Blue Period is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Tsubasa Yamaguchi. This manga series tells us the story of a boy who was bored with his life. Yatora didn't have any passion at first but his life changed in the first few episodes of the manga series
This Manga series has definitely encouraged and inspired a lot of manga fans out there. But this manga series is a lot more than JUST an inspiration, the manga series depiction of passion compared to practicality and pushing to grasp some impossible dreams.
Blue Period has stood out from most of the anime that has been released in 2021. The manga series really showcased themes of self-expression, not only through art but also through gender identity and sexuality, especially in regard to the character of Yuka Ayukawa.
Is Yuka queer?
Yuka can be said to be sarcastic most of the time because of her character in the manga series. But she is somewhat upbeat and supportive, with a passion for art that has been there for years.
As we saw in the manga, Yuka was surrounded by many people who used to express themselves through art, and likewise, Yuka also expressed her gender and personality through art.
They used to express themselves like this because they knew that this is the only way out of the judgemental society she was living in. As we have seen in the manga series, Yuka used to dress up in both ways, female as well as male.
On some days, Yuka wears a female school uniform that is a skirt and male blazer with high socks while on other days Yuka used to wear male trousers with a female blouse.
Also, the fact that Yuka was referred to as Yuka-chan by their close friends, which is usually for younger girls, may suggest that Yuka is comfortable when she is referred to as both.
Also, we can take into notice that Yuka’s hair is quite long, indicating their comfort with feminine traits has likely existed for at least a couple of years.
These are all characteristics that hint that Yuka may be genderfluid- a very rare gender identity to be seen in the manga series. If we talk about Gender fluid people they do not have a fixed gender identity, gradually changing toward different identities over a period of time. We can say this about Yuka too. By Yuka’s usage of clothing, we might say Yuka would have a different preference from day to day.
Isha singh
Also in the 3rd episode of the manga series, we saw what Yuka experienced, in this episode we see that Yuka asked out a boy, but on the date, the boy discovered that Yuka identifies as male, he pities them and leaves the date. Yuka was heartbroken after this but didn't show feelings of sadness on his face.
When he went, she was staring at him and started crying. Also when Yatora said that Yuka’s pretty face would make them more popular as a man, Yuka replies, "But if I have to be what the world tells me to be, I’d rather die".
You all must be thinking about how this made Yuka important? But if we look at Gender fluid identity it is not well known and it's largely not even seen as a part of the LGBTQ+ Community at all.
Representation of the LGBTQ+ community and even gender-fluid which is a part of the community leads to normalization. As you are well aware of the In Japanese dark fantasy anime television series “Attack on titan”, we saw that there was no subtle representation of LGBTQ.
For instance, there was no clear representation of Ymir's sexuality, but it is accepted by a majority of fans that she was Lesbian. And in the whole manga, her love interest was Historia.
Whereas in the Blue Period, the concept of the LGBTQ has been portrayed really well and was very open about this concept too. Many manga series including the Blue period have gracefully shown us the different notions of LGBTQ with the help of their characters.
Yuka is said to be the most important character in both the manga and the anime. According to me, Yuka has a very attractive personality. They are very bold and open about what they wanted like when the guy left Yuka on the date, Yuka did not show any kind of despondency for his attention, which says a lot about their personality.
Moreover, Yuka’s character transformed this series and took it to a whole different path. In particular, this manga series is said to be about a boy who found his passion and started working for it.
However, this manga taught us many more things which were valuable and weren’t openly talked about. From my perspective, Yuka was somehow the ideal example of how even more obscure gender identities can not only exist but enrich a narrative.
Isha singh
