Takt op.Destiny was a highly anticipated original anime of the Fall 2021 season, and definitely worth the anticipation. The trailer looked amazing, also the idea of musicarts seemed interesting. At first glance, you might think it's another anime following the path of highly successful Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song, which came out earlier this year. And you'd be half-right. It's a much more chaotic version of Vivy, but nonetheless great. Now, let's take a deeper dive into this nifty little anime. I will try to avoid spoilers as much as possible, and only resort to the basic details if needed.

Plot: Prelude. The year's 2047. Two types of stones fell out of the sky years ago, one is mysterious and brings hope, while the other is a dark stone, bringing death and destruction to the Earth. Creatures called D2 emerge from these dark stones. These creatures hate music, and reign havoc whenever they hear music. Following this, a public decree banned citizens from playing any melodies. The only defence against these creatures are - Musicarts, young women representing pieces of classical music; and Conductors, the ones controlling them. These conductors and musicarts form the Symphonica organization, with it's sole aim being annihilation of D2s from Earth.

The main character, Takt Asahina, is an aloof piano prodigy, who prioritizes music over everything. Following the death of his father and the music ban, he isolated himself from society and kept playing music in solitude. Takt's childhood friend Anna Schneider, and her sister Cosette Schneider are the only two people in Takt's life, and the only ones who take care of him.

Spoiler, click to view

Following a D2 attack during a local festival, Takt is transformed into a Conductor, while Cosetter is transformed into a Musicart named Destiny. But due to some problems in their Conductor - Musicart pact, they alongside Anna start their journey to the Symphonica Headquarters in New York City.

Plot: Remarks. Judging by the synopsis, you'll be tempted to think that it's gonna be an amazing story. But unfortunately, you'd be wrong - and that brings me to the only problem with this anime. The idea of D2s and Musicarts seems very fascinating, and the way first few episodes described the story, it seemed really well. The problem is what comes afterwards.

Spoiler, click to view

Episode 5 hints towards an increase in pace, and starting from Episode 6, your mind will definitely go blank.

Sure, after finishing the anime all the events will make some sense, but it would've been at least 10 times better, if the pace was slower. Quite a characters seem complicated enough to deserve a 10 minute backstory, which would've made the experience much more enriching. Also, for some reason, the opening and outro animations make the anime seem like a road trip centered anime, which it should not be. So, overall - the plot seemed solid, but it got ruined due to a ridiculous pace.

Characters. Most, if not all characters in this anime seem mildly complicated, one can even try to analyze all of their characteristic aspects, it would be a pretty engaging activity I'm sure. The principal characters specially, both the protagonists and the antagonists are very well structured characters. But, I've already said this in the Plot Remarks, due to the complication in their character, quite a characters seem complicated enough to deserve a 10 minute backstory. I'd think the origin stories can be very well explained via a prequel movie of sorts.

Visuals. What do I even say in this? The visuals are stunning and beautiful. Specially the Musicarts and the D2s - the color choices are amazing. Although I'd prefer a smoother animation style, so points deducted for that.

Audio. The voice acting was very well done overall, none of the characters were sloppy sounding.

Spoiler, click to view

The aloofness of Takt, the Childishness of Titan, and the slow evolution of Destiny's Character were very accurately portrayed via the voice actors.

The soundtrack is also pretty good, but not great. And considering music playing a central role in this anime, I would've preferred the soundtrack of the anime to be absolutely perfect, with a significant usage of classical music. But well, it didn't. The amount of classical music usage was surprisingly less. The opening and outro tracks were great though.

Final Remarks. Regardless of the plot holes, this was a neat anime. The plot had a huge potential, but that potential got wasted thanks to the absurd pace of the anime. But it never ceased to amaze me. I never felt bored while watching this anime -

Spoiler, click to view

specially the episodes 6 to 10, those episodes were extremely thrilling.

Would definitely rewatch it someday.

I believe it would've been a much better anime, if it was a 24 episode anime, instead of a 12 episode anime. That would've given it enough time to fix the plot holes and the character issues. It might be a bold claim, but I strongly believe if it was a 24 episode anime, it could've easily become a cult classic - because everything about the anime at a first glance seems extremely impressive, considering it is a semi-original anime.