Tag: takt op

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The Five Most Magical Anime of 2021

Special Notice: This should really go without saying, but since I’m going to be talking about all of these shows in general, overall terms, you can expect spoilers for all of them, up to and including their endings.

So here we are again, anime fans. Another year firmly in the past tense, not just within our specific sphere of interest but in general. Time is a funny thing, it’s already late November as I write this opening paragraph, which isn’t much less time than I gave myself last year, but despite the fact that I am demonstrably writing about fewer shows, I wanted to at least try and give each of them a bit more attention.

Yes, this marks a change in format. Last year I undertook the–in hindsight rather absurd–task of ranking every anime I’d finished that came out that year. The format required me to spend a fair amount of writing real estate on anime that I either didn’t like or simply had no strong thoughts on at all. This year, I wanted to simplify a bit. Only a bit, mind you. This is still me we’re talking about, after all.

So, this year the job is less complex, but simultaneously more difficult. 5 Anime I liked more than the rest; five that stuck with me and that I think will continue to stick with me. Plus, a handful of honorable mentions to get a positive word in for some anime that I enjoyed but couldn’t wholly self-justify putting in the main top five.

Just to fully disclose; as usual, these are indeed only my opinions, thoughts, and observations. My opinions that I consider reasonably informed and well thought out, but opinions, nonetheless. There is also the fact, of course, that anime I didn’t watch cannot make it onto this list by default, with apologies to the several anime I heard very good things about this year but did not find the time to watch myself. (Chiefly here I am thinking of ODD TAXI and Eighty-Six, but there are other examples too.) This list also consists exclusively of serial fiction, in the interest of keeping things fair, so the final Rebuild of Evangelion film isn’t here either. (Which is a shame, because it would’ve easily earned a spot on this list. My hope is that next year I’ll have seen enough anime films that actually came out in 2022 to make them their own list, but we’ll see.) And it’s only shows that are actually finished, so if Ousama Ranking ever shows up on one of these lists, just as an example, it’ll be the list for next year, when it concludes.

Ultimately then, what you have is a snapshot of what I consider particularly worthwhile in the medium of serial anime. A couple things went into picking shows for this list. The simple question of how much I enjoyed watching it week to week is obviously the biggest factor, and all else being equal is what I prioritized. But I did try to give at least some consideration to more nebulous things, such as general public reception, whether I think they will stand the test of time, etc. etc. (Factors that I am of course completely capable of being wrong about. But hey, I try my best.) Above all else was the simple fact of what they meant to me. It is, after all, my list, no one else’s.

Anyway, enough beating around the bush, let’s get to it.

#5. Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story Season 2

Madoka Magica was not the only franchise to make a welcome return this year, but of those that did, it’s probably the one closest to my heart. I will fully admit, there’s some circumstantial bias here. I missed out on the original Madoka Magica when it was airing now a good ten years ago. On some subconscious level it’s possible that my opinion of Magia Record is elevated by the simple fact that I get to see it unfold in real time. I’d be hard pressed to say that MagiReco’s second season was the most accessible anime of 2021–that’s part of why it rounds out the bottom of the list–but it was certainly among those I felt the most connection to. (Covering it week by week, on what would become my last bit of work for The Geek Girl Authority, probably helped.)

To a point, a show that looks like this speaks for itself. Public consensus has held for some time that Studio SHAFT‘s golden age is firmly in the past tense, but if there’s a case to be made for that whole “SHAFT Renaissance” idea that bounces around Anime Twitter from time to time, it’s somewhere in the frames of Magia Record. The season’s stronger episodes (which make up a good chunk of its brief eight) absolutely drip with style, and its premiere in particular is the sort of love letter to both the fans and the series itself that you just don’t get super often. Combine that with its wildly ambitious (some might say overly ambitious!) storyline that attempts to mythmake by tying together disparate parts of the wider Madoka ‘verse, it giving relatively minor characters like Kuroe a chance to shine, and just the frankly kinda insane fact that the Madoka Train is still chugging along at all a full decade later? Yeah, Magia Record earns its spot on the list, even if it is “only” at #5.

It’s totally possible that MagiReco’s third season–whenever it arrives–won’t be as good as this, or indeed that it’ll be much better, but this list is a ranking of what’s aired this year, and this year, the oddball middle segment of a three-part story happened to be the fifth-best anime of the whole damn thing. Go figure.

#4. SSSS.DYNAZENON

As a sequel to one of the best anime of the 2010s–2018’s SSSS.GRIDMAN—SSSS.DYNAZENON is odd. It takes place away from that anime’s setting and involves only two of its characters (and only in a supporting capacity.) But considered thematically, these deviations from its predecessor make perfect sense.

If, as is often held to be the case, we can map GRIDMAN‘s characters to the inner workings of a single mind, and thus make the case that that series is about self-acceptance, DYNAZENON is the logical progression. The exterior to GRIDMAN‘s interior. Like a lot of anime this year, DYNAZENON dealt in themes of alienation and misplacedness. Common emotions that we all struggle with in a world where things feel like they’re falling apart faster and faster all the time. Yet, at the same time, it re-lit the fire of that old truism; no man is an island.

How? Easy. Director Akira Amemiya proved yet again that, yeah, you can still make a show that’s at least 50% giant robots fighting giant monsters by volume actually say something and have it not come across as corny or just over-wrought. DYNAZENON manages the impressive task of welding those fight scenes together with interrogative character work all over again, in a way that feels distinct from, but very much related to, GRIDMAN‘s approach to that problem.

All five members of our core cast are disconnected from society in some way. Be it Yomogi’s parents’ separation, the death of Yume’s older sister, Koyomi and Chise’s mutually-enabling shut-in habits, or even how Gauma is lost from his own world entirely. Over the course of the series they heal, but the journey is not a smooth or easy one, and the kaiju represent allegorical threats to their wellbeing as much as physical ones.

This is to say nothing of the Kaiju Eugenicists, those alarmingly-named villains who serve as the main four’s opposites on the other end of the good guy / bad guy spectrum. They’re alienated too, but their alienation consumes them, and is the driving force behind their desire to subjugate and destroy. In the case of Sizumu, it quite literally turns him into a monster.

DYNAZENON‘s driving question is thus how to move on from that alienation, from those things that drive a wedge between us and others. To its credit, it offers no easy solution, although in showing what really happened to Yume’s sister when no one was there to support her, it offers a dire warning of the consequences of not at least trying. The Dyna Soldiers find solace in the pieces of the Dynazenon itself, which, perhaps tellingly, is formed from what appear to be mere toys in their dormant state. But more importantly, they find solace in each other. To quote my own writeup of the tenth episode from back in June:

The only reason she couldn’t be saved like Yume herself was just a single episode ago is that, in a very literal sense, no one was there to support her. I suspect that SSSS.DYNAZENON may lose some people off that fact alone, but the point here is that Yume is still affected by her death. There are no easy outs, not even here.

But there are words of advice. Before the two leave each other for the last time, Kano tells Yume that she needs to rely on others more. And that, right there, is the entire thesis of SSSS.DYNAZENON as a series. Where SSSS.GRIDMAN dealt with the internal, all of its characters mapping to different parts of a single psyche, SSSS.DYNAZENON is external.

SSSS.DYNAZENON Recap: (S02E10) Which Memories Do You Regret?

It’s known that a third part of the trilogy; a crossover, likely in film form, called GRIDMAN x DYNAZENON, will round out this particular series of stories from Amemiya and co., beyond that, details remain scarce. But SSSS or no, if they can keep making stuff like this, stuff that hits you right in the heart? His place as one of the new decade’s best directors is assured. Keep broadcasting, kaiju king.

#3. Sonny Boy

Another theme we’re going to be seeing a lot of here is transience. It’s rather been my “word of the year,” so I hope you’ll forgive my use of it again, here, but it’s true. All things pass, and for many people our whole lives involve, at least to some degree, reckoning with that fact. Sonny Boy was not the only show this year to grapple with that fact, but it was notably thorough about it.

It begins in the void, but soon crash-lands into an island on the far side of summer. There, surreal parables about life, death, and everything in-between unfold like the show’s own Matryoshka Doll worlds. Universes within universes, wheels within wheels. The purpose? An ode to our lost digital generation; the Millennial/Gen-Z continuum. Adults are imposters putting on a show or so distant that they’re divinity. No one is truly there to guide the cast, much like there’s no one truly there for us except ourselves. They, as we, need to make peace on their own.

Of the anime on this list, I will cop to “understanding” Sonny Boy the least. There is a lot of symbolism here; it’s a dense show. (Which, hey, means it’s good for a rewatch.) But the series’ core of melancholy-hopeful nihilism is easy enough to map out, and that’s what earns it a spot on this list. Well, that and its absolutely stunning visual style. Sonny Boy looks like very little else that aired in 2021, and its surrealist, painterly looks would earn it a spot in the honorable mentions even if the show genuinely was all talk and no walk. But thankfully, while it may occasionally lean inscrutable, its heart beats strong.

Of the various treatises on the passing of everything that 2021 produced (gee, I wonder why that was on everyone’s minds), Sonny Boy stands as one of the more accepting. But in a way, my typing this is pointless. One of the show’s own characters put it best.

Perhaps I should be giving Rajdhani a co-writing credit for how often I’ve used these screenshots when talking about Sonny Boy.

(As a side note; creator Shingo Natsume‘s next project is a sequel to The Tatami Galaxy. So, it seems like this is hardly the last time he’s going to direct something delightfully confounding. Perhaps it’ll show up on the list next year!)

#2. Heike Monogatari

If Sonny Boy explored transience via surreality and imagined worlds far from our own, Heike Monogatari grounded its own investigation of the concept firmly in the real-world concerns of history and myth. Based on a historical Japanese epic, The Heike Story has the benefit of hindsight. From the beginning of the first episode, each character’s steps fall with inevitability. From Lord Shigemori, who takes protagonist Biwa in after her father is callously murdered by members of his own clan, to Taira no Kiyomori’s heartless power-grabbing ploys, every man, woman, and child here has their fate sealed before the first episode of the series even begins.

There is one exception: Biwa herself. (She’s voiced by Aoi Yuuki, in what would be the strongest role in the career of almost any other voice actress but is just another casual triumph for her. She brings alternating innocence for the Biwa we see most of the time, and stately, religious gravitas for the white-haired “seer” Biwa.)

Her role? To be conscripted as fate’s chronicler and become representative both of the nature of the original epic itself and more generally as a symbol of all of us. Witnesses to history, as we are, who so often are powerless to change it despite our own strengths. It can feel grim and fatalistic; seasons change and an empire falls like a leaf from a tree in autumn. But Heike Monogatari never makes it feel that way. Things simply are, and then they aren’t. Dust becomes dust, time ticks on.

Heike Monogatari is observance and acceptance, and the stormy lining to its silver cloud is that it’s so obviously timeless that even writing about it feels sort of pointless. It’s like trying to review The Iliad. It could have been #1, easily, and in almost any other year it would’ve been. Yet, at least to me, it was still somehow “only” the second-best anime of 2021.

But, before we get to the top of the list, let’s go through some honorable mentions. Because you’re worth it, dear readers.

Honorable Mention: takt op.Destiny

Ribbons of highway and a great blue sky way. Ruins, cities, deserts, forests, monsters, and song. A world that’s lost its music. That was takt op.Destiny. Hardly the year’s most “together” production, takt op has the dubious distinction of sharing a bizarre ending twist with notable “would’ve probably made this list if quality wasn’t a factor at all” shortlister The Detective is Already Dead. But obviously, its spotty ending is not why it’s here. Of what I saw in 2021, takt op had some of the most purely joyous animation. Most of it took the form of fight scenes, and it’s easy to dismiss that sort of thing as lowbrow. But by tying it together with a thematic core about rescuing a world that thinks it no longer needs art with that art, it manages to make it all feel meaningful. For the bounty of good to great anime 2021 did have, it was rather short on anime that I felt compellingly made the case for art itself–something last year had in spades–boiling down to mostly just this, Love Live! Superstar!!, and Kageki Shoujo!! (Which itself only missed the list by dint of a dry run of episodes in its middle third.) So, for filling that niche, I am quite grateful to takt op, perhaps the year’s messiest pile of camp.

Honorable Mention: Zombie Land Saga Revenge

If someone asks me what I thought about the general quality of anime in 2021, I will tell them that I had to relegate the second season of Zombie Land Saga to the Honorable Mentions list.

Honestly it barely feels fair. Zombie Land Saga Revenge is everything you could want out of a sequel; it builds on the original in logical and interesting ways. Franchouchou start the season having blown their biggest concert, washed up and down and out. But the mountain waits for no one, so what can you do but try to climb it again? And we saw them climb again. Those ridiculous zombies fought claw and jaw to bigger and bigger concert placements, and along the way we saw them grow as people, with particular star turns for Junko and Yuugiri. Let’s not forget that in the latter case, Revenge decided to just become a historical drama for several episodes, an outfit it wore better than many actual historical dramas do. Zombie Land Saga truly can do it all. The best idol anime of 2021, and almost certainly its best comedy. And I had to put it on the HM list. What a year it’s been, eh?

Honorable Mention: BLUE REFLECTION RAY

More than any other anime on this list, and maybe more than any anime I’ve ever covered period, I really strongly think Blue Reflection Ray is underrated. It’s a victim of circumstance, really. Animated by a studio long past its prime in a year that had two other anime that did many of the same things as it but in a more flashy and accessible way, there is a real case to be made that BRR never had a chance. But this list is, ultimately, about anime that I love. And I truly do think BRR was something special.

And not just because it’s really gay, although that certainly helps.

As a love letter to the magical girl genre, as a scrappy example of what even the most “low budget” of anime can accomplish with enough sincerity and grit, and as a rumination on how society treats young girls–another theme that came up quite often in art this year–Blue Reflection Ray stands tall with the best of them. When, in its penultimate episode, the Reflectors transform back-to-back-to-back just like a “real” magical girl team for the first and only time, BRR felt just as important as any other magical girl series. Girls in a world of lies living their truth for the first time.

Speaking of other magical girl anime.

Honorable Mention: Tropical Rouge Precure

This was the hardest cut from the proper list. TroPre is relegated to the HMs by a technicality; it’s not actually over yet, a quirk of the show’s odd schedule. (Precure series generally run for a full four cours over the course of an entire year, which makes accounting for them in otherwise neat and orderly lists like this one difficult. And yes I’m aware I said that only finished shows would be on the list. Sue me.) But that’s okay, because while Tropical Rouge Precure is great, it’s on this list less for what it actually is and more for the experiences I had while watching it. Its placement here is not due to its excellent sense of humor, its wonderful characters, or its at-times gorgeous animation, even though those are all very much merits the series has.

Unlike most other anime on this list, I did not–and do not–watch TroPre by myself. I watch it with a group of friends, every weekend, at around the same time. In this way, I get to have an experience that I very much would’ve liked to have had as a little girl; getting to talk about one of my favorite magical girl anime with some other girls my own age. A sense of lost youth is a common side effect of being transgender, and while never having gotten to chat about Sailor Moon with schoolmates is pretty low on the list of things I’m sad I missed out on, it is still on that list. So, as a balm for that particular little hole in my soul, I value the series a lot. We plan to continue this practice next year, so unless something goes horribly wrong, you can expect to see Delicious Party Precure somewhere on the list next year, too.

There have already been three magical girl anime somewhere in this article, and that’s the end of the honorable mentions. So you may well wonder; what’s at #1?

Well, a different sort of magical girl anime.

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Oh come on, you can’t actually be surprised.

#1: Wonder Egg Priority

I knew from the minute I started writing this list that Wonder Egg Priority would be my #1.

I tried to talk myself out of it more than once; to convince myself to put Heike Monogatari at the top of the list instead. I like that show and Wonder Egg almost as much as each other. It would’ve been a compromise, but it was one I could’ve lived with.

But that’s the thing, right? It still would’ve been a compromise. And it’s my list, so there is no room for compromise. Wonder Egg Priority is my favorite anime of the year. Is it the best anime of the year? That’s a level of definitiveness that I don’t normally strive for when writing, even if this sort of format implicitly demands it. But if I’m the one being asked the question? Then yes, it absolutely fucking is.

Quite unlike my #1 pick for last year, Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!, Wonder Egg Priority ends the year not as a widely beloved (or at least liked) exemplar of its staff’s prowess. Its place in the popular discourse is, and probably always will be, that of a great folly. A production train-crash that physically hurt the people working on it and squandered its potential and left its audience profoundly disappointed.

Which, of course, is a massive oversimplification. I try to at least pay some attention to what The Public At Large think about the anime I cover, if anything. But the fact remains that while the consensus will probably always be against WEP, and not totally without reason, there are people who still like it. I am one of them. There are dozens of us. I just happen to like it more than anything else that aired this year.

But of course you want to know why, which is a fair question, given what this website is and what I write about on it.

It would be fairly easy to fall back on its many technical merits. Wonder Egg Priority is an incredible-looking show, constantly toeing a line between appearing pristine as jeweled glass and wild as paint-buckets tossed at canvasses. If CloverWorks never make anything that has quite this level of visual pop ever again, it would not be a mark against them in any way. We could talk also about its soundtrack, an underappreciated aspect of the series that colors every moment of it in a way rare both this year specifically and in general. (Sonny Boy is its only real competition from 2021 in this aspect.)

If we wanted to really stretch our critic-brains, we could turn toward its thematic merits. To try to break down the series’ elaborate use of symbolism. Or perhaps its understanding of how gender roles define and oppress us, and how the modern world will beat any young girl it can’t control into submission, co-opt her for its own ends and twist her into hurting others like her. (See: Frill.) We could cite its deeply compelling four main characters and their own specific twists on this notion; a recovering hikikomori (Ai), a former idol with past sins on her mind (Rika), a mysterious wunderkind with a vanished sister (Neiru), and the series’ own high-strung, gender-nonconformant take on the obligatory “boyish one” (Momoe).

We could talk about how they smash personifications of pedophilia, misogyny, and transphobia to paint-colored smithereens and are pursued by anonymous maniacs called Haters through their imaginary worlds. We could talk about how their mysterious “benefactors” who promise they can restore the dead to life turn out to be little more than hucksters past their prime. We could talk, at length, about all of this.

We could even talk about this!

But frankly, I think “all of this” is, incredibly, at least to me, somewhat secondary. It is true that Wonder Egg Priority has all these merits, and I think they alone could be used as an argument for why the show is very good. And if they were all that Wonder Egg Priority did right, it would have earned a comfortable spot somewhere a few ranks back. Maybe between Sonny Boy and Heike Monogatari, as “merely” a show from 2021 that I’m confident I’ll still be thinking about in 2031. In truth, what is often cited as its greatest “objective flaw” (and oh, how I hate that phrase), is what locked me into holding it close to my heart forever, and why, if asked, I will say it’s among my all-time favorites.

Wonder Egg Priority doesn’t really have an ending.

Its story comes to an abrupt halt. Little is resolved, one of the main characters is missing. It’s a question mark. There is no “to be continued.”

This is, I realize, a stance held by very few. But endings are rarely what truly move me about stories. (Heike Monogatari is one of a quite small number of exceptions.) So on its own, WEP’s lack of an ending is no serious fault to me. Indeed, Wonder Egg Priority could have ended in any number of ways, from the sappy to the depressing, that would’ve given it some measure of critical and fan acclaim. If it had really nailed it, it could’ve sat alongside modern born-classics like Revue Starlight, hailed as a truly great example of what TV anime as a medium could achieve.

Instead, it dissolved into a cloud of smoke, seeping into our collective memories forever. It became an unanswerable question and an unsolvable puzzle; quiet as God and twice as unknowable. In doing so, it embodied the boiling haze of steaming existential confusion that is the modern zeitgeist better than almost any work of fiction I have ever experienced. Wonder Egg Priority left an axe-wound in the popular imagination. For that, I love and respect it immensely. In a way, it is this aspect that most closely ties Wonder Egg‘s form to its message. The girls’ struggle, ultimately, is against suicide personified. The Temptation of Death. The fact that they don’t explicitly “win” is contentious. But that’s the whole point; we don’t see how this story ends. Some small glimpses of incremental progress aside, we know nothing. Only that Ai marches forward, in spite of it all, to try again.

I have seen it argued that this is a relentlessly bleak ending, but both the reality of the subjects Wonder Egg speaks on, and its own stylistic flourishes make it fairly obvious that this is, in fact, hopeful. To live in the modern age is to live in a world filled with poison. To live on in spite of that, to get up every day, to snap your gaze toward the horizon and walk–as Ai does–is optimism. This world wants us dead. We live anyway.

Quite unlike last year’s #1, I do not expect that Wonder Egg Priority will ever be hailed as timeless or classic. I think if it is remembered at all, it will be as a mistake. The avalanche of public consensus is hard to fight against, particularly in the age of social media. But, as I have learned many times this year, I can be wrong. If I have ever been wrong about anything relating to this medium I’ve devoted so much of my time to writing about, I would like it to be this.

Because whenever I so much as think about Wonder Egg Priority, it comes back to me in an instant. The hyper-technicolor magical girl psycho-drama that no one asked for, but that we–or perhaps just some of us–sorely needed. Wonder Egg Priority might never gain any coveted status as a must-watch, as a classic of its medium or genre, as “one of the good anime,” or anything of the sort, but if it does not gain some kind of following, there is something truly wrong with this world indeed. We endure precisely because we know we’re not alone. It would be a horribly cruel thing for one of the best articulations of that idea ever put to the silver screen to be lost to obscurity.

Yet, in spite of everything I just said, I hold no delusion that I am the Wonder Egg Guru. I have spent the better part of a year attempting to reckon with the WEP Project’s first, last, and only output. To explain it succinctly, to square how much I love it with how strongly I oppose the worst parts of the industry that let it exist. But the fate’s-honest truth is that I am not much closer to “closing the book” on Wonder Egg Priority, for myself or anyone else, than I was when the TV broadcast ended in late March. It’s an enigma. I think at least some part of it always will be. And maybe it seems unfair to give the gold medal to an enigma. Maybe the #1 spot should be saved for something I can explain better. But it is my view that the role of the critic and commentator is not that of an interpreter. It is that of an honest witness. I could have sat here and thought myself into circles. I could have tried to justify putting something–anything–else at #1, but that’s not honest. And if I don’t have honesty, what do I have?

So, there it is. The most magical anime of 2021. The best anime of the year, so says me, is a series that draws a line from the strained psyche of four teenage girls to our own place, lost in the fog that smothers this haunted planet. Then, in a grand confrontational hammer-smash, it reveals that there is no line at all; these things are one in the same.

Now that’s a magic trick.

And, yes, that’s the list.

What did you think? As I mentioned last year, I try not to pay too much mind as to whether my picks will be “controversial” or not, but, well, last year I didn’t top the list with what is probably the most divisive show of the entire year. So tell me your thoughts! Did you love my picks? Were they utterly baffling to you? Maybe 50/50? What were your top five, top six, top whatever anime of 2021? I’d love to hear from you, so please do leave a comment here or on Twitter. If you’re one of the folks who was disappointed by my #1 (and more than one person explicitly said they would be, whoops!) then…well, I hope this will spurn you to write your own lists, at the very least. (I maintain that basically everyone’s life could be improved by running a blog.)

Incidentally, I ran a very small little competition on my twitter account yesterday, and wanted to shout out @lilysokawaii, @pikestaff, and @theplatinumdove for correctly guessing my #1 pick. For the rest of y’all: better luck next year!

Tomorrow, an article will go up that briefly discusses my plans for 2022, as she fast approaches. I’ll see you then, anime fans.

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Posted on in anime, Let's Watch

Let’s Watch TAKT OP.DESTINY: Episode 12 (Finale!)

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

Well, here we are, anime fans. Twelve weeks later and takt op.Destiny is over. Does it stick the landing? Eh, yes and no. “Takt -Hope-” is not one of the show’s strongest episodes. It does a lot right too, mind you, but some aspects can’t help but feel a little cheap. But let’s not put the cart before the horse, we’ll start with what it does well.

On one level if no others, takt op‘s final episode stands tall with its best moments. The fights here are absolutely gorgeous, with Destiny’s duel with Orpheus being among the show’s best. The episode cuts to and away from this fight several times, but it reaches its inarguable climax when Destiny ditches her gun-sword and the two fight hand to hand.

If you know, you know.

We also get a (very brief) look at Sagan’s past here. The actual flashback is, we’ll say functional, but its conclusion, where he stands shellshocked at a world ravaged by the D2s only to suddenly step on a toy piano in the ruins of a city is solidly done. Sagan didn’t need a terribly deep motivation and I’m not sure the attempt to give him one here entirely works, but it does add a bit of depth to a villain who’s otherwise been pretty cartoonish. And in one particular way, it notably sharpens his character.

Back in the present, Sagan and Takt’s final confrontation opens with the former “explains” that sacrifice is both necessary and beautiful. His plan, thus, is to gather all of the D2s in New York, and then destroy the entire continent to wipe them out entirely. His failure, as was the case two episodes ago, is to understand that the sacrifices made by Takt’s father or by Lenny (both of whom he cites), are worthy of admiration not because of the death involved, but because of their love for others. Something Sagan clearly does not have, at least not anymore. In the end, Takt gives the man’s pontificating the respect it deserves. Which is to say, none.

So how does this all end? With a beautiful whimper; Takt himself puts Sagan out of his misery. There is no final fight between the Conductors, Sagan is literally impaled on a crystal by the time Takt reaches him, and seems to be dying already. Even if he were able to put up a fight, Takt’s brief, impassioned speech on how the world is worth fighting for on the basis that it contains music alone would’ve knocked the will to out of him. Sagan, in a very real way, is defeated on two separate fronts before Takt even shows up.

The ringer they’ve been through knocks the both of them unconscious, and Destiny vanishes not long after…until the post-credits sequence, of course. Which implies that she somehow lives on within Anna, who has become a Conductor as well.

Right then.

Remember in the first piece I wrote on this series when I said how glad I was that this series didn’t have a harem setup? Turns out it actually kind of did, except it has made the puzzling decision to merge both (or all three, if you count Cosette and Destiny separately) girls who are into our protagonist into one. It is, frankly, a strange and somewhat unwelcome coda to an otherwise pretty excellent series, and I don’t doubt many folks are going to take it harder than I have. It may make more sense going into the mobile game, which serves as a sequel to the series, but as the final act of a self-contained piece of art, it is a slight bit of a letdown.

Mostly I just never really bought that Anna was into Takt that way? For ten of the show’s episodes, she seems to treat him more like a younger brother, and the abrupt swerve into a possible second love interest in its final two feels like course correction, as though someone forgot they were supposed to be writing her that way all along. (And given that Anna seems to be a fair bit older than Takt it’s also a touch skeevy, although that might just be age not coming across well in the character designs.)

But, eh, it doesn’t have a literally perfect finale. Most anime don’t get that lucky. Overall, takt op.Destiny was a lovely little show, and I’m happy to have watched it. My most cherished memories of it will likely remain tied to its earlier episodes and to Lenny’s heroic exit in episode 10, but I do not in any way think this was a bad episode. As an end to the series it’s more functional than stellar, but even that value judgment edges closer to dismissing the excellent animation on display here more than I’d like.

So; takt op.Destiny, an action romance road trip thing filled with color and wonder that doesn’t quite stick the landing. There are far worse things to be. Until your next performance, maestro.

So, you’ve heard what I think, but I want to hear your thoughts as well. What did you think of the ending, if anything? What are your overall thoughts on the series? Would you watch a second season if one were announced? Do you plan to check out the mobile game that the show serves in part as an advertisement for? (I’m thinking about it, myself.) Feel free to drop me a comment here or over on Twitter, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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 Directory to 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.

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Let’s Watch TAKT OP.DESTINY: Episode 11

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.

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 Directory to 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.

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Let’s Watch TAKT OP.DESTINY: Episode 10

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.

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 Directory to 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.

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Let’s Watch TAKT OP.DESTINY: Episode 9

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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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 Directory to 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.

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Let’s Watch TAKT OP.DESTINY: Episode 8

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 Directory to 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.

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Let’s Watch TAKT OP.DESTINY: Episode 7

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 Directory to 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.

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Let’s Watch TAKT OP.DESTINY: Episode 6

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.

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 Directory to 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.

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Let’s Watch TAKT OP.DESTINY: Episode 5

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

There is an inherent push and pull at the heart of takt op.Destiny. The show is at its best when it’s giving us pure style. It’s much less remarkable as an actual story, where what we’ve seen so far has been solid but rarely amazing. That continues here in episode 5, “-Equitation -Valkyrie-“. takt op clearly wants it both ways, but the fact of the matter is that it’s a lot better at the former than the latter, so any dose of Plot has to be backed up by at least as much of its visual pyrotechnics. Episode 5 does stay on the right side of that line, and much of what I’m about to say can be chalked up to this being an episode that establishes new elements rather than fleshing them out. But its less inspired moments are a good reminder of why the show has to maintain that balance in the first place.

When takt op ends and people need to refer to this specific episode, they’ll call it “the one where they’re on a train.” Early on, Destiny fights off some D2s, and ends up standing on some train tracks after finishing them all off. Being how she is, she doesn’t move out of the way when a Symphonica train running important cargo (Black Night Siderite, as we soon learn) chugs toward her, so it has to stop. This rather astounding coincidence is how the show deigns to introduce three new characters, all of whom I suspect will be rather important in the weeks to come.

The first of these is Walkure. We learn several things about Musicarts in general through the lens of other characters talking about her; she’s a “conductor-less” Musicart, meaning that while she seems to take orders from another character and perhaps Symphonica-certified Conductors in general, she’s not actually “bonded” with any. Walkure is very straight-laced and by-the-book. She only ever refers to Takt as a disrespectful form of the word “You”* and is generally annoyed when he and Destiny act without official authorization. Later in the episode Takt and Destiny earn her respect after repelling another wave of D2s, and she melts like an ice cream cone in July after a very mild compliment from Takt himself, classic tsundere-style. It’s a little much, but she’s a likable enough character.

Offering that authorization is the conductor Felix Shindler. Shindler is obviously, cartoonishly shady, basically forcing Takt and Co. to “tag along” on his train as it hauls its cargo into Houston. (Our leads are New Orleans-bound, so he argues it’s only logical, given that Texas is on the way to Louisiana.) We don’t get much of a sense as to what he wants here. It’s clear from his monologues and his discussions with first one of his subordinates in the pre-opening, and later with his own Musicart, that he is concerned about Takt because he’s an “unauthorized” conductor.

It’s not totally clear whether that’s actually some kind of problem in the sense that the Symphonica itself would consider it one too, or if Shindler is just a petty wannabe authoritarian. The former would square with the general running implication that there’s something sinister about the Symphonica in general, and the latter would with his characterization here. It’s possible both are true.

As mentioned, the third character here is Shindler’s own Musicart. Her name is Hell. Yes, really. The “vaguely ‘psycho’ berserker” archetype is one that many action anime make use of, and I’ve never been terribly fond of it. We briefly saw Hell for a few minutes back in episode 3, but this is the first time we get any sense of what her deal is. While Shindler is certainly her Conductor she appears to have an agenda of her own, something the show rather hilariously telegraphs by having her play solitaire at one point and flip up a Joker card. I suspect she may end up being more important to the series overall than Shindler is, but if that’ll be the case, only the very seeds of such a development are planted here.

She also gets a genuinely very creepy line where she suggests to Takt that he should bond with Walkure “by force.” Thankfully he’s not interested, but still, it’s kind of out-of-nowhere. Far more arresting than her limited characterization is the fact that her heels turn into….what I will tentatively term “combat rollerblades.”

I don’t think this is what ZZ Top had in mind when writing “Legs”, but perhaps it should’ve been.

Which brings me to my general thoughts on this episode. Most of what we learn was already fairly obvious by implication, and the few new pieces of explicit information we learn aren’t real gamechangers. Takt may or may not be “rogue” in some sense from the Symphonica, but we kinda already knew that. Shindler seems like he’ll be a decent antagonist, but he’s certainly not a terribly deep character, at least not yet. What remains untouchable in takt op.Destiny are the visuals. And true to form, the climactic fight scene of this episode, where Takt, Destiny, and Walkure defend the train from a swarm of flying D2s, is one of the show’s best so far. There are only so many ways to say that a show looks really great, but takt op still does. I suspect it will continue to.

Other than this there are some fun or interesting moments with our main cast scattered throughout. I’d be doing the episode a disservice if I did not at least briefly mention Destiny’s moment of pure euphoria upon eating a new kind of sweet for the first time.

Her and Takt’s relationship continues to soomewhat fluctuate between “bickering siblings” and “a pair of hurt people who take that out on each other because they’re not really on the same page, emotionally.” The whiplash is a little odd, but not so much as to detract from their general chemistry. They work in both modes.

The episode ends with Walkure being coldly dismissed from her post by Shindler and left, I suppose, essentially unemployed?

In the meantime, our main trio get back on the road, still bound for New Orleans. I suspect we’ll be seeing more of all these characters in future episodes. As such, it’s no insult to say that aside from its fight scenes “-Equitation -Valkyrie-” feels a lot like a chunk of setup that has not yet paid off. This is just something that happens when watching a seasonal week-by-week, and it is not really a criticism, merely a fact of the format. Thankfully, the series has enough eye candy to make even an episode like this still feel like a treat.

Until next week, anime fans.

*I don’t speak Japanese, but I believe what she’s saying is “kisama”, a very disrespectful second-person pronoun that, when it shows up in anime, is harsh enough to sometimes be translated as “you bastard” or the like.

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 Directory to 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.

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Let’s Watch TAKT OP.DESTINY: Episode 4

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

It starts out so simply! “Let the Performance Begin -Showtime-“, takt op.Destiny‘s fourth episode, opens with Takt and Destiny engaging in a little bit of training under Lenny’s guidance. It’s a great little demonstration of the kind of thrilling combat animation that takt op seems to be able to just summon with a casual flick of the wrist. Laser fire bounces off of scenery like rubber, a D2 is whacked to pieces like a busted action figure.

The usual. Eventually, this builds into what is probably takt op‘s most natural episode since its premiere. Perhaps “natural” is a funny word to use to describe an anime, but the focus here, at least with regard to Takt and Destiny, is the pair learning to fight like duet partners. And, on a less literal level, learning to find meaning in their new calling as protectors of the weak.

But first; we were promised a trip to Vegas last week. When our heroes roll into the town itself, it initially seems like we’ve been misled. Most of Las Vegas as we know it today is, here, abandoned, and a majority of the population survives by farming in fields outside the ruins. Our brief tour around the Vegas fields here is charming, but it quickly becomes clear that not everything is above-board. Most viewers will start to get the impression that something’s amiss with the introduction of Mr. Lang, a man wearing a decidedly not-farmer-ish suit and escorted at all times by a pair of armed bodyguards. When he’s introduced as the land’s “owner”, one need to connect only a few dots to intuit that the man is, at best, an exploitative landlord.

Before that particular thread can be tied up, though, we should also touch on Leonard’s interactions with Takt, here. We’ve only known Leonard for a little while, but he fills the role of the somewhat-cryptic (but seemingly, largely good-natured) mentor well. He and Takt discuss the meaning of music itself in one of “-Showtime-“‘s quieter scenes. Leonard espouses that music is a bringer of joy and a figurative guiding light. He argues that this is true even if the music itself can only come into existence through pain or loss, a fair enough idea. Less scrupulously, he also uses this concept to defend the Symphonica’s policy of not necessarily telling endangered populations that D2s may be nearby. The reasoning is sound, if cynical; fear saps peoples’ motivation, and that isn’t something that can be afforded when the world is just starting to get back on its feet. That, and they can’t really do anything to defend themselves without a Conductor around anyway. (Perhaps tellingly, Leonard doesn’t say that last part himself. It’s Takt who picks up the ball there.)

Leonard is an interesting and somewhat ambiguous figure, and his driving the episode’s plot doesn’t end here. It’s he and Titan who take the initiative into investigating Mr. Lang, uncovering a secret casino–a remnant of old Las Vegas in both physical form and spirit–without much effort. And while Takt, Destiny, and Anna eventually make their way to this place, too, it’s Leonard who gets in without a fight. When Destiny eventually drags Takt and Anna there, it’s because she’s following “vibrations” under the ground, and she’s more than happy to kick the living daylights out of Lang’s security guards to get in.

Of course, the inevitable eventually happens and Mr. Lang’s underground gambling den is promptly invaded by freaky spiked beetle-gorilla D2s, who bust in through the floor and bounce around the place like Sonic The Hedgehog in a casino level’s pinball table. Leonard gives Takt a sort of live-fire exercise here, and it’s over the course of this sequence where he and Destiny finally learn to “play” together like a proper pair of musicians should. Because this is takt op, that entails kicking a lot of monster ass. And indeed, much of it is kicked over the course of these few minutes. It’s the kind of scene that makes you want to break out old-timey adjectives like “rollicking” and “rip-roaring.” The show’s just fun to watch, OK?

After all this, we bid goodbye to Lenny here, with him shaking Takt’s hand Conductor to Conductor as he wishes our protagonist well. Their own business in Vegas taken care of, Leonard and Titan ride off into the sunset. I suspect we’ll be seeing them again. Oh, and if you’re worried about Mr. Lang, don’t be. Titan rounds him up in the episode’s closing minutes. What exactly happens to him is left to our imagination, but aside from confirming that yes, he was stealing money from the farmers to fund his bougie casinoland fantasies. This sequence also proves that Titan can be quite scary when she puts her mind to it! I really do hope we see more of her.

“This shot is mostly just to remind you that I’m not human and also carry a firearm.”

This episode lays some groundwork for future ones, certainly, but more importantly than that it’s the kind of engaging fun that you (or at least, I) look for in a series like this. It’s a nice reprieve after the rather serious nature of the last two episodes without being so lightweight that it feels inconsequential. This is what you want out of a traveler story series, and I hope many more episodes like this are to come.

Until next week, 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 Directory to 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.