These are just some observations and thoughts about the show after watching it. The first episode really hooked me, and throughout had some very emotional scenes, yet left me feeling somewhat disappointed.

The artwork was only a little above average, which was surprising considering its central theme was art. I was hoping the art in the show would have been better. The dialogue from teachers giving lessons on art shows that the writers understand a lot about the fundamentals of art. The entire time I was watching this show I found myself wondering why they didn't make the art better. Was it just due to budget and time restraints? I think it comes down to the simple fact that they don't understand art very well. The evidence for this I think is in the main character constantly being surprised by basic fundamental concepts that he had never thought of before. When he finally realises there's so much more depth to art than he realised, I couldn't prevent my face from scrunching itself up sideways. Eh? This is something of a trend I've noticed in a lot of anime I've been watching lately. I've been seeing a lot of emphasis on unintelligent protagonists reacting as if their minds are blown by things that should be obvious. I think it's an attempt to appeal to the average Joe, their target demographic. If I could sum up the message of this series it would be, "Even someone with no talent can be good at art if they try very hard." It's like... yeah... and that's also true for literally everything else. Why do people have big realisations when they finally discover it applies to something? It almost hurts my brain. The sad reality is, most people really are that unintelligent. Obvious things don't occur to them. Just try and have a conversation with an average person about a difficult topic like religion or politics. You can't even have a conversation. The simple fact that you don't agree with them is too much for their brains to compute, and the possibility that they could be wrong is unthinkable to them. Enough about that though, lets talk about some other aspects of the show.

Beyond the first couple of episodes I didn't see any character development in the protagonist. He made a big leap when he decided to pursue art, but I learned nothing more about him from that point on. He did gain some self-awareness, but he never learned anything that wasn't already obvious. I think the shows strongest point was its ability to invoke emotion. There were a lot of scenes of characters crying that actually made me shed a few tears too. In the end the show was extremely predictable, and the ending felt underwhelming. Like a distant shot of his friend's congratulating him, the ending just felt like a tedious summary of distant events. Some of the side characters interested me, but I never got to see enough of them to satisfy. The color composition was surprisingly lacklustre considering how the characters talked about the use of color. The art within the show was always better than the art of the show itself, but I would never go so far as to say it was great. There were maybe 2 or 3 "paintings" that I found actually compelling. The idea that you can look at a great painting and suddenly be captivated and wowed, like stunned in place... that's something I've never experienced. I've never felt that way, and I've never seen anyone else react that way. It's just an absurd anime trope that isn't grounded in reality. It's very similar to a person getting wide-eyed and wowed by their friend making an insightful comment. It's not a real thing. The creators of this anime were obviously following the commercial formula instead of making authentic art themselves. It's a little ironic.

Writing: 7 (There are interesting situations and scenarios, but the way that events unfolded never excited me. It didn't feel like the writers were passionate.)
Artwork: 7 (Better than most shows, but not great)
Animation: 6 (I didn't notice very many layers, and a lot of scenes simply had nothing interesting going on in terms of animation.)
Cinematography: 6 (Mostly straight on shots and boring angles, but some impressive angle shots. Not sure if I should give it a 7, but most of the time the cinematography was boring. Only certain scenes were excitable with how the camera moved. Most scenes felt like filler.)
Voice Acting: 7 (The whole cast did a solid job, but it never impressed me.)
Content: 8 (Definitely one of the shows strong points. The subject matter was regularly exciting.)
Entertainment Value: 8 (The show was good at building up exciting atmosphere, and kept me entertained most of the time.)
Attention to Detail: 7 (While I didn't see signs of significant details being ignored, I think some areas of this took a hit. When the characters are making their art, there's a fair amount of pretending to draw.)
Story: 6 (Definitely one of the weakest points of the show. The story wasn't bad. It was just simple and lacked an engaging conclusion.)
Dialogue: 7 (More meaningful conversations than most shows, able to create strong emotional drama, but lacking depth. A lot of dialogue felt copy pasted. The same situations were often rehashed.)
Character Development: 7 (The protagonist did learn a lot about art and self-awareness, but beyond the initial transformation he took when he became an artist, he was fairly one dimensional. All of the other characters were one dimensional. The problem with some cinema about art is that they act like art is only painting, drawing, sculpting, etc... They don't think of writing as an art form. They don't give their characters half as much scrutiny as an entry level charcoal sketch of an apple and a bowl. The show also failed miserably to demonstrate any real flaws in its characters. People got along too well, never fought, and not a single character was ever once just a straight up jerk.)
Plausibility: 8 (I never felt like something that happened made no plausible sense. I don't feel like that should warrant an 8, but plausibility is probably cinema's weakest area. Most shows just don't care remotely about it, and embrace the absurd. I appreciated that this show actually made an effort to be realistic.)
Aesthetic Style: 7 (Decent, but surprisingly lacking considering its subject matter. The dialogue appears to understand aesthetic style, but the aesthetics of the show itself are not exceptional.)
Motion: 6 (Above average amount of motion, but I'm not sure if it was every really impressive. Most of the movements were limited rudimentary angles.)
Use of Color: 7 (Not bad, but outside of the paintings within the show nothing stood out. I was surprised by this considering the themes.)
Creativity: 6 (The expression of creativity is the very definition of art, so why is a show about art so bland? It followed too many tropes, and rehashed the same conversations, atmospheres, and interactions. This show did not even manage to teach me one single thing, much less anything about art. There's nothing this show has to offer in terms of insight into art beyond an elementary class. It's mostly full of obvious things like, technique alone is not enough to make great art. Makes me roll my eyes. Yes teacher, but please tell me something I don't already know.)
Overall Rating: 6.9/10