Let’s Watch is a weekly recap column where I follow an anime for the course of its entire runtime. Expect spoilers!
I am of two minds about “Preparing for Battle -Orpheus-,” takt op.Destiny‘s penultimate episode. (Which, I am covering here way late, I realize. The finale airs tomorrow!)
On the one hand, it’s conceptually pretty straightforward. Sagan’s machinations have led to a massive crystal erupting inside, and taking over, the Symphonica building.
I have taken the liberty of not posting a screencap of the bit immediately after this where he graphically impales his hand on that crystal. You’re welcome.
This has spawned a huge swarm of aggressive, powerful D2s, right in the heart of New York. Naturally, Takt and Destiny–battered though they are from last episode’s events–set out to defeat him. Along the way they aim to rescue Anna and Lotte, who are trapped inside.
For the most part, this is setup for your traditional heroes-storm-the-villains’-lair sort of sequence. It largely works pretty well. Both Titan and Destiny get to show off their fighting chops a bit here, and we get some cameos from a handful of Musicarts who presumably will be more important in the gacha game that it’s easy to forget takt op.Destiny is meant to promote.
Walkure also makes her triumphant return, getting a brief moment of shine that, while it’s nothing compared to Titan’s star turn in episode 10, is still pretty good. And it’s nice to see that the show hasn’t completely forgotten about her.
But there are a few…just odd decisions here. Were I the type to be overly concerned about endings they might make me slightly worried for the finale. As is, I think they mostly just drag episode 11 down to somewhere in the middle as far as my personal rankings for the series go.
Let’s talk about Walkure first. While seeing her here again is lovely, she’s roundly dismissed by all of the other characters as an even marginally important player here. At one point, she mouths off to Takt and Titan promptly conks her on the head and knocks her out. It’s presumably supposed to be funny, given how it’s framed, but it just leaves a strange taste in the mouth.
Later there’s another sincere emotional moment for Takt–not unlike the one he had last episode–where he elucidates why he, even with his rapidly failing health and with the very real risk of death present, is determined to stop Sagan.
This is sincere and affecting stuff, but it’s abruptly, jarringly interrupted when Anna kisses him on the mouth. There are quite a few reasons this is just flat-out weird; it interrupts Anna’s own sincere emotional moment, blunting its impact, there’s the fact that Anna has always been implied to be a well bit older than Takt, and there’s the fact that just last episode Anna was trying to covertly pair up Takt with Destiny. Destiny, who mind you, has made it very clear that she considers Anna something of an older sister. Again, this seems like it’s supposed to be funny, because it’s referenced later and Takt can only stutter and fluster in response when it’s brought up. But it’s so wildly out of place here that it just interrupts the episode’s flow in a notably strange way.
On top of that; early on in the episode there’s a strange mention–not touched on again at any point here–of possibly cryo-freezing Takt and Destiny to find a cure for their condition. This is brought up before everything at the Symphonica goes to Hell, so who knows if it’ll come up again later. But that kind of sci-fi wizardry is a little outside the show’s aesthetic wheelhouse, so it feels a bit off.
And then we come to the episode’s closing scene, which contains easily the biggest humdinger of them all. I will describe this event to you in as plain language as possible, because while it is admittedly pretty cool, it’s also very weird.
Destiny and Takt come upon Hell, who is carrying Heaven. Both of them have a somewhat, how would I put this? Stoned, almost? Look on their face. Our heroes bravely attempt to confront them. At which point, they smirk at each other, and Heaven…releases/conjures/it’s not totally clear from the animation, a tuning fork. Which promptly impales both of them. They then dissolve into a puddle of black sludge, out of which rise a handful of small black prisms dotted with missile launchers, which promptly kill all of the D2s in the room. Then, the sludge coalesces into a new Musicart, presumably a fusion of the two, who introduces herself as Orpheus. Roll credits.
In a word: Huh?
In slightly more words: WTF cannons like this are a thing that single-cour anime love to whip out to throw a wrench into viewer expectations, but this is one of the odder forms I’ve seen the convention take. If nothing else; it’s certainly interesting. (And Orpheus has a pretty cool design, which helps.)
To be frank, I think further speculation on my part would be a bit pointless. What will takt op give us in its final performance tomorrow? I hope you’ll meet me back here when the time comes to find out.
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All views expressed on Magic Planet Anime are solely my own opinions and conclusions and should not be taken to reflect the opinions of any other persons, groups, or organizations. All text, excepting direct quotations, is owned by Magic Planet Anime. Do not duplicate without permission. All images are owned by their original copyright holders.
Important Update: If you voted before approximately 10PM EST on 12/9/21, please click the link below and resubmit your response(s). The survey site I initially used was not working properly and they weren’t recorded.
Hi anime fans, this is less of an article and more of a PSA. When the year rolls over and the anime season, accordingly, shifts, I’m going to be launching a new edition of the Let’s Watch column after the current series I’m covering there, takt op.Destiny, ends.
And not to beat around the bush; this is where you come in. I’ve whipped up a good old-fashioned poll containing a list of what is, to my knowledge, every original or premiere adaption anime being made for the Winter 2022 anime season. They are presented in the order found on Anichart.net. (With the exception of World’s End Harem which I accidentally moved a few spaces down. I do hope you’ll forgive me there.)
The list uses official English names where applicable, and transliterations of the Japanese titles where there isn’t currently a known official English one, sometimes followed by a fan-consensus English name after a slash.
Which is to say; vote to your heart’s content on what you’d like me to cover on the column next season. I will ask of course, that you only vote for anime you’d actually be interested in reading my coverage of. But interest takes many forms, so beyond that I’ll not attempt to restrict you. You can vote for any number of anime, and if I need to, I may launch a second poll as we get closer to January as a sort of elimination round.
Wanna talk to other Magic Planet Anime readers? Consider joining my Discord server! Also consider following me on Twitter and supporting me on Ko-Fi or Patreon. If you want to read more of my work, consider heading over to the Directoryto browse by category.
All views expressed on Magic Planet Anime are solely my own opinions and conclusions and should not be taken to reflect the opinions of any other persons, groups, or organizations. All text, excepting direct quotations, is owned by Magic Planet Anime. Do not duplicate without permission. All images are owned by their original copyright holders.
Let’s Watch is a weekly recap column where I follow an anime for the course of its entire runtime. Expect spoilers!
“Master and Pupil -Lenny-” is the best episode of takt op.Destiny.
Well, okay, that’s a slight exaggeration. Best so far.
Let’s talk about Leonhard, Takt, and the relationship between them.
Last week, Leonhard–Lenny to his friends, which is to say, most people–told Takt that he would reveal to him what happened a decade ago in Boston. This tragedy, which cost Takt his father, the legendary conductor (lowercase C, as far as we know) Kenji “The Rooster” Asahina, has hung over his life like a shadow. We saw this back in episode three where a young Takt’s moody behavior was explained as the result of the then-recent loss. More evidence came in episode six, where Takt met a man named Joe in New Orleans, a former horn player who’d had the opportunity to once play alongside his father. Since then, Takt has focused on writing his song, a composition he’s been working on since episode seven or so.
Where does Leonhard fit into all this? Well, despite the latter’s tsundere-esque denial of it here in the episode’s opening minutes, Lenny is something of a mentor to Takt. They were actually together for only a fairly brief time, but during that time, Lenny taught Takt not just how to fight alongside Destiny but, perhaps indirectly, that life was still worth living. He is a very important person in Takt’s life, and Takt does eventually acknowledge that here.
Sadly, only under quite tragic circumstances.
Before Lenny can explain much, his meeting with Takt and Destiny is interrupted by the mysterious Conductor Sagan. We’ve heard of this man, and even briefly seen him before, but this is really the first taste of his actual character we get, and it is not a pleasant one. Lenny suspects Sagan is responsible for bringing the D2-summoning tuning fork to New York, something he–perhaps surprisingly–openly admits when pressed on. We learn that Lenny’s own cross-country trip with Titan was in large part an evidence-gathering mission. He did not want to believe that Sagan, who he evidently respects, was behind all of this. But he plainly is, and after offering Lenny a single chance to stand down so the two can “keep being friends,” Sagan quite quickly moves on to murder.
Sagan is a curious character. The nature of a twelve-episode anime means that you can’t really save the reveal of the series-wide big bad for this late in the game and not have it come off at least a little weird, but his being such an enigma largely works to the episode’s benefit. And we really don’t learn a ton about him here. Although his comments imply that he finds suffering “beautiful” somehow.
Perhaps a commentary on the tendency to conflate misery and artistic merit that runs rampant the world over. Or maybe the pain we inflict on ourselves, and end up inflicting on others, when we’re convinced it’s somehow worth it. It’s a bit hard to say just yet, and this is one of the few new elements the episode introduces. Mostly, this is an episode of endings.
It splits here splits in twain. One track follows Lenny’s flashbacks as he explains that he was a former student of Takt’s father. Not only that, he was present when the Boston disaster occurred. His motivation for mentoring the younger Asahina this entire time has been to atone for his inability to do anything on that day, neatly tying together his own arc with Takt’s while providing some subtle back-explanation for how he found him in the first place.
The other is the sort of gorgeous action animation scene the series does so well. Sagan commands not one but two Musicarts. There’s Hell, who we saw him repossess from Shindler a few episodes back, and Heaven, who we’ve not actually seen in combat before. It’s a symphony of light and color through and through, and while there are interesting details like Heaven’s weapon design (an umbrella that can turn into a vaguely trumpet-shaped machine gun) and a ton that could be unpacked in the choreography and animation itself, the real story here is the actual flow of the fight.
The match is fairly even at first, given that it’s two-on-two. But Heaven and Hell’s slight edge in strength becomes an overwhelming advantage when Takt collapses in exhaustion from his condition, detransforming Destiny in the process and making it seem like this might be the end for our hero.
It isn’t, of course. But the thread of narrative can be cruel, and if it can’t take one life, it will often wrap around another.
Which is to say, yes, this episode is where we say goodbye to Lenny. Heaven lines up to shoot Takt between the eyes, and Lenny doesn’t hesitate to jump in front of the bullets, taking them in his back as he protects his mentor’s son.
Those who can smile even a forced smile in the face of death are those who know their life was worth living.
He doesn’t drop immediately. Lenny is, as plainly as possible, a tough motherfucker, and he’s certainly not going to just let himself get shot in the back if he can’t at least guarantee Takt and Destiny can get away.
So what does he do? Easy, one last performance.
Did you know Titan can transform, too?
If the visual change isn’t as dramatic as Destiny’s shift into her magical girl-like form, it’s made up for by how outrageously scrappy Titan proves herself to be here. She’s not had a solo in the show like this before, and, while the circumstances are tragic, it is in a way nice that she gets some shine before her time in the series ends. She backflips, manifests another shotgun, Marathon-style, and then when that’s not enough, conjures up a couple more.
Come on Judgment Day with your guns, but no regrets.
It is a jaw-dropper. Titan’s “performance” is comparable to other highlight “action star” sequences from this year like Neiru’s “blow your mind” bit on the bridge from Wonder Egg Priority, Kuroe’s similar half-as-long-twice-as-bright turn in the second season of Magia Record, or, yes, the whole thing with the shotgun on the airplane in the first (and best) episode of The Detective is Already Dead. For two minutes, she is vengeance and defiance; the grim reaper in orange stockings.
She very nearly kills Hell before Sagan backs off. (And to really reinforce his Villain Bonafides, he does so in calm and cool fashion, applauding Leonhard’s “beautiful finale” like a concert attendee while Heaven drags Hell away.)
But blazing finales, by their nature, are final. And it’s here where we confront the crux of the episode. Takt thanks the dying Leonhard for his mentorship and tells him about the song he’s writing. They shake hands, and Takt calls Lenny his “harmony,” in a moment of stunning emotional honesty that is one of his own best moments in the series so far.
Lenny is happy for him, but it’s not long before he fades away into a dying dream. A dream where he and Takt get to play together like musicians, like friends, like teacher and student. A dream that will now forever remain such.
Character death is a hard thing to sell in an anime, especially one this short. Leonhard’s sacrifice for the sake of not just Takt but for everyone is the rare instance that hits exactly as hard as it’s meant to. The star has left the building. Please hold your applause.
The final shot, thus, is a lingering cello, unattended in a concert hall. A haunting memento mori, both played forever and never to be played again.
If Sagan is right about one thing, it is this; Lenny’s final performance is a beautiful thing. But his own cruelty blinds him to the true nature of that beauty. It’s not that Leonhard’s final acts are beautiful because they’re final, it’s because they lay bare a love of humanity and the art of humanity that is willing to offer even its own life up to preserve those things. By circumstance of fate, it is Takt himself who must eventually play takt op.Destiny‘s final performance. But this episode makes a damn good case that Leonhard could’ve done it, too.
Two weeks remain.
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All views expressed on Magic Planet Anime are solely my own opinions and conclusions and should not be taken to reflect the opinions of any other persons, groups, or organizations. All text, excepting direct quotations, is owned by Magic Planet Anime. Do not duplicate without permission. All images are owned by their original copyright holders.
The Frontline Report is a weekly column where I summarize my journey through anime, manga, and the related spheres of popular culture over the past week. Expect spoilers for covered material.
Good day, anime fans. I don’t have terribly much to say this week in the lead-in. Here’s some thoughts about an anime I’m a bit mixed on, one I really like, and one that I….just feel like I have to tell people about.
Mieruko-chan
I have always been a bit of two minds about the Mieruko-chan anime. I thought, and still think, that its positives outweigh its negatives, but it is admittedly difficult to evaluate a show that contains a somber, heartstring-tugging story about a teacher’s failed pregnancy in the same episode where the lead at one point pisses herself in fear. That’d be episode 8, and that’s Mieruko-chan in general. Something tragic and something funny (or “funny”, in this case) within the span of minutes of each other and seeming like they don’t quite go together.
One could argue this reflects the chaotic uncertainty of life in general. Normally, that is in fact exactly what I would say, and I have said similar things about other shows with this kind of tonal yo-yoing. But there are a lot of anime out there that pull this off than Mieruko-chan does, and it just doesn’t fit together properly much of the time. Increasingly, I just wonder if this is the sort of series that should’ve stayed in the manga format.
On the other hand, occasionally it does hit it out of the park. Episode 9, the most recent as of when I’m writing this, is about 50% about Miko and friends visiting a haunted house. Realizing that she can here react to whatever she sees however she likes, Miko revels in the chance to scream her lungs out. Much to the confusion of Julia, her also-able-to-see-ghosts sometimes-rival whose inability to perceive the larger spirits that torment Miko has given her a very inaccurate idea of what our lead is actually like. (Julia is probably my favorite character in general, it must be said.)
So, I don’t know, maybe the show is fine as it is. My hope is that the transition into the arc about Zen Toono, a substitute teacher at Miko’s school, will signal the start of a more interesting run as the series enters its final few episodes.
Perfectly nice, I’m sure.
Ranking of Kings
Last week dropped a bombshell; through some dark magic, King Bosse was back, in the body of his son Daida. Meanwhile, as Bojji trained in the underworld, he appeared to now be able to split boulders with his fists. We get a fair amount of explanation relating to these developments here, but as in basically any good ongoing piece of serial fiction, they raise as many questions as they answer.
We open on a flashback with a young(ish), not-yet-King Bosse negotiating with, wouldn’t you know it, the great red devil who showed up when he passed away a number of episodes ago.
His wish? To be the strongest. The demon’s reply? He can’t conjure power out of nowhere, but if Bosse had a family, he could steal it from a blood relative. Bosse, thus, finds the strongest giant woman in the world and proposes to her. (In doing so, he performs a perfectly understandable action for sinister reasons. Quite a jerk, King Bosse.)
This, as we learn (though it’s not hard to figure out), is Bojji’s biological mother. What exactly happened to her after the tiny prince was born is not revealed here, though it’s hard not to assume the worst. Bosse carves out his own realm in what seems to be just a few short years.
That is Bosse in the distance, walking away from a whole battlefield of dead orcs. In some anime, this would be a way to show how cool he is. Ousama Ranking is not such an anime.
This sequence, and much of Ousama Ranking in general, seem to contemplate the cruelty of power. If one has to do such terrible things to become so strong, what can one possibly do with their strength that’s actually worth it? And does it not inevitably lead to the pursuit of power for its own sake? After Bojji is born, Bosse swears that he will ensure a future for the prince where he wants for nothing. It’s safe to say, given the present, that he didn’t succeed. But there is a marked disconnect between Bosse as we see him in the past and Bosse as we see him returned in Daida’s body. The influence of his vizier Miranjo1–a flesh-and-blood person in these flashbacks but trapped in Daida’s mirror in the present–may have something to do with it, but it’s hard to call definitively.
We also catch up with Domas and Hokuro. Their relationship here changes quite rapidly. It develops from Hokuro trying to kill Domas for his treachery and failing, to Domas rescuing a to-be-executed Hokuro from Queen Hilling’s wrath out of apparent guilt, to Domas being ordered by Bosse–who makes himself known to the swordsman–to destroy a cave to the underworld that exists beneath the castle. Ousama Ranking‘s pacing has been brisk but quite good so far, and this marks the rare occasion where it’s a bit too fast. This seems like the sort of plot that could’ve carried its own episode. Although, I will note, there’s no reason to suspect that Domas and Hokuro’s partnership won’t continue to change. Their interactions in this episode end with Domas promising to train Hokuro. Training he claims Hokuro will sorely need for the task ahead of them.
Finally, there is Daida. Yes, it would appear that the blonde prince is still alive. Although what state, exactly, he’s in, is quite ambiguous. The final moments of the episode conclude with him waking up in a totally black void. He stumbles around, wondering if he’s been imprisoned somewhere, but the total lack of any features seems to imply his prison his more metaphysical in nature. Spare a thought for the ambitious prince, he’ll need it.
As for Bojji? Well, the little big man’s training is complete in this episode as well, though this is one of the show’s episodes where Bojji assumes a minor role in his own show. (Not a bad thing, but notable.) Perhaps his newfound power can help him rescue his brother? Maybe because Bojji came by his strength honestly he won’t fall into whatever pit of ambition Bosse ended up in? It’s hard to say. All we know for certain is this; The Ranking of Kings continues, and somewhere nearby, a devil grins.
Waccha PriMagi!
A new face on this column, and one that’s quite the watching experience.
I’ve been following Waccha PriMagi since it aired. But it’s something I watch with friends on the weekends, so I haven’t really ever thought of it as something I intended to write about in this column. And my knowledge of the larger Pretty Rhythm / King of Prism (I’m not even sure which name is “more correct”) meta-franchise which it’s a part of is quite limited. But I really feel like I need to just tell somebody how utterly bonkers this show is. To record it for posterity so that a hundred years hence, someone can know that yes, this was a real thing and yes it really was like this. God help us all. Or maybe international superstar Jennifer help us all. In the show’s world they seem rather interchangeable.
She’s like if Beyonce` was blonde and had the most generic name ever.
The actual premise isn’t much to stretch the brain here. Matsuri, our protagonist, likes idols and wants to be one. One day, the magical cat girl Nyamu appears and helps her become one. There’s a competition to see who’s the best idol, pretty standard stuff for the genre aside from the magic element, and even that is not really where the weirdness comes from.
No, the weirdness comes from two things. For one, the gaudy character designs. The girls, especially in-costume, look like they’ve been shot with a glitter cannon by Lisa Frank, and there are enough pride flag colors snuck into character designs that it feels like an intentional easter egg on the part of a character designer rather than simple coincidence. Even the comparatively “dark” designs like Lemon’s gothic lolita ensemble are just so much. This is a strength, not a weakness, but it’s a level of audacity in character design that is rather rare, and it takes some getting used to.
Secondly, there is the writing.
Good god is there the writing.
I wouldn’t dare to say that Waccha PriMagi is badly written. It’s a kids’ show, and it’s not for a 27 year old college dropout who writes a blog for a living. It is however, definitely hyperactively written. Compared to it, co-seasonal Tropical Rouge Precure (which is also for young kids, mind you!) looks downright sedate. The simple quantity of things that happens in a given episode is through the roof, and episodes tumble into one another as though the entire series were a single long film. There is little of the episodic nature often associated with kids’ anime. This shit has continuity, and it has the audacity to expect you to remember it all. (Or maybe it doesn’t, given that the most recent episode, the tenth, is a recap episode less than a dozen episodes in.)
Is any of that a problem? Honestly, not really. The series’ sheer chaos works in its favor. Most anime take a fairly straight line from point A to point B. Waccha is content to doodle all over the map on its way there, which is why it took ten episodes for us to get a concise explanation of what the tournament that will presumably drive much of the rest of the plot actually is. This would be annoying for a shorter anime, but as Waccha is an annual it seems safe to assume it will run for a full four cours (landing somewhere between 42 and 50 episodes by its finale), so it has plenty of time to figure out petty things like “plot” and “making sense” later.
What it does excel at, chaotic as it is, is character interaction. The characters in this are great. The sole exception I’d maybe make being our actual lead, Matsuri, who I find a bit of a cipher outside of her idol fangirling. (Even then, she’s pleasant and charming, just not to the level of the other characters.) Nyamu is a total brat, something like a land-bound cousin of TroPre’s Laura La Mer. There’s a cool senpai in the form of Hina, whose day-glo raver look could maybe dull some of the surprise from learning that the song from her first concert kinda slaps.
Seriously, why does this sound like something that would dominate the radio in 2007?
Then there’s Miruki, a baldly two-faced little conniver who would be absolutely detestable if she wasn’t so damn funny. It’s here worth noting that these characters all have their own animal companion friends. And hers is a decidedly stoned-looking bear. And finally there’s Lemon Kokoa, my personal favorite character. I should also take a minute to mention the incredibly good official subtitles this thing has, with full credit to translators Natalie Jones and Nathan Lopez. They’re a bit loose, which some purists may dislike, but they add a lot of color to the show by incorporating modern stan terms, including “stan” itself, “bias,” etc. I mostly bring this up because Lemon is an idol otaku, and also just generally a reclusive, anxious wreck of a gamer girl shut-in. When she and her friends (read: her MMO guild) show up, the translators also take the opportunity to tangle in some modern internet slang. Which leads to the decidedly surreal experience of seeing, say, a phrase like “big mood” in an anime.
Lemon is just below the frame, having passed out from the immense stress of being perceived.
She also has easily the best outfit in the series, the aforementioned gothic lolita dress patterned after the stained glass in a cathedral. A friend described her debut song as sounding “like Touhou music,” and I couldn’t agree more. It also rules.
Yes, the logo behind her says “Radiant Abyss.” It says that because Lemon is cooler than all of us.
I don’t expect I’ll cover Waccha PriMagi often on this column, and it may well never appear here again. As I said, it’s more of a fun weekend watch with friends for me. But! I should stress that if you can find some folks to watch it with, it is immensely fun. (I imagine watching it solo unless you’re a sugar rush’d-out ten-year-old might be a bit much. But you’re welcome to experiment and see if I’m wrong.) Waccha absolutely drips with style and personality. Sometimes when you’ve got so much of that, common sense takes a back seat. Personally, I think it suits the show just fine.
1: I am admittedly not fully sure if this is intended to be her actual name or is some sort of title. In Japanese the character is apparently only referred to as “Mahou no Kagami”, which I believe simply means “Magic Mirror”, so I’m not entirely certain what’s going on there.
Wanna talk to other Magic Planet Anime readers? Consider joining my Discord server! Also consider following me on Twitter and supporting me on Ko-Fi or Patreon. If you want to read more of my work, consider heading over to the Directoryto browse by category.
All views expressed on Magic Planet Anime are solely my own opinions and conclusions and should not be taken to reflect the opinions of any other persons, groups, or organizations. All text, excepting direct quotations, is owned by Magic Planet Anime. Do not duplicate without permission. All images are owned by their original copyright holders.
Let’s Watch is a weekly recap column where I follow an anime for the course of its entire runtime. Expect spoilers!
It’s a strange thing to be grateful for what is essentially a filler episode, but nonetheless here I am, feeling exactly that way. Perhaps “filler” is too harsh a term, “Family -Eroica-” isn’t as inessential as it usually implies, but aside from the cast’s arrival in New York–one of the few cities still standing tall, proud, and mostly untarnished in North America–there are really only two important points here in the ninth episode of takt op.Destiny, and they’re fairly brief ones. In order, those are:
Takt and Destiny’s strange Conductor/Musicart bond will, as some have suspected, kill them eventually. Their choice is thus simply whether to continue fighting, knowing that any heroic intervention could be their last, or to enjoy what life they have in relative quiet and comfort.
Someone is using Shindler’s tuning fork technique to attract D2s to New York. Again, Takt and Destiny’s options boil down to fight or flight. Takt, it will not surprise you, is not much of a runner.
Beyond these two admittedly tense points, most of episode nine is spent exploring New York and providing a bit more color to some character dynamics. It’s enjoyable stuff, if not exactly the highlight of the series.
We also meet Anna’s older sister Lotte here. Lotte is a scientist in the employ of the Symphonica and it’s from her that Takt and Destiny learn about their eventual fate, making her a crucial character to the show’s narrative despite her relatively lean amount of screentime. (And her honestly a bit uninspired design. Lotte and Anna look so similar that I expected them to be twins, but this is not the case.) Though the two do get a pretty adorable reunion hug.
takt op’s New York is not quite as compelling as its New Orleans. That city hummed with vibrancy despite the fact that most of it was abandoned back when we saw it. New York by, admittedly, possibly deliberate contrast, feels a touch sterile. There are skyscrapers and Times Square-style electronic billboards and a park (perhaps it’s meant to be the mythical Central Park? Though if so, it doesn’t much resemble it.) Said park hosts a memorial to a musician who goes unnamed but whom flowers are still left for. I’m not sure if the series is trying to imply it’s a specific historical figure or perhaps a character from its own worldbuilding, but until proven otherwise, I will assume it is for Biggie Smalls.
Ah, I should also mention that there is a Very Important scene of Destiny trying on new outfits and being applauded by the Schneider sisters.
If someone has not yet edited this scene to have her wear head-to-toe Supreme, they should.
There’s also a charming bit where Anna unsubtly pushes Takt and Destiny to go off on their own. Takt being himself, the result isn’t much of a “date,” but the two do discuss future plans; talk turns to fireworks (which neither of them have ever seen) and listening to Beethoven’s Fifth in the park. It’s cute, the sort of thing these sorts of episodes excel at.
But, as mentioned, this does not–cannot!–last. Something beneath the city’s streets has been set up to attract D2s. By whom and for what purpose is a mystery for the time being, although I have my suspects.
The one who confirms for Takt that his suspicions are correct is, of course, Lenny, via telephone. His facade of playfulness breaks when Takt presses him for further answers, and the episode ends on his hanging question; is Takt truly ready to learn the truth? What’s happening here may have happened before, as the conversation again turns to Boston and the general anime favorite timestamp of “ten years ago.” We don’t get any answers here directly–those are for next week–but it’s not hard to intuit that things are about to turn rather sour. Takt even correctly points out that Lenny’s attempt at a farewell mid-call sounds an awful lot like a final goodbye.
Thus, takt op.Destiny enters its final movement. Until next week’s, anime fans.
I could find no place to mention it in the main body of the article so I will do so down here. I apologize for this article being late despite my wishes last week. I’ve been struggling with what I believe is S.A.D., as often hits me around this time of year. I’ve been finding it very difficult to pay attention to much of anything, and writing has been even harder. I will endeavor to persevere in spite of this and only ask your patience, thank you.
Wanna talk to other Magic Planet Anime readers? Consider joining my Discord server! Also consider following me on Twitter and supporting me on Ko-Fi or Patreon. If you want to read more of my work, consider heading over to the Directoryto browse by category.
All views expressed on Magic Planet Anime are solely my own opinions and conclusions and should not be taken to reflect the opinions of any other persons, groups, or organizations. All text, excepting direct quotations, is owned by Magic Planet Anime. Do not duplicate without permission. All images are owned by their original copyright holders.
The Frontline Report is a weekly column where I summarize my journey through anime, manga, and the related spheres of popular culture over the past week. Expect spoilers for covered material.
Hello again, anime fans. I don’t have terribly much to say in my lead-in here. It’s been a bit of a week and I’m a bit struck by the winter blues. I hope you won’t begrudge me that this week’s column is only about two shows. For what it’s worth, I think they’re some of the best that have aired this year. One of 2021’s great stories comes to an end and another begins to hit its stride….
The Heike Story
A common nugget of wisdom holds to show, not tell, when weaving a story. But it’s a false dichotomy in some ways. In the Heike Monogatari, now concluded after eleven weeks, the showing and the telling are one in the same. Never has this been more true than in the series’ final act, where Biwa, fully embracing her role as a chronicler of fate, tells us of the Heike’s demise as we see it happen; two perspectives unified like the visions from her own mystical eyes.
The series’ finale is a thing of beauty. The Heike Clan make their final stand in a battle at sea. They lose, as we knew they would from day one. Many, including the young Emperor, cast themselves into the sea. It is not what you’d call a happy ending.
A common criticism I saw of Heike Monogatari during its airing is why, exactly, Biwa did not “do more” to help the Heike who are, after all, her adopted family. As a critique it makes some sense on the surface. She can see the future, and if anime has trained us to expect anything it’s that those with heterochromia and mysterious powers will intervene to stop bad things from happening. But I cannot help but think this is a simplistic view of both Biwa’s personhood and her situation. She is a witness to history; as we all are, in spite of whatever unique talents we may or may not have. Many of us could “do more” to change things with our own talents, yet we do not. If it is a character flaw on her part, it is one most of us share.
And then there’s the series’ moral, such as it is. A fundamental truth of the world; all things are impermanent. Everything dies, empires rise only to fall. What remains are the stories we pass down and the feelings we hold with us. That, truly, is all.
This is a theme that has run through some seventy years of anime history, but if one wanted to find contemporary examples, they would not need to look all that hard. Surely critics who have studied more classical literature than I have will point out that this is a “very Japanese” and “very Buddhist” theme. Perhaps these things are true, the series is based on a historical epic after all and such things are very much informed by their era and place. I also think, though, it may also be a warning against self-importance akin to what we often grant ourselves here in the Anglosphere. We treat ourselves as living at history’s end, but it continues to happen every day in spite of us.
Heike Monogatari‘s true triumph is to delve into the minds of those gone by; to make the past feel real by showing us the human beings behind history’s academic brushstrokes. In doing so, it reminds us that we are all mortal, and we are all witnesses. Like Biwa, many of us will live to see the fall of all kinds of empires. The only question is whether we will deign to sing about it.
I don’t usually pick shows up mid-season, but Ranking of Kings (known as the somewhat snappier Ousama Ranking in its home country) just didn’t give me much of a choice. “Positive buzz” is one thing, but Ranking on a pure visual level does not look like most anime. This is a reflection of the source material, which seems to draw both on a western-influenced fairy tale book influence and on older strains of anime, not many of which have particularly many artistic descendants in the modern day. So provably, even speaking aesthetically, Ranking stands apart from the usual seasonal grind. This would be interesting on its own, but without a strong story to back it up, it wouldn’t be worth much. Thankfully, Ranking stands as a buzzer-beater candidate for one of the year’s most unique anime from just about every angle. Its visual style could fool one into thinking it’s a happy, straightforward story, but the truth of the matter is that it’s more of a deliberate contrast against the complex character writing and political machinations that our lead, the Deaf Prince Bojji, finds himself caught in.
It’s an utterly fascinating little show, and eight episodes in I can confidently say I have no idea where it’s going to go from here. But what I can do is tell you where it’s been. Doing so alone should be enough for any skeptics to hop aboard the Bojji Train before it’s too late.
Our setup is pretty simple. Bojji is the eldest son of Bosse, the king of a nameless kingdom of which he was the founder. In the show’s opening act, Bosse dies, leaving the question of succession a difficult one. Bojji is Deaf, physically small, and has the misfortune of living in a distinctly fantasy-medieval setting. (Ranking effortlessly pulls off letting us into Bojji’s inner world without any spoken dialogue, but many of the adults around him tend to treat him with vague disdain, or at best, an infantilizing overprotectiveness.) He’s also not much of a swordsman, despite the guideship of his trainer Domas. Though interestingly, he’s great at dodging, a skill that has yet to quite pay dividends narratively but is sure to later.
In contrast to Bojji, there is his younger half-brother, Prince Daida. Daida is much more in the image of a traditional heir to the throne than Bojji. It is thus unsurprising that when Bosse passes away, the kingdom’s council of advisors votes to install Daida as the king instead of his older brother. One might initially think that the story’s central conflict will come down to Bojji’s quest to reclaim his rightful throne, and it may still circle back around to that eventually, but something that simple would not do justice to the sheer amount of stuff this series has covered so far.
For instance; adding fuel to the movement to replace Bojji as the heir apparent is that when Bosse passes away, a massive red devil appears and gestures at the prince. What does this mean? We still don’t know a good half-cour later.
Which is good, because that’s how you build some genuine mystery. Details like this are packed into every minute of Ranking’s runtime and things are only explained directly if absolutely necessary. As a watching experience, it’s engrossing, and doesn’t have much recent competition. I haven’t even brought up Bojji’s plus-one, his shadowy friend Kage who the prince won over with his kindness, and whose obligate backstory episode is one of the show’s highlights.
Some of this attention to detail might come down to Ranking‘s runtime; it’d feel rushed were it only one cour, but it’s thankfully two. (This sadly puts it out of the running for my top five list I’ll be publishing at the end of December. I’m sure the folks at Wit Studio are just heartbroken.)
I have to admit that I considered doing a writeup of this week’s episode as well, but in deference to those who have perhaps not started watching the show yet but might find it interesting based on what I’ve said, I will not do so. Next week, though, you have my promise! Stay strong in the meantime, Prince Bojji!
He’s a mighty little man.
Wanna talk to other Magic Planet Anime readers? Consider joining my Discord server! Also consider following me on Twitter and supporting me on Ko-Fi or Patreon. If you want to read more of my work, consider heading over to the Directoryto browse by category.
All views expressed on Magic Planet Anime are solely my own opinions and conclusions and should not be taken to reflect the opinions of any other persons, groups, or organizations. All text, excepting direct quotations, is owned by Magic Planet Anime. Do not duplicate without permission. All images are owned by their original copyright holders.
Let’s Watch is a weekly recap column where I follow an anime for the course of its entire runtime. Expect spoilers!
There’s a simple trick that anime sometimes use to signal that the episode you’re about to watch is intense. If an anime’s OP is either skipped entirely or played right at the top of an episode, you know you’re in for quite a time. takt op.Destiny does the latter here with its eighth episode, “Destiny -Cosette-“, and it delivers on all counts.
We pick up immediately after last week’s cliffhanger. Takt–quite understandably given what we learned in that episode–has lost it. He charges into battle like a madman and, perhaps predictably, this is not a great approach against the more skilled Shindler and the just generally very strong Hell. He’s beaten within an inch of his life before Destiny carries him off.
Takt, thus, spends a good chunk of episode 8 bleeding out and delirious. Anime characters have pulled off compelling turns in more unlikely circumstances, so it’s not really a huge shock that for the third episode in a row we get some interesting insight into Takt’s character here as Destiny tries her best to nurse him back to health. Even while Takt, barely-conscious, mistakes her for Cosette. All of this takes place over the episode’s relatively brief middle third, and packs a pretty impressive amount of emotional character work into just a dozen or so minutes. The dark atmosphere of the cave that Destiny drags Takt into helps, admittedly, providing a suitably transitional backdrop for the emotional development in question.
It hasn’t been hard to intuit that Takt is still hung up on the late Cosette. Admittedly, with how these things sometimes work in anime it was hard to initially be totally certain that she was even actually dead. (takt op.Destiny would not have been the first anime to pull this sort of double bait-and-switch maneuver.) But as the show’s gone on it’s become clear that Takt really misses the girl. We get some elaboration on the “why” here, and some questioning into if holding that old flame is at all healthy.
On the one hand, yes, it was Cosette who pulled Takt out of his depression while Anna was taking care of him. But these feelings are complicated and muddy, and Takt has never been able to sort them out. Wisely, they’re not given any specific name here, which would risk cheapening them and would turn Cosette’s early-series death into little more then a vehicle for cheap tears.
It may be a touch surprising to add takt op to the list of anime this year that understand that emotional connections are not clear-cut things, but it’s welcome. When people leave our lives, we remember their shadows as much as the real person. Things left unsaid must remain so, and Takt’s inability to deal with that has held him back from genuine connection with the people who need him now. Chiefly Destiny herself, but also Anna and the scores of people they’ve met along their journey.
It’d be easy to criticize all of this as fairly standard “male lead gets all the depth” stuff, but I think looking at Destiny and her own struggles both throughout this episode and in prior ones makes it pretty clear that that isn’t true. Her loyalty and earnestness are not traits she has because she’s in a role that expects them, but because she lives them full-heartedly. Plus, there are little details that could easily have been played up for easy romantic tension but aren’t. When Destiny has to give Takt mouth-to-mouth, for instance, it is refreshingly devoid of any blushy hemming and hawing, something a lesser show would absolutely indulge in.
Random aside to remind you that mid-distance models are great, actually.
Instead, the closest the two are here is when Takt finally calls Destiny by her real name for the first time. I have to confess that I’ve been pretty “meh” on the idea of the two as a couple (the entire “a new person living in the body of Takt’s dead crush” thing is, admittedly, weird) but this scene is the best case for it that takt op has ever made. It feels natural in a way that the light hinting toward the pairing in prior episodes hasn’t.
If I could make one complaint, it’s that Anna does continue to get the short end of the character screen-time stick, as she’s physically quite far away from the action here. Although her own mini-plot here is quite good as well. She confronts her own insensitive habit of calling Destiny “Cosette” as a way of ignoring that the latter is truly gone, and at episode’s end she calls Destiny by her proper name too, bringing this ongoing subplot to a warm close.
(I would like to take an aside here to brag about being six or so episodes ahead of the actual characters in terms of referring to Destiny and Cosette as two different people. But hey, I’m not an anime character and thus have agency of my own. Not everyone is so lucky. 😛 )
Most of that in just the middle of the episode. So how does it actually end?
Well, let’s discuss its antagonist first. It should not be news to any readers who’ve been keeping up with the show that Shindler sucks. He’s a petty, grasping would-be authoritarian shitheel with no regard for other people, and whose hatred of Takt stems from jealousy at the boy’s talent and perceived importance. He is not a subtle or deep character, but he is very easy to hate, which happens to be a good trait for an arc villain to have. We also learn in this episode that he apparently actually hates music full stop. Sure, why not.
Hell, his Musicart, is entertaining, although she leans a bit too hard on the “sadomasochistic berserker” archetype that seems to pop up in every action anime. Her fun design and incredible choice of weaponry (I’m still not over the heel-mounted blades) make her a good counterbalance to Shindler.
Isn’t she just the worst, folks?
Why relitigate these characters? Because the episode ends with a rematch, of course. Destiny initially confronts Hell and Shindler alone. Unable to transform with Takt still recovering in the cave, she comes out swinging a pair of woodchopping axes* and nothing else. It’s commendably confident, but she can’t stand up to Hell’s full power by herself. Naturally, Takt staggers in to lend his power. Also naturally, Destiny chews him out for not taking care of himself and calls him an idiot. (Sidenote to the show-writers: if you’re going to make them a couple in the four episodes we have left. They need to keep this dynamic.) Naturally again, Shindler gets angry because they’re arguing with each other instead of paying attention to him. Naturally one more time, Leonard and Titan make their grand return in the nick of time, the foreshadowing from last episode (and, to be fair, some appearances earlier in this episode that I haven’t discussed) paying off wonderfully.
This machine kills fascists.
And then, honestly, the sort of scene that words cannot really do full justice to. This is where the aforementioned bit where Takt calls Destiny by her real name comes in, and the renewed connection between the two lets them re-enter the fray with full force. The fight scene is just superb, capping off with one of those huge energy blast vs. differently-colored huge energy blast sequences that, just speaking personally, I’ve loved since I watched Dragon Ball Z with my stepdad as a kid and have never stopped loving.
The fight ends here, not because Hell is entirely defeated but because a mysterious Musicart intervenes. Given this show’s general lack of subtlety her name is, of course, Heaven. Heaven’s proper debut here makes quite the impression; she apparently has the authority to both strip Shindler of his rank and to requisition his Musicart, both of which she does, leaving the now-former Conductor a stuttering mess. He promptly has a breakdown, which, honestly, after all of the nonsense he’s put our cast through, feels about right. Leonard and Titan are reprimanded too, apparently more for interacting with Takt than anything else.
We conclude on a note of triumph and catharsis tinged with an ominous shadow. Our heroes have succeeded for today, and are closer than ever as Takt silently vows to Cosette that he’s going to move forward from now on.
Also, and I cannot stress this enough, Anna and Destiny hug and it’s very cute.
Ah, but the final shot of the episode is this, revealing that Takt’s scarring is getting worse. Perhaps implying that using Destiny so much has really started to take a toll on him.
What will the consequences of all this be? It’s hard to know for certain, but I hope we’ll find out together, anime fans.
(Minor programming note: You may have noticed this week’s column was delayed by a day. That is a product of some personal stuff going on and I don’t expect it to repeat next week. Fingers crossed!)
Wanna talk to other Magic Planet Anime readers? Consider joining my Discord server! Also consider following me on Twitter and supporting me on Ko-Fi or Patreon. If you want to read more of my work, consider heading over to the Directoryto browse by category.
All views expressed on Magic Planet Anime are solely my own opinions and conclusions and should not be taken to reflect the opinions of any other persons, groups, or organizations. All text, excepting direct quotations, is owned by Magic Planet Anime. Do not duplicate without permission. All images are owned by their original copyright holders.
Let’s Watch is a weekly recap column where I follow an anime for the course of its entire runtime. Expect spoilers!
Or: The one where things start getting kinda nuts.
Remember Shindler? The weird wannabe authoritarian we were introduced to a few weeks ago? takt op.Destiny certainly does, because he and his Musicart Hell return here, and in spectacularly awful fashion. But getting to the heart of why his return here is impactful requires us to talk about the rest of the episode first. “Truth -Noise-” is in fact, aside from its sharp turn in its final few minutes, otherwise another fairly sedate and character-driven episode.
The focus here, as it often is, is on our leads and their relationship to each other, which takes on a few new dimensions here as the trio roll into a town somewhere in the Appalachians that has been recently beset by D2s.
A few things happen here. Takt is wrapped up in attempts to compose a song since last week’s episode, and relentless mental improvisation (combined with his habit of tapping out the notes he’s “playing” in his head) have left him exhausted.
Takt, seen here looking like every college student I’ve ever known.
Destiny and Anna’s relationship has been somewhat strained by the latter being unwilling to let go of the idea that Destiny somehow still “is” Cosette (and in her defense it’s possible she’s right. We don’t really know enough about the mechanics of how Musicarts awaken. Either way, it’s clear Destiny doesn’t like it.)
Destiny and Takt’s relationship, meanwhile, feels like it’s opening up. When Takt gets ahold of an instrument this episode (a melodica, of all things, rather than the pianos he’s used to), it turns out to be because Destiny borrowed it from someone. It’s clear the two care about each other even if they’re not very good at showing it, which really gives their interactions some depth. Much of Destiny’s other character work this episode involves her helping some of the town’s residents–in particular, the mother of a young baby–out with procuring some basic supplies like food and such. It’s really lovely to see, and she remains a great character. (One of the very few ways this show could realistically greatly disappoint me is if they were to simply make Destiny disappear in a proverbial puff of smoke if Cosette were to come back.)
And about those D2s. We learn that, surprise: Shindler has been able to lead them around by the nose this entire time.
One of Hell’s abilities as it turns out, is to “wake up” sleeping D2s with her tuning fork. Cleverly, we actually saw this in action way back in episode three, but it was there devoid of any context, so we didn’t know what was happening. Shindler rants and raves about how the world is “impoverished” and how there’s no room for the poor and unproductive in it, and how he’s the real hero here and blah blah blah. He stops just short of saying something like “history will vindicate me.” As a portrait of a pretentious blowhard who’s convinced himself that his petty narcissistic impulses are for the greater good, it’s spot-on.
Some will decry the revelation that Shindler also awoke the D2s that lead to Takt’s hometown being ransacked in the first place (and to Cosette being killed and turned into Destiny) as overly convenient. What I think should not go unmentioned here is that in the episode’s opener we see Shindler told to avoid Takt by his superior, who praises the boy as “rare.” There is clearly something going on farther up in the hierarchy of the Symphonica as well, it’s just a question of what form it will take when it finally bubbles to the surface.
Takt naturally wants to kill Shindler. It’s hard to fault him–the man murdered a town of innocent people for basically no reason at all–and the episode ends on a cliffhanger as the two are about to face off. Thus, unlucky number 7 comes to an end. And wow quite a lot happens in this episode, doesn’t it? I haven’t even gotten the chance to mention that Leonard and Titan return for a brief cameo, presumably setting up a role in next week’s episode.
I’m here to look grim and chew bubblegum, and I’m all outta bubblegum.
Until then, anime fans.
Wanna talk to other Magic Planet Anime readers? Consider joining my Discord server! Also consider following me on Twitter and supporting me on Ko-Fi or Patreon. If you want to read more of my work, consider heading over to the Directoryto browse by category.
All views expressed on Magic Planet Anime are solely my own opinions and conclusions and should not be taken to reflect the opinions of any other persons, groups, or organizations. All text, excepting direct quotations, is owned by Magic Planet Anime. Do not duplicate without permission. All images are owned by their original copyright holders.
The Frontline Report is a weekly column where I summarize my journey through anime, manga, and the related spheres of popular culture over the past week. Expect spoilers for covered material.
Hello folks. Quick programming note before we get started here: Frontline Report is going to be a Mondays column from now on, since it fits a bit better with my schedule. This week’s column is, we’ll say, medium length? And primarily about Rumble Garanndoll. Listen; some weeks you don’t choose the anime, the anime chooses you.
Hope you’re all doing well out there, anime fans.
Rumble Garanndoll
Most anime that suffer from the problems that Rumble Garanndoll did a few weeks back are not helped by introducing more characters. Especially not if they’re also girls with some amount of tease-y maybe-chemistry with the male lead. Yet, doing just that has put the series back on track, and its past two episodes are probably the most interesting the show has ever been. If nothing else, Rumble Garanndoll thus continues to defy expectations.
Last week’s episode, its fifth, concluded the miniature story arc of Yuki Aoba. Second-introduced battery girl, and quite possibly Japan’s last surviving idol singer. The natural self-doubt that comes with being an entertainer is compounded by the wildly difficult circumstances of Garanndoll’s setting, and so Hosomichi’s task is to get her back on track when she briefly gives the idol life up. It would be easy to do this by appealing to her imagined responsibility to her fans, or to simple nostalgia for better times, and Hosomichi does in fact try both. What eventually wins her over though is the fact that Yuki as an idol is how she’s happiest with herself, anyone else be damned. Her fans love her because she is a flawed, human person, not because of the artifice. This being Garanndoll, all of this climaxes with Yuki’s own version of the reconfigurable titular mecha–the Rabbit Two–blasting a True Army general to the ground with a rabbit-shaped beam made out of pure Idol Energy. As always, Rumble Garanndoll is at its best when it’s being least subtle.
And speaking of that, the show’s sixth episode is….well, it certainly is something.
I’ve previously commended Garanndoll for its general worldview as one of the show’s strengths. But if one ever thought that it was holding back, today’s episode tosses all subtlety to the window. This is very much a “backstory” episode, and an interlude between the series’ more bombastic moments. But in between usual interstitial fare like fun character interactions (and here, a harem series dynamic that only just manages to stay on the right side of the endearingly cheesy / annoyingly irritating divide), we get Rumble Garanndoll’s take on Japanese Nationalism.
Yes, you read that right.
It will shock no one who’s been following the series that it’s not a worldview the show holds in high regard. But even I was rather surprised at how blunt this sequence is. The conceit here is that one of the resistance’s members has smuggled in a propaganda film from the so-called True Country. There’s been some indication that they were from another world / another timeline / something like that. What’s made clear here, as the black-and-white war reel opens with a declaration that it was made in Year 90 of the “Eternal Showa Era,” is that this other world is one where Japan (and by implication, their allies as well) won World War II. Quite literally, the Japan of Rumble Garanndoll has been invaded by its own fascistic past. If that’s not quite condemnatory enough, here is what resistance commander Balzac says, word for word from the English sub track.
And coming in for the final blow is this interjection from Hosomichi’s “boss,” probably the most morally questionable character on the protagonists’ side of the show.
He perhaps has a talent for understatement.
The propaganda video itself is all monochrome authoritarian bluster. Captain Akatsuki Shinonome, our running background antagonist, decries the people of Garanndoll’s Japan–the declared “Illusory Country,” a heavy-handed erasure of the worth of millions of people–as failures with a “loser mentality.” If the show’s drawn lines from otaku culture to antifascist resistance have ever seemed silly (and I wouldn’t blame anyone for thinking they were), it’s worth noting that the rhetoric here is rooted in real examples. Moral panics about pop media permeate conservative regimes on both sides of the Pacific.
The propaganda film itself is eerily well-done, too. All monochrome except, of course, for the politically-charged imagery of blazing pink sakura blossoms.
Lest you think I’m giving the show too much credit for the “obvious” stance of being pro-democracy and freedom and anti-authoritarianist and censorship, I would point out that it is vanishingly rare for any country’s popular media to engage in such an openly condemnatory way with the dark parts of its own past. Nor does being “obvious” detract from its relevance and importance in a period of time where fascist talking points are increasingly resurfacing worldwide.
All this in the same episode that has a rather silly and drawn-out bath scene. What can I say? The show contains multitudes.
Mieruko-chan
In its more comedic moments, Mieruko-chan can struggle somewhat to justify its own existence as an adaption. At most things that make the series what it is; the creeping tension cut with enough comedy to keep it from being overwhelming, the manga is simply the better option. What Mieruko-chan the anime does offer though, if episode six is any indication, is a real treat on the rare occasions when the supernatural is helping Miko, in as much as it ever does.
The “Shrine Gods” chapter is adapted here, and it’s easily the standout sequence of the series so far. Miko bears witness to a pair–and then a trio–of shrine deities exorcising one of the most frightening phantoms she’s yet encountered. All while Hana remains naïve to the entire affair; fiddling with her phone camera and talking about Instagram while what’s essentially a horror’d up version of a shonen fight scene happens mere feet away. It’s funny, sure, but in moments like this Mieruko-chan feels like it’s exploring something a bit more worthwhile than the more disposable episodes of the anime adaption so far. Let’s hope it keeps that up.
Manga
Spy X Family
Wow, I know! A manga entry in a week where I’m not doing an actual manga shelf column. There’s a reason for that, though. I don’t have a ton to say about Spy x Family. I think it’s cute, charming, and funny. I picked it up again (after something of a false start a year or two ago) because I was interested in checking out the upcoming anime adaption. I can definitely see where enhancements and changes might be made, in particular with regard to Anya’s very good habit of looking incredibly smug. (And of course, I am very eager to see the beautiful Lor in animated form. 😊) Other than that? Everything you’ve heard about this one is true, I recommend checking it out if you have a chance.
Wanna talk to other Magic Planet Anime readers? Consider joining my Discord server! Also consider following me on Twitter and supporting me on Ko-Fi or Patreon. If you want to read more of my work, consider heading over to the Directoryto browse by category.
All views expressed on Magic Planet Anime are solely my own opinions and conclusions and should not be taken to reflect the opinions of any other persons, groups, or organizations. All text, excepting direct quotations, is owned by Magic Planet Anime. Do not duplicate without permission. All images are owned by their original copyright holders.
Let’s Watch is a weekly recap column where I follow an anime for the course of its entire runtime. Expect spoilers!
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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