Hello, everyone! Welcome to the third installment in the story of our favorite noble-turned-apprentice. This week, Arte learns about the warm joys and strange sorrows of first love, gets her first opportunity to draw professionally and throws her hat in for the seasonal Best Boy race! Let’s jump in.
Leo-san asks Arte to come along with him to the carnival but only after she has changed into an adorable Peter Pan cosplay costume. There they meet up with a courtesan – a high-class prostitute – who is somehow able to make the normally ogre-like and demonic Leo-san smile and laugh like he was having the time of his life. Seeing her looking pretty as a picture and smelling all nice, Arte can’t help but fight the feeling which takes over her heart; a feeling of envious approbation.
Yes, it is true that Arte has chosen to follow the pursuit of a passion which will have her competing with men who will not spare any opportunity to rub it in her face that she is way out of her depths just because she’s a woman, she still cannot deny the fact that, after all, she is a woman. And yes, she wants fair and unbiased treatment when it comes to her profession and the last thing she would want is to be referred to as a ‘girl’ painter, but that doesn’t mean that her heart doesn’t long for the things she has voluntarily chosen to give up on. Just like any other person, at times, she is bound to question her decision and wonder whether her sacrifices would all be worth it in the end. Or maybe she could have chosen to do what every other girl is doing and could have looked like a doll and made men laugh like the courtesan makes Leo-san laugh. Would that have made her happy?
Later on, Leo-san takes her to a church to see a man being dissected. It’s supposed to help the people who are assembled to view the procedure get a better idea of human anatomy (now, to be honest, this does seem like an extreme method and I am pretty sure it would not be approved or even practiced anywhere in today’s day-and-age but hey, that’s Renaissance for you). Soon, people find out Arte is not a boy and Leo-san carries her out to safety on his shoulders. And when they are hiding from the raging mob in an alleyway, Arte realizes that it’s the closest she has ever been to a man’s face and experiences a sudden ache in her chest. It’s an awkward place and scenario for a girl to discover first love but these things can never really go as planned, can they?
After they are back to safety at Leo-san’s place, he tells her that she would be able to paint the background of a painting he was working on and she is instantly delighted but he places the condition that she first needs to paint her interpretation of what the background should look like separately and have it approved by him. Arte goes about that task diligently, painting while sitting out by the river bank and enduring the chilly winds. She completes one painting and shows it to Leo-san but he rejects it. She does another adding in more details but he rejects it. Then another and another and another; all rejected. And just when she is about to give up, Leo-san tells her that maybe she should stop looking at the background separately and see it as part of a whole and how it should emphasize on the part of the painting which the viewer really wants to see. Perspective is a small thing but it bears note how such seemingly small things are what distinguish a great painting from a revolutionary piece of work. What makes them different is the artist’s perspective. Their vision. It’s what distinguishes Van Gogh, Picasso or Michelangelo from the rest.
Later at night, Leo-san goes up to Arte’s room to find her painting in the candlelight. He informs her that she would be getting a raise for serving as his apprentice and tells her that it’s good that she chose to do something that she loves and nit be like every other girl as he is someone who finds a girl like that more charming and that’s when she feels it again. The same pain inside her chest. It’s a kind of pain she hasn’t experienced before meeting Leo-san and a kind of pain that hurts like nothing else. She doesn’t understand it just yet, but maybe in time, she will.
“There’s a name for that thing love makes us feel. Named, I think, like rain. For the sound that it makes.”
Thank you for reading, See you next week 🙂
“this does seem like an extreme method and I am pretty sure it would not be approved or even practiced anywhere in today’s day-and-age”
Dissecting human bodies is still a normal part of medical school, actually, although such procedures are obviously not open to the public. But for such purposes there are exhibitions where conserved bodies are being displayed.
About the episode: I get how Arte could become attracted to Leo (he’s the first person who takes her seriously as an aspiring artist, and he’s also the first man she got really close to), but it still feels like a dumb plot line (it’s a ship that wouldn’t – and shouldn’t – work out anyway) and I hope it’ll be resolved soon. If they really want Arte to have a love interest (she doesn’t really need one imo, especially so soon – by making romance so central (which is typical for female characters) the show kind of undercuts its message that Arte being a woman doesn’t matter – but whatever), just go with Angelo or something.
Oh, I meant dissecting human bodies for the sake of ‘artistic evolution’. I know that it’s basically taught in med schools. I have a couple of friends who have had firsthand experience with it, even.
Also, what Arte feels for Leo-san is close to a first crush than anything. And like you said, she has always lived a sheltered and protected life as no one from the opposite gender (apart from her father) has been as kind and considerate to her so that’s what ignites those feelings in her heart. But something like that is pretty gender-neutral and not something that only happens to female characters imo.
I wasn’t trying to say that Arte’s (seeming) crush on Leo is unrealistic or uncommon: as I said, I get why she’d fall for him. It’s more an issue of presentation: which things do you want to emphasize as a writer? And in that respect the show is putting a heavy emphasis on stereotypically feminine themes: in just three episodes we’ve already been introduced to a probable love interest (Angelo) ánd Arte has started to develop feelings for someone (Leo). Imagine for the moment that the show would have had a male protagonist (Leo trying to make it as an artist in spite of his low social standing, let’s say): would the show really have put such a heavy focus on romance? Almost certainly not: instead, they would have put his ambitions as an artist front and center.
And there’s also a different problem: by making Arte fall in love with Leo, the show is kind of proving the critics right, in that it affirms that a purely professional relationship between men and women – without romance complicating things – is impossible. That’s one of the reasons why I prefer Angelo as a love interest (other than the age gap): it’s fine if Arte falls in love – just don’t make her fall in love with her employer.
All of this doesn’t ruin the show for me or anything, but I do think just focusing on Arte as an artist would have made its feminist message more powerful. I get why the writer is doing this, though. Most people like romance, so it’s an effective way to increase your audience: just focusing on art would have made the series much more niche. But for me, at least, that would have made the series more interesting.
I see what you mean.
As someone familiar with the manga, I can attest that it’s not a romance story. The love interest thing is just a side-plot that’s incorporated to keep things interesting. As to why the author chose to do so? I guess, it must have been for Mass appeal. This is her first work and she would have been forced to incorporate some traditional themes. But the romance or the love interest aspect of things is surely not what this series is really about.
Also, there is a manga which takes the kind of approach you want this story to have, with the MC (Male) just solely focusing on art and honing his craft. It’s called Blue Period. It even won the prestigious Manga Taisho this year. Be sure to check that out if it interests you. 🙂
Ah yeah, I’ve heard about that! It does sound very interesting, but …. given all the praise it’s getting it’ll probably (hopefully) get an anime adaptation at some point, so I’ll wait for that for now (adaptations are more fun for me if I go in fresh). I’ll definitely keep it in the back of my mind though, and if I have to wait too long I may just give in to temptation. 🙂
Oh, yes. Of all the current non-shounen series, Blue Period and Spy x Family are locks to get anime adaptations within the next couple of years. And I am really hyped for whenever that happens. ^^
But I couldn’t resist the temptation and ended up binging both of these and have to wait for new chapters all the time, now. 😣
I enjoyed this weeks episode a lot more then the previous two, especially the historic touches (the dissection) were much better this time around. That’s a place a woman, no matter how noble, would never be welcomed at at all.
What seems to be dragging my enjoyment down for now is how bland everything besides Arte feels. Florence, a bustling centre of culture in 16th century Europe, feels so plain, deserted & underused whenever the Duomo isn’t in the frame that it’s almost criminal. The streets are so generic & devoid of any personality that it’s sometimes even unpleasent to look at. As it stands right now, the only reason the author choose Florence over a modern setting is so that she? could push some feminist agenda with Arte & that’s fine, but please use your setting more! The shots of the town are so boring 90% of the time that it feels almost wasteful to have it set in this period at all. There so many things to see, to learn & to explore, yet every scene feels so generic the unique charm of Italy never comes trough. It just feels like any medieval setting in every (fantasy) anime ever.
I also hoped for more growth of Arte we as the viewer can actually see. It would have been nice to see her work hard – fail, work harder – fail until she finally manages to succeed over time. To see her grow artistically & to learn more about art along the way, but that’s just what I would have wanted, maybe I’m to critical of a otherwise fun, little show.
I wouldn’t say that the setting is necessarily bland. But yes, it hasn’t been utilized as much just yet. In the coming weeks, the story will try and remedy that.
As per your other qualms with the narrative in general, I believe that maybe Arte as a story isn’t trying to be as ambitious as you want it to be. It’s a look at the life of a female artist trying to find her feet in a male dominant profession, sure. But it takes more of a slice-of-life approach to it. It’s content in being confined to that genre and I think if we keep our expectations tempered, we would be able get more out of this show.
Yeah, you’re probably right. It’s just that ever since I found out that a SoL show with italian Renaissance setting was being produced, I had rather high expectations for it since it’s one of my favourite historical periods. I was hoping for beautiful shots of Florence & stunning background art with some history sprinkled with in.
It’s still a fun a show and I’ll probably finish it regardless, it’s just not quiet what I was initially anticipating.