takt op. Destiny

Episode 11

It's a shame that I'm not going to have a whole lot to say about the second-to-last episode of takt op. Destiny. It's not terrible by any means, and there are parts of it I enjoyed, but aside from being a fairly average episode quality wise, it is also one of those penultimate chapters that is primarily concerned with table setting. Anna and Lotte are stuck in the ruins of the Symphonica headquarters, which is infested with D2s, and since that is also where all of the big climactic action is going to happen between our heroes and Sagan's crew, most of “Preparing for Battle -Orpheus-“ is about exactly what it says on the tin. The characters need to get from Point A to Point B in order to prepare for the final battle, and also we meet the Musicart Orpheus. That's about it.

I think one key issue with this episode is that, for all intents and purposes, TAKT and Destiny's character arcs seem to have been completed already; at the very least, their larger internal conflicts have been resolved enough for them to focus entirely on committing to this fight against Sagan, so there isn't much for the two to do except walk a whole bunch and clear out the minor threats in their way. Sure, there's the ever looming threat of TAKT's agonizing death, and the half of his body that has been stained blood red makes that pretty hard to forget, but takt op. Destiny has a hard time communicating the gravitas of TAKT's self-destructive choice to continue on as a Conductor.

Not that the show doesn't try, mind you. In fact, the single most noteworthy moment of the episode—which is also its weirdest moment by far—is when Anna finally catches up to TAKT and Destiny to chew him out one final time for being so stubborn and single-minded, even when it means he's pretty much walking towards his own doom. I'm not shocked by the content of Anna's outburst; it's completely in character and appropriate, given the circumstances. What doesn't make one goddamn bit of sense at all, though, is when Anna straight-up sucks face with TAKT in the middle of it all.

It cannot be stressed how there has not been one single moment in this entire series' run where TAKT and Anna shared even an iota of romantic chemistry. She has been firmly characterized as a Big Sister type of character, and Anna herself was scheming to bring TAKT and Destiny closer together when she arranged their little date a couple of weeks ago. And no, her screaming “I don't even know why I kissed you!” doesn't make it any better. What are we even doing here, show?

Ignoring that utterly bizarre and hopefully never-to-be-repeated detour, the rest of “Preparing for Battle” is mostly just okay, though there are bright spots worth mentioning. While the D2 Battles aren't anything to write home about after last week's spectacle, things heat up once Walkure makes a surprise reappearance, and TAKT fulfills his true Conductor destiny by directing three Musicarts at once. To be honest, it's the kind of development I expected to see, like, six episodes ago. As fun as the three-and-a-TAKT-way beat down is, I sure do find it curious how few of the presumably addictive gacha game mechanics that takt op. Destiny ended up incorporating into its premise.

Anyways, after all of that trekking and battling through mid-level dungeon mobs, the episode at least ends in a fairly interesting place: Hell and Heaven end up getting stabbed by what I can only describe as “The Tuning Fork of Longinus” and fusing into a pretty sweet looking Boss Monster. The titular Orpheus feels like a kind of random power up for a pair of already underdeveloped villains, but takt op. Destiny is clearly coasting a bit on its way to the finish line, so whatever. I'll take a sexy, multi-armed murder matron. Why not? takt op. Destiny may not ever end up being the show I wanted it to be when those fantastic first couple of episodes dropped, but given the state of the world these days, I can settle for “reasonably entertaining” instead.

Rating:

takt op. Destiny is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop-culture, which can also be found on Twitter, his blog, and his podcast.