Arte

Have you ever watched Naruto? So I introduce to you, Naruto but Italian, if I can call this "Italian".

Historical manga/anime always catch my attetion, sometimes because I want to read about a especific age in comic books, or because I want to experience the memorable colors and landscapes that talented artists are willing to make in animation. And for general information, every year ends up being highlighted about some historical anime, we also have the probability of it being worthwhile, which can be difficult lor issues that many directors are not well prepared to dedicate themselves to a work like this, is also very rare ... for some of them to receive sequences and being an anime season highlight, as a door to discover a world that seemed to be interesting through several literary phrases that we consume in books.

As soon as I was watching the Arte ad, I was prepared for a story that would be realistic, sensitive and feminist due to the manga's praise, and could get so close to ancient Italy, but I was innocent to believe it. Starting with all the background, I'll be honest with you, the background art is poor and completely forgettable, it's the kind of generic background art that you could find in some generic fantasy of the season, they are all lightened by a pale color that spoils the whole identity of the scene, it seems like the same color tone for each place, it makes me disgusted, besides being boring shots, they are not as inspiring as their age should be, come on I'm talking about the age of renaissance! This should be a alive art, for a story that shows the love of "art", I think that even Kakushigoto of this season that talks about manga and comics, has a more appropriate and visually beautiful scenario, it is rare to have a type of scene in that I can enjoy the art scene, the streets look the same, the saturated color doesn’t help, it’s as if I’m seeing Venice increasingly empty.

I need to mention this but how hard this anime tries to be a historic but it fails in the main part which is to make characters and people befitting the scenario, fuck shit, every character acts like a Japanese, they bow, close their eyes when they feel embarrassed, act like a typical high school teenager, and I don't even want to mention so many "anime" lines that this work provides, just hearing Angelo's sisters say the word "onii-chan" made me sick, honestly this is the representation of an Italian person born and raised in the Renaissance era? Obviously not, and it hurts a lot for me to be able to get closer to the world, it is not so difficult for them to adhere to a more formal language of their time, as you can see Emma as a great example of historical anime centered in France but that keeps the characteristics of French people, what Arte does is offensive, and I doubt that anyone who is Italian would not be bothered by this, put these characters in a Japanese setting and they will not change easily.

This anime is basically a shounen but with a female protagonist, so many clichés are always being used over time, you don't have a minute's break to contemplate the beauty of the scenery, because besides being so poor, the anime totally ignores actions and consequences, want an example? See our protagonist overcoming her carpentry challenge in one episode, or the fact that she carries heavy bags without her arms shaking or exhausted, everything is done in an easy way, you think a new challenge will be put in place to intrigue, but he it is easily overcome, it is always like that, in every episode, they all end up having no depth or impact in that way, and if Arte doesn’t win the challenge, she just has a flashback from her family and she will win, like a generic protagonist would do, and being that type of protagonist, it is obvious that she will scream out there that she will be a great painter for her exaggerated determination, all these reasons make me distance myself more and more from the character, I don't see this anime being something unique, if not just in portraying a scenario, because the rest is awful with repetitives ideas.

The dramas are garbage, dramas that can be kept as a reality and a challenge of the time, many people faced the rejection that the noblest families had about women who would follow dreams that are not to serve for a beautiful boy of the nobility, here was all nucleus, but it is clearly forgotten over time, and should be the most important point of the work to be debated, but instead we have this small simulation:

"I want to draw!"
"You're women!!"
"I want to..."
"You're women!!"
"I..."
"WOMEN!!"

I am absolutely sure that artists from ancient Italy would not act like that, and even if it is related, they could listen her to it until the end, but the anime must constantly show the viewer that the society of men is bad, just it. From a moment that they do all just to serve as a convenient development, which should even be 70% of the focus in each episode that comes up, she is not a pagan sinner, but the anime exaggerates in moments to generate this kind of repercussion, a forced drama that only serves as unnecessary conflicts, which could be improved if they had subtleties in presenting, is totally repetitive and without control of what it should.

The characters are poorly, as I already mentioned Arte being a generic protagonist of shounen, I can quote Leo who appears to be a well-explored character, but in the end he is just a handsome guy with no difference for identity, the relationship with Arte is very poorly explored, in three episodes and they are already advancing to higher levels, and the author is trying to put a ridiculous romance on top of that, and we have Angelo, a typical innocent teenager who emerged from some Kyoani anime that besides serving as a convenient support to help the protagonist, also has him mini moments of romance, for an anime that says men are bad, romanticizing the most beautiful ones is always the right choice to classify them as "they are good men", it is a terrible fujobait and total waste of characterization, I should be watching the fight of a determined girl but I see her fall in love with her master because he is hot.

I don’t know why this anime/manga has the "seinen" demography because it has nothing to compose a real seinen, and not that it is difficult, Emma as I mentioned is a great seinen, but it doesn’t use these bad clichés in narrative, Emma manages to be unique in his own way, everything here is based on shounen and broadly generic examples, ignoring any fight compatible with the scenario, I wonder if I am the only one who feels frustrated when seeing potential wasted on topics so weaks to approach, I don't understand this attempt to replicate dramas and arcs of battle-shounen in series with different themes and setting, this is without any inspiration. The visuals of the characters and animation are also weak, the animation hasen't life to represent this necessary environment that could generate empathy for the audience, there is without use of scenery, the colors of the characters are bad, totally pale and do not matching and neither contrast with their own, it is saturated being able to look at that "Carnival" in the previous episode, perhaps the good points I could mention are the artistic information that we can see being examples and even the soundtrack that combines very well with the theme, but as for the other topics... Arte doesn't have a solid story.

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...

Dropped this show as of Episode 4

To start with, I have never been a fan of Teacher/Student, Master/Disciple relationships, but if done right, I can ignore the dynamics and uncomfortable age gap. However, there's just no chemistry for relationship between these two characters.

It's disappointing how quickly Arte goes from pursuing her passion against all odds to being love-crazed for the first man (who's not her father) that she really interacted with. The only basis for her feelings is that Leo treats her indiscriminately, that he treats her like any other apprentice and not just a woman.

I can respect Leo for acting as a ... professional instructor should in this situation, but I really can't respect Arte for developing feelings solely for that. They've had very little personal interaction at this point, yet Arte is so distracted by the "doki-doki" in her heart that she can't focus on her passion anymore...the passion she ran away from home for and chopped off her hair for. Given the premise of this show, I really can't forgive the story for just nose-diving to romance-obsessed teenage love.

Not to mention, for an anime about art, the art really doesn't stand out. Also, this anime is labeled as historical, not fantasy or historical fantasy. Therefore, I don't think Arte's Japanese mannerisms are justifiable in Renaissance Italy.

Lastly, this anime is rated so poorly because of the unwillingness of the plot to be the seinen anime it promised to be. The story leans heavily towards shojou and being intended for a shojou audience rather than a mature audience. Kind of like Marvel releasing a PG13 version of the Rated R Deadpool just for a cash grab. This anime does the same. For the purposes of reaching a wider, more general audience, this anime wears big fat rose-tinted glasses that ruins what could have been a delightfully complex story about Renaissance Art in Italy.

I unfortunately decided to drop this after the first episode despite being excited to watch this show. The story would've been nice if executed in a more unique way. You know how it goes: a cute girl joins something (club, job, etc.) to change her life, like, how many times have we seen that? I felt like I've seen this same show one thousand times already. I also felt like some of the messages (like the stigma of women taking apprenticeships) were sort of forced in your face - not that that's a bad thing to discuss but I think the writing was too overt ... about it at times. Dialogue was the main factor in deciding to ultimately drop this show - too overt, saccharine, cliché, and bubbly. I feel like this sort of dialogue belongs in a high school anime, and not one that takes place during the Renaissance.

The main thing that initially drew me to watch the first episode was that it took place in 16th century Florence, which I thought was a brave choice of time and location. Maybe I'll try to pick this up again in the future, and I know I've only seen the first episode, but even so I was just so disappointed in it.

Honestly, if you're a fan of feel-good stories I'd say go for it, but for me it just didn't hold my interest.

This anime is about a girl who aspires to became an artist in 16th century Italy where apparently women are not capable of drawing like Michelangelo and da Vinci and all the men are. You will see her hardships as she upgrades her level of drawing at an astonishing rate. You ll be seeing that most of the time.

Now, since the anime and main heroine share the same name of course the plot will revolve around her 99 precent of time and that is expected. The problem, at least with me, is that the main heroine is so boring and annoying most of the time ... that the whole anime gets boring too prety fast. Also,the story is too slow paced.

Its basiacally a shoujo where the main heroine can do anything if she just puts some will and a background past of loving to draw, into it.

The animation is done really well and for me that was the best part of the anime. I loved how they animated Firence, Venice, the drawings. It is animated really well. Unfortunately that is the only thing that gets a good grade from me.