Review of Arte

Arte reminds me strongly of Aria, even if not as magical as that one. Basically, it's a story about making a living with your passion no matter how hard it may seem. With the handicap for the main character that, being a girl and a noble, she is not taken seriously as an artist in the 16th century Italy. This series seems to be as divisive as historical shows use to be, anime or not. If you're the kind of person that rages at each and every new historical series or film because it doesn't portray everything 100% accurately, this will be no exception. If youjust happen to like historical or slice of life series for the sole reason of having a good time, there's a high chance you'll like this as well. Keep in mind: this is intended to be a product of entertaintment, not a documentary.

I make my living with writing both about history and Italy (and like Arte, I had my fair share of struggling to achieve that), so I think I know a little about the matter: in my opinion the series does quite a fine job (in terms of a historical fiction) at portraying both the society and the places of the time (with some details like the old façade of the Florence cathedral or the woodwork Rialto bridge of Venice, which show there's a work of research behind). Yeah, some antics are very Japanese: well, after all it's a Japanese series made by a Japanese artist for a Japanese audience, I doubt many of us would be able to portray better a society and time we have not been born into and that is so different to ours. The bowing is the only thing that really bothers me a little, but anyway that happens in almost ALL anime set in any time and place, so I take it for granted.

As for the other complaints, they're quite legit. Sure the art should have been better, but well, this is not Madhouse, and Aria had quite poor quality at the beginning as well and was great nonetheless. The situations may be quite repetitive (the whole "you're a girl!" scenario), but they slowly progress. Many characters may be cliché, but the same can be said about most of the shows out there.

Overall, Arte achieves perfectly all I ask of an anime: giving me a good time, and on addition with a setting and message I love and I think many people can relate to (basically pursuing what you love and not giving a f*uck about what society thinks of it - except if you want to be a criminal, then please give a f*ck about it). Anime is for fun. If I want to see something more accurate, I'll watch a documentary.