English Dub Season Review: Takt Op.Destiny Season One

The United States of America in the dystopian year of 2047 has been in chaos ever since the emergence of D2s, an invasive species originating from a black meteorite that fell to Earth. A public decree banned citizens from playing any melodies, to prevent further casualties caused by the D2s’ hatred for music—even now, in 2047, this prohibition is still in effect. Humanity’s only form of defense against the D2s are Musicarts, young women representing pieces of classical music; and Conductors, the ones controlling them.

Takt Asahina, an aloof piano prodigy, finds himself transformed into a Conductor following a spontaneous D2 attack. The same incident kills Anna Schneider’s younger sister, Cosette, and brings Takt into contact with his Musical, Destiny. Searching for a means of stabilizing the pact between themselves, Takt and Destiny—alongside Anna—embark on a perilous journey to the Symphonica Headquarters in New York City. Takt is in a hurry to reach the city so that he can play the piano again, even though his passion attracts the creatures he has come to despise. Meanwhile, Destiny’s sense of duty drags the group into trouble along the way. With a D2-infested path and many more arduous obstacles ahead of them, will the trio make it to New York City in one piece?

On the technical side, The Anime series was produced by MAPPA and Madhouse titled Takt Op. Destiny (stylized as takt op.Destiny). The series is directed by Yūki Itō, with Kiyoko Yoshimura handling the series’ scripts, and Yoshihiro Ike composing the music. LAM provided the original character designs, and Reiko Nagasawa adapted those designs for the anime series. The opening theme is “Takt” which was done by Ryo from Supercell featuring vocals from Mafumafu and gaku, while the ending theme is “Symphonia” which was done by Mika Nakashima.

Upon first watching the show, it took me a while to mentally process the first Four episodes as it first started out of sequence pulp fiction style yet it felt unpolished into this weirdly structured mess. If there’s anything I learned about how these out-of-sequence narratives and time-skips often work, Usually they start with a proper balance of action and mystery and for the most part, it delivers that in spades. However with every question answered, I’m left with even more questions on how this universe works, it leaves the viewer in only an aura of ambiguity, and the viewer cannot understand deeper into the ideals and goals of the main character Takt Asahina who’s only desire is to make music in a world where it’s outlawed.

Aside from the animation and some of the character designs and some well-timed classical/operatic scores, I can’t really think of much that was good about this series. The majority of the characters were shallow and boring yet visually interesting, And despite this feeling like similar anime that previously came out last year called “Listeners“, The story attempts to set itself apart with some character progression and its own set of rules while borrowing the similar “Road Trip” structure of that aforementioned music-themed show. Yet after a specific action scene, it’s extremely jarring to see these people who were supposed to be saving the American countryside cause collateral damage to people’s homes and businesses and then just laugh or make petty arguments about it like callous, detached psychopaths.

And what also hurts this unraveling story the most is the plethora of questions left unanswered that really hinder whatever possible attempts at worldbuilding the show wants to make. For starters: Why are all Musicarts female and all Conductors male? What the fuck was the point of a Conductor, aside from acting as an energy battery? They claimed that it’s to guide the Musicart in combat, but that’s obviously bullshit since later episodes establish that Musicarts can fight independently from their Conductors, and there’s no clear loss of ability in these cases. And why would there be? The Musicarts aren’t fucking Pokémon, as they’re capable of making their own decisions. They don’t need some dude waving a stick around in the background, oftentimes with no rhyme or reason. In the dystopian year of 2047 If the government made music illegal for everyone’s safety and to prevent luring the D2 monsters, what about the use of Headphones? Do they not exist in this future? And finally What’s the relation between a Musicart and music? For the Musicarts being named after classical pieces, they don’t really show any other connection to it aside from their outfit or occasional motif in the background and sadly we never get any answers to these questions. And don’t even get me started on the “main villain’s master plan” that in itself had canyon-sized plot holes.

Overall, considering how this is sort of a video game adaptation, (or at least sort of a prequel to the game’s story) I would be really surprised to find out that this is getting another season. The duo protagonists have good chemistry. But the story is a mixed bag of both good and bad, with alot of the bad sadly overshadowing its focus. The villain’s motivation in the final episode felt like it was made up at the last minute, and you would think that someone would at least try to challenge Takt’s love for music but no. They even made an antagonist who hates music and created an opportunity for some meaningful potential conflict, but that would’ve required clever and compelling writing. While it wasn’t something outstanding or deep, it works better as a very short-lived experience when it sometimes threw logic out the window…