his art? This may sound down to earth but it seemed like a relevant question to me.
Selling manga is a kind of endless competition with other manga. Did you have this competition in mind when you decided on the theme of Blue Period ? Were you aiming for commercial success or did you absolutely want to talk about art?
There is a bit of both. Choosing an original theme, which goes off the beaten track, was perhaps an editorial calculation on my part. This could allow me to stand out and attract readers, but it is also a subject that I feel very close to, with which I am very comfortable and that I wanted to explore. This choice results both from a pragmatic, thoughtful calculation and also from a sincere desire to talk about this universe.
Blue Period, Tsubasa Yamaguchi, Pika editions, €7.70