English Dub Season Review: Arte Season One

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Arte comes from a minor nobility and instead of being married off to a man she decides to pursue her own way of life through her artist skills. However, after several rejections, she meets a reluctant master painter, Leo who later considers her determination and words enough to make her his apprentice. During her apprenticeship, she struggles against the misogyny of the other apprentices and master painters. She manages to change their opinion of her and carry on as Leo’s apprentice. Besides the art, Arte picks up a few things along the way like negotiating and the reality of artists and patrons.

Halfway through the show, Arte is faced with an offer from a Venetian noble, Yuri, to tutor his niece, Katarina even though she’s still an apprentice. While in Venice, Arte tries to tutor Katarina but she’s mastered the noble etiquette and instead acts out as a child. After stumbling upon Katarina’s secret, Arte gains her trust and helps Katarina with coming terms to with being a noble and later becomes the girl’s friend. Arte decides that she’ll continue being an apprentice despite receiving an offer from Yuri to be her patron. She returns to Florence to help cover for Leo in one major project with the assistance of her friends to complete the work.

Our Take:

Arte is a good anime for fans of history and art as we follow Arte’s apprenticeship in Florence. Furthermore, there are some episodes where it goes into the life of an artist back in the day with patrons. Arte shows the reality of being an artist in those days along with the importance of making connections. In almost every episode there’s an art fact to help those that may not be familiar with art techniques or styles. The animation is as good as any anime, and there were a few scenes showing off the art in Florence. For example, when Arte and Leo work with the other painters on a big project. The voice acting was good too. I didn’t have a problem with any of the main cast’s voices. The opening and ending were simplistic with a bit of symbolism. It was a nice touch to have moments from the episode in the frame paintings.

The structure of the anime starts off simple with Arte wanting to live an independent life. Then it goes into her apprenticeship with Leo and their trade as painters. The story’s conflicts mainly start from the misogyny of the other apprentices and master painters, but she later changes their opinion on her and accepts her in a symbolic way. You still see bits of it in the second half but it’s more manageable to watch by then. The misogyny grew old quickly, but understandable that Arte, the only female apprentice would face that starting out. Thankfully the anime moves on to the other aspects of living as an artist in those days.

In the second half, the anime takes a turn away from the art to develop the noble side of the society with the Venetian noble Yuri asking that Arte become his niece’s tutor because of her gender and status as a noblewoman rather than her art skills. While it may not seem relevant to Arte’s apprenticeship at first glance the second half mainly questions Arte’s future as an artist and whether or not she’ll use her unique background to her advantage. Leo even prompts her to carefully think about it before she leaves for Venice. Arte understands that it’s a once in a lifetime chance with Yuri’s offer but still continues her apprenticeship to be acknowledged for her skills rather than her background. There’s also how she helps Katarina with coming to terms with being a noble and how she makes a point with Katarina’s parents as well. The anime wraps up with Arte returning to Florence and her friends. The episodes fly by really quickly with how the conflicts are small in the beginning but later they grow a bit more complex with Arte’s journey and the different perspectives of the people around her.

Now Arte and Leo both don’t fit in with the other painters with their backgrounds. Arte is from nobility and a woman while on the other hand, Leo was previously a beggar who worked harder to master his craft. Therefore they have a bit of common ground with how others treated them and that they have the determination to work harder than anyone else at mastering their craft. Arte’s cheerful personality with Leo’s more gruff and practical personality is nice to watch. Their relationship still lingers when Arte goes to Venice as we briefly see Leo’s days without her cheerful self around as Arte has Leo in her thoughts on occasion in Venice. Even though Arte had a bit of an infatuation, in the beginning, it quickly turns into a desire to be acknowledged which I’m glad they left it like that.

Then there are Arte’s friends who come from different parts of society and it does wonders for the anime’s worldbuilding. From Veronica, a courtesan who commissions a piece from Arte to Katarina, Yuri’s niece who loves to cook. There’s also her fellow apprentices and while their interactions were rocky at first they warm up to her after a project seeing her hard work on the project. Each person has their own lives and their friendships with Arte are nice to watch as they present unique perspectives on social norms in that time period. Admittedly the cast of characters is small, but they serve as good minor characters for Arte to contend with for the majority of the series.

Overall the anime is a good show, and while it deviated from the art in the second half, the change was a decent way to help Arte solidify her decision to continue as an apprentice. Additionally, the power of Arte’s connections helps in that final conflict by the end of the day. It was a satisfying show on art and social norms through Arte’s journey.