Bless (Vol1 and 2) by Yukino Sonoyama
Rating: 
Nothing is perfect, and as such, the reviews in this blog are chaotic. My main aim is to share my thoughts, joy and opinions on a book, not make a publication perfect review. This blog endorses authenticity, showing up and joy over perfection.
I heard Bless was being made into an anime and the little snippets that were seen reminded me of Paradise Kiss (one of the first manga and anime I consumed and I was won, it's all about fashion and modelling), and Princess Jellyfish (also about clothes and fashion and being yourself), so one about makeup and modelling sounded right up my street (and the snippets were utterly drop dead gorgeous) The first volume is a good introduction to the two main characters: Aia, who has been scouted as a model and is utterly stunning, but what he really cares about is makeup and is always dreaming up makeup for others. The other is Jun, who is the quiet tall classmate who is always hunching and hiding to be less noticeable, particularly as she has a bunch of freckles. They end up being the ones representing their class in the school runway fashion contest, low expectations for them, but he convinces to her to be the model and let him do the makeup and look, an as they team up they discover they are both very similar in having secret ambitions of wanting to be more than what everyone assumes for them and also different in one is super organised and the other chaotic and distracted. Now, the premise is really awesome, with Aia wanting to do makeup but being stuck as the model and Jun wanting to be a model but thinking she's not the right fit, and then reversing those roles and putting themselves out there. The whole plot/story that follows them while they complete the challenge in school and their first tempting steps attempting to go outside of the school with those dreams was superb. The one downside is that makeup benefits from colour actually being used and the manga is black and white, so the descriptions don't match what you end up seeing on the page and therefore you're less amazed (though some of it is done beautifully). The other thing for me was that once the main challenge goes, with the school competition happening and suddenly realising they each wants to pursue this further, we get a bit of Jun pursuing modelling, but we mostly get Aia being super confident and yet not enough, the balance is ood where he doesn't seem entirely true to himself through the two volumes. The Aia you encounter int he first, is not exactly the same throughout the second volume, and we barely see Jun in the second volume. We mostly focus on Aia and makeup, but barely anything for Jun and it almost seems like she was there purely to advance his plot and that's it (which fair but the premise and summaries hint that it's about both of them). There are some fun moments thoughout boht volumes particularly as they try to figure out what the focus of their school contest entry will be. But also as Aia continues trying to find what he wants to do with makeup and how he wants to approach. My overall verdict was that it's a story that for once I think I'd rather watch as an anime than read as a manga and I will wait for it to come out to continue the story.