Takt Op. Destiny

Takt opt Destiny is a derivative greedy waifu bait that emerges from an intent of making a mixed-media project for a gacha game, how fitting by its nature. By using the collaboration of two extremely hyped studios that have an enormous catalogue of quality animation, be it MAPPA, and be it Madhouse, almost like the old school collaborating with the new school, like the Conrad Tokyo of the industry, the anime invited us to watch a visually appealing anime, but while it does so in one way or another because the animation is pleasing to look at, the whole anime sucks nevertheless, being one of ... the tackiest that I’ve seen this year.

There is a formula that will not fail in anime, or well, it hardly fails. The equation is “Music+Anime=Success”, you could make the most stupid, pandering or bait plot, but if you include music it could hit anyways, just watch how Your Lie in April succeeded while being a predictable and obviously manipulating anime with inhuman characters. To fail at such formula seems like something so out of reach that it dumbfounds me how the music aspect of this anime feels as forced as the research of an antivaxxer. It is terrible. There is a guy, that plays piano, but cant play it, because plot, and there are characters that are supposed to fight with the orders of the music conductors… but they fight with weapons anyways so the music is just background. That is, that is the music aspect, and don’t get me started about how this guy can only think about playing piano for the whole first 3 episodes, and how apparently his play should evoke something on us, how can it provoke something when this character is nothing more than an excuse to play piano and manipulate a waifu like a pokemon trainer. Yeah, I will just go to youtube and hear someone playing piano, it would be the same as this anime, or maybe it would be better, because I wouldn’t hear any of that annoying dialogue that has less deepness than the research of Valkyrae cream. Honestly, the only point of using music in this anime as a source of power is because they will eventually create a climax through music, like Vivy but replacing the annoying robot with an annoying blonde girl

Then the next problem is that the characters are completely out of the concept of creativity, well, apart from their designs which are kind of attractive. Just let me explain it like this; the main trio is composed by an obsessive guy that wants to be free (To play music) and eliminate the D2, while also holding a special power given from the gods of plot that nobody knows how it works, it also has a girl that is extremely badass, edgy to the core, and fights extremely well, and a girl that serves as a bridge between them both and acts as a straight woman but would be better off dead because who cares about her. Now, which anime did this before? Maybe my brain is foggy, I would let you stick the pieces, I won’t attack that here, but I’m not saying that this titanic derivation is originated from there either, just telling how uninspired this is. And I’m not even going to start telling how every other single character is a mess, like seriously, a gay character that sexually harass the main character? a quirky loli character? What will they include next, a terminally ill musician that wants to hear music for the last time?

Anyways, I have to be sincere, most of us didn’t really watch this abomination for the plot, just read the fucking premise, we all watched this because it was a MAPPA x Madhouse project, and the fact that this sucks hard is not because the plot and the characters are completely terrible and out of any conception of originality, this sucks hard because it is just a soulless attempt to sell us a product. The anime is not trying to tell us anything, it is just exposing over and over again an edgy waifu doing edgy shit in an edgy environment because that is what sells today, that is why this anime lacks creativity, because it is using proven formulas and concepts from the latest best-seller anime that have been going hard. If for some reason fighting with swimwear while riding a sausage was successful as a concept take it for granted that this anime would do it, and the main guy would be wearing a speedo

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 ryo as the music producer, but the soundtrack never felt particularly outstanding. Sawano’s work may sound a little samey after a while, but his standout tracks are simply fantastic, and I don’t know anyone who wasn’t blow away by his output from 2009 to 2017. But ultimately, this show’s attempt to sell itself with music and classic orchestra just falls flat. Everything about it is totally insipid and lacking in any substance. When I first called this show a rip-off, I had to lure you in with big, famous names like Fate, Vivy, and Guilty Crown, but now that you’ve stuck around, I can finally reveal the series which Takt Op. Destiny rips-off the most. It’s called Shinkyouku Soukai Polyphonica. What’s that? You’ve never heard of it? Well, that’s good. The plagiarist hacks responsible for Takt Op. Destiny were counting on it. Fuck this show and everything it stands for. If Beethoven were still alive to see his work used in this way, he’d tear his eyes out so he could be deaf AND fucking blind.

Thank you for reading.

At first, I must say that I want to examine this work logically. I don't know about the next episodes, just I'll write my views only up to ep4.
I follow this anime myself, but until episode 4, the story and characterization did not seem to reach a satisfactory level. Before examining the other strengths and weaknesses of the anime, I must say that this anime is at a very high level in terms of graphics, and if you are only looking for an anime with attractive graphic fights, see this work without reading other views.
But if storytelling and characterization are important to you, I don't ... think this anime can satisfy you much.
As I said, I follow the anime myself, but I think this work is unable to progress in the story because it is original, and it may be boring and repetitive.
Other weaknesses of the characterization that can be mentioned, the main character of this story and also the two girls next to him. For example, the main character's goals and feelings are very superficial and destiny's feelings are not understandable at all. The supporting characters of the story can not help the story as their place at all and look weak. The story may seem mysterious, but it leaves the viewer in only an aura of ambiguity, and the viewer cannot understand deeper into the ideals and goals of the main character. And the other thing that bothered me the most was the story villains. The story has not been able to address the D2s in any way. At least he could create creatures in these four episodes that would delight the viewer or create different types of these creatures, each of which has certain tangible abilities.
Finally, I must say that it is possible to develop the anime in terms of story, but what is characteristic is that this anime is still a work that has powerful graphics but is empty from the inside, and this work is famous only because of destiny's face and clothes and the graphics.

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 of this ruse.

"What is a good character nowdays?"

"Well, it's one that's dynamic."

...

"okay, I don't see any way to change this character, can we just kill her and make a new one?"

"Yeah and such an dramatic turn of events will drastically effect the other characters as well."

... "Then let's just stow all character developement into 10 seconds (combined) in one episode, the "sudden action" and "realization", then we don't have to go through it for the later episodes to come"

"Sounds great"

...

MyAnimelist ranking: "This is a good watch"

...

This show had an ineresting plot point, but failed to execute it, and they can't fix that and it won't change.

*Some spoilers for the first five episodes

Such a disappointment lol, another style over substance anime. All it's got going for it is pretty colors and pretty characters, is there anything else worthwhile? I'm struggling here...

The conductor has to be one of the worst ideas I've ever seen in anime, let's face it, you're doing next to nothing in helping with these battles. Destiny is the one in control and in charge here. The music aspect of this show is non existent and isn't portrayed well at all, in either battle as creative ideas or just the soundtrack in general.

I was waiting for Hell's big fight ... scene and what do they give me? XD XD Some stupid fucking yandere clown with shitty roller-skate powers. Just piss off already...

This is reminding me of Listeners, both set in a world where music isn't played, they're both on a road trip to a certain place and they are always fighting the same monsters every episode lol. Listeners failed with it's direction and pacing and you didn't care for the characters at all, this show also seems to be heading in that direction.

Trash/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 following her and so on.

If after all of this you still want to watch at least the first episode let me spoil it for you. It also nicely encompases what happenes in a typical episode of this anime when there is some action.

Intro starts saying that 'not too long ago' there was a post apocalyptic event of which anime shows no signs in landscape (maybe I'm overly interpreting how catastrophic this event was). Than there is a lot of talking about stones from sky and their 'mysterious powers' musicarts and conductors apparently use powers of those stones. Then came the black stones and with them D2's, but fortunately humanity had conductors as well as their magicarts (according to what we see in this into in those days both conductors and magicarts where able to fly.). Afterwards they saved humanity from D2's. If you finished this series there is a large chance that you forgot about all of this, which just shows how unimportant this sequence is.

Okay we passed the intro, first episode at a second watch is a really confusing experience which I will try to recreate here.
So you start watching and apparently Takt and destiny decided to lure a single D2 into the city while endangering civilians instead of killing it in the wilderness. They do it with a piano that just sits there in public, in a perfect condition, where some random kiddo can press one key and doom this whole town. What is even stranger, Destiny was fighting this one D2 outside the city without being transformed. So they actually started fighting D2 outside, but then Takt was like screw this shit I'm out and went to play piano? WHAT!? And then Takt teleports on top of the roof and we have a fight. After the fight it turns out that to kill D2's you have to destroy a stone in their chest which after this episode will never be shown again or have any importance at all. We get some bad attempt at comedy, which is followed by dialogue with Destiny, who scolds her 'maestro' leading to a back and forth between them. She also says something about tuning her adjustment when they will reach New York, which is never brought up again. After that comes Anna to scold Takt, apparently they were shopping and then we somehow got into this situation. WHAT!? Later on we are also shown that Takt (as I guess 'special' conductor) can sense D2's which in few episodes will be forgotten. This level of confusion and bad writing will be consistent throughout this whole series (in episodes without much filler) with always somewhat similar dynamics between characters as seen here.

Takt Op. Destiny is a bad anime at almost every level and at best passable in terms of action scenes if you are willing to accept that for the sake of those fights you can watch it, I just have to warn you that it isn't a battle anime full of those fights.

Now it is time for my SPOILER RANT about Schindler.

Schindler is one of the worst and laziest anime antagonists i have seen in a while...
Obviously he is one of those boring psychos full of ego who believes that music is stupid and world doesn't need it (because why not) and that he is the only one fit to RULE THIS WORLD. One of his most ridiculous ideas is to kill of all the poor people because USA doesn't have enough resources to
sustain them so he uses power of his musicart to control D2's and kill all those pesky peasants.
If authors made him at least a tiny bit smarter Schindler would come up with a much better idea of using Hell (his magicart) to draw D2's far away from human settlements reclaiming a lot of usa, making room for more farmland and getting support of the people in Schindler's future takeover of the government. Instead he is losing more lands to D2's making his future realm weaker, getting rid of even more limited recources they have and creating a refugee crisis that affects all leftover prosperous lands left in america, how those actions helped our antagonist in his goals? Of course Schindler is just a puppet, but to be a puppet while doing something so stupid irritates me greatly.

It is also dumb how they made Hell ignore Schindler's orders which breaks rules of this world. She herself said that musicart bound to a conductor can't ignore his will. Sure it is possible that she lied, but it would imply that it is hard to check this information, which it isn't. All you have to do is to give an order to your Musicart. With how easy it is to check it, knowledge if Conductors can control magicarts fully or not should be widespread.

Takt first goes from only thinking about his music composition, to then having a totally different mindset where he's motivated and committed to fighting Schindler. And then after Schindler is at his mercy Takt just doesn't really care.

Also if you think that sticks are useful than watch 10th episode.
Lenny is using his stick, Takt is using his stick through half of the fight, Sagan just stands there. Who wins? Sagan... sticks don't matter.

I could go much deeper in this review, but it would require more time then was spent into writing this anime.

***I will try to keep this review as short as possible***

takt op. destiny is just overhyped becuz of its animation in the trailer.

everyone was talking about this anime's visuals and how it will be the next big hit in the anime industry, oh boy how wrong they were.

This anime has such an unoriginal/useless story, 3 random teenagers just go on a journey fighting monsters on their way thereby saving countless lives(smh). yep, that basically summarises this whole ... series.

this series is just an empty shell with a half-baked plot with good animation, don't waste your time watching this.

I have grown to hate shows with strong opening episodes that give us a taste of what potential a show has, followed by mediocrity. This a review of 5 episodes, the only amount I could stomach before dropping it outright. This review is spoiler free.

I want to preface by saying, this show is not bad, and the score is not a reflection of its quality, but rather the way I am feeling about it.

Takt Op. starts out with a pretty boring expository narration, followed by a bombastic scene that sells the world, characters, and animation, and really gets you geared up for what potential lies ... deep within its future. An aloof genius, a robotic/badass/sweet loving girl, and a classic wrangler of the group in the form of an older sister. This characterization is provided in the first 9 minutes of the show, and layers of intrigue is added alongside this as well. I thought that as I was watching these first 9 minutes, that Takt Op. could possibly be well on its way to getting a 9 from me.

You know how they say "Never judge a book by its cover", well it should be "Never believe an anime will be good because its first episode is". I have fallen down this hole many times. My Little Monster got me with this trick, so did Sing "Yesterday" for Me, The Ancient Magus' Bride, and the list goes on. While those shows disappointed me to different degrees, I still felt broken when I realized that the promise they showed in their beginning episodes, had dwindled. Takt Op. ran a speedrun on me, when I have high expectations for a show, I'll give it a requisite amount of time to disappoint me, Takt did it in 5 episodes, which so far is a record.

You probably want to know the problems with the show. Well its simple, you see that promise I talked about two paragraphs up, well that's all there is. The way the characters are characterized, well that's just who they are. There is no nuance, there are no dialogues between characters that can deepen their relationship. Its the same song and dance everytime they open their mouths. When people disparage the writing of this show, they're talking about two things. First, the plot. There isn't really a concrete plot at the moment, the show is pushing things back so they can make a big fate conspiracy plot twist reveal in episode 7 or something. Right now they just drive, and fight monsters, and then say a bunch of nothing. Second, the dialogue. This show has not had a single meaningful dialogue exchange, where the characters can jump out of their monotonous set speech patterns and have a conversation that can convince the audience that they are indeed people worth rooting for. No nuance, no comedy, nothing.

Don't waste your time with Takt unless you're ok with mediocrity in every facet of storytelling.

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…

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 cinematography and fight choreography. Unfortunately, the latter episodes all but render that useless for large scale destructive ability “because big laser beam that takes up the entirety of the screen is cool!”. There’s smaller scale moments but the further you get in the more insane and utterly pointless it becomes until they quite literally come full circle and start beating each other up with their bare hands. Hand to Hand combat on the same level of smoothness and quality of Episodes 1-3 would have had me crazily excited, but I’m going to be honest, the choreography was rough at the best of times and the reasoning for hand to hand combat in said situation is essentially nil so it rendered itself entirely moot. The quality most definitely dipped after episode 3, but that’s only in relation to MAPPA and Madhouse, it was still largely impressive and high quality (for the most part) if it were by any other studios. The choreography and cinematography was just brutal after exiting episode 3 however. Everything was zoomed out and frozen, or up tight and dynamic to the point you can’t really make out what’s going on. There wasn’t anything truly unique like you’d see in episode 1, it felt bland and cookie-cutter in nature like they didn’t have the energy or passion left for the rest of the season. For the big fights past those episodes they really just took all the typical camera angles and movements from old school Shounen battle series. There isn’t anything inherently wrong with that sort of stuff, but this very clearly isn’t a battle shounen nor should it be treated like one. It was a project with two of the biggest names in animation behind it that couldn’t muster uniqueness and quality on par with earlier scenes of itself, just a painful experience.

So maybe the saving grace is in our Main Character, Takt? Or-or, maybe side characters like a mentor or the villains of the series? Takt stood a good chance, he had a lot going for him with music, but the series sucked all that passion and life out of him bar for a few moments that feel so out of place that they elicit largely nothing when in regards to music. Takt has two (2) substantial moments with music outside of the first 3 episodes, in my opinion. One ties itself back into that prohibition story thread which refuses to be explored, and the other. The other, uh. The other doesn’t really make any sense. They *say* Takt’s doing something in regards to music, but they don’t show it. Well, they show it, but they don’t *show* it. There’s no passion or interest or frustration behind Takt’s stone cold visage. The passion in the earlier episodes for music and other aspects of his life have all but disappeared and have been replaced with, “ahhhh, I kind of want to play music and stuff, I guess”. He has his momentary explosions but has overall locked his earlier emotions in a cage where they will never be released from. So let’s move on to the mentor then, really nice personality to him, enjoyable backstory that I think works well. The issue here, and boy is this a big issue, we spend next to no time with him and his “profound” knowledge for Takt is essentially worthless. A series revolving around the mentor of this series would have performed better given what we’ve seen and know about him. He’s wise but likes to be coy and friendly for the most part, always soft spoken but very articulate and cunning, he’s a character that’s been undeservedly dropped into Takt Op Destiny and left to die the equivalent of a Dog’s Death in regards to potential character development. He gets nothing of the sort and is used to tie Takt and Destiny and Anna into the god awful faux-villain to real-villain plot line. I know that sounds spoilery but trust me when I say it’s not. It’s very painfully clear that the first “villain” introduced isn’t really the “real” bad guy, and they even suck at playing the fake villain. They’re the equivalent of a rich boy throwing a temper tantrum because they can’t bully their friends. There *might* be a reason behind the malice, and I’m not against characters that are evil for the sake of being evil, but that’s not the case here. The character is just plainly awful and is bad *because the story needs them to be*. There’s also a dead giveaway that he’s meant to be a bad guy with a certain aspect of his character which makes it even worse when doing the whole faux-villain real-villain thing. That said, the real villain isn’t even a villain. He’s just some sort of fecal matter that was excreted by a dead animal. Zero development, zero rhyme or reason to *anything* they do, they get maybe 5 minutes screen time total but they’re meant to be the endgame of the series somehow. They don’t even have a reason for doing what they’re doing, and explicitly mock themselves as they lose as if they already knew that their reasoning was worse than garbage.


Alright so side note of other awful things, and I know I’m going to be missing a whole bunch. First off, Musicart/Maestro abilities make no sense. They’re meant to be synchronized, where the Maestro provides the melody for the Musicart and their harmony is how their power is produced but that’s never explained and used properly outside of the first 3 episodes. Musicarts never target the Maestros, which are *meant* to be the sources of a great deal of their power, which is in contradiction with the fact that we’re shown countless Musicarts fighting without the aide of a Maestro, but also have examples of ones that fight without a Maestro that are pathetically weak? I don’t know, the power system makes no sense and doesn’t attempt to make any sense to the point that a science based character breaks the fourth wall and says “Actually, I guess you don’t care about the details” when *attempting* to explain how Musicarts work. I mean, that’s one of the worst tropes/cliches to use with stuff like this and they threw it in there anyways. As I mentioned earlier there’s that very obvious thread of Prohibition and Rebellion parallel, that is *continually touched upon but never used* and I can’t understand why. Outside of that there’s the hilariously simple nature of the D2 that becomes more and more altered and inexplicably aggressive. At first they’re monsters that hate rhythm/music, so a largely docile and unassuming beast that’s taken residence across the world. Cars and things like that can make vibrations that have a rhythm to them, so I can understand staying away from denser areas of them like is mentioned in episode 1. The problem comes in later episodes. The D2 become more and more aggressive and less defensive in each conflict. They appear out of nowhere with little to no reason and serve as endless hordes of mobs to fight. Even worse is that by the end, Humanity previously had to apparently fight an entire war against these D2 with the D2 themselves being the aggressors of the conflict. A pathetic last ditch effort at drawing sympathy out of viewers. Even better is this little tid-bit. The United States of America is shown to be suffering and in a bet of a reset period where there’s not an overwhelming amount of technology or anything of the sort. They drive beater cars and have to resort to farming to live and things like that, for the most part. So then why, on God’s Green Earth, does the Symphonica have the world’s most advanced technology concentrated in a single area. Where do they get the funds to operate, how were they established in the first place. Why is cryogenic sleep a thing but the rest of the country is suffering in one way or another? Just some god awful closed book writing that doesn’t care about the rest of its world. A very strong 0 out of 10 for worldbuilding.

I know I’ve bagged on Takt Op Destiny for nearly 3,000 words already so it can easily seem like I wanted to hate it from the start, but I well and truly didn’t. I was raving about the first 3 episodes to everyone and anyone that would lend an ear, it was an electric start to the series and I loved where it was going. There was so much potential, but that was all there was, potential. Execution decided to jump off a cliff as passion and interest hanged themselves in the office. Creativity died a gruesome death and corporate greed chose to don its skin in hopes that people wouldn’t notice. It was the sorriest sight I’ve seen in a long time in anime, and by far the biggest let down I’ve ever experienced. A pair of huge names in the anime industry attached to an original series that has one of the most unique concepts for an anime in a while. It wasn’t some bottom of the barrel low effort, minimum budget anime that got zero recognition or hype in the community. If it was that would at least soften the blow, or if it was just bad from the start I could stomach it as it is. But it wasn’t, it was something truly great and interesting that held meaning and value and passion and all sorts of other great feelings. It was something that for those 3 short weeks I endlessly looked forward to, but soon grew to detest. An awful example of corporate shilling in the anime industry that I hope doesn’t need a repeat.

So I say to MAPPA X Madhouse for Takt Op Destiny from Episode 4 onwards: What you’ve just given us is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever experienced. At no point in your rambling, incoherent anime were you even close to anything that could be considered a passable scene. Everyone that has watched this series is now dumber for having done so. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

Goodness where do i even start with this. This show is plain bad. its really bad. the characters are so one note takt has no redeeming qualities , cosette is just a waifu bait. lenny was so so , titan the usual energetic petite. now i would give it for the art , the art is really good in other words spectacular but on the other hand the story is just there isnt a story. 9 episodes in and nothing happened with the story. and were now in 11th episode and suddenly its the finale . i mean like what ? when i heard mappa ... and madhouse collaborating it was a sure win right. but hell no. even the main ingredient which is the music is subpar. now i play piano and few other instruments. but the music didnt put any effect on the show for a show which is all about getting the music back. im just watching thought it would make any progress but when i found out it only has 12 eps. i gave up, the story isnt going anywhere and suddenly there is a finale and out of nowhere takt gets kissed for no apparent reason from someone who wasnt even showing any signs of it. this is some AOT level ass pull where suddenly eren simps on mikasa hard in the manga. jesus christ. its a waste of time. no endearing characters, music is so so . action sequences are fine. dialogues are flat out bland. overall this show has a very bad pacing even for a 12 ep run and severly boring.

TLDR: Wasted premise.

I was excited by the premise of the show initially. I wasn't familiar with the games but I thought that music would play a much larger role in the action than I found in the show. At many points, I wondered why the Musicarts (Pokemon) even have Maestros (Pokemon Masters). At one point we even see a girl straight out of a fantasy anime with a sword and shield, not even being controlled by a Maestro, so what even is the point?

Would it not be better if the weapons and characters had some sort of musical theme? For instance the main chick is ... from Mozart, so her battle theme should be classical. But it seems all of the characters just have the same music playing when fighting. It would be interesting if each character had a different music genre, and in order to fight together well they would need to combine their sounds and harmonise or something like that, but nothing is explored.

The characters are all generic as hell and not enjoyable. Anna is the only interesting character with personality plus she's hot af so that's cool I guess.

Obviously, the fight scenes animation are great thanks to Mappa. Unfortunately, it is paired with average music, which is kinda crazy given how this universe is supposed to revolve around music.

The story is nothing to write home about either, just like the characters it is generic and uninspired. The dialogue (due to the characters personalities) is mostly uninteresting and expository. Even with all the expository dialogue, many things are not explained well, such as what the point of the Maestro is, and who is associated with which organisations.

Overall, very disappointing, I watched it with some friends and we just talk over it until the battle scenes come on. Would recommend you do the same.

My pure disdain for this show drove me to make my first review and I need to get this off my chest. Speaking as a musician this is simply not a music show. I can agree that they rarely make some niche references, but the actual application of anything vaguely musical is surface level at best. There is nothing that makes me as a musician think "they actually thought about this - I'm impressed". Every time music comes up, I feel like it's been shoehorned in in a way that anyone who actually understands and has dealt with music in their lives would know is ... just bullshit. It's plainly obvious when you scan the rest of the reviews, and everyone who says "I know nothing about music" gives this a 9/10, yet anyone who cares enough about music gives it a 5/10 or lower.

My point is this; It's pretty, and it's got action. If that's all you need to enjoy it, then good for you. Unfortunately, the misuse of music here just puts me off. As long as you're OK with music being a word that means "sounds that makes people feel the good good inside" then give it a shot I guess.

If you are still not convinced that this show doesn't take music seriously, consider watching a show that actually tackles music in a real and respectful manner, like Hibike! Euphonium, and compare this with that. You'll see that the only thing driving this show's score up is gacha buyer's remorse and explosions.

Apart from the visuals, the rest of the show falls flat.

tl;dr - If you're a musician this isn't worth your time.

Are you interested in non-characters? A hardly explained world aside from dreadful exposition dumps? A stupid story with no real direction? If so, this is the show for you.

Looking at the seasonal charts and the PVs, this looked to be a very promising anime with generic but competent story, but as it turns out, the writers have no idea what they're doing. Characters are flat and boring, story is painfully predictable and even though it looks really good the direction for the show is not very good. Just an endless cluster of cliches and uninspired storytelling that makes this show a pain to watch. ...

This might get better, but honestly, I wouldn't have hopes for this one.

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)

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.

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.

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 3.

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.