Arte – 12 [Apprentice]

It’s finally here. After twelve whole weeks, we have reached the end of the journey for Arte, the apprentice who found her true worth. While this week was all about bittersweet goodbyes and characteristically unsentimental reunions, there were a few moments along the way which did offer some welcome surprises and earned payoffs.

Arte finishes all the portraits she was tasked to paint for the Falier family and gets a tsundere-ish compliment of approval from Lord Falier which meant that it was now time for her to head home. If she so desires, of course. Last week, Yuri offered her a full-time job with all expenses paid and he lets her know that that offer is still up for grabs. Katarina however expects that Arte would choose to return back to Florence and is forlorn and heartbroken at the prospect.

The painter who was the cause of Arte overworking herself to unconsciousness comes back to apologize for saying what he did. He tells Arte that his words were not appropriate and that he believes the feeling of jealousy he harbored towards her while saying them was ugly. Arte in turn tries to reason with him that just like he feels jealous of her, she herself has felt jealous of many men all her life. Of all the things they could have, of everything they took for granted just because they were born into them. The thing is, it is in human nature to be envious. No matter how much we try to fight it, there are times when we simply can’t help yearning for things. Be it money, love, friends, a better lifestyle, a better life – anything we do not have. Because that’s how we grow as people. If we stop yearning and wishing for better and bigger things in life, how do we make sure that we are even moving ahead?

And that’s the core theme that this episode addresses: How far Arte has come since that day she decided to not accept the role that society had preordained for her. Starting off from being someone who felt ostracized and even threatened by the men who disapproved of a woman picking up their profession to being fortunate enough in finding an art master who wasn’t like them to coming to understand someone who was, Arte has herself grown up as a person just as much as she has affected the mindsets of the people she met along the way. She has become more sure of herself and what she wants from life. That’s why she politely declines Yuri’s offer as she believes that it is far too soon for her to take up a job. Doing so would mean that she wouldn’t be able to take out as much time for her studies or for honing her craft and right now, she feels that it’s wiser to focus on the latter instead. As someone who has just wrapped up her Undergraduate studies, I can relate completely with that sentiment. In my field of expertise, most of the students opt for campus placements and pursuing jobs which they have no interest in and which require barely anything out of what they’ve spent the last four years studying about. So many of these are ace students, top of their class, yet instead of actually pushing their limits and striving for more, they accept the fate handed to them.

But Arte isn’t like that. She explains in very straightforward and succinct terms: ‘I understand my worth now’. It’s nothing that profound or allegorical. Feminist media of all kinds is filled with this notion of ‘self-worth’. Hell, Beyoncé has made whole albums about it. But still, when said by a girl who only some time ago was unsure of ever being able to survive as a woman in a man’s world, maybe they do represent a deeper reality – the young girl has grown up a little. And sometimes, even the simplest of words are enough to convey that.

The other half of the episode is a fairly standard affair. Arte bids her farewell to Katarina. The two promise to keep writing to each other knowing that their relationship is no more only that of tutor and student. They’re friends now. And they intend to be, for the foreseeable future. Arte returns to Florence to find that Leo-san has a fever and that means that there’s no one around to finish the church mural he’d been working on. Naturally, Arte volunteers to finish what her master started even though it would be impossible for one person to complete it by the deadline. But Arte isn’t alone anymore. Help arrives in the form of Angelo and Darcia and all the other apprentices who had warmed up to her when they were working together. Together they are able to get the job done in time. It’s the show’s way of portraying no matter how many enemies we might end up making along the way, if we are a good person at our core, some friends come around too. It’s a straightforward message but Arte was never trying to be anything but a straightforward story.

It’s a satisfying enough stopping point for anime-only viewers. A fitting end to the journey of a young girl’s coming-of-age and her attempt to find her place in the world and I’m glad I was a part of it.

Lastly – and I know this may not mean much to regular visitors of the blog, both old and new – this is the first series which I have blogged from start to finish. I tried to do my best with every episodic write-up even though the real world circumstances sometimes didn’t allow for a peaceful state of mind to review anime. I would like to thank the readers of my posts – all four of you 😛 – who watched along with me and I hope I was able to do the series justice.

Thank you and I will see you in the coming season!