HOLD THE PRESSES!! The anime gods have bestowed their graces upon us! Yes, that’s right. This Spring Season, we the viewers would now be able to cherish the on-screen presence of not one but TWO CATARINAS!!!
[Well, the new one’s name is spelled with a ‘K’ but she is more befitting of the ‘Evil Villainess” title so it still counts.]
Greetings, lovely readers. Welcome to Week 8 of Arte, the swashbuckling sailor! This week, we change settings from Florence to Venice, get to see two men duel it out on the deck of a ship at sail (because why the hell not?!) and witness CGI water in all its glory. Let’s unpack.
As is indicated by its rather literal title, this week’s episode begins with our protagonist staring at a crossroads and eager to embark on a new journey, one which may shape her whole life in ways she hasn’t even begun to wrap her head around yet. Arte bids farewell to her friends Angelo and Darcia after clearing out any misunderstandings of her never returning to Florence at all and reassuring them to be back within 6 months. While seeing her off, Leo-san tells her that she’s been given a rare opportunity and if she wishes so, then she need not return after her work is finished and may in turn look for means to make a living on her own in Venice. Arte is conflicted upon hearing this as she feels that Leo-san told her so because he thinks of her as a burden and has been wishing to be rid of her for good altogether. This thought preys on her mind for the entire day and even a spontaneously scheduled sword-fighting duel between Yuri Falier and one of his subordinates proves inefficient in serving as distraction.
She is unable to focus on her work and all the stress causes her to have a sun-stroke and go overboard but Yuri Falier comes to her rescue. He tells Arte that she is misunderstanding Leo-san’s intention as he knows that it’s difficult for artists to find work and was only worried that being obligated to work at his workshop would stop her from looking into other avenues of employment. Yuri tells Arte that he has known for a long time that she was worried but didn’t do anything to help assuage her fears as he was just enjoying watching her worry herself to death. With her fears put to rest, Arte gets ready (in a stunning Venetian lace dress) to start her tutoring duties.
[Reviewer’s Note: Arte has generally had really pretty background art with the scenes inside of Courtesan-san’s home and Umbertino-san’s visitor’s room being particular stand-outs, but this week it looked even more gorgeous! The renditions of Venetian architecture and the sapphire-blue water were a treat for the eyes. I can only hope for more such eye-candy in the coming episodes]
Yuri introduces Arte to his sister who is the most beautiful woman he has ever seen (realistically speaking, has any brother actually ever said that about his sister?) and his niece *drumroll* K(C)atarina (!!!) who seems to be very shy and reserved and doesn’t talk much. But soon as Yuri and his sister leave the two alone… her true personality comes out and Arte realizes that the task at hand may be a lot harder than she initially thought.
How will she deal with this new challenge in the coming months? Would she return back to Florence or make Venice her new home? Join me in finding the answers to all these next week! Till then, take care and stay safe 🙂
Well, the manga and LN translations of Bakarina always had her name being Katarina, it was the anime subs that changed it to Catarina, as for both shows, the authors are making a crossover on Twitter making various drawings of Arte and Katarina hanging out which is suprising, i guess the authors got to become good friends and thus they are doing these as a joke?
But now i am waiting for both authors to show the two Katarinas meeting each other and hanging out, that should be fun…wait, just checked, they already met, but it’s just both Katarinas eating together with Hamefura’s Katarina having a lot of plates and sweets around her with hearts on her eyes while Arte’s Katarina is quietly eating a single sweet with an uncaring face, they don’t talk, but Arte seems to get confused between the two.
Oh, yes! I did see a promo visual of Catarina and Arte together. It’s great to see the two authors take this opportunity to celebrate the coincidence. ^^