WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Episode 6 of Blue Period, "Serious Mental Breakdown" now streaming on Netflix.
Yatora Yaguchi has been working hard to better himself as an artist in Blue Period, and by Episode 6, he's definitely getting more comfortable in the artistic realm. Through the insightful advice from both his art teacher in high school and his teacher in prep school, he's learning about different elements like materials and composition to better utilize the tools at hand to make his art. However, Yatora seems to respond to a different type of instruction in a more effective way -- through social interaction.
Yatora has always been popular in school, but he's never been truly open and vulnerable with his peers. Now that he's spending time with artistic people, he's opening himself up more and more as he makes new friends and starts to develop relationships.
In Episode 6 of Blue Period, Yatora gets a surprising phone call from a fellow student in prep school, Yotasuke. It's surprising because their last interaction featured Yotasuke telling Yatora that he didn't like him at all. So when he invites Yatora to go to the shrine for the New Year's celebration, Yatora is surprised but goes along. During their time together, Yotasuke tells him exactly why he doesn't like him, and this prompts Yatora to confess why he actually likes and respects Yotasuke -- because he's an insanely capable artist.
Later in the episode, he spends some time with Maki, another talented artist in his prep school. She opens up to him, being brutally honest in how she sees other people handling the stress of getting into art universities. While it's jarring for Yatora to be around someone just opening up like that, he responds in kind, and they seem to get along really well. Later, he learns about the pressure Maki puts on herself due to her sister's success in art, and he helps put the situation into perspective by explaining how using people as a guide to improving oneself as an artist can be really helpful.
Even though these social interactions are bettering Yatora as a person, it's also helping him become a better artist. By seeing even talented artists suffer through relatable struggles, he's able to compartmentalize his own issues in order to help them out. By learning to do that, he's able to apply the same technique to his constant exposure to new skills. As he spends more time with his peers, he's able to understand the skills quicker and become more open-minded about learning all the different aspects of art.
It may be a coincidence, but as Yatora spends more time with his peers, he becomes better as an artist. Of course, it's known that vulnerability helps create better, more engaging works of art, so it's unsurprising that his skill increases as his social interactions do. Maybe Yatora needs this as much as he needs the technical skill to produce amazing art.
