Music is the light that illuminates people's hearts-- and that "light" was suddenly taken from the
world. The world changed the night the black "Kuroya Meteorite" fell. Grotesque monsters known as D2
emerged from the meteorite and began to overrun the land and people. As the D2 were drawn to melodies
people played, eventually "music" itself became taboo.
However, those who opposed the monsters appeared. They the "Musicart," girls who draw power from
music. They possess the great operas and musical scores of humanity history and use them to defeat the
D2.
(Source: Crunchyroll)
__SPOILER-FREE!__ Most anime, in some form or another, is a form of advertisement. That does not necessarily mean that it’s meant to draw attention to an adapted source manga or light novel, though. Anime as advertisement could also be for the studio that made it, as certain studios have established clout or reputation, and thus naturally have more attention drawn to their works. Other times, an anime could act as an attractor for a new enterprise altogether, serving to drum up enthusiasm and hook in a new audience to the emerging property. _takt op.Destiny_ was a Fall 2021 anime that served to draw attention to the _takt op_ franchise. As a new collaboration between studios MAPPA and Madhouse, a show like this has a two-fold mission that it must complete – succeed as a standalone piece of media, while also being good enough to make people think to themselves that the mobile game it’s helping to market is also worth their time and energy. Making an anime is already hard enough especially in the current anime industry climate, and these extra expectations upon the show don’t exactly make its job any easier. ______ In an apocalyptic future, monsters known as D2s violently attack any location that plays music, as music is the only thing that can hurt or kill them. To battle the D2s and attempt to bring peace and music back to humanity, various individuals called Conductors are imbued with the power to command Musicarts, superpowered beings that use music as a combative force. The Conductor Takt Asahina and his Musicart Destiny start a journey with their mutual friend Anna to the New York Symphonica, hoping to learn the truth behind the D2 appearances, all while trying to stop them and allow music to be played freely once again. Along the way, they will meet other Conductors and Musicarts, battle D2s, and struggle. The series starts off well by integrating its exposition with actual events. Takt is well-oriented as being the odd duck out in this post-music world, being so drawn to the piano that he plays it, despite knowing the danger it would entail. Destiny’s laconic personality clashing with Takt and Anna’s impatience at Takt and Destiny paints a good foundational tableau, establishing the chief dynamic among the three. With an action sequence to show the power of the D2s and Musicart concept, _takt op.Destiny_ manages to convey most of its information effectively. The intriguing premise behind Musicarts and the D2s, and the comedic moments with Takt, Destiny, and Anna, gives the first episode a strong first impression as they travel on their merry way. But the potential fun of a road comedy action series gets derailed quickly once more time is spent with the main trio beyond the first episode. Takt’s personality is so disenfranchised and aloof that unless someone is having a discussion related to music, moments just seem to mostly bounce off of him. He’s cold, and while that might make sense in a post-apocalyptic landscape, it makes getting endeared to him far more difficult. Because she is neither a Conductor nor a Musicart, Anna serves as little more than the means to get the group to the Symphonica by driving them, or is trying to make contributions to the relationship between Takt and Destiny. As far as Destiny is concerned, it is revealed very early in the show that she used to be a human named Cosette, that she was Anna’s younger sister, and that she also likes music. Her relationship to Takt is, at best, incredibly vague and at worst is stunningly underdeveloped. The idea that they are bound together by their Conductor-Musicart connection reads more as a flimsy attempt to give Cosette characterization without actually going through the effort of doing so. Any character development that Destiny would undergo, or that Takt and Destiny would undergo together down the line, becomes too rickety and forced because not enough time is taken to make Cosette a more rounded character beyond being adorable. Whether it be through Anna attempting to make Takt and Destiny get along, or Destiny realizing something about Takt, herself, or the world around her, it reads as clumsy. And the bit of development that we see from Destiny isn’t that engaging, either. Since she functions as a robotic or emotionally blank character, she falls into a lot of the common trappings associated with such an archetype. Calling something a “creature” instead of a “cat,” or a “tool” instead of a “hammer,” Destiny’s bed of knowledge seems almost completely centered around fighting D2s and food. The latter of which is mostly used for comedic purposes, even if it’s supposed to refuel her to continue fighting. Aside from a character obsessed with food not being inherently funny, Destiny’s actual switch from emotionally blank to a more-complex emotional palette doesn’t have a solidified point of orientation. The result is that the shift is abrupt and crammed. Also crammed is the idea of how music factors into this story. _takt op.Destiny_ offers a lot of proselytizing about how great music is, but largely without probing it further. Music is, supposedly, more-engrained in the show’s DNA both in regards to the plot and the characters, but is kept bizarrely at a distance throughout most of the run. This even impacts moments where music is meant to take centerstage. There’s a sequence where Takt is playing jazz piano and Destiny talks about what Takt’s music does to her, but so little of the music actually plays that it never got the opportunity to enter myself as a viewer. Destiny’s discussion happens in a setting completely divorced from Takt’s playing. This sequence, and others like it, insinuate that music’s contribution to the story is limited to being a plot device or gimmick, rather than an actual force that moves things forward. This also factors into the series soundtrack – despite all the famous classical pieces, we so rarely hear good quality recordings or re-orchestrations of the works, which takes away from the sense of raw power that they allegedly have. That’s not to say that the show doesn’t try to incorporate music, because it does, albeit not very well. One other Conductor-Musicart duo, Lenny and Titan (which is probably a Leonard Bernstein reference), meet with the main trio and they try to train Takt and Destiny. It ultimately boils down to Lenny saying, “Feel the harmony,” without actually explaining what that means. I can readily accept that becoming adept at battle requires practice, just like music requires practice. But the idea that a single phrase or battle somehow manages to put Takt and Destiny in such synch together makes little sense. I wanted to believe that it was going to go for an angle that their synchronicity was a sign that Cosette was within Destiny somewhere. It would have helped salvage the ambiguous relationship between Takt and Cosette. Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen, nor is their relationship ever put in its proper limelight. Visually, the series manages to be just adequate on most fronts. The action sequences are alright, but never blew me away despite their fluidity. The landscape depictions are decent, and the designs on the D2s crazy forms and the Musicarts show creativity. Speaking of the Musicarts, just like music’s ability to take on different forms and genres, the various Musicarts all have distinct designs that establish them as their own individualized beings, emotional content notwithstanding. Some of the ways they’re able to incorporate their forms into attacking are fun, although _takt op.Destiny_ misses an opportunity to make even fuller use of this. Each Musicart is named after a piece of classical music, yet it never seems like the piece of music serves as an actual influence on the attacks themselves or their personalities. The composition names are framed more as namedrops instead of having a deeper, symbolic connection to the character. “Destiny” as a designation is indeed a reference to a Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony nickname, but it doesn’t extend any further other than implying that Destiny the character is a protagonist, “destined” to stop the D2s. I guess I’m just confused as to what this show was trying to accomplish with all its musical business. And that, in a sense, is why _takt op.Destiny_ doesn’t work; it’s a series confused about what it actually is trying to do. It wants to be a mahou shoujo action piece, but also wants to aspire to more meaningful discussions about what music means to people. It wants to be a road comedy, but the comedy dries up so quickly that it breaks down rather than cruises. It wants to make the D2s out to be malevolent, but leaves them without direction. Not knowing what the point of the D2s or their attacks was remained until the final episode, making the show’s building to the climax come across as ill-conceived and desperate. ________ _takt op.Destiny_ fails as road comedy, action romp, and thought-provoking show about music. Its characters are never given enough time to fully flesh-out their personalities beyond small quirks or emotions, and the true aim of the antagonists is kept in the dark for far too long. The action pieces are merely passable despite some decent individual moments, yet do not salvage the languishing story. Its discussions about music cannot move beyond simplistic blanket statements about how wonderful the art form is, and it never sufficiently explains the connection between Musicart and Conductor. This show committed the cardinal sin of art – it made me, derisively, ask what the point of it all was, and not even care enough to hear an answer. It may have been a glorified advertisement for the mobile game, but that is not an excuse for poor execution.
The fact that Takt Op. Destiny was made to promote a gacha game was all you needed to know to not expect much. Everything gacha touches turns into sludge. The result is yet another series that is all animation and cute girls but nothing else. Not only that, many times the animation looks hilariously ugly, and still frame power point presentations make an awful lot of appearances for something that's been getting praised so much for it's animation. Here's an anime about music even though there rarely is any. They could have at least tried using some lesser known works to be more unique. Even rarer than that is character develop. This series is a prime exactly of how not to do character development. Takt is an annoyingly bitter piano player who is also stinky. I did develop a bit of a soft spot for him because of his struggle to write a good song, but mostly I felt bad because his character was overly poorly done. His character goes nowhere in the series from beginning to end. All that build up to write a song they only showed you 3 seconds of. It's like they ran out of budget or time to compose one more piece; and it was the most important one, in fact. Ana somehow became one of the most useless and irrelevant characters I have ever seen. They cheated by making her relevant out of nowhere at the last second. Near the end they decided to have her do something that made no sense because there was no build up to it, and she still had no development other than being reduced to a piece of fan service. It was the writers last ditch effort to make her relevant. It's hilarious that the whole time the viewers thought Destiny would consume Takt but it was really Ana who consumed Destiny for the sake of the plot in the end. Then there's Destiny. She is yet another boring and bland Violet Evergarden rip off done wrong. After having no development for a large part of the series, they rush through it towards the end and her emotions flipped 180 degrees so fast it was executed terribly and felt awkward. After that she goes back to her apathetic ways. Her personality is so deceased it became annoying. Cossette was a much more likeable character that sadly got barely any screen time. If I was to try and justify it, maybe emotional Destiny was so bizarre and out of character because it was Cosette coming out. A split personality would have been better for this character. Destiny and Cosette were truly a tragedy. It felt like an insult to them for the writers to just toss them away when the romance between her Takt was what actually had development and build up. Of course Ana had to come out of nowhere, and Cosette sadly became a ghost forever after episode 2. The plot itself is a boring road trip across the United States. They couldn't even make that fun and instead infested the series with irrelevant side quests. It felt episodic, and episodic anime feels mostly hit or miss most of the time; at least in my experience. Sakugan is another series suffering from this. The D2 represent something that annoys me about several series: The inclusion of nonsensically written villains that are too easy to beat, and thus there are no stakes or risks. They appear aimless and are there for the sake of animation and just being something for the protagonists to fight. They feel so hollow as they have no clear motivation, goals, or proper backstory. Monster writing in To Your Eternity and Wonder Egg Priority fell this way also. By the time they try to introduce bigger villains who were actually in control, they come off as hilariously badly written and bland. Hell was amusing at first, but with no development, since not doing any is this series' specialty, her character got too hollow and eventually too annoying with her over the top personality. Was there anything good or respectable? Titan and Lenny were, and they deserved better than what this lump of coal of a series gave them. They're much better than Takt and Destiny as main characters and should had been the main ones. I have little complaints about Lenny besides him rarely being there, and Titan at least had character unlike that pale ghost with the pretty colors. An amusing fact about Titan and Lenny's voice actors is that they worked together before in The Aquatope of White Sand as Kukuru and her boss. Now that I think about it, I've been enjoying Scarlet Nexus and Deep Insanity: The Lost Child more than this. This is a series that almost offends me. The only thing it really excelled in is being one of the biggest disappointments of the Fall season, considering how much many viewers were looking forward to it. It's a soulless disaster hardly worth talking about. Speaking of this promoting a gacha game, have fun playing it; it got indefinitely delayed.
__SPOILER FREE__ takt op.Destiny did far more things wrong than it did right. The __animation__ and __character design__ were easily the best parts of the show, but that really doesn't mean much. The __pacing__ ruined both the __plot__ and the __character development,__ and the show as a whole said very little about __music__ as an art form despite being a music anime. Many individual elements were subpar, leading to the entire show being far from good. ___ The __character development__ was done incredibly horribly. If you asked me for an example of good development, I’d point to this show and say, _”Do the exact opposite of this.”_ Everything was so rushed that by the end of the show, many actions felt unnatural. Though there were many moments where they were obviously trying to develop the characters, it didn’t flow with the plot, seeming out of place and forced. While there was plenty of room for _good_ development in each of the characters, there just wasn’t enough time for it to come naturally. The __explanations__ of crucial elements were lacking as well. The D2s received far too little explanation, and many other important aspects did not get expounded upon—the Musicarts, the Symphonica, even the motivation behind the antagonists were all very poorly explained. It made it hard for the audience to relate to their universe and understand it, and even if the citizens of their world didn’t fully understand everything, the lack of information given to the audience made it difficult to enjoy. The show didn't explain its name, either; I think it means something like "Takt created Destiny," but I'm not even sure if that's correct since the show never elaborates on its name. The __pacing__ was also some of the worst I’ve ever seen. I struggle to think of an anime with worse pacing. It affected the character development and the plot; things felt rushed, forced, and unnatural. It landed somewhere between episodic and not, and I found myself checking the time every few minutes to see how much longer until the episode ended. It also took far too long to introduce the main antagonist, to the point things were dragging only a few episodes into the season. I’d like to think that some of these problems would get fixed if they had another 12 episodes, but I’m not even sure that would solve things. The __music__ was a huge disappointment too. While the music itself wasn’t horrible, I’m not the type to pay attention to the music unless it’s really good, and I only noticed it during fight scenes or when I was really trying to. For a music anime, that’s a little pathetic. Additionally, musical references like “feel the harmony” didn’t get much explanation (once again) and the show seemed to use music more as an awkward plot device than as a genuine force in their world. The best thing I can say about this show’s music is the concept of Musicarts, which I did find intriguing, even if they weren’t explained very well. As for the good parts of the show, the __character designs__ for the Musicarts were some of the most interesting designs I’ve seen in a while. The __animation__ was also quite good. While it’s not on the same level as shows like Demon Slayer, I’ve also seen far worse. Even though the backgrounds weren’t anything outstanding, the fight scenes were animated well. ___ Overall, takt op.Destiny is an anime I struggle to even call “average.” It was a very disappointing show with an unsatisfying ending—an especially huge let down since both MAPPA and MADHOUSE worked on it. Due to rushed character development, minimal explanation of crucial parts of the world, and pacing that was all over the place, I have to say that __takt op.Destiny is not worth the watch.__ Learning piano would easily be a better use of your time and an infinitely better way to appreciate music than watching this show. _*a 4.5/10 on my rating scale is "below average and unenjoyable"_
Takt op.Destiny was a highly anticipated original anime of the Fall 2021 season, and definitely worth the anticipation. The trailer looked amazing, also the idea of musicarts seemed interesting. At first glance, you might think it's another anime following the path of highly successful __Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song__, which came out earlier this year. And you'd be half-right. It's a much more chaotic version of Vivy, but nonetheless great. Now, let's take a deeper dive into this nifty little anime. I will try to avoid spoilers as much as possible, and only resort to the basic details if needed. __Plot: Prelude.__ The year's 2047. Two types of stones fell out of the sky years ago, one is mysterious and brings hope, while the other is a dark stone, bringing death and destruction to the Earth. Creatures called D2 emerge from these dark stones. These creatures hate music, and reign havoc whenever they hear music. Following this, a public decree banned citizens from playing any melodies. The only defence against these creatures are - Musicarts, young women representing pieces of classical music; and Conductors, the ones controlling them. These conductors and musicarts form the Symphonica organization, with it's sole aim being annihilation of D2s from Earth. The main character, Takt Asahina, is an aloof piano prodigy, who prioritizes music over everything. Following the death of his father and the music ban, he isolated himself from society and kept playing music in solitude. Takt's childhood friend Anna Schneider, and her sister Cosette Schneider are the only two people in Takt's life, and the only ones who take care of him. ~!Following a D2 attack during a local festival, Takt is transformed into a Conductor, while Cosetter is transformed into a Musicart named Destiny. But due to some problems in their Conductor - Musicart pact, they alongside Anna start their journey to the Symphonica Headquarters in New York City. !~ __Plot: Remarks.__ Judging by the synopsis, you'll be tempted to think that it's gonna be an amazing story. But unfortunately, you'd be wrong - and that brings me to the only problem with this anime. The idea of D2s and Musicarts seems very fascinating, and the way first few episodes described the story, it seemed really well. The problem is what comes afterwards. ~!Episode 5 hints towards an increase in pace, and starting from Episode 6, your mind will definitely go blank.!~ Sure, after finishing the anime all the events will make some sense, but it would've been at least 10 times better, if the pace was slower. Quite a characters seem complicated enough to deserve a 10 minute backstory, which would've made the experience much more enriching. Also, for some reason, the opening and outro animations make the anime seem like a road trip centered anime, which it should not be. So, overall - the plot seemed solid, but it got ruined due to a ridiculous pace. __Characters.__ Most, if not all characters in this anime seem mildly complicated, one can even try to analyze all of their characteristic aspects, it would be a pretty engaging activity I'm sure. The principal characters specially, both the protagonists and the antagonists are very well structured characters. But, I've already said this in the Plot Remarks, due to the complication in their character, quite a characters seem complicated enough to deserve a 10 minute backstory. I'd think the origin stories can be very well explained via a prequel movie of sorts. __Visuals.__ What do I even say in this? The visuals are stunning and beautiful. Specially the Musicarts and the D2s - the color choices are amazing. Although I'd prefer a smoother animation style, so points deducted for that. __Audio.__ The voice acting was very well done overall, none of the characters were sloppy sounding. ~!The aloofness of Takt, the Childishness of Titan, and the slow evolution of Destiny's Character were very accurately portrayed via the voice actors.!~ The soundtrack is also pretty good, but not great. And considering music playing a central role in this anime, I would've preferred the soundtrack of the anime to be absolutely perfect, with a significant usage of classical music. But well, it didn't. The amount of classical music usage was surprisingly less. The opening and outro tracks were great though. Final Remarks. Regardless of the plot holes, this was a neat anime. The plot had a huge potential, but that potential got wasted thanks to the absurd pace of the anime. But it never ceased to amaze me. I never felt bored while watching this anime - ~!specially the episodes 6 to 10, those episodes were extremely thrilling.!~ Would definitely rewatch it someday. I believe it would've been a much better anime, if it was a 24 episode anime, instead of a 12 episode anime. That would've given it enough time to fix the plot holes and the character issues. It might be a bold claim, but I strongly believe if it was a 24 episode anime, it could've easily become a cult classic - because everything about the anime at a first glance seems extremely impressive, considering it is a semi-original anime.
O que falar de Takt.op.Destiny? Da pra puxar muita coisa desse que foi uma das decepções da temporada. Com um enredo completamente chato, previsível e irritante, Takt.op.Destiny mostra como um anime não deve ser feito. Pra começar, Takt, o protagonista da obra, é mostrado como um personagem extremamente frio e irritado com o que acontece a sua volta e com a sua musicart, Destiny. A causa dessa revolta é mostrada como um personagem apaixonado por música precisa viver em um mundo em que a música é proibida, pois atrai os monstrinhos chamados de D2. Destiny é a protagonista secundária que, junto com Takt, combate os monstrinhos D2 e assim vai até eles alcançarem o incrível objetivo de chegar na sinfônica de Nova York e blá blá blá. Dá pra falar muita coisa de outros personagens secundários que vão aparecendo durante o anime, mas eu vou manter a crítica mais voltada para os dois protagonistas e o enredo do anime em si. Então vamos lá, Takt como dito antes, é um personagem extremamente frio e revoltado. Até dá pra entender a revolta dele considerando como o mundo se encontra no anime e o fato dele ser um pianista. Porémmm, é isso do inicio até praticamente o fim do anime, ao longo dos 12 episódios, o Takt não apresenta nem um fio do que pode ser um potencial desenvolvimento de personagem. Isso até o começo do décimo episódio, onde do nada o Takt começa a produzir algum tipo de afeição por quem ele mais se irritava... Sua musicart, Destiny. mesmo que tenha todo o background da Cosette, Isso pra mim não faz sentido, simplesmente do nada o personagem sofre um desenvolvimento relâmpago e começa a ser alguém mais afetivo ao próximo e assim agradar mais o público. Pra falar da Destiny, eu preciso enfatizar depois o quanto essa personagem me irritou ao longo desses 12 episódios, porém, vou primeiro introduzir ela e após eu faço os comentários. Destiny é a protagonista secundária do anime. Fruto de eu não sei o que aconteceu pra ela do nada virar uma musicart mas ok, ela basicamente parece um robô sem sentimento algum, com uma aparência muito chamativa, e assim como o Takt, sofre um desenvolvimento relâmpago por volta do décimo episódio, quando do também do nada, Destiny começa a ter sentimentos por Takt e assim vai até o final esse casal montado do nada. Com um teor forçado de comédia em todos os episódios sem falta, em vários momentos, a Destiny pra "recarregar as baterias" é mostrada como um personagem que come muito, e sempre nesses momentos alguma piadinha besta sai solta do nada pra causar as gargalhadas em quem está assistindo. A Destiny é basicamente o alivio cômico do Anime, em que o criador usa da incrível estratégia de mostrar um personagem sem sentimentos ou que age como um robô, fazendo as famosas piadas de tiozão e assim tirar a risada da rapaziadinha por ser algo inesperado de alguém sem emoção. A nota medíocre que Takt.op.Destiny recebeu possui vários motivos, os personagens eu já descrevi acima, agora a história consegue ser mais ridícula ainda. Com um enredo que da sono, cenas repetitivas até o fim do anime e o final que eu não vou nem comentar de tão patético que é. Se você perceber bem, Takt em todos os episódios não mostra nada de história e com os estúdios da Mappa e Madhouse, lota de cenas de luta com muita animação para o telespectador esquecer do que acontece na história, que é basicamente nada. O roteiro era formado por 12 minutos de muita fala sem sentido e 12 minutos de porrada com toneladas de animação. Eu não vou entrar muito em detalhes da opening, trilha sonora ou animação porque não me interessa falar disso e também ficaria muito longo, mas o que eu posso dizer é que esse show conseguiu realmente me irritar de tantas formas que não da pra contar. Pra resumir esse review um pouco, Takt.op.Destiny é um show chato, repetitivo, uma história medíocre pra patética, com personagens irritantes e com um desenvolvimento inexistente, sendo todos eles, dos protagonistas até os secundários e os terciários, lineares até o final. Aliás esse é meu primeiro review, então eu não ligo se tiver erros de português ou qualquer outra coisa coisa. Eu só quis expressar minha opinião rápida sobre o que me irritou mais de uma forma simples pra diversas pessoas que eu vi argumentando com a vida defendendo esse anime.
God....okay, … I don’t like Tack.Op Destiny to be honest. I wasn't even hyped for it either, it was just there, so I gave it a watch. And this is a no from me, dawg.I don't hate it per se. There's nothing glaringly wrong about it, it's just that there are so many little gripes and problems that build up and bother me.It just feels like the writers didn't try. # STORY Basically Takt is a better version of listeners ,but that's honestly not a compliment.Both shows are about two people in a world where music is almost gone from the world, and they go on a journey and fight with something music related.In Listener’s the people fighting are called “Players’ and in Tackt Op. The people fighting are called “Musicarts”. But just like both, their stories are very vacuous,hollow,and basic,and both are really boring. I already made a review on Listeners,but the problems I have with takt are mostly similar to Listeners,just keep that in mind.But focusing on Tackt Op.destiny(which has the most clumsy title of an anime ever and a pain in the ass to type) The themes about music feels less like a theme and more like an ambiguous plot device, the only times music plays a role is when the show reinforces over and over that Takt likes music and to use the concept of music as some ambiguous conceptual being that the villains monolog about.Despite it being about music, the style or setting of the show doesn't incorporate music that much into it.I feel like the only reason that the anime takes place in USA is because of the music culture there,but instead of exploring different types of music,incorporating it into battles more than just having a fancy conductor stick, or hell being somewhat creative with it, it's just fight scenes mainly. Fight Scene on top of fight scene on top of fight scene. WIth loud ass music. I think the best way to describe the writing in Takt is like a video game adaptation of a video game that didn’t exist. _(note-i didnt realize until i checked on mal that it was based off a mobile game that came out at the same time this aired,but i fukin called that shit so yea)_ There are just a lot of things that make no sense, and the show doesn't explain that much about where the D2 come from or how they exist, also the explanations about the Musicarts and the Maestros is murky at best .Despite having long flashbacks and info dumps, there is barely anything valuable to get out of most of these scenes,and it feels like the show is just using fightscenes to distract you from how little the story is actually progressing.there is a lot of exposition that barely matters repeating info we already knew but also not addressing other important things,it doesnt help that the dialogue is trying way too hard to be clever, and for a journey anime, it's soooooooooo boring. Each episode is almost the same, The gang go to a location, Destiny fights the D2 and that's about it.Sometimes there are episodes where nothing fucking happens. And it's not because of world building since they already have an American setting to work with.There are no situations to help shake things up, build the characters or anything, there are just fights and more fights that are so over the top and trying so hard to be flashy by having the most goofy ass sound effects. And there are just over the top emotional moments for the shallow characters and in the words of the famous artist Icona Pop: __“I …….don’t ……….care”__ And the setting bothered me too. The show takes place in 2047, but for some reason it feels like a setting older than the one we're in now. I know the D2 have destroyed a lot of civilization,but for some reason technology regressed???? People still use paper maps, watch old vintage television, and one of the girls still uses a FUCKING LAND LINE TELEPHONE IN THE YEAR 2047???????I don't think anyone uses smartphones either.so it feels like this setting taking place in the future didn't matter at all. #CHARACTERS The characters are one note ,inhumane like, and don't have chemistry, the main two are at each other's throats for half the show. Cossette’s whole character is that she likes to eat and break things.I get the writers wanted to make her the alien entity who learns about human nature, but her main sign of character development is her repeating character personalities over and over to other people. Even characters who did not matter to the plot.its like her voice actor pulled up the character wiki's and read aloud from it. She does develop late on but its way too little and waaaay too late,The thing about her is that she is a new entity called Destiny who in the body of a girl who passed away called Cossette,but by the end of this show, Destiny had less character personality than the girl who passed away in episode 2.,What really pissed me off though, is that the characters kept stating how much she has grown and im like “bich, really?”Destiny went from a sugar eating robot, to a one dimensional sugar eating human. And the main dude, Tackt,was just a bore. He has no personality outside of music,he is insanely bland,so full of himself,and feels like a puppet controlled by the plot.He’s like a caricature of an art student, focusing only on what he makes and literally not caring about anything else.His character development really peaked in episode 2.His dynamic with Cossette was heartwarming,but when Cossette turned into Destiny, that dynamic vanished and Tackt turned into a sodden, pretentious,ass, with little to no likeability or personality outside of “I like piano , i love piano, i wanna have sex with piano, i wanna tap dat piano ass”.You might say he could make a good “video game protagonist'' but without a player’s control on what his personality is.The show had so much potential to develop him and his dynamic with Destiny since she took the place of his dead sister, but its like the writers tried that in some scenes, gave alll the way up , and just turned him into heroic character who fights evil for the rest of the show. Anna doesn't matter,she is literally the chauffeur of the anime, her sister mattered to the plot more than her, all she did was fall through a plank of wood and tell the group to shut up when they were fighting. If anything the better characters I liked were Lenny and Titan, not because they were well written or anything ,but because they stole the show at some parts.Titan is cute and kicks ass resulting in her having the best fights in the show, And Lenny is….hot. I think the directors would agree with me because there are a lot of shots on his ass for some reason,aaaaand That's all I got for him. I didn't say the characters were well written did I? Because they aren't. Titan literally doesn't matter, she could've been anyone basically.And Lenny is a personified tutorial,showing the characters how to fight, catching up to speed about what's happening in the story(i.e. not much) and disappearing for a good chunk of the show.My only compliment is that the story by the end had a bare minimum of character development resulting in stakes and making the fight scenes more hype.Goes to show how valuable a character is to an anime. And its not much in this anime Oh and the villains. They're not just lame, they're probably the worst villains I have seen in a long time in any medium.There are two of them, and you know they're villains right when you see them.The first one is like a dumber version of Syndrome from the Incredibles, he feels envious because of how others reject him and then later on he has this weird delirium where he wants to become a hero by causing destruction to happen and solving that destruction making him more praised by others.Incredibles took those two conflicts with him and made it work, but in this anime, those two conflicts feel like they contradict each other. Not to mention he’s fuking stupid. The villian after that is even stupider.The main villains motive is sooo bad.Not bad in like a “oh its evil” kinda way, Bad as in poorly written, stupid, and nonsensical. “ You know, people sacrificing their lives is not cool man, you know what would help? Basically Genocide, yea that will definitely stop people from dying” Ugh. #ART AND ANIMATION/SOUND I usually dont talk about art and sound last but there's not much to mention.Its a collaboration between two studios who both make fabulous looking things,Mappa and Madhouse.My problems with both studios is their inconsistency, Madhouse sometimes can make their anime look great and other times make it look like Overloard(aka dogpoo). And Mappa is basically the same way but more drastic since they make an anime every five seconds. Unfortunately, the inconsistency plagues this anime. It feels so unstable. The fights are really nice and top tier sure, but as is said before, the characters or story barely add any sense of investment to the fights so it leaves me bored going ohh and ahh mainly. Some scenes look like a standard tv anime and other cuts of the same scene are so jarringly higher in quality, it looks like a different anime entirely..There isn't a lot of harmony, which is ironic coming from a show revolves around music. Speaking of music its also inconsistent. Some of it is good, albiet a bit loud,like the piano tracks, and other tracks sound like stupid guitar music during fight scenes. Sadly most of it is unmemorable.And the foley was just obnoxious, its like a bad diarreha bowl of jojo sounds,micheal bay, and madoka magica. Even so much of a swing of Destiny’s weapon has like five different sounds. #ENJOYMENT Y’know after thinking about it, this show is bad, I can't deny it. It's not because it does anything awful, it just doesn't try, and falters in basically every area. The show tried when it came to looking good, but didn't try when it came to what mattered which was the writing. There are just so many holes that feel barely thought of.This show is one of the many that thinks its concept alone is enough for an anime and its lack of competent story and characters piss me off the more I think about it.And its nonending that made no sense really did it for me. Does no one care about writing a good anime story beforehand anymore? Probably not the case, Odd Taxi months later is still a masterpiece, AOT, Kageki Shoujo, hell, even Tokyo Revengers had a better story. And I'm sure there a lot of manga and written works that have yet to get an anime. Sadly they will have to wait for their time to shine, because right now, poorly written cash grab anime based on irrelevant mobile games will have to take their spotlight.And I hope Mappadhouse is proud of themselves if they ever break even from the sales of their ingame currency/blurays. Fuck it, I started this review very ambivalent, but now I'm a little salty. I wasted my time on a show like this. If i watched this seasonally, I would’ve gone insane.
A decent/good anime. Nothing special or groundbreaking and has quite a few deficiencies. The animation is very good and the art is nice too. Very visually striking anime, some beautiful background art. Combined with the music there's a pretty decent atmosphere that helps to keep me engaged. I personally found it to be an entertaining anime, and it really comes down to whether you like the two main characters. Because the story doesn't offer much else besides that. And I think that's fine. This is apparently made for a gacha game, so it's essentially just a marketing tool. Because of this the story has no foundation to it, the symphonia, D2s, generic antagonists with vague or simplistic motivations. Its pretty clear that the creators didn't put too much effort into the logistics of the story. Stuff like the D2s and the villains are just plot devices to serve as a vehicle for the characters. I do think the story was at its strongest in the beginning where it didn't take itself as seriously, there was a lighter tone and a sense of adventure. When it introduced actual conflict and drama it fell apart because as previously mentioned there was no foundation to support it. Weak villains and weak side characters. The story would have benefitted from the initial premise of a travelling group of 3 and exploring the characters through their journey and monster killing I found the two characters to be likeable and endearing with clear character arcs and serviceable character development. Takt closes off after his father's death with a very narrow minded obsession with music. He opens up due to cosette but still he obsesses over music and his perspective is still narrow. Eventually he comes to realise that music isn't just the lines on a sheet and the sounds an instrument makes. It's also the relationships he forms with others. This is apparent in two ways He treasured music because it was important to him and made him happy Secondly, writing music requires passion and emotion. The bonds he has made with his friends, mentor etc become a part of his music through the passions and feelings they ignite within him. Before he was alone and depressed and so his view of music was superficial. Destinys character is really just to provide Takt with an emotional anchor and to fill the shoes of Cosette. She's simple but shes endearing and gets the job done. The hook is essentially the story shows how Cosette got Takt to step back into the real world and there was a healthy relationship there but her turning into destiny means all of that is reset and now has to reform. Together theres some witty and engaging character interactions between them. These characters are restricted to familiar tropes but work well within that limited space to carry an otherwise empty story.
~~~*This review contains mild spoilers for Takt op.Destiny*~~~ img520(https://cdn.trinikid.com/554018/uploads/2c1a3e00-4b10-11ec-b01b-4763e8bf70b1_800_420.jpeg) I'm surprised by how big *takt op.Destiny* ended up being. It didn't fly under the radar like I assumed it would when I added it to my "Planning" list this Summer — the fourth most popular anime of the season is nothing to sneeze at. I guess I really didn't stop to consider the draw of the studios attached — MAPPA and Madhouse. Whether you think MAPPA *is* shit or think it is *the shit*, it's hard to deny that it’s the Next Big Thing when it comes to anime studios. And what better partner for the Next Best Thing than an Old King? Nowadays, Madhouse's claims to fame are largely *Overlord* and *One Punch Man*, but during the day, they were a prolific force to be reckoned with. They were known for both artistic and commercial success. This was the Studio of the great, late Satoshi Kon. This was the studio of *Death Note*, the studio of *[The Tatami Galaxy](https://anilist.co/review/6983)*, the studio of *Legend of the Galactic Heroes*, of *Monster*, of *Hunter x Huner*, *Metropolis,* *Trigun*, the list goes on and on. I'm not usually one to gush over studios, but after a cursory glance at their filmography, I can't help but show respect towards Madhouse. If *that* didn't pique your interest enough, MAPPA was founded by Madhouse co-founder, Masao Maruyama. I'm willing to bet that, for a lot of people, the behind-the-scenes narrative was a better hook than the anime itself, especially since there's reason for many to be wary of the anime. *takt op.Destiny* is part of the **{tákt: op.}** mixed-media franchise, with a gacha game, *takt op.Destiny in the City of Crimson Melody* coming out sometime this year. Multi-media projects always make me scratch my head. It's an exercise in extreme presumption — counting all of your chickens in one basket before they've hatched. Before audiences so much as spend a second with your work, you're assuming they'll love it enough to engage with it across multiple mediums. Raise your hand if you remember *Hamatora.* Still, with a duo this dynamic, viewers were willing to give it a shot. What would it be, would MADPA be the dream team or would they be partners in crime? If reviews on Anilist are any indication, it would seem to be the latter. *2.9/10, 2/10,* 5.2/10 5/10, **.5/10**. That's a yikes. On the other hand, we have an 8.5/10 and a reviewer I respect had it in their honorable mentions for their Top Five Anime of the Year List. I fall somewhere in the middle. I'm not one for hyperbole and with that in mind, *takt op. Destiny* is nowhere near the worst anime I've ever seen. For an anime to be lower than a five for me, it practically has to [*try*](https://anilist.co/review/4964) to piss me off, and as harsh as it sounds, I don't think *takt op.Destiny* *tries* to do much of *anything*. Or, at the very least, it doesn't *succeed* at much of anything. I'm easy to please, yet *takt op.Destiny* generally failed to do so much as that *that*. The sum of *takt op.Destiny's* parts is an average whole. img520(https://i2.wp.com/www.animefeminist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/takt-op.Destiny-1.jpg?fit=810%2C471&ssl=1) First, I should address the elephant in the room — the that the anime is tied to a gacha game. The second review *really* has an axe to grind with the fact that *takt op.Destiny* was made to promote the game, saying that, "everything gacha touches turns into sludge." And I can't help but find that a bit unfair. Yes, *takt op.Destiny* is a glorified advertisement. Yes, gacha games are predatory and should be criticized. But *takt op.Destiny's* issues feel independent of the property it’s meant to promote. It doesn't fall into the traps I'd expect of a gacha advertisement and, in fact, it manages to be a quite tasteful teaser. Funnily enough, [*Warlords of Sigrdrifa*](https://anilist.co/review/9040) feels more like a gacha game advertisement than this, *even though it doesn't actually have a game attached to it*. The review in question said that *takt op.Destiny* was "all [...] cute girls but nothing else," when that's not very true. *Sigrdrifa* has more cute anime girls with shallow personalities than you can shake a stick at while *takt op.Destiny* shows more restraint. In terms of Musicarts, the anime introduces Destiny, Titan, Heaven, Hell (both of whom combine into Orpheus), and Valkyrie. As far as I can tell, [only Destiny and Valkyrie will be in the game](https://game.takt-op.jp/character/). Assuming the Musicarts are the gacha elements, then the anime could have stood to shoehorn in a *lot* more of them. While Valkyrie may essentially be in the anime just to advertise her presence in the game, the rest of the Musicarts feel like they actually belong in the plot. Plus, the ending sets up an intriguing hook for the game. I think *takt.op Destiny* serves as a decent-enough hook for the mobile game and I actually might check out the game if it comes out in English. All this isn't to say that the anime is particularly good, it's just that its status as an advertisement isn't the reason why it’s whelming. img520(https://www.dualshockers.com/static/uploads/2021/10/Takt-Op.-Destiny-episode-4.jpg) The world of *takt op.Destiny* is infested with violent creatures known as ~~[D12](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D12)~~ D2 that are drawn to the sound of melodies, leading to music becoming taboo. The only things that can repel D2s are Conductors who form pacts with Musicarts, women of supreme power and agility. *takt.op Destiny* follows Takt, Destiny, and Anna. Takt is the aloof son of the great, late (literal) conductor, Kenji Asahina, and aspires to be a renowned musician like his father. Takt is friends with sisters Cosette and Anna Schneider. Cosette is bubbly while Takt is cagey and she finally speaks his language when trying to get him to come out of his shell by asking him to play the piano with her at a fair. Their cute, twenty-finger piano performance is cut horrifically short when D2s attack and kill Cosette. Not long after, a Musicart with Cosette's appearance named "Destiny" shows up and with Takt serving as her Conductor, they make short work of the D2. But where one problem was solved, another shows up in its place. While Destiny looks like Cosette, with her robotic, taciturn personality, she certainly doesn't act like her. In hopes to find out if they can get the Cosette they knew back, Takt and Anna decide to travel to New York to reach the Symphonica — the organization that Conductors and Musicarts answer to — in hopes that they can "fix" Destiny. Along the way there, the trio grows closer. img520(https://i0.wp.com/www.crowsworldofanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/takt_op.Destiny-Episode_01_Figure-04-scaled.jpg?ssl=1) I'm aware that comparison is the thief of joy, but *takt op.Destiny* is in a niche genre, so comparison is inevitable. *takt op.Destiny* finds itself in the "Beat Battle" or "Rhythm Warrior" or "Song Striker" (if you have a cooler name, let me know) genre — an anime in which battles are waged with the power of music. As far as I can tell, [*Macross 7*](https://anilist.co/review/10858) largely started the genre while [*Symphogear*](https://anilist.co/review/11714) is the most notable example in the 2010s. Whether you love or loathe the genre, you have to admit that defeating the forces of evil with music is a bit silly. Thus, these shows live or die by how much fun you have watching them. Yes, *Macross 7* is ridiculous, but it's so much fun that I can't dislike it for even a moment. 8 times out of 10, *Symphogear* takes itself more seriously than *7* and as a result, I like it a bit less. Still, *Symphogear* has a lot of heart and it *does* still have fun with its concept, so it's a hard show to hate. *takt op.Destiny* has even *less* fun in its execution, making for a hard show to love. It ends up being a much more somber show than you might expect. The odd thing is that I'm not sure *takt Op.Destiny* even *realizes* it's not fun. It's ostensibly a "Song Striker" show, but music doesn't really doesn't play as much of a part in battles. The music is largely understated even though it should be one of the main draws of the show. While yes, for someone like me, it's hard to muster as much excitement for classical arrangments as I would [THE POWER OF ROCK](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkA6pnWWdKc) or [J-pop songs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0-G8rKm9dw), it just doesn't feel like *takt* tries enough. Beyond that, it certainly has good animation, the fights can certainly be flashy, but I don't know, it's just not...daring? Like yeah, it *does* looks like the guys at MADPA know what they're doing, but it could stand to have more pizazz. MAPPA's own [*The Idaten Deities Know Only Peace*](https://anilist.co/review/13888) makes this animation look boring. Do you see what I mean? *takt Op.Destiny* wants to *be* fun, but it seems to not know how to *have* fun. webm(https://www.sakugabooru.com/data/d4b7ad5f56c9b46463f008c3b8eaf925.mp4) Fun is a smokescreen; when you take it away, you start to harp on imperfections you'd otherwise ignore. The villains are consistently one of the weaker parts of *Symphogear* but I can largely look past them. Here, the villains are one of the only things you *can* look at and they're not very compelling. They're not very charismatic, they have head-scratching motivations and there're two of them in a 12-episode anime, making things feel a bit cramped. The plot similarly isn't much to write home about. It's fine, but it doesn't feel like we've achieved all that much — you could blame it on being the first part of a larger narrative, but I just blame the writing not being there. Thankfully, it’s short. I've heard some people complain that the anime needed to be two-cours. It didn't. If it *was* two cours, this would be a slog and I'd *actually* hate this thing. img520(https://randomc.net/image/Takt%20Op.%20Destiny/Takt%20Op.%20Destiny%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2034.jpg) The world-building also leaves a lot to be desired. We really don’t get a clear sense of how society works or sensitive D2 are toward music. The entire plot is essentially kicked off by playing music in public, but why would someone do that if these horrific monsters are drawn to music? Later on, there’s a whole-ass concert that isn’t attacked. It’s also revealed that the initial attack on Takt’s town was due to the D2 being *commanded* to attack the concert. All this just makes me question how this world works. With the plot, villains, and fun factor all being weak, there's only one thing left for *takt op.Destiny* to rely on: its characters. Your enjoyment of *takt.op Destiny* lives and dies by your reception of the characters. img520(https://animegalaxyofficial.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/20211027_013442.jpg) They're fine, I guess. While the showrunners made Takt unique, he falls flat for me. Takt is someone who's obsessed with music, someone who constantly sees empty stanzas that he must fill with notes — if it's not about music, he's not interested. On the face of it, this would make for an interesting character, but he lacks one thing that someone like Nekki Basara has in spades — energy. Takt's standard state seems to be "bored out of his goddamn mind," with "mildly annoyed" being a close second. He just isn't an interesting character to follow. His passion for music doesn't translate to a passionate presence on the screen. Destiny is arguably *worse* in this regard. She's a [kuudere](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Kuudere). That's it. Her entire schtick is being nigh-emotionless until she undergoes some development in which she becomes *mostly* emotionless. If I'm being fair, there’s at least a reason for the trope of Destiny’s personality. It shows the difference between her and Cosette and serves as a decent call-to-action for Anna and Takt. Do I *like* her personality? No, but it’s more than I can say for Irina and it feels as if there was at least thought that went behind it instead of just grabbing some things that looked cool from your last TV Tropes visit. Either way, it's something you've doubtless seen before if you've even watched even a bit of anime. Giving credit where credit's due, the characters are where *takt op.Destiny* shines, even if it doesn't shine particularly brightly. Episode one tries to lean in on the "fun" that the show doesn't know how to have, leading it to fall flat. Episode 2 (which I derived my synopsis from) focuses on the characters while still having a decent action setpiece and is one of the best episodes of the show. When *takt op.Destiny* focuses on its characters, it's kind of decent:Lenny's relationship with Titan and Takt's father is touching. The anime tries to develop its characters, whether it’s Destiny learning what it means to be human or Takt learning about the power of music and how much Cosette meant to him. Things still feel a bit rushed, though, such as having both Destiny and Anna kiss Takt even though neither felt like they had feelings for him. So *takt op.Destiny* doesn't do anything great and barely does anything well, why is it getting a D? Because it doesn't do anything bad. img520(https://otakuauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Takt-Op-Destiny-Episode-5-Hell-and-Destiny.jpg) Whenever I score something an F, I can pinpoint at least one thing and say "yeah, they fucked up here." I cannot do that with *takt op.Destiny*. The D range is essentially a borderline — Ds are always punching way above the weight class of an F (by the simple virtue of not failing) while I’m almost never able to recommend a D anime over a C anime. While there are cases of [some animanga getting here by having one terrible element doing its damndest to drag the entire work down](https://anilist.co/review/14218), the D range, in general, is supposed to be the realm of averages — works that aren't very notable either way and *takt* fits the bill perfectly. While I can't take much issue with someone scoring this a 5/10 (as that's often a score for "average"), I *do* scratch my head at people scoring this a 4 or lower when it's just average. And that's an insult as much as it is a compliment. As much as Fs suck, they’re at least memorable in their lack of quality. Assuming I don't play the game, *takt op.Destiny* is the type of show I'll forget in a year. ~~~img200(https://i.imgur.com/XDmBDQO.png)~~~ img520(https://animecorner.me/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Screenshot-2819.png)
I have always been a huge fan of post-apocalyptic shows and when I read the synopsis of Takt op Destiny, it facilely peaked my interest with high expectations. With the collaboration of MAPPA×Madhouse what else could possibly go wrong? Well ostensibly a lot. __STORY__ The synopsis was very intriguing for me and that is what led me to watch this show and I was expecting a serious anime with a dark and gritty atmosphere but it was a disappointment. There seems to be no seriousness of any sort and no feel of the post-apocalyptic shows. D2s appear out of nowhere, the Conductors and musicarts eradicate them and it goes on a reiterate. Still are the D2s really a menace? People seem to be chilling out in the suburbs just fine. The pacing was abominable and the worldbuilding was awful. How did all the mysterious D2 birthing crystals magically disappeared? Also seems like D2 are still present but now with Sagan not calling them with that tuning fork so what was the point of it anyway? Even after the show, there were a lot of answered questions. __CHARACTERS__ This anime is a conspicuous waifu-bait which is composed of uninteresting characters with easily predictable one-dimensional traits. First of all we have a cold protagonist who is just horny for music and doesn't seem to care about anything else. Then we have two waifus, first a sweet loving emotionless musicart who doesn't seem to be aware of the fact that doors and windows exist and second a fappable hottie who seems to take care of the other two. The fact that both Anna and Takt got over Cosette's death so facilely alone just make them two apalling characters. Takt wasn't confused upon losing his arm, gaining the power of Conductor, his friend being turned into a fancy dressed musicart and acts as if he is thoroughly cognizant of what he is doing which is just underwhelming and illogical. The common people are either cretins or people who value music over their lives as upon hearing music panicking or taking shelter should have been the most logical option but that doesn't seem to happen here. What was the point of a Conductor anyway, aside from acting as energy batteries? It's said that they control the Musikarts but in the final battle like many before, we can see that Destiny was able to defeat Hell/Heaven even without Takt waving his stick around. This brings to my next point, how in the fucking world was Destiny able to defeat Hell/Heaven? Destiny stood no chance against Hell or Heaven separately, defeating their combined form while herself being heavily injured signifies the massive Plot Armour in this anime. The character development was also trash with Takt being the only characters who developed while Lenny and Titan being well written. I would say Lenny's death was the peak of this show. Sagan was nonsensical character, his goal made no sense at all. It really felt like they made some bullshit up on the spot so we would have a big bad to defeat in the final episode. __SOUND__ Music is a highly subjective opinion and personally for me, it wasn't that great. Music is what should have been the heart and soul of this anime but it doesn't feel like it has any relevance to the character motivations, fighting and overall atmosphere of the show. I usually Shazam a score that peaks my interest and nothing of that sort has been happened with this anime. Both the opening and ending songs were average. __ART__ The animation seems to carry the anime and it is probably the biggest pros as expected from a MAPPA×Madhouse collaboration. The art was visually stunning, the action scenes were gorgeous but repetitive and doesn't seem to crave for ingeniousness. __CONCLUSION__ Takt op Destiny was not copacetic for me. Still the only way for you to enjoy it is if you turn off your brain and wholeheartedly accept whatever the shit is going to be shoved down your throat. Thank you for reading :)
「音楽。心を照らす光。」 "Music. The light that illuminates the heart." — Asahina Takt. Yes, you read it right. Those are the deepest words that Takt (and any other character in the show, for that matter) has to offer on what music is. Music is a metaphor for light. For visuals, not sound, not touch, not even heat. Light. This sums up pretty well what the anime has to offer, as it all comes down to selling a pretty game. The positives of _Takt op. Destiny_ are art style, character design and, in most occasions, animation (though it gets lacky at times). You can see the pattern. Visuals, not music. To be fair, the soundtrack and sound effects in this show are... acceptable. They are well structured, there is technical knowledge behind it, clearly... but it lacks any "soul", anything that would make it memorable or meaningful. Much like our protagonist Takt, who can play very complex pieces, but can't reach his audience and provide an emotional experience to them (until he does, for some reason). You'd expect this to be intentional and a major point for the development of the story, but it's not. It's boring until the very end. To talk about story, oh, well, do we really need one? Just make some monsters that hate music fall on earth or something. D2s are one dimensional evil creatures with little explanation and no apparent motivation other than stopping music, which threatens them. That goes hand in hand with Schindler, the first major villain of the show, because we need a megalomaniac human villain too, to show that not everything on the human side is black and white. Humans can be bad too. They can even hate something so beautiful and harmless such as music... because... well... anyway. Moving on. Sagan, the 2nd villain of the show, is another bland and mentally inept character. His motivations arise as a mean to "fight fire with fire" or eliminate pain by re-signifying pain, which supposedly were to give him more honorable goals. Sagan actually comes up with a half decent idea on how to deal with the D2; although an incomplete plan, it could realistically gather support or, if necessary, even a conspiracy to his side. But no, Sagan tries to do it all alone for no good reason, and in the most harmful way possible, despite there being much better alternatives that could spare many innocents' lives... like just letting people know what he's doing and giving them time to escape. When we stop to analyze the plot events and the tension (if any) in the story line, it can be confusing. What is the main conflict? We know that music is censored and controlled due to the D2, but they don't have an explanation. Human counterparts don't offer anything better for that purpose. Do we even have real stakes? Meaningful drama? Well, we can put some Beethoven when the generic psycho waifu is choking one of our protagonists, I'm sure the 5th Symphony — which no one ever heard before — will add more spice to that scene! Regarding characters, the protagonist is supposed to be someone obsessed with a hobby, but he's written by a person who doesn't seem to possess that passion. There is no convincing reason for his intimate relationship with music neither through dialogue nor through his actions — yes, he always wants to play the piano, but why? The best justification is a father complex after said man died, which was not further explored. In all honesty, the depth of characters in this show is nonexistent. They will be very glad to state their plot role with plain tropey words. There are a couple character deaths in the anime, but none of them felt compelling enough, either because the script was terrible and the events happened solely to benefit the plot and provide poor shock value, or because it didn't feel like they died at all. If I have to be fair, there are some fun dynamics between Takt and Destiny, but there's not much more to it. We have to mention some questionable choices audio wise; missed opportunities, I'd say. Like the music playing in the background and the fight happening on the screen having little connection other than the obvious matching tone — fight scene, glorious combat music; sad scene, violins and a low tempo. There's also so much battle noise during some of the fights that I could barely hear the music sometimes. Why couldn't the music be the battle noise instead? There was room to make more unique decisions, but _Takt op. Destiny_ sticks to the comfort zone of average direction. Another point in that regard is using background tracks so often even though the show is trying to convince you that music is, supposedly, banned from this world. It would be very interesting if we had solemn silence instead, if the anime could focus more on using sound effects to create depth and immersion, while leaving music only for the battle scenes with _Musicarts_ (the waifus that anthropomorphize the music of their maestros) or other scenes where it's actually supposed to be playing. Then, each play would have more meaning in contrast to the consuming silence of the in-betweens. Of course, that's not what happens in _Takt opt. Destiny_. Music plays at the same frequency as any other show, and has the same impact on the audience as any other show. It's generic, and not deserving of the "Music" genre.
Takt Op. Destiny had no reason to be an actively bad show, if I were to make an apt musical comparison, I'd liken it to an orchestra that starts with a beautiful melody. Eventually, however, as the performance goes on, many of the individual performers begin to miss their notes, until not even the conductor can keep the tune together, and it fades into an incomprehensible mess. At the beginning of this show's airing, I thought it actually had a lot going for it, the setting in midwestern America felt like a refreshing breeze compared to the usual "random small town in Japan". Even as someone from the east coast, I preferred this to the later scenes in New York. The music went in a unique direction too, adding small flourishes of piano to the battles, and the opening was actually my favorite of the season. The character dynamics were basic and predictable but enjoyable to the point where I could say I was having fun whenever a character opened his/her mouth. Takt and Destiny's beginning antics as foils to each other worked well, and Anna served as a great character to ground the audience. The worldbuilding was the least impressive part, a basic apocalypse setting with the added quirk that all music is banned, or at least extremely dangerous to play. The concept held promise for future character drama in the lives of some of the civilians Takt and Destiny have to protect. Where does Takt Op. go after this? After the first 2 episodes, the orchestra begins to miss its notes, Takt and Cosette's backstories are unremarkable and with very little drama that can't be found anywhere else, the setting begins to feel more like a basic apocalypse, and the realization that the whole shtick of "no music" actually doesn't change all too much. After Lenny and Titan each character introduced is actively bad, I could describe each in about two words based on their tropes. But none of these blunders can destroy a piece combined as long as the core concepts stick, and this is a mobile game adaptation, they'll probably throw about 20 characters our way. Maybe something else will hit. The show then proceeds to double down, seemingly intent on focusing on the absolute worst parts of itself. Revisiting it for a review. I mistakenly believed it was 24 episodes instead of 12 because each one dragged on so long. Every interaction is just similar tropes repeating over and over. Fights no longer hold meaning, no technique is used, just colorful characters swinging blades and/or shooting at each other. The same tracks are repeated for the same "dramatic" moments. Takt and Cosette undergo some basic character changes in the middle of the series, but then stagnate in the final few episodes. Their characters in the finale are 10 times less interesting than the ones we saw in episode one. It is like the show goes out of its way to destroy the enjoyable relationship between Takt, Destiny, and Ann. In episode 12, a major character development takes place between Takt and Ann. This exchange completely destroys the effective character dynamic I mentioned at the beginning of this review. If you have watched any number of action anime, you can probably guess what happened just from my vague description. All of these complaints are just exemplified by the fact that the overarching plot doesn't create any suspense. Most objectives are nothing but a goal that matters only to the characters, and not the audience. This is especially bad in the finale, where the final enemy is so vague and unthreatening that there was nothing to keep me motivated to watch the show to the end. There was only one character arc that could grip me throughout the show. Lenny and Titan's arc keeps their fun relationship together and builds upon it. The conclusion is satisfying and gives extra meaning to the actions of both Lenny and Takt. But as soon as that arc ends, the characters go on and never mention it again. As a viewer I feel cheated and like I wasted time in vague hopes that I would be rewarded somehow. But all I got, in the end, was a show that ended up looking nothing like how it began. Takt Op. Destiny is a perfect example of the worst parts of Shonen anime, all condensed into one.
A huge letdown honestly. I expected something of Vivy quality when I saw this show's trailer. Which gave me massive expectations for this show. I expected an amazing soundtrack with stunning animation followed by loveable characters and a great plot. Unfortunately, besides the animation, none of my other expectations were met. For a show about the revival of music in modern society they have a really poor soundtrack. It wasn't terrible, but it definitely lacked. The soundtrack didn't give any emotion to the show. It was just there. I wanted Chopin or Mozart to be blasting during fight scenes, but I guess we can't always get what we want. If a show wants to be about music it has to have a fantastic soundtrack, once again I'm going to use Vivy as an example. There are still days where I feel like listening to the Vivy soundtrack, it was absolutely phenomenal. When it comes to Takt, I can't remember a single song or theme from it. On a different note the animation was overall great. There were some scenes where it dropped in quality, but that's for every show. The fight scenes were fluid and pretty. The scenery was pretty lame though, but that's never a subtract-able quality. Ultimately I was pretty fond of the animation. The characters were piss poor. A good show needs a great cast, and this show lacked a great cast. I understand its hard to get an audience attached to characters in 12 episodes. However, I didn't even feel a slight hint of emotion when Destiny died at the end. That's due to the lack of connection I had to the cast. I didn't really care about them, which makes them extremely forgettable. I probably won't remember any of their names in a month or two. The plot was... strange. Originally they were trying to revive Cosette/fix Destiny. However, along the way the villain guy (who we are never really given a reason why he became a villain) took an interest in them since they were a unique Conductor/Musicart duo. Why? Couldn't tell ya because its never explained. What's also not explained is how sacrificing America and all its people would solve the D2 problem. The villain just says that it will fix the world and the main character is just like, "yeah that makes sense, don't do it though I love America." Lastly, I hate how the villain went out. Takt walks up to him and they have this super drawn out conversation. At the end of it Takt says some shit like, "Music will save the world," and the villain cums his pants. The villain then apologizes for everything he did and lets Takt kill him. Lately I've been trying not to let trailers get me hype for releases, this show being one of the reasons why. Going into shows not knowing what to expect most of the times makes things better. Summertime Rendering, Lycoris Recoil, Idaten Deities, etc. All these shows I went into completely blind, and I got rewarded for that. At the end of the day this show sucks. It failed to meet my expectations and can only be seen by me as a waste of time however, at the end of the day my opinion really doesn't matter, if the premise sounds good to you give the first few episodes a chance. I can see how this show may appeal to some people.
Oh man, that was kinda disappointing. It felt like this anime had no substance, it was just “oh mah music, music is so great I’m gonna save the world with my music” while barely actually talking about music. They never really explained what musicarts and D2s are and how their powers work outside of attributing it to "ah, space rock fell on earth so we had to retaliate" and even when the show had the chance to explain all that when they met up with Lotte in New York she literally just told them “nah you know what, I won’t get into detail cuz you probably won’t care” Dawg... I CARE. The D2s are also just so uninspired, and even though they did cause massive destruction, they never felt like a REAL threat because they were defeated relatively easily every single time. Also, if they people really wanted music THAT bad, I'm sure there were ways to play music without attracting the D2s just like how we saw in that one underground bar shit had was basically a bunker with soundproof walls and everything. It was good that they went around different towns exploring them and kind of showing the impact of the D2s but it felt like they wasted a ton of time at each stop. The characters were kinda bland to be honest some of them were alright, takt's total obsession and fixation with music kind of got old after a while but it does make sense. My favorite characters are Lenny, Anna, Destiny and Hell. I liked Lenny as a mentor figure, he fulfilled his purpose pretty well and had an amazing final fight. His dynamic with Titan was also super cool. Anna was a sweetheart, I feel bad for her having to take care of 2 children while grieving and trying to cope with Cosette's death. I didn't like the scene where she kissed Takt though that felt really out of place as she wasn't really portrayed as a love interest and more like an older sister. Destiny probably had the best character arc in the show where she actually changed and developed, I enjoyed seeing her start to help other people and becoming more emotionally aware instead of just fighting all the time. Hell was just a fun character to watch, she was one of the musicarts who actually had a personality. It was really strange how Takt barely even reacted initially when Cosette “died”, bro did NOT care. But I guess they did explore that pretty well around the later episodes. Also why tf did Anna kiss Takt that was so freaking random dawg. The first antagonist with the blond hair (I forgot his name) was so goofy bro, this guy literally told takt “you wouldn’t understand my great plans with your small brain” shit was so goofy. The art and animation were both great which is to be expected from a collaboration between mad house and mappa. Freaking amazing opening song also Overall this anime had a good concept and a very strong start but it ultimately fell flat unfortunately.