A high school student realizes he has been hiding his true self as he strives to please others and fit in. He discovers he can more truly express himself through art and jumps into it wholeheartedly, determined to be the best.

While the first chapter is a quite emo, the middle chapters become strictly educational, giving dry lessons by way of a high school art instructor's lectures on college admissions and art techniques like color wheels, perspective, and practice through repetition. The final chapter breaks free of that rut to introduce an artistic rival and focus on the main character' drive to succeed in a realm where he is a definite underdog.

This is almost a three-star book, but I wonder if it will continue to be clumsily educational or become more story driven in future volumes. Also, it dragged quite a bit, taking almost twice as long to read as other manga of the same page count. Finally, there is a side character who may or may not be transgender who gets bullied a bit and has vagueness around identity, pronouns, and name. I'm not sure what they are going for there. It might just be the boy-who-dresses-as-a-girl trope that you see in a lot of manga.

I have the second volume on hand and am hoping it improves on this rocky start. ( )

“Art is fun, you know. And those who are true to themselves make truly great art. Because art is a language without words.”

Really good! I’m not just saying this as an artist too. Here, Yatora’s been coasting through life telling people what they want to hear and careful not to make himself an outcast – until he finds he can express his true feelings with art.

“…Hard workers who do things they like… Are unstoppable!”

While I don’t regret not going to art school, Yatora asked some of the exact questions I had about whether it's worth going to art school and could you make stable money with an artistic career. I'm excited to see his journey as he grows as an artist.

There are so many relatable things here, the merit of learning to draw realistically can help influence your stylized work, how not to compare your art to others, how art comes easily to some like prodigies, and how you should enjoy what you make.

If it's worth anything, reading this made me want to practice still life and perspective-drawing again.

*sn: first time I saw a typo in a commercially-published book. It happens, guys. ( )