Arte

In the 16th century, the city of Florence booms with cultural and creative revival in celebration of the Renaissance. Arte, a delightful young lady from an aristocratic family, dreams of being an artist and contributing to the renewal of civilization. However, with her father's death, she ends up losing the only person who believed in her passion for art. Now she is expected to marry a nobleman and live as a refined housewife without disgracing her family name. Reluctant to accept her fate, the headstrong Arte steps into the streets in search of a master artisan to take her on as an apprentice.

In her quest for a mentor, Arte has to face harsh reality when she is completely shunned for being a female artist. No one believes that women are capable of fine craftsmanship, and therefore none are willing to accept her. Luckily, a renowned artisan by the name of Leo is persuaded to take her as his disciple since he has none anyway. And thus, Arte's new life begins, far from the comfort of her noble upbringing. As an apprentice, she must earn her keep while tackling various challenges along the difficult path to becoming a full-fledged, master artisan.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Arte Main

Komatsu, Mikako Japanese

Leo Main

Konishi, Katsuyuki Japanese

Katarina Supporting

Ichimichi, Mao Japanese

Veronica Supporting

Ohara, Sayaka Japanese

Parker, Angelo Supporting

Enoki, Junya Japanese

Yuri Supporting

Toriumi, Kousuke Japanese

Narrator Supporting

Sugita, Tomokazu Japanese

Ubertino Supporting

Akimoto, Yousuke Japanese

Baker Supporting

Fujiwara, Mitsuru Japanese

Pharmacist Supporting

Makino, Tadashi Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Kaneko, Hirotaka Producer

Itou, Shousei Producer

Oomori, Shinji Producer

Reviews

Jun 20, 2020

Stark700

Recommended

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 put ... on 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.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Dec 21, 2023

petrichorbones

Mixed Feelings

Disclaimer that I have not read the manga for this. Don't know if I will, but in case the manga is much more well done, I just wanted to let you know I cannot testify to that.

I think if you expect this anime to be good because of its unique setting and main character, I would tell you not to expect that. Overall, this anime is fairly generic. It's not really bad, but its also not fantastic which is why I felt like writing a review, it feels like most of the reviews already out there are very polarizing.

The first few episodes are ... extremely heavy-handed with the sexism, and it felt like the author didn't trust the audience to get the message the first time. It was kind of awkward. But it got better, or at least, it got more subtle and natural in the ways it brought up the feminist themes and Arte's own feelings about her place in the world. Sometimes it was even too subtle.

The animation and art style is very generic. It's not bad but it's nothing special. The only way it really stands out is with the historical clothing, especially for the women's clothes. I really liked that detail, although I think even that was unable to reach its full potential. At some point we learn that Arte's knowledge of lace and jewelry has a hand in her personal touch as an artist, but it's far too late in the show and we have to just take that as "obvious" just because she is a woman.

I think some people expected the art of the show to be more captivating and creative, especially as the cities it takes place in are also gorgeous cities filled with unique and beautiful architecture and scenery. But ultimately, this show is about feminism and classism more than it is about art. I do think it could have elevated the viewing experience to have more detailed scenery but the show could also very well have spent even less time displaying the scenery and it could have still been done well. As it is, it feels like the show has an identity crisis. It wants to portray Arte's passion for art and infect the audience with it, but that's not the main purpose of the story so it ends up just being a distraction to the other more meaningful themes.

Overall, this anime is more of a light entertainment than a truly meaningful piece of commentary. But if you like your entertainment to have meaning to it as well, I don't think its a bad show to watch. It may be a bit forgettable but sometimes there is value in watching shows like that too. It may motivate me to try out the manga and see if I like it any better. Thanks for reading

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Jun 20, 2020

MamaSasaki

Not Recommended

Good god where to begin with this flaming pile of garbage otherwise known as Arte? Once in a rare while do you come across something so pointlessly dull and boring that you actually get offended by it, so offended by its poor writing, poor characters, poor shallow attempts at making "commentary", poor genre workings. Everything about this show is poor. After 4 episodes I had a bad feeling, after 7 I had no hope, and now? Now, I'm here to tell you to not bother wasting your time on this trash.

Before we get into the slaughter of Arte I'd like to point out some ... MINOR good aspects of this show that keep it from being a 1. The character design isn't anything to write home about but the dress designs are historical accurate and add a level of elegance that I rather enjoyed. The VA work is also worth praise. It's not hard to find lots of new anime just putting VAs in roles to have a name to the project or so badly miscast that it takes you out of the story, but every VA sounds like they fit that character. It's rare to find and underappreciated when done well and I hope people star taking notice of this factor. It's a shame the cast is stuck to such a bad script but hey the little things right?

As for the bad. God where to start? First, why make your setting one of the most interesting point in art history (Florence in the 16th century during the Renaissance) if you're going to make no attempt at displaying the beauty of this time period? The background art for FLORENCE ITALY looks so poorly put together that you could honestly believe that we were in just some nowhere town in an Isekai. For a show set in the town that had some of the greatest works of art during this time period every building looks the same. Their is NO differentiation in color pallets or depth. It is so poorly put together that you could honestly set this show in a High School and get more out of it. On top of that by episode 8 the character art and animation starts to take a nosedive which is super ironic because it wasn't like they had the budget there to begin with. It went from being passable (if not a little bland) to being something a visual novel would use for its animated scenes. In fact I think Persona has had better animation.
Second, the plot. Let me take you through the formula for this show, because their is no real plot.
Opening -> Mary Sue wants to do art related activity or is given art related activity -> Mary Sue is told "WoMEn CaNt Be ArTIsT" or "ArT iS FoR MeN" or "YoU CaNt Do ThAT, OnLY MeN CaN Do ThAt" ext. Whatever variation of surface level misogyny you can come up with goes here and for anyone who has ever dealt with misogyny you will laugh your ass off at how fake this comes off as -> Mary Sue does whatever activity the men think she can't do because the power of her WILL AND DREAMS -> insert either just enough comedy to not be take as a serious drama or Just enough "foreshadowing" of romance to be taken as a Romance anime without giving actual romance -> end credits.
I'm sure defenders will say "it's taking its time to set up a believable relationship" or "It's depicting serious gender inequality" and to you I say...where? The relationship idea is broken by episode 5 when the only thing close to romance is a teenage girls chest getting tight because she's around this dude. Is this supposed to be Romance because it looks more like bullshit to me. BTW three months have passed at this time (or three years if you go off what the second dude said about progression in the system of being an apprentice) so if the only thing in show you have to show me as "romance" is something a one-sided preteen crush then I'm sorry you fail. As far as Gender Inequality... sure? I mean we get surface level remarks in episode 4 from the prostitute that are once again something a teenager could put together and grow up to realize theirs more depth and nuance then that surface level remarks. Everything else is comedic levels of FEMALE OPPRESSION you would find in a meme making fun of feminist. Theirs no interesting commentary to be made and no depth to it. It's laughable forced.
Thirdly, what is the point of setting this show in Italy with Italian characters if you're just going to have them practice normal Japanese customs? Yes, I'm sure this is nitpicky but I'm not the only one asking this question. If you want to have character of different cultural backgrounds you have to build in those cultures to your narrative or else it's just changing the paint of a car. It might look and seem different but under it's just the same. This show could have took a look at the culture of Italy and made for a rather different type of anime that despite the issues could still have praise for something new. Instead it sticks with every single Japanese cultural norm we see in anime and comes off as rather immersion breaking.

I think that's enough bashing on this show for it's piss poor quality. It seems alot of people liked this show, and to you I say great. Glad you did. This show is awful and bad and makes no attempt at coming into its own. All I see is another run of the mill "romance" anime that takes no chances and makes no statements. I hope it never comes back. I hope it gets forgotten in time with the shows just like it because if this show becomes "popular" or makes waves in the anime community I'll truly be shocked at the ability for the anime community to turn a blind eye to anything resembling quality. Then again Bunny-girl senpai is popular and that's just as bad so who knows...

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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