Let’s Watch is a weekly recap column where I follow an anime for the course of its entire runtime. Expect spoilers!

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Before we begin, an administrative note. I somehow managed to hurt my hand a few days ago, and on top of that am presently sick. This is why there was no Frontline Report this week. I ask your patience if I seem a little less sharp than usual, and if my articles are accordingly a bit shorter for a while.

In any case, takt op.Destiny‘s sixth episode, “Sunrise -Rooster-“, for the most part, focused on minor bits of character building and some small dollops of backstory both for Takt specifically and the show’s setting in general. Most of it is building on old ideas, rather than introducing new ones. But that shouldn’t be taken to mean it’s minor. The emotional beats hit here are arguably more important than the actual narrative developments seen in episodes like last week’s. (Something I have come to realize about takt op is that I prefer its more low-key, traveler story-like episodes to its more “plot-important” ones.)

Following on from what we saw of Vegas a few episodes back, New Orleans, which our heroes reach here, is fairly desolate. Quite unlike Vegas though, there are remnants of the city’s past scattered about in a way that feels lived-in rather than superficial. Takt notes New Orleans as the birthplace of jazz, a fact that perhaps unsurprisingly, becomes relevant in the episode’s midsection. I should also quickly note here that, while we don’t meet a huge quantity of characters here, the episode does fairly well capture the racial diversity of an American city. That’s something that a lot of American media doesn’t do, so it’s worth praising here.

We follow two different paths through New Orleans over the course of the episode. Anna and Destiny leave Takt in the car while they go to pick up groceries, and their side of things unwinds into a chain of them helping out the various elderly residents of the city. Most of this is more cute than anything, but the third person they run into–an old woman with what appears to be dementia who mistakes Anna for her daughter–Destiny is eventually able to emotionally open up for one of the first times in the series. She has no shortage of praise for Anna, calling her strong, saying she protects her and that she knows many useful things. But it’s what she says about Takt himself that’s most revealing.

It’s been easy to get the impression that Takt and Destiny don’t really like each other very much, but that idea is put to rest here. Speaking honestly about her “Maestro”, Destiny praises the passion he puts into his piano-playing, and how it translates into her own experience on the battlefield. As she puts it, she is the music. It’s so poetic that it’s easy to forget that it’s almost literal. Without a doubt, this is one of takt op’s best pieces of character work so far.

Takt himself meanwhile ends up in what’s essentially a speakeasy. A small bar with shelves stocked higher with records and CDs than they are with liquor. The episode’s other two standout characters make their debut here as well. One is an enthusiastic bartender, who happily raves about a performance he once saw from Takt’s father once the Maestro lets slip that he’s Ken Asahina’s son. The other is the contemplative Joe, a former horn player who once played alongside Ken. He is, perhaps more than most, hit hard by the music ban.

Takt connects to both in his own way (although he’s rather cold to the former). When he’s given the opportunity to play a piano he, of course, takes it, and the resulting concert is one of the few times in takt op.Destiny where we’ve seen its first title character seem genuinely happy. Perhaps unsurprisingly, that joy spreads to his audience, and Joe especially is moved by his performance. (You may note that on another level, the performance of the entire cast spreads joy to us, the audience of the entire anime. Popular media is more cleverly meta than it’s often given credit for.) As thanks, the bartender offers him some music composition paper, something sure to come up again later.

It’d be easy to write this off as a “minor” or “filler” episode, but, as I mentioned in the first paragraph, I think these emotional moments are ultimately what give the visual showmanship the series is known for its meaning. Music, animation, and so on. We’ve all got art in our bones.

The episode closes with a rather ominous aside. We sneak a peek at the offices of the Grand Symphonica, where its leader learns that the only son of Ken “The Rooster” Asahina–which is to say, Takt–is still alive. Mention is made of “proper countermeasures,” it all feels very heavy and foreboding. Yet the episode itself is the very opposite of that; just for today, Takt, Destiny, and Anna all seem genuinely happy. It may or may not last, but it’s wise to appreciate the calm before the storm hits.

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