Vom Herzen — Möge es wieder zu Herzen gehen.note
Years ago, light-colored meteorites fell to the planet and began to usher a new chapter for humanity. But soon after, dark-colored meteorites followed, bringing with them fearsome monsters called D2. Their weakness: music. But music became taboo, as it also attracted them. Humanity's only hope came in the existence of Musicarts and their Conductors. In the year 2047, Conductor Takt and his Musicart, Destiny, are traveling to New York City while battling the D2.
An anime original produced by Madhouse and MAPPA, the series premiered as part of the Fall 2021 anime season.
A mobile game called Takt Op Symphony set as a sequel to the anime was released on 26 June 2023.
takt op. Destiny conducts these tropes:
- 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: Anna's car and the performance scenes are done with CGI.
- 20 Minutes into the Future: The series is set in the year 2047.
- Animation Bump: The episodes animated by Madhouse have generally better art and animation than the ones handled by MAPPA themselves.
- Art Shift: In Episode 1, Destiny has a flashback in a style very reminiscent of Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt.
- Bare Midriffs Are Feminine: Anna's outfit has a black crop top under her green jacket.
- Big Eater: Due to the nature of her powers, Destiny needs to eat humongous amounts of food.
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Destiny is the Blonde, Takt is the Brunette and Anna is the Redhead.
- The Cameo: The Nutcracker, Op.27-2 and Air on the G-String are among the Musicarts seen during the D2 assault on episode 11.
- Cast from Calories: Destiny needs to eat lots of food in order to have enough energy to use her powers.
- Cast from Lifespan: In order to activate Destiny's Musicart powers, Takt loses his right arm. The entity that powers her took it as payment. It regrows once they have replenished their energy. In episode 10, Lenny pushes himself to power Titan up even after getting shot protecting Takt to fend off Sagan, Heaven and Hell, ultimately dying in the process.
- Childhood Friends: Takt, Cosette, Anna and her older sister Charlotte have known each other since they were children.
- Child Prodigy: Ever since he was a kid, Takt was a prodigy of the piano, but losing his father and the arrival of D2 meant he was never able to share it as an adult.
- Conducting the Carnage: A rare heroic example. Conductors have to essentially do this for their contracted Musicarts to perform well in battles against the D2.
- Eldritch Abomination: The D2 look vaguely humanoid, but others look completely alien. Other variants look like animals, including bats, cows and predatory animals.
- Evolving Credits: Subtly, in the first seven episodes, the ending depicts Takt, Anna and Cosette. Following the events of episode eight, however, where all the characters go through some development, the ending replaces Cosette with Destiny.
- Facial Markings: Destiny gets five stars around her left eye when using her powers. Walküre, Heaven and Hell also have markings around their eyes.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: In episode nine, the visit to Symphonica headquarters includes out-of-focus cameos from Nutcracker and Air on G String, Musicarts from the Takt mobile game.
- Gratuitous English: Anna occasionally yells "Shut up!" when angry at Takt and Destiny. Lenny says "It's Showtime!" when he and Titan are about to go into action. Justified, as the anime's setting is in the United States.
- I Reject Your Reality: In episode six, Anna and Destiny pass through a woman, Sally who mistakes her for her late daughter Maria. No matter what they say to try clear out the mistake, this doesn't get through her head.
- Light/Darkness Juxtaposition: At some point in the anime's past, a "shining meteorite" fell to Earth which humanity tried to research until a "pitch-black meteorite" fell later, twenty years ago from present day. From this dark meteorite emerged the Despair Dolls (D2), wrecking havoc all over Earth until the emergence of Musicarts, apparently born from the light meteorite. Since then, Conductors and their Musicarts have fought D2.
- Musicarts are powered by Harmonia Ore, which possesses the energy needed to combat D2 and break their core of Black Night Siderite, itself a purplish black crystal.
- In appearance, both Musicarts and D2 draw the eye in their own way; Musicarts look no different from any human, albeit stylized in unusual colors and obviously fantastical designs, while D2 are all Animalistic or Eldritch Abominations with little variance in color palettes beyond black, purple and white.
- Harmonia Ore responds to music, and Musicarts are generally accompanied by a brief play of the music they are named after, especially whenever Destiny transforms. D2 instead generate "voids" of sound even when rampaging, and go after any kinds of music to silence it.
- Made of Iron: Musicarts are incredibly durable, with blows that would normally kill a human, at worst sends the victim limping away to recover. The one drawback to this is that they draw from their Conductor's life energy.
- Magic Music: Music gives the Musicart their powers, but it also attracts the D2.
- Male Gaze: There's occasional focus on the backside of Anna Schneider.
- Musical Theme Naming: All Musicarts derive their names from various classical musical sources they represent, which can range from piano compositions to operas.
- No Body Left Behind: When a D2 is destroyed, they turn into a white, ash-like substance before quickly disintegrating.
- Peace & Love Incorporated: Symphonica, the organization established to fight off the D2s, have been summoning D2s to attack cities. Even their own researchers and other Musicarts are unaware of this until Sagan turns the New York building into a D2 Nest.
- Power Dyes Your Hair: Destiny's normally blonde hair turns pale pink while in Musicart mode.
- Road Trip Plot: The initial goal of Takt, Destiny and Anna is to drive from the West Coast all the way to Symphonica's headquarters in New York, in order to stabilize Destiny's abilities. With the D2s still infesting most of the Mid-West, they have to chart out a circuitous route from city to city, while also running into trouble at their various stops.
- Stealth Sequel: Or rather prequel. The anime doesn't run co-currently with the game currently in production but rather tells the story of how the game's Destiny came into being.
- Sweet Tooth: Destiny appears to have a weakness for sweet stuff.
- Synchronization: If Destiny gets injured, Takt feels it too.
- There Was a Door: Destiny is a believer in taking the most direct route possible to her target. In the first episode, she smashes through the front window and wall of a roadside diner rather than divert slightly over to the door.
- Translation Convention: Considering the anime's setting in 2047 America, it's safe to say that the characters are only speaking Japanese for the sake of convenience.
- The Usual Adversaries: The D2 are this, widespread all over America.
- Weaksauce Weakness: the D2s have outlawed music for this exact reason, their typical response being to attack the source before they themselves get killed.
- Wham Episode: Episode 7 reveals that Felix, the man Takt met on the way to New Orleans, is the one responsible for sending D2 to the various cities he and his friends go to in an attempt to depopulate the planet as a means to start his own nation without the "trash" of society. With him then revealing that the D2 attack on Takt's home was deliberately set up by him.
- Later on it's revealed that Sagan used the same method to set up the event that killed Takt's father.
