Takt Op. Destiny

Takt Op. Destiny may rival Fate/Apocrypha and Fate/Grand Order as the single most kludgy, embarrassing, confused mishmash of otaku-culture stew that the Japanese anime industry as ever attempted to pour down my throat. You have to be confident when you recognize vapidness to say, “This is vapid. There is nothing of value here. I cast it aside. I’m moving on with my life.” And this show desperately calls for that kind of an axe-grinding. If you can watch even the first episode of this gacha game commercial and see anything other than lifeless, artless, cynical trash appealing to the absolute lowest common denominator of the anime community, then I imagine you'll be fine with anything it does or anywhere it goes so long as it continues to have waifubait and vaguely cool-looking, lopsidedly produced action scenes to keep you horny and awake. I beg you, please don’t take this the wrong way. I’m not trying to condescend. This is my genuine recommendation. Watch Takt Op. Destiny if you legitimately do not care about the quality of the anime you watch. Anime adaptations of manga, light novels, and even anime-original concepts have a story at their core and something they are trying to portray or convey while also attempting to expand the audience of the original work, but shows like this have nothing at their core except shitty mobile games designed to drain money from gullible pay pigs. This is a business model you should feel insulted to have aimed at you. It's why there's absolutely no creativity or originality in any of its story beats. As with all generalizations, exceptions exist—projects like Shingeki no Bahamut exist—projects rooted in gacha games where the producers gave the studio creative freedom and money to guarantee their audience be treated to high-quality TV anime they wouldn't have had otherwise, but Takt Op. Destiny is no such example. You can tell when a corporation just dumps money on a committee of burnt out writers and borderline enslaved animators, and they just vomit out whatever they last ate onto the animation frames. They are in it for the paycheck, as they frankly should be, and all you get is sterile, soulless mediocrity. The pitch meeting for this was just one executive going, “Guys…GUYS! What if we just…COMBINED Vivy and Fate?” While the rest of the board room proceeded to desperately try and mark their bank accounts while simultaneously suffering from violent orgasms. Every central element this series features is a shameless, boldfaced rip-off. Master/servant relationship; autistic kuudere waifu heroine; loudmouth ponytail tsundere who gives exposition dumps and advises the master/servant duo; self-insert MC on the ground looking up at the blonde, stoic, female warrior backed by the moonlit night sky. I mean, they literally got Takahiro Miura himself to storyboard that exact same shot from Fate/Stay Night into episode one of this shit. It’s like one producer went, “Shit! These otaku losers aren’t buying enough Saber merch anymore! How will I pay for my fourth yacht?!” And another one just said, “Dude, calm down. Just make her fourteen years old and stick her in a lolita road movie.” Then they had to make her an idol and add the music theme because POWER OF MUSIC GUYS MAKE SURE TO BUY OUR SOUNDTRACK! It rips-off Guilty Crown as well, but I hesitate to even bring this up, because comparing that gorgeous Production IG original to this pile of rat shit just feels insulting. Everyone who criticizes this show insists on saying, “Basically everything about this show sucks, but at least it has good animation.” But it doesn’t. It looks atrocious, and this isn’t just another case of, “Oh, 90% of the show looks cheap, but the action scenes are flashy enough to get kids hyped about it, therefore no one cares about its usual quality.” This is different. The action scenes themselves look bad. This was a joint production between Madhouse and MAPPA, and while the Madhouse episodes humiliate the MAPPA episodes, the Madhouse fight scenes still look fucking terrible, and it’s not always the fault of the animation—it’s the compositing, the cinematography, and the utter lack of consistent in-between frames. It tries so pathetically hard to copy how ufotable does their action sequences, but since its 2D animation is so choppy and off-model, all it can muster up is that horrific, abrasive, epilepsy-inducing digital effect spam they do. First of all, they use foreground focus to hide shitty digital background art. It’s like a bootlegged version the depth-of-field blur you see in KyoAni shows like Hibike! Euphonium or Violet Evergarden, only it's implemented in such a way you know is only done to hide bad compositing and hideous backgrounds. Next is the hazy cinematography. The Director of Photography was also DOP on Attack on Titan: The Final Season, and holy fucking shit, I could’ve told you that from a mile away. When it’s not assaulting your eyeballs with that ufotable digital effect spam, all the colors look so washed out and arid. It could very well be a stylistic choice, but it’s not stylized enough for that to be apparent. I don’t know if the compositing was done at Madhouse, MAPPA, or if it was outsourced, but if it was MAPPA, I wouldn’t be surprised, because while there was no laughably egregious shit like the characters in Jujutsu Kaisen running on air with CG backgrounds twirling around behind them, it’s not too far off. I invite you to go watch the first six or seven minutes of episode one so you can see everything I’m talking about. The only other projects this director has ever had any significant involvement with is a forgettable Nanoha continuation and Granblue Fantasy (another hollow, lifeless advertisement for some video game I have no interest in buying), and you can tell. Random monsters appear with no rhyme or reason outside of a few bare-bones mechanics necessary to facilitate tensionless fight sequences and ambiguous anime superpowers for our special chunni heroes to fight them with. No matter how much they try to gild it with recognizable studios, it's still just your everyday soulless gachashit. The MC has zero personality to better facilitate self-insertion by the gachabrain, his harem only grows as the show goes on, and every girl is cut from the exact same sheet of cardboard. As if idols fighting aliens through the power of music didn’t sound fucking retarded enough already, the scriptwriter’s god-awful track record stood strong, and everything about the screenwriting is a heap of trash fire. The dialogue is cringe inducing at times, and the character development is so incredibly surface level it hurts. Takt Op. Destiny is more corporate filth taken straight off the assembly line. Its main gist is to market some potentially profitable anime girl, so when they start pulling out the hamfisted dramatic backstories, I rolled my fucking eyes. I don't mind watching some tongue-in-cheek Fate rip-off if I have enough alcohol in my system, but slogging through paper-thin backstories for these non-characters who no one will ever remember or give a fuck about two days after the show’s finale just shows how the creators responsible for this garbage have no idea what the tone of their show is supposed to be. It’s the definition of lacking self-awareness. The ambient animation looks awful enough even without factoring in the blurry cinematography, the plot was nearly nonexistent, and where they did actually try to advance something it was terribly paced. Last but not least, the setting was criminally wasted. It was extremely jarring to see these people who were supposed to be saving the American countryside happily destroy people's homes and businesses and just laugh about it like callous, detached psychopaths. It’s a music themed anime where the BGM is completely lackluster. It felt like a series that needed someone like Hiroyuki Sawano but instead got music that is pretty generic. Yoshihiro Ike composed the soundtrack with…

Over 10 years ago, studio MAPPA was founded on the grounds to make a show called 'Kids on the Slope'. Madhouse has an even more extensive history tracing all the way back to the 1970s. Fash forward to 2021 and the rest is history. When you put these two studios together to producer a quality show, what can go wrong? Well, let me tell you. A lot. Since the announcement in March this year, the franchise didn't really spark much hype at the time. After it was revealed that studio MAPPA and Madhouse would handle the production, the show got boosted interest. The previews and promotional material speaks for itself, at least on a technical level. With a mixture of 2D and 3D artwork, Takt Op. Destiny did on some levels, take the world by storm. That doesn't make it an anime of the year contender but does bring in more eyeballs. But yet, somehow, they couldn't completely capitalize and became a shell of its technical accomplishment. Watching Takt Op. Destiny first felt like seeing a cinematic movie, at least for the first few episodes. The flashy fights, cinematic sequences, and overall chereography makes an impressive debut on the screen. Then, there's the plot dealing with a fictional enemy to humanity known as the D2. The show makes it clear that music plays a prominent role against them, and hence, we have two type of resistance: Conductor and Musicart. The story follows two prominent characters who play this role known to us as Takt Asahina and Cosette Schneider (aka Destiny.)Joining them also includes a girl named Anna, who plays a valuable role as an ally. Together, these three try to make a difference in the world as evidenced by their actions. At a fundamental level, Takt and Cosette shares a somewhat personal and professional relationship. Both characters get the job done when it calls for it but it's also clear that the duo has some interpersonal issues. For instance, Takt takes music perhaps too seriously and is generally considered anti-social with an indifferent attitude towards almost everything but music. Cosette can be brutally honest although she appears to be more friendlier than Takt when dealing with people. While the two are compatible, they form a peculiar character chemistry that I find to be confusing. It's hard to get emotionally attached to the pair when everything seems like clockwork. Almost every episode have them fight the D2 and the story rarely evolves from its base premise. There's some occasional background storytelling for them but ultimately, the show suffers from an engaging plot. Character development is limited as well when the majority of the show focuses them on taking missions. They work like robots day and night and even during off-time, following their adventures quickly grows into a chore. You may get entertained by Cosette's sharp tongue, witty humor, and sensational appetite towards sweets at times. But is that all the anime has to offer? Looking deeper into the anime, it feels like the show has little personal connection towards the main characters when they are doing their work. Every episode falls short in developing our cast. One somewhat unique element I do want to mention is the realistic settings of the modern world. Takt Op. Destiny almost feels like a futuristic dystopia at times but retains mostly a real feeling of familiarity. Settings such as Las Vegas are what we are familiar with while New York has its metropolis vibe. There's not too many places our characters journey across the world but it's safe to say that the anime has a degree of realism, despite all the otherworldly shenanigans. Outside of Takt and Cosette, the rest of the cast are ambigiously underdeveloped. I say this because it's difficult to feel invested about the characters. Even though they have their reasons for fighting (Lenny being a noticable example), they are often overshadowed by the plot's purpose or Takt and Cosette. That is to say, they are still somewhat important to the overall story but it's obvious from day one that the anime is mainly about Takt and Cosette. And for for better or worse, Anna feels more like a main supporting character than the middle girl of the trio. Acting as a big sister type for Cosette, the anime does go into some depth to show her kindness. The overall character chemistry is unfortunately, meek at best. Oh and before you ask, this anime does not have any real romance. You may get a surprise at how Anna responds to Takt near the end of the story, but overall, don't expect any sort of love to bloom between the main characters. Takt and Cosette aren't in this show to start a relationship. No way. Even though it's been mentioned already, Takt Op. Destiny's most outstanding feature is its technical accomplishment. It's one of the few CGI/2D art mixed anime that I've been impressed by in recent years. The colorful visuals sometimes reminds me of ufotable for their high level production. This is especially true in the first few episodes that looks and feels like a movie. Character designs are also highly decorated for the Musicarts with Cosette/Destiny being the poster girl. Even the D2 in this anime inspires a sense of fear with their monstrous look and impact of their actions. And overall, the road-trip like story adventure takes us to realistic places around the world. Take some notes, Tesla Note. Takt Op. Destiny is the type of show that had a fantastic start but began to degrade over time, with each episode, to the point where it never managed to truly recover itself. Maybe some people set higher expectations than me after watching the promotional material. However, I stand firm and say that the anime is average at best, being that it's not breakout anime of this year yet also watchable and on some levels, recommendable to those seeking for some popcorn entertainment.

So, mobile game a.k.a mobage adaptations, especially gacha ones. What are the most prominent features that comes to mind when Japan always has these type of mixed-media anime that just basically exists just to promote the numerous amout of mobile games at their disposal? Is it the concept that's derived from the setting basis of the mobage? Is it the characters that are meant to bait the viewer into purchasing them like DLC after watching the anime? Is it the "original" wack writing concept of the story, plot and characters? Is it the subpar animation that makes and/or breaks the experience? Is it the mediocre OST that more than skipping the OP/ED, just didn't do enough for enticement? Is it the actual mobage that it being influenced from the anime's promotion, tends to always suck, because you don't live in Japan and/or are thankful that Japan banks heavily on these subpar games and you wish to not have a hand on the game? This season, look no further than the over-hyped and under-delivered Takt Op. Destiny, a show that's meant to promote Bandai Namco and DeNA's brand new {tákt: op.} musical sci-fi action mobage in Japan, and that the only thing that will catch people's eyes is the collab between two well-established studios for such a mixed-media project that's the "best of the best" of mobage adaptations ever seen yet. Be VERY honest, a MAPPA x Madhouse project we will all not shun our attention from, but it's the same tried-and-true formula to sell a product that only Japan will enjoy, and we the audience living elsewhere just couldn't give two flying effs about the mobage, our critique is only based on the anime which is just the same wash, rinse and repeat marketing ploy. This marketing ploy consists of a story where "The Music is Already Dead" because of monsters called "D2", produced by a black meteorite containing Black Night Siderites which fell from the sky, hating humanly-produced music and drawn to the music source to attempt destruction, as it's the only thing that can ensure their decimation. To the defense, the New York Symphonica created "Musicarts," young girls drawn and inspired from classical music sheets that are directed by human "Conductors". Should be easy to digest, but given the usual fanfare of mobage adaptations, this is very basic. The marketing ploy is supported by its main characters: Takt Asahina, Destiny and Anna Schneider. A music geek and a piano genius, Takt comes off as being an aloof, inert and misanthropic, compared to his father Kenji, who was a famous conductor before the situational pipeline of the D2s took a toll on his life. The Musicart to the Conductor is Destiny, or otherwise known as Cosette, the younger sister of the Schneider sisters that's borne from Beethoven's Symphony No. 5. Cosette used to be an easy-going, happy-go-lucky girl living with her older sister Anna, before the freak accident with encountering the D2s while playing classical music with Takt on the streets caused her to lose her memories and rebirth as the Musicart Destiny. But this chain reaction wasn't a clean process, and if at any time that Destiny is called forth, Takt transforms his right arm into a conductor's baton, while corruption seeps slowly through his entire being. The more the unstable Destiny is utilized, the worse the corruption spread. Anna on the other hand, acts as an in-between parental guide between Takt and Destiny, while searching for a way to turn the latter back to the younger sister that she knows. With bits and pieces of character development, these somewhat decent characters can be likable, especially for the Musicarts which are bait-and-switch waifus due to their unique designs done by the one and only LAM. One such example lies from yet another Musicart-Conductor pairing: Leonard "Lenny" Flyheart and Titan. The former is a former Symphonica conductor whose existence is thanks to Takt's father Kenji, whom influenced him to take the music route until his unfortunate death from the D2s, and the latter borne from Mahler's Symphony No. 1 is a carefree soul whom speaks with onomatopoeic behaviour , and is a serious fighter. Arguably the only pair of characters that truly fits the adage of "action speaks more than words", it's easy to get invested into both characters, from being tutors to both Takt and Destiny to the occasional downtime. The New York Symphonica on the other hand, I'm not the only one who feels that the villain plot is so wasted on these guys whom have such a reputation of an organization behind their backs. The opportunity to correct the tides of time became its utmost failure, because the Symphonica are nothing more than your stereotypical coporate dogs meant to serve for the greater good while easily hiding true intentions behind the face of the organization. The CEO of the Symphonica, Sagan, does at least feel like a decent villain with that much backing and power on his hand. Felix Schindler on the other hand, he's the worst offender of the "lot" commanding the unassigned Musicart Valkyrie/Walküre that's borne from Wagner's Die Walküre for his own gain. Yep, talk about dull, uninspired, and "trying" to insert more hype musical waifus to promote their character worth playing for the mobage. This is all pinned to series composer Kiyoko Yoshimura, of which her writing skills really aren't all that spectacular to begin with. Her recent works of the Cardfight!! Vanguard G series and being the in-house series composer to many more recent MAPPA works (Granblue Fantasy S2, God of High School, Koi to Producer: EVOL×LOVE) just proves time and time again that she only keeps getting worse at her scriptwriting and composing craft, of which it all culminates to affect this show in its rear-headed ugliness. The only advantage (that comes back to bite all involved) of Takt Op. Destiny being in the visuals and animation, even that is a misnomer in and of itself. I'd already expect that this mobage adaptation is a rather high-profile one because of the collaboration between MAPPA and Madhouse, but don't let that ever sway your overall expectations of the entire show as a whole. Being another show part of the endless sweatshop schedule of MAPPA announced at their 10th Anniversary Stage event, I'd not be surprised that the studio is firing all guns at whatever they have, it does not take away the fact that MAPPA has turned from a quality studio to a desperate corporate shill of quantity that there's no more substantial evidence enough to shield them. It's good that Madhouse is back to showcase the quality that we've come to expect from the studio that has been in hiatus for a year, but MAPPA, you've shat yourselves up big-time this time. The unmistakable "we all agree this is good" part will lie in the music department, that is a central focus to the show...in name only because of the Musicart origins. The OST is impressive no doubt, that's really expected of the OP composed by Supercell's ryo feat. Mafumafu and gaku, and Mika Nakashima's ED. But this is a case of quantity over quality, and as much as the music really shines in its bombastic glamour, it will always be overshadowed of the fact that the entire show just tries too hard to stand out even with all the pompous hits that manages to stick out more than most. So there you have it: a very new, just released mobage that unexpectedly had the highest of high of budgets that I've seen ever in subpar adaptations, only for that same subpar-ness to slowly seep into the entire show quite expectedly. Never thought that I'd pay so much attention to the regular shitty mobage adaptation that the anime industry has for years, and Takt Op. Destiny adds a number to the same reception that mobage-to-anime adaptations should not exist as mere promo material quality. A disappointment this is too easy to dismiss, but we the audience should learn this one thing: learn to not put insanely high expectations, of which the majority will never, ever learn to get out …

Takt OP. is the perfect example of “style over substance”. Whilst I admittedly enjoyed watching the anime, I would be remised to not speak on the lack of any real cohesive story. We’re essentially thrown into a beautifully rendered world brought to life by MAPPA and Madhouse, told there’s a war between humans and aliens who hate music, and made to fend for ourselves. In fairness, the backstory is fleshed Outstanding a bit more, but that doesn’t mean the writing gets much better. This show honestly felt like a tech demo for new animation and storyboarding techniques. Like imagine those Unreal Engine 5 play-tests, but in anime form. If that’s what the creators were going for, they certainly succeeded. From the very first episode’s first few minutes I was blown away by the attention to the detail of the artists who worked on the show. It’s not exaggerating to say that Takt OP. has some of the best animation ever in the medium. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have the story to back it up. That said, story is important, but it’s not everything. You can definitely enjoy an anime that has a weak story, that’s not a crime. I really did enjoy seeing Takt and Destiny grow together over the course of the anime. I found a lot of similarities between their relationship and Artoria and Emiya from the Fate series. In fact, the whole musicart/maestro dynamic seems like it’s taken straight from the Type-Moon universe. The ending was “ok” at best, but I still felt most of the characters got a decent conclusion to their arcs. The writing just wasn’t really good from the beginning for them to get much better. Even though this isn’t the strongest show out there, I did have a lot of fun with it. The fights, slice of life and overall artistic quality made it an enjoyable experience and I definitely think everyone should check the anime out, if only for the sakuga. Takt Op. Destiny is somewhat of a preview of the future of anime. I think some time in the not too distant future, shows will consistently be made with this type of artistic quality. It also seems like collaborative efforts between studios are becoming more common. This means more staff working on a project, less stress on staff and a better product for consumers. A win win for everyone. Takt gets 7 pianos out of 10.

Takt Op. Destiny was one of the most disappointing shows in 2021. Ambitious project involving cooperation between two of the most beloved studios in the anime industry (Mappa and Madhouse) turned out to be a simple eye candy with no substance or depth in it... Probably most regretful thing about it all is how much potential this story has in it: Musical themes, awesome waifus, complex story and lore, interesting characters, great action. Unfortunately authors fall short to deliver high quality writing to back this premise up and instead we get: Failed musical themes, hollow waifus, bad story with inconsequential lore, blank or awful characters, meaningless action with confusing combat system. Takt Op. Destiny is placed in a post apocalyptic world where earth was showered by mysterious magic stones, first ones were harmless with some mysterious power in them, but then came the EVIL STONES. It looks like bad stones spawned evil monsters known as D2's which hate music for some reason. When humanity was on the brink of collapse Magicarts and Conductors showed up (show never explained how they were created btw), which had the power of GOOD STONES and managed to save United States and presumably rest of the world (idk this show doesn't care about other countries). Now D2's are coming back and we need to live in a dystopian reality where merciless government prevents us from listening to music... because apparently in the year 2047 they have no headphones. If this sounds like a convoluted premise don't worry, it isn't important for most of the series. Visually Takt op. is a colorful assault on your eyes. This anime tries to look great and distinctive while failing at both with a third of the environments consists of deserts, which gets boring fast. They also somehow managed to make fights that feel like they had a lot of effort put into them while looking mediocre at best. Music and sound of this anime are pretty good, matching circumstances and with nice feel to it. This alone would be good enough for most other animes but not in this instance. As a show with music as its main theme, Takt op. hardly does enough to develop this idea. Story is centered around a musician, with characters born from music in a world without music, but it is important how authors miss opportunities to elevate their ideas further while also giving them some meaning. The most important idea of this show (conductor musicart relationship) is bad. Musicart is basically a female transformed by the power of music, after which she becomes a weapon to fight D2's. Conductors on the other hand are made up of normal human males which use musicarts as tools while enhancing their abilities (I don't know if there is a story reason behind those genders being assigned to those roles, as musicarts are more numerous and with more interesting designs I suspect it is simply to make more waifus). How do conductors use musicarts? By waving their sticks around. This is a problems and a missed opportunity, why leave music out of combat? First thing that comes to mind is to have conductors use instruments which would give them something interesting to do instead of sitting in the back with their sticks while doing nothing. This whole stick thing relegates music in action to just being a soundtrack. Second problem is with inconsistency of this relationship. We are told that conductors are there to boost musicart's abilities, but... when Takt (mc) uses his conductor stick his magicart sometimes does a different somewhat stronger kind of attack and sometimes she doesn't and sometimes she does strong attacks without Takt and his stick movements.We also have a bunch of magicarts running around without conductors while fighting with high efficiency even beating musicarts which are supported by conductors. We are told how this should work, but see something completely different which ends up making everything confusing and makes outcomes of fights unpredictable in a very bad way. This also raises a question "are conductors even necessary?" Someone might say that we have a good example of how conductor can be useful as a commander in the back who can observe the entire situation, but musicarts aren't dumber than humans... if all you need is a commander then just make few teams of musicarts with one commanding the rest. In this situation not only such a musicart can defend herself and won't need protection, but also when fight gets heated she can attack as well So in combat musical themes are undeveloped and the whole 'no music' problem is so bad that authors had to literally delete the existence of headphones. How about characters? We have Takt an introverted person with a tragic background, he is also an unlikeable and uncaring psychopath who needs to play on piano so much that he will do it even if someone will be put in the risk of death because of him, while also making himself completely responsible for a lot of destroyed property. He tries to write music from time to time, but this thread goes nowhere.. Then we have Cosette or Destiny later on who becomes Takt's Musicart (why she transforms into a musicart? never explained). She probably had most potential in our main trio for being somewhat interesting, but then anime turned her into basically a robot which over time is becoming slightly interesting. But it is cool because this robot of a character is here to be cute! Look, she just accidentally blew up our house! Look, she came out through window instead of using the door! Look, she loves sweets!!! Isn't that cute?! And then there is Anna with no character development, she is here just to care for our protagonists and scold them from time to time. Anime is also hinting her romantic interest in Takt (with whom she has sibling like relationship) at 11th episode out of nowhere... so that's something I guess. Are those characters an embodiment of musical animes? You decide. So what about character development that we do have? Takt goes from piano psycho to piano maniac who now cares about some people. Destiny becomes somewhat human while also getting recognized as a person. Thats it. Plus this growth isn't even executed that nicely, you would think that someone would at least try to challenge Takt's love for music but no. They even made an antagonist who hates music and created an opportunity for some meaningful conflict, this would require good writing tho... You also need to know that this anime loves to waste your time making artificial problems for a while only to forget about them when action is about to kick in (they literally had started episode with few minutes of examining their destroyed car which then magically repairs itself when they abruptly have to get to the place of action) or sending protagonists on a series of side quests(New Orleans). Anime as a whole seriously slows down at least two times which is very puzzling taking into consideration how much it later speeds up in last episodes. The end of this story is rushed to say the least. We have two finale antagonists, where we know almost nothing about the first one and didn't know that the second one existed at all until the 11th episode. I mean how can you take things so slowly if you are planning to make such a convoluted and complex finale? There is also the third antagonist that I didn't mention which shows up before the climax and let me tell you he is one of the most insulting characters I've seen in a while. This moron has so many issues that I decided to write an entire spoiler rant at the end of this review, if you don't feel like reading it all you need to know is that he is basically a very annoying, psycho version of Thanos with even dumber idea of how to use his power to change the world that is of course rightfully his. It is worth mention how convenient this show is for its plot. Characters randomly and without reason find each other all the time and Destiny sometimes will feel where Takt is but not when he is …

FULL SPOILER REVIEW After completing the show, the only thought I had was "So this is what it looks like if Vivy: Flourite Eye's Song failed." Then I started analysing the story, art, music, characters, the lot. And what I found was most of them are either very good or very bad. STORY (3/10) What was Takt's original goal again? It is to save the young girl. But halfway through the show it seemed like the show forgot all of that. 2 villains appeared. First one was a one-dimensional, power hungry villain who got defeated in 1 episode and was never heard of again. The second one is a guy whose motivation did not serve any purpose to Takt's journey and goal whatsoever. The plot is all over the place. Every episode felt disconnected. We were given backstories that create more questions than answers. It felt like the writers came up with the premise and then struggled to think of what to do with it. And the result is a story that felt like the first draft and a plot full of holes. SOUND (9/10) The music is incredible. As expected from a musical anime. CHARACTER (6/10) I feel that they managed to do the bare minimum to make me at least root for the protagonists. Takt and Destiny had good chemistry. The characters themselves are just barely decent. Destiny was totally emotionless at the beginning but start to develop feelings especially to Takt. And Takt had at least the determination to save the world and music. Other characters are written terribly. Especially the villains. The fight with the first one felt like a side quest. It had no connection to the story. It's just a guy who is jealous of Takt and he is power hungry. No emotional threat. Same goes with the 2nd villain. I know he caused the death of Takt's father and Lenny, but Takt killing him felt empty. And despite the long conversation between Takt and the 2nd villain in the final episode, I had trouble trying to understand what the villain's motivation is. PLOT HOLES What happened to Destiny? What happened to the 1st villain? How does the crystal that controls the D2s work? We will never know. OVERALL (6/10) It succeeds in animation and music. The duo protagonists have good chemistry. But the story is not good. The villain backstory in the final episode felt like it was made up in the last minute. Episodes felt disconnected, and the villains are terrible. This show is the best representation on HOW TO FAIL AT VIVY: FLOURITE EYE'S SONG.

Nothing ever gets explained or delved on (including the ending), and everything happens "just because". Characters are shallow or annoying. The music side doesn't really intertwine with any other aspect of the show. Like, the monsters get attracted to music. Okay, then why the only things that can kill them do that with magic shotguns, swords, etc.? The OST is also pretty unremarkable for a music-themed anime. The romance could've been better, even considering that this is not a romance anime. They also somehow managed to make a filler in a 12 episode series. The show wasted too much of it's own time.

Takt Op Destiny was an amazing 10 episodes. I was enjoying the music, the animation, the action, and even becoming attached to some of the characters and their stories. I thought the world was interesting and unique compared to most modern anime worlds. I don’t get the other criticisms people have been throwing out about fan service and waifu bait? But wait… There’s 12 episodes? Look… if you have the insatiable desire to finish any show you start, don’t watch this. If you can stop in the middle of a show and be fine with the high quality content you got, then go ahead and watch the first 10 episodes of Takt. The whole show was just to promote a bad mobile game, and the last two episodes basically cram everything the show had been building towards, that could’ve taken another season or 2, down your throat with spoken info dump. It makes no sense and moves way too quickly when the rest of show had a slow pace, just to finish the story to set up the world of the game. It had such potential and yet they threw it all away…

Well what can I say ... at some point in my life, music became something I couldn't go a day without. Now, I don't really listen to classical music but I have a huge appreciation to the people who created all those masterpieces. In this anime, we can hear A LOT of different classical music pieces that suit incredibly well in the scenes they are played at! I love how many scenes, just as "Titan's finale", Lenny starts playing 4th/Final movement of the 1st symphony of Gustav Mahler - which funnily enough, this symphony has the nickname "Titan" - how cool is that? Obviously there are a lot of other interesting musical moments throughout the show, which will take a long while for ma to list, but what I can say is that, Takt Op. Destiny is one unique anime that contain a little bit of everything with the biggest impact being - music. I am sure people who have a high appreciation of art and music will also enjoy this! Without including any spoilers. all I will say is - give this anime a shot since you might very well end up surprised from what it has to offer!

I didn't think my first review on MAL would be Takt Op Destiny but here we are anyway I guess. I tried so *very* hard to enjoy Takt, the first 3 episodes was some of my favorite content to come out of Anime this year. Takt's musical prowess paired with the incredibly apt classical music and composer bias, alongside the absolutely outstanding sound design of the early episodes was incredible to experience. The music bled the emotion and passion of the characters that brought it to life, the action was punchy and wonderfully choreographed, the characters were simple and easy to get behind but had plenty of potential, especially with the intertwining of Destiny and Takt. There's so many wondrous things that these first three episodes bring viewers, and it screams of what could have been endless potential and a contender for Anime of the Season, at the very least, and at best a beacon of hope for mixed media projects and Anime Originals. The keyword in the previous sentence was 'could', if that wasn't clear. It *could* have done all of that, but decided to not and instead embarked on the most confusing, hair pulling, heart crushing, train wreck of a story that's a spider's web of media tropes and pathetic attempts at advertising to hopefully convince a few poor souls to attempt to throw money at a mobile game that's been delayed indefinitely. One of my biggest gripes with where Takt Op. Destiny went was its music. There's some great pieces in there, and previously there was some good theory around *why* specific pieces of classical music were played and what their importance was to each character, but that was before that world came crashing down. Original pieces with concrete meaning in the scenes that they're played in are replaced with a pathetic attempt to incur "immediate nostalgia". That means that they replay the same pieces of music over and over and over in a desperate attempt to capture your attention as the show basically screams, "Hey! Hey! This music was used in that one part early on that you *really* liked, right? We're using it here so you should like this part too!". Not only is it monotonous and incredibly low-effort for an Anime that markets itself as "all about music", it's depressing. Music is such an awe-inspiring thing in life. There's rhyme and reason to it such that there's obvious paths to take with it, but despite the semi-concreteness of the profession an Artificial Intelligence can't make music. There's something incredibly human to it that can’t be recreated without a heart or soul. Rather than make full use of those two aspects of humanity, Takt decides that it’ll pick the ‘10 Best Classical Pieces’ and interweave it with a disparagingly small amount of original music. Episode 1 had a great symphony piece that, to my ears, seemed original. Episode two brought us some prohibition style piano music, and after that… after that. Nothing really came after that. There was *maybe* one or two more original pieces in the series that were actually used with the intention of *being* music, rather than just weak background noise, and if you’re lucky it might be something modern sounding like the heavy metal of episode 5 which feels woefully out of place aside a pair of classically inspired musicarts. Any important music that pretended to have any use in the anime itself was shamelessly reused, and/or entirely limited to classical music. Where’s *more* prohibition-era music? There’s a Musicart that seems to have their character designed loosely inspired by the era, but they don’t get combat soundtracks like Destiny and Takt. There’s an entire rebellion waiting to happen against the censoring of music, I mean, how many bands are out there that challenge that sort of stuff? Rage Against The Machine Anyone? Run The Jewels? There’s a plethora of artists and styles to draw from for some absolutely incredible pieces and inspired Musicarts for rebellion, which you’d *think* would be a big piece in a story where music is entirely censored while the rich get the okay on it (will cover that later), but it’s nowhere to be found. There’s even musicarts called Heaven and Hell, but no religious inspired music. Walkure (In English: Valkyrie) is even a thing, but not once do you hear anything resembling Die Walkure or any other Valkyrie related music. I could probably write this entire review just purely based off the egregious offenses in regards to music, but that doesn’t paint an accurate picture. So you’re not a huge fan of music or its accompanying theory and meanings, that’s fine, that’s cool not a problem. We then enter the next stage of the problem, Waifus. Sure some series are better off for it and it’s the premise of them because they’re satire, parody, ecchi, etc. Takt is none of those things, but it hints that it *really* wants to be. All the Musicarts are women, nice and easy red flag. We didn’t see any other ones until later down the road, first pair we see is a man and a woman like Takt and Destiny, that’s fine it’s his mentor so they can be similar. More and more Musicarts get introduced and they all continue to follow that pattern, there’s not a single male Musicart, nor is there a female conductor. It’s a simple problem, with a *really* simple solution. Instead though, they went full steam ahead on using the Musicart as half-hearted advertisement to appeal to the basest of desires and interests. There’s never even an *attempt* at an explanation as to why they can only be women. So maybe you can get past the female only cast of Musicarts, credit to you for finding a way to power through, but you get to the next issue. Cookie-Cutter personalities. I was fine with Destiny when it was *just* Destiny, with each new Musicart they added another painful stereotypical and one dimensional personality to the grab bag of Build-Your-Waifu. There’s the Kuudere, The Tsundere (which as a bonus *also* includes the public morals committee personality aspect!), The Yandere, and get this, they even went full circle to add another Kuudere. Oh, and there’s a Loli as well of course. It’s just such blatant advertisement and fan-service that it blew my mind when they introduced more and more of these characters. Almost a negative effort was put into the creation of these Musicart and even less into their subsequent development. They took a look at all the stereotypical love interests in bad (and when I mean bad, I mean *bad*) RomCom anime and said, “We’ll take the lot!”. There’s not a single moment in my mind that I believe any of these characters have where they have gotten “good” development. Has there been development? Maybe? Depends on who you ask. The happy-go-lucky Loli going all serious and murder-y on people can count as development depending on who you ask. The kuudere learning to process and show emotion while simultaneously falling in love with the MC? If you want it to I guess it can be. What about the Yandere that wants violence but is actually sort of out to protect her love interest and their desires? Can check that box off too. I think you get the point here, depending on your requirements for “development” and “personality” the quality of these Musicart varies quite widely. In a critical sense however, absolute garbage. It felt like totally incoherent rambling from someone way too confident for what they’re doing, who subsequently leaves you with a charismatic smile and a, “Right?”, after they just forcefully removed all but one of your brain cells. So we’ve ruled out any hope with music and the Musicarts themselves, what about art and animation? I mean, it’s MAPPA and Madhouse, it *has* to be good… right? Right? Well, you’re half right and half wrong. There’s no denying that, at the very least, the first 3 episodes are nothing short of outstanding. Dynamic and punchy, high fidelity with some incredible movement and creative freedom, plenty of impact and oomph to it. It had everything you could ask for, even some really outstanding cinem…

Welcome to M1c3f's condensed Anime review. I'll be giving you all the necessary information about a show in just a few sentences and a following recommendation. Today featuring: Takt Op Destiny First and important to know: Yes, there are many battle waifus. You might enjoy it or find it to be annoying. Yes, the show is based upon an upcoming gacha game, should you have prejudices because of that. No. The three protagonists have a really weird relationship that's hard to read. If you compare the protagonists with food they would be a microwave heated slice of pizza. It tastes dreadful yet you still somehow liked it because it's pizza. Once you have chewed the first bite you know you should have either just eaten it cold, thrown it away, or made the effort to heat it up in the oven. Make up your mind about that analogy if you wish or trust that feeling I build up inside yourself because we can all relate to eating microwave pizza. The antagonist(s) are batshit stupid the definition of bad villains no further explanation is needed. They literally made some episodes almost unwatchable. The world is just un-immersive. It's a superficially explained setting that is torn between picturing a post-apocalyptic hazard and a lively routined civilization. At first, the storyline is rather weak and ungarnished but eventually picks up some depth and pace. On its way to the climax, the story shifts into unreasonable unexplainable absurdity. Much like and in connection with the appearance of antagonists. The battle scenes look gorgeous they are impactful and dynamic. All in combination with great sfx. The Cinematography outside battle is ok'ish. Really plain and basic without a sense of depth. The background art is genuinely nice. There is little connection between the musical theme with the narrative and the fighting mechanics. The music composition is extraordinary making one of the best anime led by classic orchestral music. Recomendation?: It's worthwhile for the fantastic OST and the good action scenes. The first few episodes are a bit tough to get through. The amount of action makes it up for that though. The musical direction gets better and better albeit in the end you will be frustrated again because the plot gets so out of touch with common sense. My score: Story: 2.8 Characters: 3.7 Animation: 9.4 Sound: 10 Enjoyment: 6.8 Overall: 5.6 (Also refer to my profile for scoring criteria)

THIS ANIME IS A GACHA GAME PROMOTION. "There may be some spoilers in this short review". I can't remember when the anime was announced but when I learned that Madhouse and MAPPA will be collaborating on it I was a bit hyped and later knowing that it was an upcoming gacha game I had thoughts of giving it a shot to watch it. Let me put it nice and short, The pilot episode showed a lot of promise, it showed the base plot of a world without music and the so-called Musicarts saved the world from destruction from D2's. I mean it started really fine not until the next few episodes where it left a big hole and a lot of question marks story-wise, let me give an example. Who was the whistleblower on why the D2's appeared is it Takt's Dad? and What is Cossette's connection to the musicarts? or in General why is Cossette the only one turned into a musicart in her family? or maybe I'm not paying that much attention to the story. It felt like the story was rushed especially midway thru the series and somehow I understand why, BECAUSE ITS A 24min GACHA GAME ADVERTISEMENT maybe if we play the game the story will be clearer I guess. the only thing likable here is the musical score, the animation and some of its characters.

<~No spoilers~> Let me be honest here , this is a series that's going to be forgotten the minute next season anime comes by a storm. Maybe I'm stupid and didn't understand the intricacies of the series but to me the only selling point of it was MAPPA × MADHOUSE and Music, and still I couldn't differentiate most of the times which music is a weapon and which is just background music. Characters were very bland none left long lasting impression, maybe Cosette/Destiny but she too will be forgotten. That's my take, if I offended someone then that's that. Music was good i love piano so yeah. Art was good well it had to be with the production houses behind it. Overall not recommended if you value your time. If you play the game go for it but i think you'll be disappointed. 6/10 ( for the kiss scenes cuz I'm a sucker for romance +1). Well thanks for reading. See you later.❤✌

This is my first time to review an anime. Takt op. Destiny is marketed as an Original Music anime by Mappa and Madhouse, one of the biggest collabs you can imagine in Anime. Takt op's pacing is slow and their travels where they meet other people was supposed to make the main characters grow but they obviously didn't, wherein the animation can't even ease the boredom you can feel just by watching this anime. Everything doesn't make any sense until they came to New York. My biggest concern is the "music" part of the anime. Earlier this year, an Original Music anime also dropped which is Vivy. With that I was expecting the Music part of the anime to be integral or within the story's core. The title and some hints in the anime made me think that Takt op. Destiny must be Takt's music title once he finally completes his musical composition, but what we get is just a couple of hums in the end. Also, aside from that the only time you'll hear the music is when they fight and the music is just classical music playing in the background with no direct connection to what is happening, and the Musicarts dont actually have powers that produce music. Which clearly suggests that the "Music" part of this anime is nothing but just some words on the tags. The Villain's motive is also vague and dumb, I mean why would he gather all the d2's inside a heavily populated city if his goal is just to seal them all? The ending isn't also fully explained, did Anna became Destiny because her VA is the same as the game's Destiny VA, which means you need to play the game to understand it which is to be expected as this is also an advertisement for their game. Overall a very mid type of anime with the "mappa hype". If you enjoyed it it's okay. No anime is perfect and don't let other's judge what you like just dont judge other's if they like something you hate.

Another top notch waifu anime, another let down. I had high hopes for this anime especially since I was a fan of Supercell and the animation for the anime is just spendid all around with MAPPA and Madhouse being the studios working on this project. But alas, this anime has one glaring weakness! The poorly written storyline and characters! It pretty much comes down to the antagonists for the anime, Sagan and Schindler. They are literally just pointless villains that does nothing for the story and better yet, you do not even see much of them throughout the entire run of the show. Heck, their motivations for why they are being villains were just terrible and had only a few episodes to even give any background on it. Thus, with such crappy villains that I could care less for, this just makes the all the challenges that the Main character have to go through to save humanity from a bunch of music hating monsters seem so insignificant. What a waste it truly is because, the animation, the fight scenes, the music was great throughout these 12 episodes. What made me invested in the show from beginning was takt's beautiful character design, all that bright red coupled with her fighting alien invades gave me RWBY vibes. I also loved the road trip adventure style that they were doing with them having a new experience in each new town. I honestly feel that they should have made maybe a 3 part movie or even 24 episodes for the anime which would allow more time to make a better storyline and help flesh out the characters personalities and motivations because the way that it was done for the anime was just poor and it did not allow me to be invested in the series in anyway. 5/10 (AVERAGE) because of purely the animation, the music, the lovely musicart character designs coughs WAIFUS, and the first seven episodes of the show which was decent. The latter half of the show with all the plot reveals for the antagonist was just pure bitter dissapointment.

I won’t deny what other viewers have already pointed out. It’s clear that this anime lacks investment—both in its storytelling and its action sequences. The lack of character development and diversity was palpable, leaving me feeling like I was witnessing the birth of a clumsy masterpiece, a concept that initially captivated me but was sadly mishandled and wasted. As the story slowly unfolds, it occasionally reminded me of Darling in the Franxx or the Fate series. Despite its many flaws, I can’t deny that I enjoyed the show greatly, especially due to my personal connection with music. As a musician myself, I resonated with the protagonist’s desperate quest and the emotional turmoil the characters endured. That said, I wished I could have formed stronger connections with the characters, particularly Cosette. She plays such a crucial role in the story, yet she vanishes after only 20 minutes—a true waste of potential. Now, let’s address the action scenes, which deeply frustrated me. Music can exist in stillness; it is the first dimension of musical expression. But dance, on the other hand, amplifies music—it embodies and magnifies its essence. This is where the harmony between characters should have shone through. Instead, Takt and the other Maestros felt like mere spectators during the battles, detached from the flow and rhythm of the combat. There was no sense of synergy, no impression that the Maestro was truly orchestrating the blade. These fights should have been duets, with the Maestro conducting the dance of the sword. The overall impression left by the anime is one of paleness and superficiality. What could have been a vibrant, harmonious blend of music and action instead feels like an unfinished draft of something that had the potential to be remarkable but fell short of its promise.

Frankly, I knew Takt Op. Destiny was going to be substance-lacking eye candy from just the trailer. I still watched it because it looked ever so slightly good enough to peak my interest. Never again will I be wooed by the MAPPA x Madhouse sirens. Story: 2/10 The story in this anime just serves as an excuse to have a lot of fights and promote the mobile game. Technically this is a post-apocalyptic anime, but with the running water, electricity, cars, pristine suburbia, and plentiful food, it sure doesn't feel like it. There is a flashback to show just how bad it was before, but it's way too late in the series to have any impact. The only parts that are dangerous are the poor road conditions and the strange-looking monsters. Hardly anything is know about the monsters - known as D2s - aside from what's revealed in the opening episode: they're big, they're bad, and they hate music (maybe they're going through a phase or some shit). Naturally our generic music-crazed protagonist has a problem with this. This serves to get the plot moving, along with the D2 version of a drone strike in episode 2. The story is hard to get invested in because while there are things that are unknown to the viewer, the characters and plot aren't compelling enough to want to uncover the truth. So the mystery just feels annoying, and when it's solved, it's painfully predictable. Sound: 7/10 The sound is good enough. Since Takt Op. centers around music, one of the gimmicks is the inclusion of classical music during battles. It goes well enough, but it's not any better than other soundtracks from high-profile shounen. Voice acting is perfectly fine, and the battle scenes sound... "crunchy in a good way" I guess. There isn't a better term I can think of. The intro is a banger while the outro is just there. Not that much else to say, which isn't a good sign when the whole shtick of the anime is y'know: music. Characters: 1/10 Takt, Destiny, and Anna; otherwise known as the one the really fucking loves music, the one the wants to rid the world of D2s, and the one that is fed up with the other two. Seriously, these three are flatter than cardboard. The character dynamics change ever so slightly through the series, but chances are you will not be invested enough to notice. Perhaps the writers aimed at "classic dysfunctional trio," but they ended up with "teeth-grindingly insufferable" instead. There are some uninspired and tropey side characters, a smattering of hot Musicarts (gacha game gonna gacha game), and a villain who's motivation is nonsensical even by anime standards. The characters eclipse the story as the worst part of Takt Op. Art: 8/10 The animation in Takt Op. is the main selling point, and it does deliver. The American setting feels somehow even more American than the USA is in real life. This is thanks to great attention to detail and skill on part of the animators. The human characters wear outfits ranging from 1960's waitress dresses to a grey shirt and suspenders. Varied, but sometimes overly simple. The Musicarts on the other hand, are all some variation of badass battle girl, and have elegant and colorful designs to suit their (pretty cliche) personalities. The action is colorful, clean, and well-animated, and there is plenty of it, but the choreography of the fights is uninspired. Arguably the two most impressive parts of all the battles throughout the whole series are just some really flashy power beams that leave a scar in the landscape to show just how powerful they were. The art is the best part of this anime, but is not enough to save it. Overall: 3/10 The main problem boils down to the fact that Takt Op. is just bland. I'm giving it a 3, which is not an average of the individual scores, but is a reflection of my overarching opinion. The art and sound are good, but the characters and story are very much not. It's like the creators crammed a delicious part and a distasteful part together and expected the good to overpower the bad. But instead it feels like you drizzled chocolate syrup on Brussel sprouts: it still ends up tasting awful. Please, avoid Takt Op. Destiny and watch something more deserving of your time.

After hearing about a collab between two remarkable studios − Madhouse and MAPPA −, I decided I had to give it a shot. How couldn't I? Both have brought so many delightful animations to life in the past few years, such as One Punch Man and Jujutsu Kaisen, that I was under the impression they had conceived, at the very least, another visually gorgeous work, even if the story wasn't that promising in my eyes. Then, a weird thought came up. "Who cares about plot, right? Let's just enjoy a bunch of cool and flashy fight scenes and call it great!". Sometimes, we just want to "turn off" our brains and escape from a boring reality, don't we? Well, here's a lesson I learned by going through a lot of rough experiences: there's no such thing as "turning your brain off" without dying. Simple as that. When I think about Takt Op Destiny, the first word which pops up in my mind is "plastic". It feels very artificial, so to speak. Not a single line of dialogue sounds spontaneous, as if the writers were trying really hard to emulate generic exchanges from other pieces, instead of conceiving unique, organic and creative interactions. Ok, I might be exaggerating. There's a few moments which depict kinda well human beings talking like actual human beings. Are they enough? Probably not, considering how difficult it was to simpathyze with each character, from start to finish. Most scenes just repeated the whole "Hey, look at Takt! Isn't he such a obsessive prick who only cares about music, despite having a good heart deep down? Oh, there's our Destiny − a perfect waifu material, quite gorgeous and addicted on sugar!" over and over again, through annoyingly similar deliveries. The same pattern goes for other characters, such as Anna (a worried onee-san) and Titan (a cheerful loli). I won't even make a deep dive into the plot, because it's almost non-existant. Giant monsters started to attack mankind, causing society to rely on a strict set of individuals capable of striking back − how many times have you seen this? Well, that's basically it, with a cheap conspiracy plot that doesn't tell anything new or meaningful. Even the main villains managed to disappoint me with their lame motivations. On the other hand, the soundtrack is kinda captivating and the action is decent, although the fight coreographies could impress a lot more given its animation's quality. Takt Op Destiny turned out to be just a shallow and forgettable experience. What a shame. For those brave enough to explore the game, good luck. I hope the plot gets better.

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 nicknam…

The more I look back on this anime, the more reasons I find to dislike it. I wanted to like takt op. Destiny from the very beginning, and for a long time I really did! I loved tuning in every week to see how the plot developed and the characters progressed. Honestly I was pretty content with this anime, the animation is breathtaking and I really liked a majority of the characters... that is until the finale. When I had finished the final episode I sat and really thought about my thoughts on it as well as the anime as a whole for a few days and then it finally dawned on me. After 12 weeks I finally had my answer... this anime was bad. Okay well maybe bad is overkill but it definitely was NOT good. The finale really put into perspective just how paper thin the plot was. Character motivations were flimsy and never fully realized or achieved. The world building was confusing and poor. But perhaps my biggest problem with this anime was none other than the titular character; Takt. He is an unbearable protagonist. Just a pain to watch and at no point did I ever root for him. He's unnecessarily unkind to the ones closest to him and always dragging things down. They tried to do the grumpy main guy trope but just made him a complete asshole. He also doesn't grow in the slightest from episode 1 to episode 12. No change. Just the same stagnant uninteresting character. Thank god Destiny and Anna are part of the main cast because otherwise this would not be an easy watch. At first seeing Cosette's very charming personality be stripped into the husk that is Destiny was a bit of a letdown. but overtime I really learned to appreciate Destiny as her own character. And Anna, her sister, and the rest of her family accept her as her own individual person and welcome her with open arms. A lot of her development revolves around "serving" Takt which sucks but aside from that, I love her character. Another favorite for me (or favorites) is Lenny and Titan. These two were so fun whenever they were on screen and were just so pleasant and nice, unlike Takt's hating ass 😭. I especially loved Lenny since character's like him are so rarely seen in such a respectful light. They never overdid his more flamboyant qualities or made him a caricature that the other characters would be weirded out by. Too bad this anime hates me personally and kills both him and Destiny off at the end. Speaking of: My next issue with this anime is the villains. The first one, Schindler just gets told off by Heaven in a very admittedly satisfying scene but after that, we never see him again. It's like the writers completely forgot he existed. You'd think after that he'd come back and swear revenge or something but no. Sagan seemed like a cool idea for a villain as well but is also very unceremoniously taken care of. His motivations are kinda weak and I wish they expanded upon or fleshed it out better. It became very clear that this anime was basically just a commercial for their upcoming mobile game, seeing as it ended pretty open endedly and it's library of colorful fighting girls called "musicarts" seem perfect for a anime battle gacha game. If they were going to go that route I wish they would have put more care in the anime's story. After the anime leaving a sour taste in my mouth I have no intention in seeing how the story continues in their gambling anime girl cash grab. The anime served it's purpose in showing cute girls fighting monsters controlled by men with no agency of their own and did nothing else. Lastly, for an anime about the love of music, you'd think it'd have a more memorable soundtrack. The best thing to come out of this anime musically was it's OP by ryo (supercell) whose music I already enjoy. At least the one significant cultural impact this anime had was the return of such a prolific producer.