Arte MAL Review
I never thought I'd find another anime that hit me as deep as Natsume Yuujinchou did. And then I came across this treasure and was in love from the first episode. It's hard for me to even begin describing it, because it's such a powerful and inspirational series - not to mention highly relatable.
I'll start there: Who it's for, and who I would recommend it to:
- Aspiring artists
- Creative souls
- Stigmatized, marginalized, or minority folks (define minority how you like, I am using the term liberally here). The more you have been discriminated against (or faced extreme hardship) to pursue your life's passion, the more you will be able to relate to, and enjoy this show.
- People who enjoy strong female characters
- Friends of those mentioned above.
If you don't fall into one of these categories above, I'd still encourage watching it, but I can't guarantee that you will like it. This is not a light-hearted story like Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun, where creative passion is fun and comedic. Arte's story is generally presented in a 'life or death' way. Where there's a few laughs, but a lot more scuffs and bruises.
Arte is such a wonderful and heartwarming series. It's an autobiographical account of a noble woman who's wanted to pursue art (painting) her entire life, but has to fight physical, financial, and societal barriers to even consider that life path as an option. Despite the setting being in the 16th century, I found much of the script to be applicable and relevant to today's world. e.g. "My mom burned my sketches" will always make me laugh, because I've lost count of how many times my mother destroyed my work, and threw away gifts from others. But I know that's - thankfully - not everybody's past, so here are some other modern-day topics that the anime covers:
- Competition and rivalry among artists
- Cultural expectations (especially of women) that getting married is their only purpose and worth in life; without marriage, they are 'worthless'
- Family neglect, abuse
- Gender discrimination, stereotypes
The anime deals with all of those topics gracefully, and respectfully. It's incredibly insightful into the traditional painting / apprentice process as well. If those topics sound interesting to you, and you want to watch a protagonist who keeps going even when life is hard, then you're in for a treat. It's a very encouraging and empowering story, and hopefully will inspire you not to give up, too! I may have cried every episode just from the feels...
The original review on MAL: View here