This review on Art Contains spoilers. If you have not seen the chapter, we recommend you do it and then go back to read the review.
Chapter 9: Naughty Girl
Katarina and Arte, student and teacher know each other. The girl seems to be a problem because of her manners, but alone she shows that she knows how to behave. His rebellion has no reason to exist, although there are reasons that Arte wants to find out. So she gets going, having allies inside and also begins to better understand what Katarina is going through when she talks to Sofia, Katarina’s mother. The girl did not live with them until very late. After a few days, Arte discovers the little girl’s secret: her taste in cooking. The tutor does not reveal the secret, the student sees that she can trust her teacher and invites her to dinner, thus leaving a meeting where the heart will open and speak.
Chapter opinion
For my tastes this has been the best chapter of the anime so far. I felt fluidity, a good animation, balanced funny and sad moments, without loose or convenient things, and if there were very few. This has been the best synthesis work he has ever had. I can’t find criticism even if I think about it a lot. It was a chapter loaded with some things, but that can be revealed in it without rushing and feeling natural. I think the worst, but this in general for the series, which we find in this chapter, is that days change from one scene to another, we see it often but days have passed and they mention it there. A common question is the “what happened at that time?”, And there comes in the good that the chapter has shown, the scenes are connected and that unseen time is answered indirectly (for example, Art weaving clothes for Katalina) . As I said, the chapter I enjoyed the most and the best I have seen.
Disobedience is about something
Katarina is spoiled, without manners and with a tremendous lack of social etiquette, that’s why Arte has been hired. The work seems to be hard, especially in the first session, in which Katarina shows Arte that she has nothing to teach her because she already knows it. So why is he misbehaving in front of his parents? He says that it is not for something in particular, but Art suspects that it is not, that is why in the chapter he shows us somehow pressing it. It is very rare that a behavior like Katarina is a product of nothing and before showing us that it is so, throughout we see that the little girl hides things, implying that she does it for something. Now what will it be?
there are things that do not change
There are customs and actions that do not change in your own land (in this case Italy), no matter how different the places may seem. It could be said, of course, with great possibilities that I am wrong, that nonsense or silly behavior can be seen anywhere in the world or, being a little more restricted, that a country or culture is covered by a basic thought that it is inherent in people. I would say that of this class are some precepts of distinction between male and female. All this comes from the church scene, where Art draws and some kids make fun of her and Florence. Daphne is mad at this, but for Art it is a regular thing and she laughs. It can be said that Art is a transgressor in that society. But the good thing is that not all men are painted as louts, but there are people who in themselves appear as good or nuanced and some who were shown as “enemies” of Art had a change, which was not the product of a magician, but from the Art show. These kinds of things do not change and they will most likely always happen.
Change of tactics
Realizing that Katarina will not speak and knowing one of her secrets, Arte decides to change his strategy and abandons his formal clothes and puts on his work clothes. With this a very funny scene is produced, personally, which is when Arte carries Katarina as if it were a toy and she feels it. Katarina’s face is pure gold and Arte proves that she is not an ordinary girl. The new tactic is not to let Katarina sleep (this has repercussions in the future, only that you have to keep it very much in mind) and make her speak so that she can win the dream. This is a double-edged sword, because in the end the girl is not very cooperative. After this, Arte tries to become her friend, taking her to play (which also has repercussions) and there Katarina, inadvertently, reveals certain things.
Confessions of a mother
A critical moment is the conversation between Sofia and Art. What he said in summary is that Katarina was raised in the countryside, in a villa that has the family (this, although they do not explain it here is a fact of the manga, it is because it was a belief at the time that the mother should not see the child until he is one year old). The father, Malta, had no intention of having daughters, so he was not interested because they are an economic burden, so Katarina’s stay was extended until she was 6 years old. At this age Katarina just managed to return home, so mother and daughter are not connected. That is the secret, something that Art captures and that will be of importance apparently, because that will make them connect more.
Secret revealed
Fatigue and lack of sleep in the afternoon made Katarina literally fall. Arte went to her room to talk to her, maybe this made Katarina nervous who tripped and fell, Arte listens to a noise and opens and finds the girl between books and sees that they are from the kitchen, they have a little altercation and Arte retires. This is the great secret that Katarina kept, which in a way is something very similar to that of Art. That Art has gone through everything that happened really helps a lot for empathy. The girl and the adolescent, both in some way are transgressors of the norm, especially the nobility.
Work of servants, taste of nobles
Preparing food, in those days, was the job of servants, of people who were paid, of course there were elite cooks and other minors. I would say that even now it is normal, but with a different mentality, whereas in the old nobility that was a job for people because it required time and getting dirty, doing things that someone of class would not do. Besides preparing food implies serving another, food was not made for one but for some. So that’s why, being a job where it has to be done for many, implies serving. The nobles obviously disliked it. So this Katarina secret really is unworthy for someone of her class, because she would be a servant and not a servant.
Invitation for confession
Not revealing the secret, added to the apologies and the understanding that Arte shows to have, all this is enough for Katarina, it is enough to have her confidence. So he invites her to a dinner where he will finally tell her everything. This is not so free, at the end of the day there is a small scene where Yuri and Katarina cook together with the servants, there the little account that Arte is the most interesting tutor she has ever had, with this you can already see that the little one has appreciation for her or at least more respect than the previous ones. So that is why the invitation is one more step in the relationship that they can have and have a tutor and student.
It was a very good chapter, Katarina earned my love. Just as data, until chapter 8 of the anime they were animated as 16 or 18 of the manga. This chapter covers until almost 26. I have only read it until 29, which is where I have been able to find it in Spanish, but well, I hope that the quality of the synthesis remains as with this chapter.