Review of Arte

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.