Autumn 2021 First Impressions – Takt op. Destiny

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: TBA

Source: Part of a multimedia project which includes a game.

Episode Summary: One fateful day a black meteorite fell to Earth and unleashed the D2, creatures who hate the sounds that humans make, especially the beautiful harmonies to be found in music. Now, playing any sort of music runs the risk of attracting swarms of D2, so there are many people who no longer even remember what music sounds like. But just as humanity began to lose all hope the Conductors and Musicarts appeared, using the power of music to defeat the D2.

Takt and Cosette are a partnered Conductor and Musicart, although their ability to work well together is somewhat lacking. Their de facto handler, Anna, does her best to wrangle their disparate personalities in service of a shared goal – to reach New York so that Cosette can be “repaired” by the Symphonica there. Their journey eastward is bound to be dotted with challenges, not the least of which is their ability to effectively combine their powers and achieve their goals as one.

Impressions: This Autumn flagship series, formed from a partnership between closely-related studios MAPPA and Madhouse, is a gorgeous and striking outing that takes advantage of some of the beautiful classical music that exists in the world. It’s also extremely, well, anime, getting cozy beneath a warm blanket filled with silly terminology and goofy character antics that don’t always contribute positively to the action. It’s sort of an off-kilter first episode that shows some promise, but definitely has a few kinks to work out.

As the characters’ story begins, they seem to be somewhere in the Southwest US (I can’t recall if they stated any specific city, but based on the environment the general area is fairly obvious). I really like this; I’m sure part of it is that I still get a kick any time the producers of my favorite media acknowledge the existence of the country in which I live (now we just need to convince them to set an anime in Minnesota… maybe a curling sports anime? I’m willing to sell this idea to any studio willing to animate it, haha), but the deserts and rocky plateaus of the region are visually striking and serve as a great backdrop for the beginning of a cross-country adventure (just ask Appare-Ranman! about that).

The episode manages to overcome a major hurdle that I was worried about a few minutes in. In this world, there are young people who’ve never heard music and there aren’t a lot of folks around who are willing to play it in any form or fashion. This initially seems like a bit of a stretch (as if girls transforming into flamboyant musical warriors and guys literally making their arms disappear were somehow a more manageable unreality to overlook…) because part of human nature, going back to our early days, seems to involve making rhythms by banging whatever was available and inventing instruments to play music. I’m sure people were chanting around campfires millennia ago, long before there was any official designation about what music was and who was trained to make it. So you’d be hard pressed to convince me that even without radios constantly blasting the latest popular tunes, or orchestras putting on concerts, that human beings wouldn’t somehow find a way to sing or drum. The first battle we see does a decent job of illuminating just why humans have had to force themselves to resist one of their most basic inborn urges, as Takt’s piano playing draws a D2 from far outside of town to attack the city center.

Overall this was a pretty fun episode which introduces a story with some promise. I’m interested in the fact that this seems to be a partnership between two pretty big-name studios – Madhouse, which has gone through some struggles but which has seemed to be skewing a little bit back toward more “unique” productions as of late, and MAPPA, which I can only really honestly described as being “pretty fucked” in recent memory with their unreasonable schedule and amount of productions. I’ll be curious to see whether the show is able to maintain at least some of the flash and fanfare of this premiere over the course of its story.

Pros: The action animation during this episode is gorgeous. The D2 move very strangely, as one would expect, and Cosette’s battle style involves a lot of flying around, flipping, and using a transforming weapon. It’s a lot of fun to watch, with the caveat that I don’t expect the entire series will be able to maintain the same level of craft throughout.

It’s also hard to argue against the use of classical music throughout the episode (this music has endured over the centuries for a reason). As the battles begin, Takt plays a beautiful melody on the piano that transforms into a full orchestration as he helps Cosette unleash her powers. It’s sort of a fun mechanic that has the benefit of a built-in soundtrack.

Cons: This episode at least struggles from an affliction that’s difficult to describe, but which I think most anime fans who’ve been in the fandom for a while will probably be able to recognize for themselves – anime bullshit syndrome. It not only arises from the amount of goofy jargon that manifests throughout the episode, but also through the character relationships, which are channeling annoying archetypes without providing a good source for that characterization. Takt is a single-minded genius type, causing problems due to his focus on the one things he enjoys – music. Cosette is the deadpan younger girl (who’s also very single-minded) who eats all the time. Anna is the “adult” in the situation who’s just constantly yelling at her two charges. I question how the three ended up wanting to travel together, and what their shared purpose could possibly be considering that they don’t get along with one-another whatsoever.

Content Warnings: Violence (bloodless, though sometimes brutal).

Would I Watch More? – I’m interested in watching more. I have a sneaking suspicion that this series might fall into the same traps as Fena: Pirate Princess, in that it hits familiar story beats without really doing much to make its characters into endearing people. That said, I’m always willing to give some time to a good-looking series that doesn’t immediately burst out of the gate doing something vile to its characters, and this episode was a lot of fun in spite of its characterization issues.