Stark700

Arte is an anime adaptation of the manga based on the era of The Renaissance from the 16th century. It’s not often you get to hear such a premise spelled out so freshly intact about in this era. Arte is not only the titular protagonist but also a woman with a strong will, determination, and thirst to prove herself as an artist. She is here to prove that in a male dominant world, there’s a place for her. The premise is quite simple. It’s about this 14 year old heiress from Florence who has a passion for painting. After her father passes away, she’s been puton a road by her mother to married. Of course, Arte continuously pursues her passion even if it means leaving the house and becoming what she always wants to be: a painter. What follows her is a journey of hardship as she is a woman. At this time period, the male society dominates in her field of work. It becomes a feminist movement that she pushes to the envelope to prove herself. The first episode includes a crowd mocking Arte for her dream just because of her gender. After declaring ‘to give up being a girl’ by cutting her hair, Arte vows to change the system in this time era. It may seem like an impossible mission but for Arte, she carries a sense of self as who she is. And for that, I’m pleased to say the show sets up for quite an intriguing plot carried by its creative themes. It’s not just her words or the haircut that matters. It’s what the actions that count. Arte may have declared herself to give up being a girl but she still has to prove her worth or eat her own words. During her journey, she meets Leo, an important character who would change her life forever. As a professional painter, he accepts Arte to his studio because she reminds him of himself. The first step to becoming a painter is no simple task as Arte must learn the fundamentals and craftsmanship of the profession. Luckily, Arte’s personality earns respect for her peers by hard work, determination, and learning from mistakes. She’s a type of relatable character that’s easily likable and in fact, some characters such as Angelo even falls for her. Despite that, Arte puts her dream as priority and forges a friendship with Angelo. She even attracts the attention of Veronica, one of the most beautiful women in Florence as the pair strikes a friendship. Likewise, Arte even manages to make friends with Catalina, a girl notorious for her stubborn personality. As every episode ventured on, Arte continuously to show an eagerness to make her dream come true. Watching Arte doesn’t take much commitment but based on a historical setting, it can be somewhat frustrating to understand its culture. Even though the setting takes place in a European culture, it hardly felt like a society. I don’t know the exact inner style of the European ways of life but to say the least, the show’s atmosphere didn’t exactly match. Even with places like Venice introduced later in the show, it doesn’t seem to take full advantage of its world setting. So in essence, if you want the most out Arte, don’t expect the show to be about the setting. It’s about her. Still, a question revolves around how much you can appreciate Arte as the titular character. At its core, Arte exemplifies that women can do what men are capable of. In this case, it’s about being an artisan in a field dominated by males. While this anime isn’t overly feminist, it’s hard to ignore its aspects on different occasions. Viewers may feel turned off by such themes and sometimes, I can’t help but feel sorry for Arte. That’s where reality hits and we have to realize the struggles these young women faces during that era. Seven Arcs is a somewhat of a strange studio of choice considering their previous projects all had some form of fantasy elements. Arte contains much more realism based on a real life setting with its culture, geography, and architectures. While most of this is fairly balanced, it doesn’t truly capitalize on its world setting. Outside from what you see, there’s not much depth that went into the artistic elements of the European style architectures. Florence attracts tourism and trade although the anime plays down on the overall world building. Even places like Venice doesn’t truly spark as a unique destination with its seaports and artwork. On the other hand, I do appreciate how the anime made Arte look as fierce as she can be. After cutting her hair, she shows not only traits of masculinity but also lives by her words through sheer will. The voice acting plays an important role to show how much she wants to achieve her dream. Similarly, other relevant characters in the show such as Leo and Veronica displays characteristics well suited for their roles. The way Arte is constructed is aimed for audience to follow her character journey. It’s not about the historical setting or its culture. Because let’s face it, Arte still has so much to learn from her experiences and as a young woman, she has to adapt with everything and everyone around her. This is a story about a character who follows her dream and to prove that anyone can do anything they put their mind into.

literaturenerd

For some reason, I keep picking the most controversial seasonals of 2020 to review! If you just took a quick glance at Arte, you wouldn't think this would be one of the most divisive and fiercely polarizing series of the year. One half of MAL thinks this series is really sweet, relaxing and wholesome. The other half is positively screeching about what a vile abomination this is and how it's one of the worst anime they've ever seen in their entire lives. Arte is based on a long-running and successful manga about a young girl in 16th century Florence who dreams of becoming a great artist.She is loosely based on an amalgamation of Sofonisba Anguissola and Artemisia Gentileschi, which is where she gets her name from. Arte isn't naturally the most genius painter to ever live, but she works extremely hard and is willing to devote her entire life to creating beautiful works of art. The director of Arte is Takayuki Hamana, who also directed the last anime I reviewed, Beast Player Erin. Arte actually shares a LOT in common with Erin in terms of its direction. They're both very feel good, slice of life series with very slow pacing that aim for tons of warm fuzzy feelings at the risk of being boring. Both are led by very strong, paragon female protagonists to serve as an idealistic example for a young female audience. I rated both series a 7 on MAL, but I do think Erin is a little better. On Anilist I gave Erin a 7.5 because intervals are a very useful feature. Meanwhile, MAL treats Erin as one of the greatest anime ever made and has Arte rated below Shoujo Ramune. Yes, it's rated lower than the infamous pedo hentai with that yogurt meme. So why is Arte so hated? The main reason is that it deals heavily with sexism and Arte constantly having to deal with 1500s attitudes towards women. Most of Europe didn't really have "The Woman Question" IE: "Should women have a purpose beyond being broodmares?" until the 1600s and the Enlightenment Period. Arte is correct that sexism was a very prevalent problem in 1500s Italy. However, Arte isn't historically accurate in portraying our heroine as the first and only female painter in the mid 1500s. There were actually many female painters during the Renaissance Period, so the shock and "BUT YOU'RE A WOMAN!" responses she gets in the first 4 episodes seem a bit silly. Arte seems to have confused the 1500s for the 1300s. Back in the 1300s, all artists were men and ONLY men were allowed to paint. That's because only the Catholic Church had the money to commission art and all paintings were done by priests and monks. Only men could be priests or monks. Painters during the Renaissance weren't the upper crust of society, they just made paintings for the upper crust and were considered lowly artisans. That's why it wasn't a big deal for "a mere woman" to be a painter at that time. The nobility didn't feel it was a threat to the social order because being a painter is just a shitty job anyways. Is Arte SJW propaganda? Should we REEE about it? No and no. Most of the anger against modern feminism stems from the idea that women have already reached full equality, but SJWs want to elevate women above men and get revenge on men. I'm not going to go on a tangent about maternity leave and whether or not the United States has actually achieved true equality yet. Arte wasn't made by America for a Western audience! Arte was made by Japanese people for a Japanese audience. They knew that foreigners would watch it, but the director was focused on how Japanese audiences would react to it. I've heard people complaining that Arte feels like something America would make in the 1980s or 90s, but that's culturally kind of where Japan is in regards to gender equality. America has female CEOs now. Japan still doesn't. Japan is still trying to get beyond the cultural concept of "office flowers". Japanese women who do really well in college, yet are hired to be gofer secretaries, fetch tea for their old man boss, and get a swat on the ass for their troubles. Then they get pressured at age 30 to quit and go be a housewife, so there isn't much chance of promotion. Even if you feel Arte is outdated and preaching to the choir, keep in mind you're not the target audience. You're not a young Japanese girl or an office lady! They see Arte as something bold and a breath of fresh air, which is why the manga has been running for 7 years and is doing well. Another complaint about Arte is ironically the art. I will admit that Arte isn't exactly pretty for a series about art. It was made by Seven Arcs, who is mostly known for making a shitty ecchi called Sekirei. They are NOT a well loved studio. I also suspect that the Covid Pandemic may have had an impact on the production. Arte starts out looking alright, but it starts to look REALLY ugly in the second half. I mean some utterly hideous CG. However, there are plenty of ugly looking anime out there, so I don't think that's a reason to give this a 2/10 and scream about it being the worst ever. Isn't Arte an annoying shonen protagonist like Naruto? No! Arte is Rock Lee! Naruto wants to be the greatest ninja of all time because his father was a ninja leader and he sees it as his birth right. Arte doesn't want to be the greatest artist of all time, she just wants to make paintings for a living because she loves doing it. Naruto doesn't take his training seriously for the first 200 episodes of his anime. He was born with an immense amount of innate talent and inherited abilities, so he doesn't need to work hard. He pulls stupid pranks, eats ramen, then bullshits his way to completely unearned victories. Arte works until her hands bleed and she passes out from strain on a frequent basis. Arte works HARD because art is her life. She isn't wasting her time pulling pranks or feeling sad for herself. So is Arte worth checking out? Hell yes it is! It's not a perfect series by any means, but it's pretty damn good. It's actually my favorite anime I've seen so far from 2020. It's also only 12 episodes, so you could binge the whole thing in an afternoon. If you just want to relax and feel good for a while, I highly recommend checking this one out.