The anime of takt op.Destiny recently wrapped up with a 12 episode season and is a part of a cross-media project by BANDAI NAMCOto which, during this year, a mobile video game will be added. It is not uncommon for anime related to the world of video games to be produced, just think of famous franchises such as You do, Ace Attorney And Higurashi no naku koro ni, and in several cases the animated counterpart turned out to be excellent, despite being used mainly for advertising purposes. One of the factors that intrigued many in following takt op.Destiny was the collaboration between studio MAPPA and Madhouse, two pillars of Japanese animation whose quality has been known for many years; from the very first episodes, you could see the high technical level that could be expected from a work born from the two studios, but in terms of content, what has left takt op.Destiny after this season?
Let’s start with the premise of the story: we are in 2047, where dangerous monsters called D2 infest planet Earth. Born years before the fall of a meteorite, these monsters hate music made by humans and destroy its source, thus leading to a world where it has been made illegal.. At the same time, from the music itself, some said girls were born Musicart, capable of destroying D2s, aided by Conductors. The two protagonists, Takt and Unmeithey are a Conductor and a Musicart, and will begin a journey to New York, during which they will meet countless D2s to be defeated and will meet some members of the Symphonica, an organization composed of various Conductors and Musicarts dedicated to protecting cities from attacks monsters.
- Original title: takt op.Destiny
- English title: takt op.Destiny
- Japanese release: Autumn 2021
- Italian release: Autumn 2021
- Platform: Crunchyroll
- Kind: Fantasy, Action, Music
- Number of episodes: 12
- Duration: 24 minutes
- Animation studio: MAP x Madhouse
- Adapted from: Original work
- Language: Japanese (dubbing), Italian (subtitles)
We reviewed takt op.Destiny via Crunchyroll streaming platform.
Lots of beauty, but little substance
The basis of a world in which music is banned represents an incipit that can leave countless interpretations, especially for stories with more intimate or particularly sentimental themes, it is therefore a shame to see that for takt op. usual and linear action anime structure, with the battles between Musicart and D2 that make up much of the story. The plot, from the slow development, is uninspired and with events that are easy to understand if you have already seen souls with the same formula, then the rather mild dialogues do not help, with characters who repeat over and over again the same concepts that are missing, unfortunately , of a particular creative or profound turning point; also the subject of music, the fulcrum of the work, is told in an uninvolving way, trimming the viewer with various cliched and generic phrases that they fail to fully understand the importance it should have for the story. In fact, it is not even the music itself itself that destroys the D2, but it is the work of the Musicarts alone, who will take care of play them with swords, shotguns and any other type of weapon, reducing it all to something more like a theme show Majokkowhere the main attraction lies in seeing girls with beautiful colored and bow-tie dresses fighting against the bad guys, leaving the role played by the Conductors quite marginal.
Another of the weakest points of the anime are the protagonists: Takt is a musician who cares nothing more than playing and composing, constantly bored with the events happening around him, and only in the last few episodes can we see a small change in his attitude; in reverse, to have a minimum of evolution is the Musicart Unmei, who, despite his lack of emotion from the start, will learn over time to interact in a more human way and to have more expressiveness, although, for the rest of the anime, he presents himself as the usual cold character with a monotone voice , whose only interest is to fight. For the other characters there is very little to say, as almost all of them do not have particularly original character traits, instead remaining firm in the typical stereotypes such as those of kudeere or of the yandere, making the dramatic moments that involve them uninteresting. The bad guys have a similar problem, extremely predictable, their actions and ideas are so banal and already seen as to be more like a parody, without missing moments of total inconsistency.
A feast for the eyes
On the technical side, MAP and Madhouse together create wonderful animations, a notch above many of the current series. The animation is extremely accurate for all the episodes, and gives its best during the battles of the Musicart, together with a direction that follows the characters and their moves in their entirety. In moments of tranquility and dialogue between the characters, there is often attention to their gestures and small movements that help make certain scenes less static. Even on the soundtrack we are on high levels: obviously, we have many recognizable classical music piecesto name but a few there 5th Symphony by Beethoven, the ride of the Valkyries and the 1st symphony by Mahler, and others with various rearrangements. Nothing to take away from the original music, which in any case make up most of the songs, all extremely enjoyable and varied, pleasant to listen to again.
An honorable mention certainly also goes to the Opening, composed by the group Supercellwho have created songs like “Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari” from Bakemonogatari or “My Dearest” from Guilty Crown, among the most famous, as well as being often present in the Vocaloid; the theme song fits perfectly with the tone of the series and, accompanied by excellent animations, manages to get noticed among the many more banal Opening.
To whom do we recommend takt op.Destiny?
Who is used to seeing many souls, may find it tiring to continue with the vision of takt op.Destiny in the long run, as it has several clichés reused in many series of lower quality; however, if you are a lover of the purely aesthetic side of animation, you won’t mind taking a look at it, although, in this regard, there are various animated series from the Trigger and Kyoto Animation studios, capable of offering you some respectable stories as well. It must be said that if you are already interested in the upcoming videogame projectthe anime of Takt. Op Destiny it will probably add some context to the story and characters you might find in the mobile game. Finally, although the series has an excellent soundtrack, music has a fairly limited role, and works like Your Lie in April or Carole & Tuesday could meet your tastes more, if you are looking for a purely musical anime.
- High-level animation and soundtrack
- Plot and sketchy and unoriginal characters
- Particularly slow pace of the narrative in certain episodes
takt op.Destiny
A missed opportunity
takt op.Destiny does not start from the most original of ideas, but he could certainly dare a little more and, with a simple plot, be able to pack a short but nice product over 12 episodes, avoiding leaving many, too many open questions, to which it is not known if we will have an answer with a second season or, directly, with the mobile videogame; MAP And Madhouse together they undeniably do a great job in terms of music and animations, but unfortunately they fall on everything else, still re-proposing old and overused clichés. This is a series that is neither good nor bad that simply lets itself be watched, but in the end leaving us with a bit of a bitter taste in the mouth, for a series that it could have been much more.
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