I've been checking recommendations for 'Victorian Romance Emma' for several years, hoping that someone would point me out another series as beautiful as 'Emma', full of love for the historical period it's set in and boasting lovable realistic characters, encompassed in wonderful melodies of the soundtrack. When 'Arte' was added to the recommendations list, seeing that it's set in Renaissance Italy and that the original manga art looks very warm and cosy, I had such high hopes for this trash show that turned out to be absolutely mediocre.
The wonderful flexibility and ability to adapt of the Japanese left a great impression on many generations of foreigners. It's not a rare thing that true artists can represent other cultures very well. After all, Soviet actor Vasily Livanov was even recognised in Britain as a true, if not the best, Sherlock Holmes, receiving a very high award. With Japan, it seems that the success of their attempts to recreate something foreign lies in the conviction of the Japanese that there's something of every other culture in Japan. Inherently. Like, has been there from the start.
Are you valuing your traditions, following strict etiquette? We've been doing this for ages!
Are you a country of peasants who grow healthy vegetables? We've been doing this too!
Are you inventing something new to make life more comfortable? We'd like to develop that technology!
Are you admiring Mother Nature all the time, believing it to be your greatest treasure? We too!
Are you devoted to your Fatherland? We are, too. So, you have a developed political and social science? We've been thinking about what a true governor should be like - from ancient times. We're the same.
And when it comes to depicting another country and another timespan in an anime, the Japanese say the same thing - there has been a little of France/England/Wild West/Space travellers in Japan all this time!
However, 'Arte' has gone overboard. It is not about Renaissance Italy. 'Arte' is about 'if 16-century Florence was in Japan'.
You may take out the check-list and start checking Arte. Cheerful, clumsy, but hard-working and never-giving-up, and kind, and capable of profound feelings, and... I'm starting to yawn.
She is the perfect candidate to be accepted anywhere. She herself only half-cares where, as she admits in the very 1st episode. She first says she wants to become an artist because she likes drawing, but then corrects herself saying it's a way to lead an independent life. It's not that she chose art for no reason, if she did - she wouldn't be taken seriously, but this statement is important - her interests are only secondary.
She is also ready to do whatever she is asked to, in order to be accepted, even if it is unfair, verging on bullying and, moreover, meaningless. She claims to fight for equality, but contributes to the inequality herself, agreeing to do irrelevant things just to show she has guts.
When finally accepted, she confirm the centuries-old Japanese belief that one can only grow and mature when scolded and not given rest.
Apprentices are supposed to watch masters work, then create their own work alone, trying to guess whether they move in the right direction or not, while teachers only give very little advice.
Take a pen and write it down, the least requirements for an ideal Japanese fresh recruit are:
By the way, falling in love and even maintaining close friendship is out of the question, until one becomes a fully-fledged... something - an artists, or an aristocrat.
Like I said, it's a story about Japan, not a story about Italy. People even bow the Japanese way despite being 16-century Italians.
I know some stories being called 'two-dimensional', meaning they lack depth. If so, 'Arte' is one-dimensional. Not only Arte, all other characters are shallow and unimpressive as well.
Like I think I mentioned, I don't like fairy-tales pretending to be otherwise, and I don't like half-hearted humour. If you create something absurd - make it obvious, if you create something magical - make it obvious again. If you insist on the 'you can do it if you try' philosophy, you know, it just doesn't work, uh-uh. At least, not when a daughter of an aristocrat builds a neat house with perfectly even wood boards.
The creators even forgot about what they undertook themselves. I remember a person who wrote 'multiple' instead of 'double' in a questionnaire in English, saying that was how Yandex translator suggested they call 'twice'. They even showed me the screen. I told them the automatic translator doesn't always have it right. But that's not the case here, right? I mean, when Arte said 'many people', or 'yatara ooi', she meant 'many', not two, right?
And now please tell me where lace and intricately designed jewelry are in this painting.
Despite thoroughly filled with textures historical buildings, nothing of the atmosphere of Florence or Venice could be felt throughout 12 episodes, and animation was so lazy that many movements were downgraded to a static image with some wind sound to represent any movement at all.
Absolutely nothing can be said about voice acting or background music. Opening and ending themes are again pretending to be something they're not, because those 'yasashii' songs, soft and gentle, aren't creating any atmosphere at all. I'm surprised Sakamoto manages to sing so many of those without vomiting.
I'm not enjoying saying this. But I don't like anime projecting Japanese values pretending to be something else.
No comments:
Post a Comment