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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