Bless Volume 1 Review

Yukino Sonoyama’s Bless has made its debut in the West. With such a captivating cover, many have had their eye on this since it was first announced and now I’m here to find out if it lives up to the hype surrounding it. Let’s dive in!

Our story follows high-school student Aia Utagawa, who since he was a child has found himself being scouted as a model thanks to his handsome looks. While Utagawa doesn’t dislike modelling, his dream is actually to be a makeup artist but finds himself discouraged when the people around him won’t take his ambition seriously.

Now his class is set to take part in the Aoi Festival Artist Contest, where two members of the class will act as a model and makeup artist. Due to the popular vote of his class, Aia has been put in the role of model due to his reputation for modelling, while his classmate Jun is on the makeup side.

Jun is a quiet student who is ashamed of her face that’s covered in freckles, but Aia has been studying her for a while during class and offers suggestions to cover up her freckles or help her feel less self-conscious. Seeing first-hand how passionate and knowledgeable Aia is about makeup, Jun quickly requests that the two swap places for the contest!

This proves to be a good decision for both of them. As it turns out, Jun has a natural talent for modelling and thanks to Aia’s cosmetic knowledge he manages to bring out her confidence as he transforms her into something she could have never even dreamt of before. During this process, Aia begins to realise that he doesn’t want to shy away from his dreams and considers trying to go professional in this side of the industry.

Volume 1 of Bless presents us with the first three chapters of the series, which may not sound like a lot of content but it accomplishes a great deal in that time, largely helped by the fact the focus is just on Jun and Aia with very little in the way of side characters (although more are introduced toward the end of the book). It’s very impressive as Yukino Sonoyama’s debut work in both the story and art department.

I like how Sonoyama explores Aia’s complicated relationship with modelling. He doesn’t hate it, but he doesn’t want to do it either. He’s been pigeon-holed into the role thanks to his good looks and he’s afraid of going into makeup in case he lacks the talent and makes a fool of himself. It would be hard enough just to get anyone to take him seriously after all, so if he failed his confidence would be shattered. So, Jun is the perfect partner for him as she’s someone struggling with her own self-confidence and he can see how talented she is. They encourage and depend on each other in a way that’s engaging to read while also providing endearing characters. It’s certainly easy to relate to if you’ve ever dreamed of a career change but feared not being as good at it as you think you are.

I do wish the characters were in college rather than high school. The story doesn’t particularly make use of the school setting besides the contest (which you could have done in college) and the characters do act and look older than they supposedly are, even considering they’re nearing the end of their time in high school. I wonder if it will transition away from showing the school at all as the series goes on and it probably would be better for it.

Still, that’s a fairly minor criticism in the grand scheme of things. There’s not a lot to complain about here in this polished first volume. Kodansha has released it in one of their bigger formats, which gives the artwork plenty of room to shine. There’s a lot of intricate detail here, not only due to the makeup focus but also the outfits the cast wears when modelling. You can tell Sonoyama has put many hours into capturing all of this and depicting it in the best way possible and that has certainly paid off.

As mentioned, Bless Volume 1 comes to the West thanks to Kodansha. The translation is credited to KPS Products Corp with lettering by Nicike Roderick. Although I am not thrilled to see the translation credited to a company rather than an individual, the release does read well and there are some in-depth translation notes at the back of the volume so there are no issues. The book also includes some very striking colour pages at the beginning.

Bless is ongoing in Japan with 4 volumes currently available there. Volume 2 is currently scheduled for a release in early July, but nothing further is currently in the schedule so I assume there might be a big gap before #3.

Overall, Bless Volume 1 is a very strong debut not only for mangaka Yukino Sonoyama but also for the series itself. There’s an interesting premise here that’s backed up by detailed artwork and an engaging cast of characters. Certainly, one to look out for even if you’re not usually a fan of modelling or makeup.

Our review copy from Kodansha was supplied by Diamond Book Distributors UK.

A free preview of Volume 1 can be read on the publisher’s website here.