Review of Arte

Personally, Arte as a project from such not-famous studio gets a 10 out of 10 from me. Big studios have shitted worse anime than Arte, yet still get good appeal because of their excellent animation and art. Aight enough peasantry from me. Start off with ART, Art is definitely mediocre, the background art is simplified a lot. You will always see one set of tiles taking the whole background, whether it's a street or building, there's very few variation, decors and details. Background looks barren most of the time, but they still fit the setting, and that's all that matters. Shockingly, character drawing are consistent andsharp. I don't think I've seen any of the characters' faces melting and dislocated, a mistake even big studios often do. Extra point, Arte changes appearances or design several times as the story progresses; this is essential to show a sense of change and passage of time. However, all of the other side characters don't change appearances at all.

SOUND
Music is excellent. Light and joyful "chamber music" (just googled this, I maybe mistaken of this genre). Music uh... I like music. A lot. And I like the music in this anime. Very happy music. Finally, no guitar or drums, not much piano too. A breath of fresh air.
Sound effect not so prominent since it's mostly about drama and painting.
Side note, Gorō Itō seems to be the composer for this anime, which is weird since his works I found are mostly bossa nova and guitar. Do check him out.

STORY and CHARACTERS (SPOILERS)
Arte has two themes or arcs.
First arc, feminism. And I mean TRUE FEMINISM, not the rotten kind. I have zero idea about how the Renaissance era actually was, but in this anime, men dominated the painting industry. And Arte as a women, with her unbreakable will and ungodly muscle growth, worked her way up to be equally worthy. This phase is hilariously shounen and uplifting.
Second arc, social hierarchy. Now that Arte is big boobed gorilla, she has an identity crisis with her social status as a noble. This is the most beautifully written part of the whole anime. It's actually a huge plot twist. The first arc where Arte fought to disregard her identity as a woman and noble, was actually built up to deliver this twist where she accepts them as a gift/responsibility rather than an unfair treat.

Summary, Arte is extremely fast paced and concluded everything in 12 episodes. There are some cringy anime dialogues in the the early stage, but there are also a lot of shining moments. I think Seven Arcs studio and the production team should be very proud with themselves. Not every anime has to be a masterpiece. Sometimes, it about working with what you have to make the best out of it, just like Arte.