Takt Op. Destiny

A very pointless combo of Fate/stay night + Black Bullet + Magical Girls and yes, if this already sounds stupid, it is indeed Takt-lessly so. If even a single mind with some awareness had sat down for a few minutes to think about it, the idea of mixing a roadtrip through apocalyptic America with a superhero movie’s liquidation of blizzards of aliens might not have become futile along the way. I can imagine an episodic, human narrative, learning about the protagonists' pasts, their struggles with inner demons, and other meaningful character development. This last part came to us like salt in coffee, and to all appearances we were supposed to be reveling in the exaggerated design of the magical ladies and their colossal crushing of enemy scum. The main male character, Takt, was as sweet-faced as the nastiest thunderstorm, and the motivations and thinking of the bad guys was like fifth-hand pawn shop quality. You would have thought that the musical themes would be ubiquitous and reasonably complementary, and even though we were hearing familiar tunes from European operas, the attempt to sell some mission of music in our lives was poor to the point of pathetic. Frankly, I was also annoyed by the choice of character names; especially the pronunciation of "Cosette" as "Cozetto" dropped my enjoyment below the freezing point. The only plus in this column from me goes to the admittedly rather underdeveloped but likable duo of the fatherly Lenny and the mischievous Titan. The reason is that the budget was poured into the CGI effects of the various gunshots, explosions, and supernatural motion creations during the fight scenes, which may have glittered like something out from a desk at the Ufotable animation studio, but for MAPPA the choreography and distinctiveness was surprisingly sterile and constantly repetitive. Overall, it felt like the creators were having a lot of fun for about 3 episodes, but after that they somehow wanted to get it off their chest despite powerful opposition. I don't blame them at all. 2 stars (18.01.2022)

My attention is kept at a high by the classical music they’ve incorporated and my curiosity as to how this hitherto effective alternating collaboration between MAPPA and MADHOUSE will develop. As long as it's more Madoka than Symphogear. (13.10.2021)