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EP. REVIEW: Arte


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Panino Manino



Joined: 28 Jan 2018
Posts: 734
PostPosted: Sat Apr 18, 2020 5:18 pm Reply with quote
As I commented at length in some places, I hate everything about this adaptation.
After Wave and Yesterday I was asking too much for this to also be good, to also be well adapted. Sadly is not, a huge waste of potential. Some will like, some will praise, because the source is good but this anime doesn't make it justice.
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Engineering Nerd



Joined: 24 Apr 2008
Posts: 897
Location: Southern California
PostPosted: Sat Apr 18, 2020 5:46 pm Reply with quote
As one of my favorite reviewers in ANN, Rebecca’s weekly review on Arte perfectly echoes my view on this show. There are a lot to like, and there are a bit of nitpicks that are pulling me out of the show. But overall, I think this will be worthy to follow until the end.

Now that I think about it, one thing in Arte has not done so well that pulls me out of immersion is, despite its historical time period, the interactions between characters are clearly “Japanese-like” to the point I felt like watching J-drama (the office-kind) in European setting. While lots of historical genre anime suffer the same problem, but Arte has not done much to hide that “modern touch”


Last edited by Engineering Nerd on Sun Apr 19, 2020 9:38 am; edited 1 time in total
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11306
PostPosted: Sat Apr 18, 2020 8:36 pm Reply with quote
I'm enjoying this so far, but they kind of lost me a little bit with the sacks of clay thing. I don't believe she would've been able to lift one without killing her back, let alone ten. Were she a washerwoman or some other sort of servant class, then yeah, but she's lived her life doing nothing much more strenuous than drawing sketches.

What I was kinda hoping for was for her to figure out a different way of moving them. After hauling all that wood around, she must've come up with some ways to deal with that, so like taking a cue from the cart, she could've made some ramps or simple rollers to leverage the bags around. So I was a little disappointed that she just muscled her way through it, simply by learning to lift with her legs.

I also would rather not see a romantic involvement with Leo, but that might be too much to expect.
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blahmoomoo



Joined: 27 Jan 2020
Posts: 457
PostPosted: Sat Apr 18, 2020 11:57 pm Reply with quote
Gina Szanboti wrote:
I'm enjoying this so far, but they kind of lost me a little bit with the sacks of clay thing. I don't believe she would've been able to lift one without killing her back, let alone ten. Were she a washerwoman or some other sort of servant class, then yeah, but she's lived her life doing nothing much more strenuous than drawing sketches.


In the manga, the sculpture sketching chapter happened after the courtesan arc, so it was more plausible that she could have built up more muscle since a moderate (say, months) time skip was implied before that arc. I wonder why they swapped that around.
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Princess_Irene
ANN Reviewer


Joined: 16 Dec 2008
Posts: 2599
Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City
PostPosted: Sun Apr 19, 2020 7:16 am Reply with quote
Engineering Nerd wrote:

Now that I think about it, one thing in Arte has not done no well that pulls me out of immersion is, despite its historical time period, the interactions between characters are clearly “Japanese-like” to the point I felt like watching J-drama (the office-kind) in European setting. While lots of historical genre anime suffer the same problem, but Arte has not done much to hide that “modern touch”


That's been bugging me too, and it's one of several things I was initially going to mention in this review but decided to save for later...because full disclosure? My first draft of this review was basically a full-blown essay (with MLA-style bibliography and citations, naturally Laughing ) and when I realized what I'd done, I had to cut it way back. I decided that this issue would be more interesting to address in the courtesan episode.
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Zhou-BR



Joined: 28 Feb 2008
Posts: 1419
PostPosted: Sun Apr 19, 2020 8:27 am Reply with quote
blahmoomoo wrote:
In the manga, the sculpture sketching chapter happened after the courtesan arc, so it was more plausible that she could have built up more muscle since a moderate (say, months) time skip was implied before that arc. I wonder why they swapped that around.


They probably thought the second episode would be more cohesive if it adapted two chapters focused on Arte's budding friendship with Angelo, even if those chapters were originally supposed to be months apart. The current Fruits Basket anime does that a lot, shifting manga chapters around so they can do an entire episode focused on a single supporting character.
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yuna49



Joined: 27 Aug 2008
Posts: 3804
PostPosted: Sun Apr 19, 2020 9:04 am Reply with quote
I hate the clumsy-girl meme. I thought they got past it when Arte solved the problem of tripping over her skirt while pulling the cart. But she embarrassingly kicks over a bucket of water in episode three and looks bad in front of Leo and his client. I suppose the writers think this behavior endears her to male viewers, but I'm one of those, and it has the opposite effect on me.

I was hoping for Angelo to win Arte's heart as well, but, like Rebecca, I'm worried about those doki-doki moments with Leo.
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Panino Manino



Joined: 28 Jan 2018
Posts: 734
PostPosted: Mon Apr 20, 2020 3:56 pm Reply with quote
Not only this adaptation is changing the order of the chapter and lost any sense, it's also losing all the personality of the characters. Those aren't the characters I know and expected to see.
Leo is taciturn and have communication difficulties and Arte is not clumsy! The anime is making Arte intentionally weak and dumb without her trademark passion and energy.

Gina Szanboti wrote:
I'm enjoying this so far, but they kind of lost me a little bit with the sacks of clay thing. I don't believe she would've been able to lift one without killing her back, let alone ten. Were she a washerwoman or some other sort of servant class, then yeah, but she's lived her life doing nothing much more strenuous than drawing sketches.

What I was kinda hoping for was for her to figure out a different way of moving them. After hauling all that wood around, she must've come up with some ways to deal with that, so like taking a cue from the cart, she could've made some ramps or simple rollers to leverage the bags around. So I was a little disappointed that she just muscled her way through it, simply by learning to lift with her legs.

I also would rather not see a romantic involvement with Leo, but that might be too much to expect.


Check MAL forums, I discussed at length after each episode.
That change to make Arte "learn" how to use her back from pushing the cart was ridiculous. Those bags aren't that heavy, two appendice carry those bags only because it's easier that way, not because two person are required.
It's heavy and a lot of work but not impossible for Arte, she had all the strength and motivation necessary. What makes less sense is her pushing her way inside other Masters ateliers, so soon. Ridiculous, just ridiculous, in the manga this happens when Arte is with Leo for some 8 months already.
Anyway, if you want to know more go to MAL.
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Kjupiter



Joined: 26 Apr 2020
Posts: 4
PostPosted: Sun Apr 26, 2020 5:47 pm Reply with quote
I really want to like this series, but I keep getting distracted by historical anachronisms and the irritating voice in the back of my mind that constantly whispers to me that I know too much about art making and art history to really enjoy what this show has to offer. The production design smacks of generic anime-style fantasy clothing (and I am bothered about the ruffled bloomers to the point of irrational distractibility). The Japanese social mannerisms take me out of the story as well, as do dozens of little things and nit-picks, like the trope of all Westerners are blonde (while a beauty ideal in this time period, it was not naturally occurring), the strange interpretation of period-appropriate costuming (I’m not really sure when or where, exactly, this is supposed to take place—not because I don’t know anything about renaissance Italy, I know a lot about it—the production just takes details from wildly different parts and regions of that era that seem really muddled to me). Another way to put this is that this show wants to be specific but isn’t quite specific enough to be satisfying.

All of that is to be expected, I guess. It normally wouldn’t bother me to the extent that it does and I would find most of it kind of amusing, like I do with other historical dramas, anime or otherwise. However, the idea that this is very loosely based on the life of Artemisia Gentileschi (VERY VERY VERY VERY—squint really hard and it’s there) really hurts the series that would otherwise be a fairly competent, if not conventional, story of female empowerment and artistic discovery. It’s a detail that exacerbates what would ordinarily be minor issues common to most anime of this sort. For one, Gentileschi was an artist in the Carravagio style, and Baroque Italy (Rome) is a completely different kettle of fish than Renaissance Italy (Florence). She was also brunette, and her father was a working artist. Even if I was viewing it at my most generous and can accept that most biographical details will be flattened to the most anodyne interpretation of it, the way the show has chosen to depict the relationship between Arte and Leo is hard to watch. Leo is not Agnostino Tassi, but knowing the details of Gentileschi’s relationship with Tassi (because, face it, it is a huge part of her story—google with caution) makes the character relationship between Arte and Leo creepy at best, and a gross erasure when you really think about it (and Tassi does not deserve a sympathetic edit). I can only assume that loosely basing the main character on Gentileschi had more to do with wanting to set a story in a particular time period than on the actual person herself, and Gentileschi is probably the only female artist of that time period anyone remembers existing, if they think female artists existed back then at all.

The thing that would save this series would be to tell a story that not only accurately portrays the process of making art in that time period, but also the process of developing into an artist. So far I haven’t seen that. The few tidbits here and there that we do get are not enough. I do not get a sense of of Arte as an actual artist, nor any meaningful discussion of what art is and what it means to be an artist (I say this, perhaps, because we just finished having all of that and more in a stellar season of Keep Your Hands Off Ezouken!, which I don’t think is an unfair thing to want or comparison to make if we are dealing with stories of young women who want to make art). I think this show is primarily concerned with its girl-power messaging, though. This is fine, as long as it becomes more nuanced in its discussion of the realities of a young woman wanting to be an artist in this time period, and the show really hasn’t done that yet. I don’t HATE it, but I was kind of hoping it would be more than what it is (it’s not as if I had a lot of expectations going in—like I said in the beginning, I would probably like it more if I knew less about history or art, which sounds really mean, but those are the main elements of this series, so it’s kind of fair, even if I’m not the target audience for the series, knowing stuff shouldn’t prevent me from enjoying stuff). There are still episodes left to air, and maybe I will be pleasantly surprised.
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Panino Manino



Joined: 28 Jan 2018
Posts: 734
PostPosted: Sun Apr 26, 2020 5:57 pm Reply with quote
Kjupiter wrote:
Another way to put this is that this show wants to be specific but isn’t quite specific enough to be satisfying

The manga is not a "historical" history, just "inspired" by that time period and place.
It's not trying at all to be accurate.
For me it's more than enough, the manga is actually good. I was also bothered in the beginning by some thing but I learned to really like the manga. Unfortunately this adaptation lefts MUCH to be desired.

Kjupiter wrote:
However, the idea that this is very loosely based on the life of Artemisia Gentileschi

I don't know how this began but for the last time stop saying that Arte is "based/inspired" on Artemisia!
This just leads to unnecessary additional complaints, forget that you ever heard about this.
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Auriana



Joined: 08 Jul 2017
Posts: 12
Location: South Plainfield, NJ
PostPosted: Mon Apr 27, 2020 12:48 pm Reply with quote
I haven't had a chance to watch the latest episode, but did they ever give a last name for Veronica? The name and the recap's mention of her library had me wondering if they were basing the character off of Veronica Franco. Dangerous Beauty, a fictionalized account on her life, if one of my all time favorite movies.
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meiam



Joined: 23 Jun 2013
Posts: 3442
PostPosted: Mon Apr 27, 2020 1:21 pm Reply with quote
Whelp I was really hoping this wouldn't go the romance route. But Arte works for an older man whose slightly gruff with her and doesn't really show anything but normal workplace attention to her. She didn't have a chance, what did I expect?

I guess there's nothing wrong with this, but there's nothing interesting about it either and it only distract from everything that could have been interesting. Could we have a show that follow Veronica instead, that seems far more interesting and would actually use the setting a lot more?
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whiskeyii



Joined: 29 May 2013
Posts: 2242
PostPosted: Mon Apr 27, 2020 1:57 pm Reply with quote
I'm starting to feel like maybe Arte isn't going to be the show I hoped it would be, and I'm struggling to reconcile that with my lack of enjoyment around it. I *want* to like this show, but I worry that I can't appreciate it on its own terms because I expected Emma or A Bride's Story set in Renaissance times and kind of got Violet Evergarden's mish-mash world-building and a plot that feels closer to After the Rain than something like Shirobako instead. Like Panino Manino mentioned, this is starting to feel much more "inspired by history" rather than an actual historical drama, which is fine, but not really what I was hoping to get out of this. ^^;
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xyz



Joined: 10 Jan 2002
Posts: 243
PostPosted: Mon Apr 27, 2020 6:13 pm Reply with quote
I don't like the extreme message of this show. And it's not going toward romance between Leo and Arte so I may as well drop this.
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Panino Manino



Joined: 28 Jan 2018
Posts: 734
PostPosted: Mon Apr 27, 2020 6:14 pm Reply with quote
whiskeyii wrote:
I'm starting to feel like maybe Arte isn't going to be the show I hoped it would be, and I'm struggling to reconcile that with my lack of enjoyment around it. I *want* to like this show, but I worry that I can't appreciate it on its own terms because I expected Emma or A Bride's Story set in Renaissance times and kind of got Violet Evergarden's mish-mash world-building and a plot that feels closer to After the Rain than something like Shirobako instead. Like Panino Manino mentioned, this is starting to feel much more "inspired by history" rather than an actual historical drama, which is fine, but not really what I was hoping to get out of this. ^^;


When the manga began it was published online in english.
At first I didn't like much, because of what you mentioned and other expectations. But slowly I learned to like this series a lot, but this happened because the original avoids executing the little details exactly like the anime opted to do.
If you was interested I recommend that you drop the anime and go search the manga, it's published in Europe.
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