{"id":815399,"date":"2024-02-05T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-05T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/?p=815399"},"modified":"2024-06-03T09:41:30","modified_gmt":"2024-06-03T16:41:30","slug":"best-anime-manga-about-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/best-anime-manga-about-art\/","title":{"rendered":"The best anime and manga series about art"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One of my favorite things about anime, and even more so about manga, is that there\u2019s at least one series about practically every subject you can imagine. From farming<\/a> to jazz music<\/a> to sidecar motorcycle racing<\/a> to abnormal psychology<\/a>, there\u2019s bound to be something related to your interests. And, as anime and manga artists are artists after all, there are plenty about art itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are the best anime and manga series about art, perfect whether you\u2019re looking for inspiration for your own artistic practice or just want a great new series to check out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Anime-About-Art-0-Blue-Period\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Blue Period<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Yatora Yaguchi is by all appearances a well-adjusted high school student. He has an active social life and great grades\u2026 but no ambitions. Like many anime \u201ceveryboys,\u201d he assumes he\u2019ll go on to a regular college, get a regular job, and spend the rest of his life in a suit and tie -- at least until he stumbles into the after-school arts club, where he\u2019s blown away by a senior student\u2019s oil painting, motivating him to take his own art class more seriously. He quickly finds the purpose he\u2019s been lacking, and resolves to get into the elite Tokyo University of the Arts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The driving themes of Blue Period<\/a> are some of the big ideas behind art as a whole. The first is originality. Yaguchi has to find himself before he can express himself, which his teacher insists is the key to developing a unique voice. The second is hard work. When he joins the club, then later a prep school for art college, he develops an inferiority complex as he\u2019s outshined by far more experienced students. To move forward, he has to overcome his misconception that great art is the product of natural talent and focus on honing his craft instead. And the third is the leap of faith it takes to pursue art as a career. He\u2019ll have to abandon the middle-class life he\u2019d planned for himself and risk his long-term financial prospects for a dream that might never pay the bills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Remember to read this, and all future manga screenshots in this article, from right to left.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Blue Period sets itself apart from the crowd of high school club manga by eschewing cliches and never dumbing down its subject matter. If anything, its encyclopedic detail on techniques, styles, movements, the art business, and Japan\u2019s universities can be a bit much. But it\u2019s not superfluous to the plot, and if anything, shows the amount of knowledge and passion that goes into the series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plus -- minor spoiler -- it continues past high school. Collegiate art students will find Yaguchi\u2019s struggles with heavy workloads and hypercritical teachers painfully relatable. After all, it\u2019s based on creator Tsubasa Yamaguchi\u2019s own education at Tokyo University of the Arts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m going to take a stance here and recommend the manga over Netflix\u2019s adaptation<\/a> \u2013 for artists, at least. The anime cuts a lot of the informational material to focus on character interaction, a decision that\u2019s drawn a lot of fan complaints. Plus, the manga has a unique watercolor texture to the toning, and all the works of art created by the students are real pieces by guest artists. Even the covers and splash panels contain some delightful painting references. See this X thread<\/a> for a list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bakuman<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Bakuman<\/a> is the quintessential manga about manga. Created by Tsugumi Ohba & Takeshi Obata, co-creators of the legendary <\/em>Death Note<\/em><\/a>, it follows a team like themselves: writer Akito Takagi and artist Moritaka Mashiro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We begin in middle school, with Akito as an untested but determined aspiring storyteller and Moritaka as a talented but aimless notebook doodler. Although the latter is loath to take on the workload of drawing a whole manga, he finds an incentive in his crush Miho Azuki, who aspires to be a voice actress. When he spontaneously proposes to her, she makes a deal that she\u2019ll marry him if their manga is adapted into an anime with her in the lead role \u2013 but they can\u2019t see each other until then, instead only communicating by text. This is a pretty big ask for middle school, but it works to motivate him. Our protagonists take up the joint pen name Ashirogi Muto, and from there, the story follows them over the course of ten years through every stage of a manga career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The level of detail that Blue Period<\/em> goes into about painting, Bakuman applies to manga techniques. If you\u2019ve ever wondered what the differences are between dip pen nibs or how to cut screentone by hand, this series has your answers. It also covers the pressures of working in the industry, dealing with strict editors, deadlines, audience expectations, and competition for the top spots in reader polls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It received an anime adaptation<\/a> in 2010 \u2013 a more faithful one than Blue Period's<\/em>, to better fan reviews. Many prefer it to the manga. It\u2019s much slower-paced, though, and there\u2019s something special about seeing the medium being made in the medium itself, so it comes down to preference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s admittedly quite \"tropey,\" which leads to two criticisms. My personal one is that you should watch out not to let it reinforce unrealistic notions about the age you should expect success by, the same kind fueled by comparing yourself to prodigies on Instagram. No, it\u2019s not normal to get published in early high school while still juggling homework, and neither should the sleep deprivation and illness our protagonists put themselves through to attain it be glorified. But since most anime focus on teenagers, it\u2019s all in keeping with conventions. Just don\u2019t take it too seriously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other, a more common complaint, is its dodgy portrayal of women. Female characters tend to fall into the camps of either obedient or nags, and we have Takagi dropping lines like, \u201cA girl should be graceful and polite \u2026 she should be earnest about things and get average grades \u2026 a girl won't look cute if she's overly smart.\u201d And Moritaka\u2019s father says, \u201cMen have dreams that women wouldn't understand,\u201d with no irony or pushback.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But if you can get past those, you\u2019ll find an entertaining, extremely passionate story that\u2019s been hailed as one of the most accurate depictions of mangakas\u2019 creative processes out there. Oh, and Eiji Nizuma is a treasure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kakukaku Shikajika<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Kakukaku Shikajika<\/a> is the autobiography of artist Akiko Higashimura, most famous for Princess Jellyfish<\/a>. This one only exists in manga form, running from 2011 to 2015 as a side project that overlapped with five of her other works, but it\u2019s emerged as a standout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It shares some common ground with both previous entries. It opens with an arc about traditional painting and art school, then progresses to the protagonist\u2019s manga career \u2013 although it should appeal to those who want a change of pace from the larger-than-life drama of Bakuman<\/em>, depicting a slow artistic growth marked by setbacks. Higashimura starts off expecting her rise to be meteoric, but within the first chapter she has her delusions of genius shattered by a brutal art tutor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This pattern continues; failure is a large part of her journey. She does not burn with the determination of a shonen manga<\/a> protagonist. She slacks off, she gets artist\u2019s block, and she wastes her college years by prioritizing shopping, hanging out, and her boyfriend. Then she has to move back in with her parents, dealing first with unemployment, then trying to eke out time to draw while working unrelated jobs. Looking back twenty years later, she calls her younger self a \u201cterrible girl,\u201d for which she's now \u201cfilled with regrets.\u201d But in spite of her relentlessly self-deprecating narration, most of her failings are those of a normal aspiring artist. And seeing as she\u2019s now a renowned mangaka, that\u2019s more reassuring than the story of someone who\u2019s spent their life working like an automaton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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But motivating her through it all is her sensei<\/em>, who, despite his borderline abusive teaching style, cares deeply for her. Their relationship is the heart of the manga. Whenever she\u2019s in danger of losing her way, he drives her to get back to work and push past her limitations, ultimately leaving her with the mantra \u201cJust draw.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One way it diverges from the other entries, though, is that little of it focuses on technique; it\u2019s about the mental and emotional sides of the artist life. There also aren't high stakes or even a linear plot, as it\u2019s told in a stream-of-consciousness format with frequent digressions. This is indeed the source of its title -- the Japanese equivalent of \u201cblah blah blah\u201d -- although the English release is called Blank Canvas<\/em>. But as rambling as it may seem, it all goes to demonstrate the many, many life experiences that go into an art career, and ties up into a breathtakingly poignant ending\u2026 With the moral being that even the best of us make mistakes along the way.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Keep Your Hands off Eizouken<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m going to gush a little here, because this is my favorite anime of all time. Originating as a manga by Sumito \u014cwara, Keep Your Hands off Eizouken<\/a> is another one about high school extracurriculars, but couldn\u2019t be more different in style or execution from your typical cutesy slice-of-life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It starts with the eccentric Asakusa, who\u2019s obsessed with animation, dragging her odd-couple friend Kanamori, a natural-born businesswoman who couldn\u2019t care less about it, to a screening where they run into wealthy teen celebrity Mizusaki. She\u2019s a fellow student who also wants to be an animator \u2013 but her parents forbid it, wanting her to pursue an acting career instead. That rules out them joining the school\u2019s anime club, but it's not a problem: the trio will start their own, the Film Studies Club (Eiz\u014d-ken)\u2026 with the little catch that the films will be animated, and their studies will be on how to make them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The three girls emulate the departments of a studio: Asakusa pulls double duty as the writer-director and background artist, Mizusaki does characters, and Kanamori uses her managerial smarts to become the producer. The plot mirrors the difficulties of animation as a business too, with the club having to contend with tight deadlines for presentations, threats of having their funding cut, and authorities who don\u2019t understand what they\u2019re doing at all. The way studios run on a razor\u2019s edge to survive, it\u2019s a constant struggle to get external forces to\u2026 keep their hands off Eizouken. But above all, the story is an ode to the power of art to realize dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It splits its focus between the roles of both imagination and technique, giving equal attention to the girls\u2019 fantasies and the actual work it takes to execute them. It makes the tools and tricks of animation, even common cost-cutting hacks, fascinating. And it\u2019s the only of these series that delves into digital art, since no modern anime\u2019s made without it, and even touches on industry-standard software. It\u2019s the perfect balance of inspiration and education, and will make you want to go out and work on your own projects as soon as the credits roll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is one where I\u2019d wholeheartedly recommend the anime. It\u2019s helmed by genius director Masaaki Yuasa, alum of The Tatami Galaxy<\/em><\/a> <\/em>\u2013 another of my personal favorites \u2013 the funky Ping Pong Club<\/em><\/a>, the psychedelic Mind Game<\/em><\/a>, and Netflix hit Devilman: Crybaby<\/em><\/a>. Eizouken\u2019s anime adaptation takes the material to the next level in a true showcase of the medium\u2019s transformative potential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u014cwara\u2019s art style is singular, and impressively detailed, but it's also quite rough. The anime refines it to perfection, and puts the extra dimensions of movement and sound to full use. The motions and expressions are as energetic as the girls\u2019 personalities. We get to see their actual short films, and the daydream scenes -- with their watercolor art and vocal sound effects -- are landmarks in animation. The opening credits are also iconic:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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