Takt Op. Destiny

small spoiler warning for the ending of the show

Wow. When I had heard that a show being animated by Mappa and Madhouse was coming out, I was instantly hooked. Even though I don’t love everything the two studios put out, they certainly have stellar animation, so I was excited to feast my eyes on some great sakuga.

Well, the show started to come out and it started out pretty strong with a pretty decent first episode, I was thinking to myself "man, this is it, best anime this season." but then the show continued.

Unfortunately, with each episode I found myself liking it less and ... less (with the exception of episode 6). But why was this so bad you Fiend of the festering fries you fanatically fawn over you may ask? Well, have no fear dear reader for I will elaborate.

Let’s first talk about the one good thing and that was the art and animation. Like I said I knew going in that the animation was going to be great and I wasn’t disappointed. The show has some great moments of action and scenes where the animation and lighting really shine. The fight scenes look awesome, and I actually really liked the style too. These two studios collaborating on something is a dream come true, sadly it had to be wasted on a bad story with terrible characters. (Why madhouse couldn’t help Mappa with attack on titan is beyond me).

The story has a very interesting premise. Basically, a quiet place but instead of noise its music. Music being entirely gone from this world is a cool idea and it attracting the monsters is also neat. plus, the only way to beat them is by using these musicarts is also cool. This is where the good stuff ends because a lot of stuff is left unexplained. Where did the D2s come from? Why are they attracted to music? While some of these might be elaborated on in the future it would have been helpful to get some hints. Another thing that really bugs me is that a lot of the times (with the exception of episode 6) people are constantly telling and not showing. They constantly tell you how music is awesome, how music impacted them so much, how they will find a cure for a certain character, how they will rule the world. We aren’t shown that stuff. SHOW how important music is, show us how this person is constantly struggling to make an antidote (outside of the last like 2 episodes). The ending also leaves so many questions unanswered and its extremely rushed with no explanations. The main villain literally loses to the MC because the MC just tells him that he is stupid. There were so many places this story could have gone but instead they just introduce tons of plotlines that go nowhere.

The characters aren’t helping either. First is the main character. takt. The son of a famous conductor, who is also a piece of garbage. He is so unlikable and yeah yeah I get they're trying to go for the whole kinda Tsundere or person who is rough on the outside and soft on the inside. But you have to actually make him somewhat likable for me to care. His companion destiny/Cosette doesn’t help much. They aren’t unlikable but they are very bland, and they have one trait: they like food and sweets. This is because they can make people go: OH MY GOSH SO QUIRKY I LIKE FOOD TOO HEHEHE. Lenny is actually likeable, and he does have some good moments, he might just be the only half decent character. Unfortunately, he isn’t a main character. There was also this one character called anna who tagged along but she is just kinda there and then she kisses takt without any romantic buildup. Finally, the villains have no real motivation and are just kinda evil because well, you wanna see the hot waifus he has, right? All of these characters are so underdeveloped, and they go nowhere so it’s hard to form a connection with them.

as for the other things like sound, voice acting, music, etc, I really can’t comment besides they were all average. I think the music being average is really bad because the whole point of the show is to prove how awesome music is but oh well.

All in all, Takt Op. Destiny seems to have been only OP in the animation. the story and characters go nowhere, and the ending leaves more questions than answers. I was really thinking a show like this needed to be longer but then I remembered other shows that had 12 episodes like Mob psycho 100, kaguya-sama, and the promised neverland and how I got so attached to them in such a small period of time. This just goes to show that this show really needed better writing to actually succeed. If this show gets another season ill watch it and I actually do really hope that it gets better. I don’t hate this show but I see the potential for greatness and I hope later on we can see some of that.

CONTAINS SPOILER

The only good thing going on for this series is its animation and I only managed to finish it out of spite due to the fact that I had high expectations after I read some early reviews. Those were really great reviews and feedbacks; if it was a business, I'm 100% sure I've been scammed.

But again, I did finish it, because I cant lose against a bland series. It helped me improved my concentration and patience too so there's that.

Let me just say it unfiltered: Even though Takt op. Destiny is "supposedly" centered around music, the choices are still bland and boring.

The ... characters has no chemistry except for the VERY brief interactions of real Cossette and Takt on episode 2. I fail to see the connection and depth of bond between the characters' relationship:

1. It is unbelievable, as if it was added as an afterthought, that Lenny was Takt's "teacher-figure". Takt has been rude to him with his very ~mysterious~ "I'm a cool kid who only speaks few words" responses.
2. I don't know what's going on with Takt's head honestly. What are his motivations? He has one but I can't be sure because it's not properly presented. Who are his important people? I'm not sure about that too—even with Ume and Anna, he always had his "I'm too cool for this" attitude. Like, yes, I'm thankful for you two but no, I'm not gonna show it.
3. Ume has a GREAT CHARACTER DESIGN but she is boring.
4. Anna IS almost nonexistent. For episodes 1-10, she is unimportant except for her big sister energy but she didn't add anything palatable to the plot. You can remove her and nothing will change and YET she is suddenly VERY IMPORTANT on ep. 11 and 12. I had to pause when she suddenly kissed Takt. I didn't saw that coming. Her feelings for Takt were not nuanced and they absolutely failed to build their relationship hence my surprise. I do not hate Anna (the only character I dislike very much was Takt) but they could have built that up. They could have showed us PROPERLY that Anna has romantic feelings for Takt. It was very funny that after the *plot twist* Anna is suddenly the most important character next to Takt. Why would I care for Anna if I am not given enough reasons to root for her though? Her character for me wouldn't be ruined if what she fully felt was platonic/familial love because that's what fitting for what they have built (done to her character) in eps.1-10.
5. Takt is an unlikeable protagonist for me. His motivations are not only vague, it is also all over the place. If that makes sense.
6. They are forgettable.
7. Why is Takt even the protagonist?
8. Takt is an awful character whose whole personality is just him being indecisive at plenty of things while being mean and unappreciative of the people around him. Takt is a touch of "Oh, yes, I played piano for common folks because I'm a genius and everyone needs music in their lives so I'm giving it to them." and a sprinkle of "Hm. Let's just kill myself and be everyone's hero because this is the last ep. and I didn't do many 'protagonist-like' thingies in the previous eps."
9. Takt and Ume's relationship is bland as water. Not deep but the ending tried to make me believe that there is something very captivating about it. It didn't work.
10. The villains are as good as the villains in my 8 y/o nephew's 5-minute crafted imaginative short story.

The plot is meh. It made me laugh when Takt suddenly decided that he's going to make a composition—A MASTERPIECE pfft— and my initial thought was, "So you remembered that you're THE musical genius, huh?" There are a lot of areas that was not explored. To name a few: the actual origin of D2 and the power they hold, the connection between Cossette and Ume, the impact of Takt's father to their current society (because there is honestly no proper exposition about what happened in Boston prior the story), the society itself, the last villain maestro whatever you call him's motivation plus his two musicarts whose character designs are wasted. And before anyone comes for me, yes, I know that this anime is a promotional series to a game but does it have to be this bad? Hm? I thought promotions are done for visibility and so that a piece of media can gain a lot of following ... but I fail to see any merit from this series. I'm not alone in feeling this so I'm sure that this 'promotional anime series' did nothing to catch my interest to play the game.

If you love it, good for you though. I'm confused about your anime preference but I respect it.

1/10 for Takt op. Destiny and 1/10 for me too for hoping that it will pick up by the 3rd ep. Should have known that I will waste my time the moment I joked about them using earphones/headsets. For some reason, those weren't invented in this universe but big sister in a wheelchair I forgot her name (I'm sorry) has very hi-tech devices that can monitor Takt's life span or something.

It was a meh.
The plot are so generic and I don't feel the "music" theme in the anime so much. It feels like the generic plot where MC awaken to the power going on with his journey to defeat the bad guy. The guy who make this anime probably tried to make a difference by adding music theme in it but frankly it's just a marketing bullshit to me. Just your typical generic anime fights with good budget, art and animation. The plot are so damn thin I can even imagine how it end.

The ending is super meh. The anime producer just wanted to end ... the anime in good ending so he just use brute force of plot armor to win the last battle.They also ended the story right after the battle with no further explanation. It feels like a high budget filler project for this season.

I was expecting more because I saw good Producers and Studios name but it turn out to be just another marketing bullshit. They fucked it up so bad that their previous reputation won't even able to save them. This series stick like a sore thumb.

I feel regret but even so, I have already spend my time on this anime till the end so I did feel glad that I clear an anime off the watch list. This is the type of anime that you would only watch once.

Did I mention that hearing the word "multimedia" means that any anime adaptation, related to that said word, is doomed from the start? Or that
I had mentioned of believing that a video game, especially in Japan, they're mostly called with the term "gacha", is announced as a sequel to an anime series that served as a prequel, is also doomed from the start? If I had known Takt Op Destiny (TOD) was like this, I wouldn't have planned to watch this weekly as a dreadful chore to fulfil.

Because out of all the video game/visual novel adaptations, whether they're compressed of the original source or ... its anime is served as either a prequel, sequel or a spin-off, 99% of it has made me believe that I shouldn't get my hopes up for their anime adaptation to be made of worthy storytelling; not to mention that there are many scenes that's blatantly telling me, or whoever notices like me, that TOD is a blatant gacha ad in order to get anime viewers to purchase and play the gacha one in the near future. And that's how TOD fails to do this for I've seen some comments from gacha lovers that after watching TOD anime, they've lost motivation to be interested in the gacha.

For starters, TOD should've gotten another cour to flesh out the characters, important plot elements/devices and coherent plot progression that would've been able to make me like it like what Princess Connect anime adaptation did for me. Nonetheless, there are some one-cour series that have managed to do what I've just mentioned above.

The trouble with TOD is that the writing department staff thought that they should put all of the potential elements crammed into 12 episodes because these elements are made up of good quality writing stuff, right? No and no; because too many good ingredients can make the dish taste bad when the ingredients aren't managed properly.

TOD's disorganised ingredients includes the male protagonist who just go with the flow of whatever the plot wants him to do and whose conveyed feelings feels monotonous in my ears especially, a major supporting female character who just kissed the male protagonist out of nowhere without any scenes indicating her body language (particularly her eyes) that she's in love with him from the start, the female protagonist's character development was unmemorable, not to mention she's only developed when her body language doesn't keep up with so-called character development, and the villains of this anime are one of the lamest & uninteresting ones I've ever seen in this medium. Did I mention the main villain's death is too ridiculous to take it seriously and that his Musicarts make me unable to care whatever they're doing to make the protagonists from completing their destiny? Lame pun intended.

Oh! I almost forgot to mention that a beautifully drawn Musicart, whose voice actress is listed as part of the major supporting cast, is unceremoniously used as an obvious plot device. And that which lead her to become a "throwaway waifu" character for she only appears in 2 EPISODES. The obvious sign is that she was behaving inconsistent in these two episodes.

TL; DR Takt Op Destiny is definitely a trainwreck that I would only rewatch until I turn into an old grandma in fifty years time. But if you are in need of a great fighting stuff and couldn't care less about the storytelling getting derailed after each passing episode and could tolerate some animation inconsistent quality as long as the classical music soundtrack sounds magnificent for your earworm, then Takt Op Destiny has fulfilled the qualifications I've just mentioned.

Look, its MAPPA and Madhouse, some of the best animation studios out there right now. So animation is gonna be good, that much they're consistent at. But writing stories isn't their forte at all.

For a story about music being banned due to monsters hating it, and how these heroic creatures born from music are trying to save the world, there isn't much in the form of music to help drive that home. That's not to say the action scenes aren't good, they just aren't up to the standards they should be. There's no world building at all, and everything is encapsulated into this one ... linear story with no lore to add to it. I don't know what makes the different types of monsters dangerous from one another, I don't know why they hate music, I don't know why only musicarts are able to defeat them. And I'm pretty sure the studio doesn't even know, considering how this went down.

But the biggest negative has to do with the characters, specifically with the villains. 12 episodes with 2ish episodes dedicated to backstory at the beginning is not enough to make me give a crap about the villains. Every time they spoke, I was just not interested, even though they're the ones who drive the plot along.

This world that was created had potential. I enjoy animes that utilize music to drive the story, but when you don't have fleshed out characters or even a concrete story, like with a bad song, it just falls flat.

The art is beautiful, but the story is pretty damn bad. The concept itself is interesting, but they never really use it to the full potential. It started off pretty decent and it showed its potential, but quickly they demonstrated that they weren't really here to make a good show. This show was probably ruined by the fact that its going to be a mobile game and you already know what kind of audience they're trying to attract. Not the ones that care for story, just beautiful waifus. Cosette/Destiny is definitely a main character that could have been really interesting, but no shes just ... ok. But hey at least her design is beautiful.

There is an anime called Takt Op. Destiny. You can go ahead and watch it, if you want. Actually, maybe even the first episode. Or maybe even the first five minutes. After you do that, tell me what you think. Or don’t, because I already know exactly what you’re thinking, seeing as I thought the same thing: why is everyone so cringe? What you have to understand is that the word “cringe” is probably the worst word in English. It’s funny; the word cringe, is itself, cringe. To be honest, I could think of 20 other negatively inclined words that would describe this show, but ... “cringe” is regrettably the most fitting.

If you want to best experience Takt Op. Destiny, don’t. Just watch some clips of the fights on YouTube or something, cause those are literally all the show has to offer. God I hate the characters. Takt’s entire personality is “I miss Cosette'' and “I must write this song.” Look, it’s not wrong to be passionate about things; even I have my weird obsessions. But when his entire character is writing this song, I’m sorry, he just becomes flat after a while. Although I will admit, his banter with Destiny is actually pretty funny for the first few episodes.

When reading the preliminary reviews for the show, I often saw the term “waifu bait” being thrown around. While I’m not really sure what that means, Destiny very much panders to those seeking a “waifu.” She has a distinct quirk (her obsession with sweets), she’s competent (she does all of the fighting), and she’s cute, if you’re into that. But does this make her a good character? Not really. Her infatuation with sweets is funny at first, but later becomes stale. The same joke recycled over and over again will almost never be funny. But I digress that Takt’s eventual acknowledgement of Destiny and Cosette being different entities was actually pretty touching.

The one character I liked the most is actually the one I have the least to say about. Lenny is a whole-ass bro, through and through. Love that guy. His flamboyance and outgoing nature made for a great contrast against the obstinately stoic Takt. I don’t really have anything bad to say about him, except for what they did to him was a fucking crime. I don’t care.

Now oh man, the villains are even worse. The biggest redeeming quality of this show is that the villains get a relatively short amount of screen time compared to the main cast. I don’t even know if I could finish the show if the fight scenes were extended any more than they already are. I just fucking hate them so much. Especially that bitch Hell. She adapts the worst shounen battle trope ever. You know that one where people find battling “fun?” that’s Hell, but multiplied. Whenever she appeared in a fight, which is pretty much all the fights in the latter half, I just wanted to stop watching. That stupid smile on her face just made me cringe harder than nails on a chalkboard. You know, I’ve found that pretty much all of my least favourite characters find killing, or fighting, or whatever, fun. Bro, can you be any more edgy? Like “my favourite sound is the cries for help my enemies muster when I slit their throats with my stupid fucking roller skate shoes.” Okay, she didn’t actually say that, you get my point. I swear, when Hell was 14, she wrote Billie Eilish lyrics on the walls of her middle school bathroom. Her unhinged “not like the other girls” nature developed into this cumsock-spawn we now know and hate. Enough about that. Just thinking about her just makes me want to vomit.

But what about those fights? Are they any good? Dude, they’re fucking sick. I mean, It’s Mappa and Madhouse; what do you expect? The animation of the fights is obviously S-Tier. The vividly iridescent colours perfectly contrast the grim, apocalyptic American countryside, which make for an immaculate background for the perfectly choreographed climatic fights, which clearly are the crowning achievement of Takt Op. Destiny. All these factors perfectly beget these beautiful action scenes, which are plentiful throughout the show. Unfortunately, these fights are without emotional substance or stakes due to the lack of care I felt towards the participants.

I didn’t even mention people like Anna, Schindler, Sagan, or Titan when discussing the other characters. Why? Cause I want to forget those fuckers ever existed in the first place.

Takt Op. Destiny is at its best when it displays its high-budget, nuts-to-butts action. I don’t care about the people or the world. The D2s could take over everything, and I wouldn’t care. Oh yeah, I didn’t even talk about D2s, whose invasion of earth is the main plot device. It doesn’t really matter though, since they have such little presence and provide such little threat that they aren’t even worth talking about.

In the end, Takt Op. Destiny is like a hot girl with a stupid voice. She’s hot, sure, but she doesn’t ever stop talking about stupid shit with her yappy voice. Whatever, I’m a lonely guy, and I’ll take what I can get. 4 is a generous score. I am a generous man. I digress. (I don’t actually know what that means, but it sounds smart hehe)

I want to preface this review by stating that I want to be as fair as possible to this show; to give it credit where credit is due, and to say that there was clear talent and effort put into it, on to the review.

Art & Animation 8/10

Starting with the obvious, and probably the biggest reason anyone watched this show, the animation. It's no surprise that an anime made in collaboration with MAPPA and Madhouse would look this good; the animation is phenomenal and the art direction is on the right track... but that's about it, its a pretty show, but the fights are painfully ... dull, with little strategy, or stakes for that matter. During the entire duration of this show, there wasn't a single fight I saw that pulled me in and dangled me at the edge of my seat, they're insanely predictable and almost telegraphed in their execution, if it weren't for the animation I doubt anyone would've really given them a chance.

p.s. the monster designs feel very uninspired, they're basically just animals but bigger, and with an alien-esc color palette.

Sound 6/10

For an anime based around using music to fight off an alien threat, the music was kind of dull. There's been no standout tracks, no amazing scores or memorable pieces, it just feels like there's nothing really there. This is made all the more painful when I realized they didn't even used any classical music in this, I swear to god they had the perfect opportunity to use flight of the Valkyries yet somehow didn't, great. I will say however that when the main character Takt, plays the piano it's actually good, but only in the moment, plus the sound effects quality is remarkably good.

Characters 4/10

If you're looking for a show with deep or engaging characters, go watch something else, as this shows cast is skin deep at best. From the very beginning we're introduced to the our main ensemble, Takt Asahina, Destiny/Cossette, and Anna, their roles and dynamics where essentially set in stone from there onward. Takt is a music piano obsessed loner, Destiny was and emotionless kudere obsessed with food, and Anna was the straight woman who had to haul around the two idiots across the united states all the way to New York. This is the show, to be fair I feel that Destiny was the only character who got something resembling development, I don't know what it was but O actually liked her. Takt was kind off just... I don't know, there? I'd say he was mostly apathetic, he was more concerned with finding a piano, telling people how much he wants to play the piano, playing the piano, and reminding is how much he needs to play the piano, it got very annoying very quick.

Anna was also much more bearable, though again, she was mostly just there, and I'm surprised how nonchalant she was about the who thing that happened to Cossette; She played her role as a straight man the whole way through, and that's kind of it. I can't say more about the side characters, they were there, much like the main cast, but they were even more paper thin than the main trio which was worse.

Story 4/10

I wasn't expecting much seeing as this was a mixed media project, the studio couldn't write a complete story because then the gatcha game wouldn't really have anything to tell. Knowing this I came in with low expectations, but Jesus Christ did they somehow still disappoint. The story was sort of advertised as a road trip, that's what we got, but that's it, each episode was episodic in nature, the main trio finds a town, they have some trouble with D2's, Takt sometimes plays the piano, they fight the monsters, and they call it a day. Now of course there are episodes where the formula is bent a little, but its practically unnoticeable, bar like one exception.

Don't even get me started on the inconspicuous asshole that got introduced like 5 episodes in, then surprise surprise, he's the villain, definitely didn't see that coming from a mile away.

Overall 4/10

This show was just mediocre, it had so much going for it, I swear if they had not only more episodes but a better writing team, this could've been one of my anime of the season, but sadly, that's just not how things went. I know MAPPA and Madhouse are capable of making great works, they've done it before and even continue to do it, it's just that every so often, we get shows like this, and even the pretty animation can't save them for me.

「音楽。心を照らす光。」
"Music. The light that illuminates the heart."

- Asahina Takt.

Yes, you read it right. Those are the deepest words that Takt (and any other character in the show, for that matter) has to offer on what music is. Music is a metaphor for light. For visuals, not sound, not touch, not even heat. Light. This sums up pretty well what the anime has to offer.

The positives of "Takt op. Destiny" are art style, character design and, in most occasions, animation (though it gets lacky at times). You can see the pattern. Visuals, not music. To be fair, the soundtrack and sound effects in this show are... ... acceptable. They are well structured, there is technical knowledge behind it, clearly... but it lacks any "soul", anything that would make it memorable or meaningful. Much like our protagonist Takt, who can play very complex pieces, but can't reach his audience and provide an emotional experience to them (until he does, for some reason). You'd expect this to be intentional and a major point for the development of the story, but it's not. It's boring until the very end.

To talk about story, oh, well, do we really need one? Just make some monsters that hate music fall on earth or something. D2s are one dimensional evil creatures with little explanation and no apparent motivation other than stopping music, which threatens them. That goes hand in hand with Schindler, the first major villain of the show, because we need a megalomaniac human villain too, to show that not everything on the human side is black and white. Humans can be bad too. They can even hate something so beautiful and harmless such as music... because... well... anyway. Moving on.

Sagan, the 2nd villain of the show, is another bland and mentally inept character. His motivations arise as a mean to "fight fire with fire" or eliminate pain by re-signifying pain, which supposedly were to give him more honorable goals. Sagan actually comes up with a half decent idea on how to deal with the D2; although an incomplete plan, it could realistically gather support or, if necessary, even a conspiracy to his side. But no, Sagan tries to do it all alone for no good reason, and in the most harmful way possible, despite there being much better alternatives that could spare many innocents' lives... like just letting people know what he's doing and giving them time to escape.

When we stop to analyze the plot events and the tension (if any) in the story line, it can be confusing. What is the main conflict? We know that music is censored and controlled due to the D2, but they don't have an explanation. Human counterparts don't offer anything better for that purpose. Do we even have real stakes? Meaningful drama? Well, we can put some Beethoven when the generic psycho waifu is choking one of our protagonists, I'm sure the 5th Symphony- which no one ever heard before - will add more spice to that scene!

Regarding characters, the protagonist is supposed to be someone obsessed with a hobby, but he's written by a person who doesn't seem to possess that passion. There is no convincing reason for his intimate relationship with music neither through dialogue nor through his actions - yes, he always wants to play the piano, but why? The best justification is a father complex after he died, which was not further explored. In all honesty, the depth of characters in this show is nonexistent. They will be very glad to state their plot role with plain tropey words. There are a couple character deaths in the anime, but none of them felt compelling enough, either because the script was terrible and the events happened solely to benefit the plot and provide poor shock value, or because it didn't feel like they died at all. If I have to be fair, there are some fun dynamics between Takt and Destiny, but there's not much more to it.

We have to mention some questionable choices audio wise; missed opportunities, I'd say. Like the music playing in the background and the fight happening on the screen having little connection other than the obvious matching tone - fight scene, glorious combat music, sad scene, violins and a low tempo. There's also so much battle noise during some of the fights that I could barely hear the music sometimes. Why couldn't the music be the battle noise instead? There was room to make more unique decisions, but "Takt op. Destiny" sticks to the comfort zone of average direction.

Another point in that regard is using background tracks so often even though the show is trying to convince you that music is, supposedly, banned from this world. It would be very interesting if we had solemn silence instead, if the anime could focus more on using sound effects to create depth and immersion, while leaving music only for the battle scenes with Musicarts or other scenes where it's actually supposed to be playing. Then, each play would have more meaning in contrast to the consuming silence of the in-betweens. Of course, that's not what happens in "Takt opt. Destiny". Music plays at the same frequency as any other show, and has the same impact on the audience as any other show. It's generic, and not deserving of the "Music" genre.

I give 1 point for the effort of all staffs to make this series and for the trying effort in promoting the game. I give 2 decent points for the wonderful animation by MAPPA and Madhouse, the only saving grace of this series. I'll start with my conclusion of this series for the entire part of this review is just about me saying how bad it is: Takt op. Destiny was as bad as Shion's cooking before she gained the master chef skill. It was inedible.
Of course, having MAPPA and Madhouse for the animation was incredible and the only good thing, unfortunately, of this series. ... Everything else was half-baked. I had quite an expectation upon deciding to watch this anime but I was foolish to expect anything from it. It felt like I just stepped on a dog's dung after the last episode expecting that it was clean concrete. It wasn't a story instead it was a plot trying so hard to be good but every concept and idea poured into it were burnt eggs on a dry and black pan. It was inedible and destined to be thrown into the trash bin. I sometimes think that maybe not all anime (no matter the time, money, and effort given to it) are worth the time and effort to be watched at all which leads them to be useless hard work and money. What a waste of energy and space in the World Wide Web. Why do humans spend so much on such commodity that chooses to be rubbish through and through?
If it was meant to be a promotion for the game, why don't they act like it is? Or maybe just like the series it is rubbish? That is so far what I can see from this.

So, what does Takt Op: Destiny(d to fail) offer? Well, not much, unfortunately. Much of the music is forgettable. There was an attempt to make you care about the characters from the second episode onwards, but it all really never amounts to much. Of the characters presented, Lenny is probably the most endearing. Him and Titan have the best banter out of the entire cast, which isn't saying much. The title character "Destiny" is far stiffer than a walking plank, which is also her bra size. The other title character, "Takt" (oh god, did they really use edgy title drops to name their characters?) has ... less personality than Shin from 86.

I think there is a character named Anna who acts as their chauffer, but never really contributes beyond being the straight man in this trio. Lenny and Titan show up around the end of episode 2 if I recall, and immediately steal the spotlight. Seriously, Titan has this bubbly personality and is an absolute joy to watch. To quote Gigguk, "I will protect this smile." And, dear lord, that smile! I could go on about how amazing that smile is. Seriously, give Titan all the snacks, the pats, EVERYTHING.

Um... the villains sucked. I disliked Promare's main villain, but at least that guy had a plan. Here, this "Sagan" guy is upset cause some soldiers died fighting the D2's. He had a big cry about it, and then realized life is suffering, and decided the US needed to become a containment zone for all the D2's. Oh, the D2's hate music. I'm sure there is an allegory for something MURRICA there, but I really have no idea what it might be. Does the US hate symphonic music? Is that the allegory?

Where was I? Oh, right. Lenny and Titan need their own series of them cruising around, getting up to shenanigans. I feel like we could get a Baccano 2 from this pair. Hey, why not? Baccano 2: The (mis)Adventures of Lenny and his daughter.

Sure beats Takt Op: Destined to Failure.

This anime was pretty, but overall very bad. The plot was terrible, and had some small potential but was not well executed. I was not sure what was happening the whole time, should have not wasted my time on this anime. Do not recommend. I can't believe it was nominated for anything.

I usually stop watching animes that are this confusing and boring, but my boyfriend made me watch it. After watching, I realized from other reviews that this whole thing was just an ad for a gacha game, and that actually made some of the stupid choices make sense. What an expensive ad for ... them to do just for a game. I probably would have played the game but now I am mad because this anime was so bad. If you enjoy being confused, and not knowing what is happening, and having so many questions even after 12 episodes, then this anime is for you. I hope there is not a season 2 because that would be a huge waste of resources, and climate change is real.

This anime is vastly overrated. It is a good anime. It should be treated as a good anime. However, it is not the "masterpiece" that was promised. Several anime this season have outshined this anime by a long long distance. I have a laundry list of complaints about this anime, but lets be honest, you are not gonna read them. What I will say is that people give this anime FAR more credit than it deserves. Good anime, not great.

Yet, if you are a music lover, You will like this anime. I dont like music anime, so just finishing the anime is kind of ... a chore to me. You might fare better. Good luck.

visually appealing (well it's MAPPA) but it has a bland story. it's really hard for me to watch so I dropped it off. the anime has potential tho but these days it is not just about the art style. the anime feels like an empty shell. this anime is soul-less. I like the character designs especially Corsette but I don't like the design of the villain monsters; those ape-thing creatures. this anime is pretty disappointing I was expecting something more. i thought it would revolve around music like it could be a theatrical type because music is one of its genre.

p.s. this is my ... first anime review.

The series was a rollercoaster - excellent art and sound, alternated with some lousy, shallow characters and rushed plots. Each chapter created loose ends and open-ended plots. I kept coming back because of the art and overall quality, but honestly the final episode crapped all over the first 11 episodes. OP bosses that simply gave up. The entire totally-idiotic "here's what really happened" story, and the cliff-hanger nonsensical ending where the producers count on a 2nd season to complete anything. 11 episodes of being strung along then given a big middle-finger. Dropped my rating from a 9 to a 1. Watch the 12 episodes for ... the quality, then forget you ever watched it because it was nothing but a massive ad campaign that will probably never see a 2nd season - but hey, you can buy the game and see how it ends.

God....okay, … I don’t like Tack.Op Destiny to be honest. I wasn't even hyped for it either, it was just there, so I gave it a watch. And this is a no from me, dawg.I don't hate it per se. There's nothing glaringly wrong about it, it's just that there are so many little gripes and problems that build up and bother me.It just feels like the writers didn't try.


STORY-
Basically Takt is a better version of listeners ,but that's honestly not a compliment.Both shows are about two people in a world where music is almost gone from the world, and they go ... on a journey and fight with something music related.In Listener’s the people fighting are called “Players’ and in Tackt Op. The people fighting are called “Musicarts”. But just like both, their stories are very vacuous,hollow,and basic,and both are really boring.

I already made a review on Listeners,but the problems I have with takt are mostly similar to Listeners,just keep that in mind.But focusing on Tackt Op.destiny(which has the most clumsy title of an anime ever and a pain in the ass to type)

The themes about music feels less like a theme and more like an ambiguous plot device, the only times music plays a role is when the show reinforces over and over that Takt likes music and to use the concept of music as some ambiguous conceptual being that the villains monolog about.Despite it being about music, the style or setting of the show doesn't incorporate music that much into it.I feel like the only reason that the anime takes place in USA is because of the music culture there,but instead of exploring different types of music,incorporating it into battles more than just having a fancy conductor stick, or hell being somewhat creative with it, it's just fight scenes mainly. Fight Scene on top of fight scene on top of fight scene. WIth loud ass music.

I think the best way to describe the writing in Takt is like a video game adaptation of a video game that didn’t exist.(note-i didnt realize until i checked on mal that it was based off a mobile game that came out at the same time this aired,but i fukin called that shit so yea)

There are just a lot of things that make no sense, and the show doesn't explain that much about where the D2 come from or how they exist, also the explanations about the Musicarts and the Maestros is murky at best .Despite having long flashbacks and info dumps, there is barely anything valuable to get out of most of these scenes,and it feels like the show is just using fightscenes to distract you from how little the story is actually progressing.there is a lot of exposition that barely matters repeating info we already knew but also not addressing other important things,it doesnt help that the dialogue is trying way too hard to be clever, and for a journey anime, it's soooooooooo boring.

Each episode is almost the same, The gang go to a location, Destiny fights the D2 and that's about it.Sometimes there are episodes where nothing fucking happens. And it's not because of world building since they already have an American setting to work with.There are no situations to help shake things up, build the characters or anything, there are just fights and more fights that are so over the top and trying so hard to be flashy by having the most goofy ass sound effects. And there are just over the top emotional moments for the shallow characters and in the words of the famous artist Icona Pop: “I …….don’t ……….care”

And the setting bothered me too. The show takes place in 2047, but for some reason it feels like a setting older than the one we're in now. I know the D2 have destroyed a lot of civilization,but for some reason technology regressed???? People still use paper maps, watch old vintage television, and one of the girls still uses a FUCKING LAND LINE TELEPHONE IN THE YEAR 2047???????I don't think anyone uses smartphones either.so it feels like this setting taking place in the future didn't matter at all.


CHARACTERS-
The characters are one note ,inhumane like, and don't have chemistry, the main two are at each other's throats for half the show.
Cossette’s whole character is that she likes to eat and break things.I get the writers wanted to make her the alien entity who learns about human nature, but her main sign of character development is her repeating character personalities over and over to other people. Even characters who did not matter to the plot.its like her voice actor pulled up the character wiki's and read aloud from it. She does develop late on but its way too little and waaaay too late,The thing about her is that she is a new entity called Destiny who in the body of a girl who passed away called Cossette,but by the end of this show, Destiny had less character personality than the girl who passed away in episode 2.,What really pissed me off though, is that the characters kept stating how much she has grown and im like “bich, really?”Destiny went from a sugar eating robot, to a one dimensional sugar eating human.

And the main dude, Tackt,was just a bore. He has no personality outside of music,he is insanely bland,so full of himself,and feels like a puppet controlled by the plot.He’s like a caricature of an art student, focusing only on what he makes and literally not caring about anything else.His character development really peaked in episode 2.His dynamic with Cossette was heartwarming,but when Cossette turned into Destiny, that dynamic vanished and Tackt turned into a sodden, pretentious,ass, with little to no likeability or personality outside of “I like piano , i love piano, i wanna have sex with piano, i wanna tap dat piano ass”.You might say he could make a good “video game protagonist'' but without a player’s control on what his personality is.The show had so much potential to develop him and his dynamic with Destiny since she took the place of his dead sister, but its like the writers tried that in some scenes, gave alll the way up , and just turned him into heroic character who fights evil for the rest of the show.

Anna doesn't matter,she is literally the chauffeur of the anime, her sister mattered to the plot more than her, all she did was fall through a plank of wood and tell the group to shut up when they were fighting.

If anything the better characters I liked were Lenny and Titan, not because they were well written or anything ,but because they stole the show at some parts.Titan is cute and kicks ass resulting in her having the best fights in the show, And Lenny is….hot. I think the directors would agree with me because there are a lot of shots on his ass for some reason,aaaaand That's all I got for him. I didn't say the characters were well written did I? Because they aren't. Titan literally doesn't matter, she could've been anyone basically.And Lenny is a personified tutorial,showing the characters how to fight, catching up to speed about what's happening in the story(i.e. not much) and disappearing for a good chunk of the show.My only compliment is that the story by the end had a bare minimum of character development resulting in stakes and making the fight scenes more hype.Goes to show how valuable a character is to an anime. And its not much in this anime


Oh and the villains. They're not just lame, they're probably the worst villains I have seen in a long time in any medium.There are two of them, and you know they're villains right when you see them.The first one is like a dumber version of Syndrome from the Incredibles, he feels envious because of how others reject him and then later on he has this weird delirium where he wants to become a hero by causing destruction to happen and solving that destruction making him more praised by others.Incredibles took those two conflicts with him and made it work, but in this anime, those two conflicts feel like they contradict each other. Not to mention he’s fuking stupid. The villian after that is even stupider.The main villains motive is sooo bad.Not bad in like a “oh its evil” kinda way, Bad as in poorly written, stupid, and nonsensical. “ You know, people sacrificing their lives is not cool man, you know what would help? Basically Genocide, yea that will definitely stop people from dying” Ugh.

ART AND ANIMATION/SOUND
I usually dont talk about art and sound last but there's not much to mention.Its a collaboration between two studios who both make fabulous looking things,Mappa and Madhouse.My problems with both studios is their inconsistency, Madhouse sometimes can make their anime look great and other times make it look like Overloard(aka dogpoo). And Mappa is basically the same way but more drastic since they make an anime every five seconds.

Unfortunately, the inconsistency plagues this anime. It feels so unstable. The fights are really nice and top tier sure, but as is said before, the characters or story barely add any sense of investment to the fights so it leaves me bored going ohh and ahh mainly. Some scenes look like a standard tv anime and other cuts of the same scene are so jarringly higher in quality, it looks like a different anime entirely..There isn't a lot of harmony, which is ironic coming from a show revolves around music. Speaking of music its also inconsistent. Some of it is good, albiet a bit loud,like the piano tracks, and other tracks sound like stupid guitar music during fight scenes. Saddly most of it is unmemorable.And the foley was just obnoxious, its like a bad diarreha bowl of jojo sounds,micheal bay, and madoka magica. Even so much of a swing of Destiny’s weapon has like five different sounds.

ENJOYMENT-
Y’know after thinking about it, this show is bad, I can't deny it. It's not because it does anything awful, it just doesn't try, and falters in basically every area. The show tried when it came to looking good, but didn't try when it came to what mattered which was the writing. There are just so many holes that feel barely thought of.This show is one of the many that thinks its concept alone is enough for an anime and its lack of competent story and characters piss me off the more I think about it.And its nonending that made no sense really did it for me. Does no one care about writing a good anime story beforehand anymore? Probably not the case, Odd Taxi months later is still a masterpiece, AOT, Kageki Shoujo, hell, even Tokyo Revengers had a better story. And I'm sure there a lot of manga and written works that have yet to get an anime. Sadly they will have to wait for their time to shine, because right now, poorly written cash grab anime based on irrelevant mobile games will have to take their spotlight.And I hope Mappadhouse is proud of themselves if they ever break even from the sales of their ingame currency/blurays.


Fuck it,
Overall-4/10

I started this review very ambivalent, but now I'm a little salty. I wasted my time on a show like this. If i watched this seasonally, I would’ve gone insane.

I could not bring myself to watch this any further past ep 2. This was just outright bad, it was so shallow from the very beginning, I thought that I probably was just feeling bad because I finished jobless reincarnation the day before and that any anime compared to it would feel trash. Came back a week later and it wasn't because of that, takt op in itself is terrible. It lacks depth and story, the graphics and fights are good but what does it matter if the plot doesn't exist. I had some high expectations from what i've seen in the trailers but this ... is worst than I could of imagined. It's how an anime about music and sound has mediocre music, underwhelming sound effects and unconvincing voice acting. Don't be baited by the fight scenes and graphics. This is hardly worth your time. This is the first time I have ever thought so low of an anime I thought was going to be good. I've never given any 1's or even anything below a 6 across the different categories.

Do yourself a favor and watch something that can actually be considered good.

I thought Madhouse would have some kind of positive influence on MAPPA, or that this time they could do a better job. This anime seemed like an improved version of Listeners, I had some good expectations early on, I legit thought they could have gone on a nicer route, but the story truly never develops, the whole anime as itself is pointless, they don't care about creating a nice story or give you nice characters, they were just setting ground for their game and used a senseless story for the anime. Such a shame, I really thought MAPPA could have done better this time with ... their Listeners experience, maybe this will be an anime only worth it for those that want to know the game backstory, but even that I don't think is worth watching this.

The art is good, so is the animation, but what's the point of being beautiful if it lacks content?

The best way I can describe Takt Op Destiny is by comparing it to a musical performance. A musical performance in which the performers are using almost every instrument that they can find, and playing them with any symphonia or rhyme. Every instrument plays a portion of a note and stops, then the next takes over and does the same. Sometimes they play solo and sometimes in duo or trio or even above. And all of them are playing the most basic notes without any variation in them. In this way, you are unable to enjoy any of the notes and all of them feel ... incomplete and unimpactful. As a result, the entire performance feels like a rushed, unmanaged mess. That`s what I feel about the anime. It feels like a collection of plotlines and story points that are playing one after another. Many don`t go anywhere and are left unresolved or answered (like Takt`s song and Cosette`s ultimate faith), while many feel under utilized or never explored enough or in the right way to leave an impact (like D2`s origin, and Sagan`s plan and ultimate faith. The pacing and order is very bad, especially in the first few episodes. The script is over stuffed with story points and ideas of other stories. The whole anime feels like a rushed, unmanaged mess, and it makes it very hard to enjoy or like it.
All of this would be enough to label it as a colossal failure. However, that`s not it. Coming back to the performance: Even though the performance feels like a mess, you can`t but help like part of it. Because there are few instruments that you like or appreciate and enjoy listening to. And also, because so many of them are playing in quick succession, you rarely feel bored. On top of that, while the performance may not sound or feel good, it defiantly does look good. The lighting on the stage, the multiple color, the performers and their dresses, all look stunning. This makes the performance more appealing and enjoyable. And that`s also what I feel about the anime. There are so many story points that you end up liking a few. And because most of the fight and exposition happens in quick rapid succession, it keeps you entertained for the most part. It`s animation style and aesthetic are visually striking. It`s character design, abilities and world setting are also very interesting. And while most of the story doesn`t work, some actually feel complete and go some where, like Lenny`s story and Saga`s flashback during the first D2 invasion. And while the side characters aren`t very interesting, they are still feel appealing and don`t feel annoying. This make the anime more appealing and enjoyable.

However with all said and done, the anime has so much flaws and issues that it`s a miracle that I ended up liking anything. Everything in it feels bland, rushed and incomplete, especially the story. There is so little world building and the story barely explores the many plot points. Things like the origins of D2 and music-arts are barley explored. The anime also never resolves plot points like what happened to Takt`s song or what or how the hell happened at the end with Takt, Cosette and Anna at the end. The most awkwardly done part was the message or the struggle of the anime. The aim or Takt and father was reintroduce music in the world, so that the world can feel happiness and hope again. However, instead of making that their main drive to fight and eliminate the D2, Takt and father thought the best approach would be to hold a stage performance out in the open, when D2 warnings are in the air. I really find it hilarious that they think witnessing a stage slaughter after a performance will give hope to the people. And it`s never made clear why does it really attract D2. Or why do they attack and kill everything else along with the source of the music. Or why haven`t the instruments been destroyed all together, and instead are placed for display.

Anyway, those are my thoughts about Takt op Destiny. I enjoyed some of it`s part, but it`s a real mess. And I`m not surprised, considering that this was essentially an game-based anime, I not really surprised as those are rarely good.

So... I'm really sorry to tell you, but Takt Op have an awful story.

The anime has really good music, really good chracter desigin, choreographic and beautifull fights... I had a lot of expectation for this anime and staff (I absolutely love Mafumafu's music for example), buuut the storytelling is really bad and turned out to be just a mobile gacha game adverstiment. That made me mad.

I feel so bad for investing time in this... Story takes a huge part of my judgement and I couldn't stand that. A lot of things come from nowhere, a lot don't have explanations in the anime, the villains ... are so pathethic and previsible, the show has a lot of deus ex machina and so on...

Don't watch it if you care about the story.

Story: 1/10 awful
Art/animation: 10/10
Sound: solid 10/10
character: ~7