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aka Koi wa Sekai Seifuku no Ato de

I laughed my ass off at multiple times during the first episode of this. Now, I in general have a liking for shows that kindly poke fun at genre tropes. (I still need to finish Miss Kuroitsu though), and this is definitely in that category.

When the Red leader of a Sentai force falls in love at first sight with the newest general of the evil organization, you know it's going to get complicated....

The animation could be a lot better, but the story has heart.

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Just grabbed the first episode of Shokei Shoujo no Virgin Road (aka The Executioner and Her Way of Life) where our Isekai'd hero is tossed out when they find he has no powers. She presents herself to him as a priestess of an order that takes care of "Lost Ones" like him (but as you can guess by the title, she intends a different kind of "taking care of" him).

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What the hell is the point of following a circle's individual releases when they withhold the last episode for their batch, and delete all the other torrents to boot? Why did I waste my time? Why do they want me to waste MORE time downloading files I already have? Sure, I can tell uTorrent to not download those previous 10 episodes, but even if I change the location of the existing files to the folder with the 11th, a Re-check won't necessarily integrate them. And now my whole organizational system is fucked up.

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Durch Leiden zu Freude - L.V. Beethoven.

Music is the light that illuminates people's hearts-- and that "light" was suddenly taken from the world. The world changed the night the black "Kuroya Meteorite" fell. Grotesque monsters known as D2 emerged from the meteorite and began to overrun the land and people. As the D2 were drawn to melodies people played, eventually "music" itself became taboo.

However, those who opposed the monsters appeared.

They are the "Musicart," girls who draw power from music. They possess the great operas and musical scores of human history and use them to defeat the D2.

With them are the "Conductors" who lead the girls.

The year is 2047. The United States has been devastated by the struggle against the D2. Takt the Conductor and Destiny the Musicart travel together to New York. In a world without music, Takt longs for it. Meanwhile, Musicart Destiny hopes to wipe out the D2.

Will the melody they produce together be joy or despair?

---

I mean, REALLY? And the photo was particularly uninspiring too.

And then I visited a link that isn't on my regular blogroll, Tenka Seiha, even though I bookmarked it ages ago. And there was an episode by episode review, and it was definitely not positive.

But you know, I was kind of disenchanted with what I was watching, and there were so many screencaps, and I kinda liked the character designs. And well, there are worse reasons to search out a Batch.

And it was actually pretty decent for what it was. Grouchy, brooding hero. Defective flat-aspect techno magical girl, at least one sane person to keep them on track. Road trip through the US that showed more than cursory research (Okay, maybe not the Vegas part). Good guy organization actually headed by bad guys, but not everyone is bad.

To make a bit more sense of the description. Two meteors strike the earth roughly in the heart of the US. One brought terribly destructive monsters that in particular hate rhythmic sounds like Music. The other brought their opponents, the Musicarts. However it took research by the New York Symphonica (Which became quasi-militarized in the process) to awaken their true potential. They really don't go that much deeper into the background.

The Monsters, the D2, basically own the center of the country. And of late they've been relatively contained. Or dormant-ish. The country pretends not to be post-apocalyptic. But Music is frowned upon because it can bring an attack, at least if you're close to a D2 controlled area.

Takt, the brooding hero, is the son of a famous conductor, who lost his father in a D2 attack. He still lives in his modest home in Oregon, constantly playing Piano in his soundproofed garage.

His friends, Cosette and Anna are the only ones who keep him company, much to his annoyance. Cosette, the younger sister idolizes his music, plays as well and is so genki and enthusiastic that it drives him up the wall, while she is immune to his moods. Anna, the older sister, is far more practical, and does her best to make sure he's at least fed. They've lost touch with their oldest sister, who is in New York working for the Symphonica in research, along with their mother. This family connection is also why Cosette wears a small stone on a chain that apparently is a tiny bit of the meteor the Musicarts came from.

Things have been so calm from the D2's in this part of Oregon that they are having a small music festival sponsored by the Symphonica, which has given the all-clear. (This is SO in character for Oregon). Cosette urges Takt to play, but he's too self-centered to do it. But she manages to coerce/shame him into a duet by stealing his piano, which was well received right up until the D2 attack. They blow up the Piano, Cosette, and Takt's right arm is severely wounded.

Well, there was a bit of magic in that stone, because it used the available materials to construct a Musicart - Those Materials being Cosette's remains and Takt's arm. Cosette transforms into a waif-like magical girl named Destiny, armed with a weapon that transforms between an energy rifle and a sword. Meanwhile Takt's arm transforms into a brief fountain of gore, and then is missing for the duration of the fight. Destiny is monomaniacal about fighting the D2, and goes instantly into overkill, which has a negative effect on Tact. Fortunately once the fight is over, she transforms back and Takt regains his arm, seemingly healed, except for a new kind of scar/injury.

Cosette's retransformation though is not back into the cheerful genki girl everyone loved. But a blank slate with only one goal in mind, destroying D2's wherever she detects them, and she's got a really good detection range. And whenever she transforms, Takt loses an arm which turns into a conductor's baton that Destiny returns to him. With the Baton he can at least direct her fighting so she doesn't tunnel-vision on a single opponent. She is exceptionally powerful, but that power comes at Tact's expense.

They meet a traveling Conductor/Musicart pair who point out that this is not normal. And urge them to seek help from the Symphonica. A quick battle with a wandering D2 results in Tact's home being destroyed, sealing the deal. a road trip ensues, from Oregon, to Vegas, Texas, Louisiana, Virginia, and eventually New York.

Observations:

Destiny sports the same type of red-rimmed eye effect as Zero-two in Darling in the Franxx, but as far as I can tell, nobody involved in this was involved in that.

Nothing indicates that other Musicarts were formed by human sacrifice. This may be part of why Destiny is so wild and defective. Every other Musicart has a surfeit of personality. (And there are apparently a lot of them, mostly seen in the background at the Symphonica headquarters).

The first bad guy they encounter is the second in command of the Symphonica. You can tell by the fact that his Musicart is the clearly demented "Hell". He is jealous of Takt's power, and basically wants to take him out as a threat to his position. This eventually puts him at odds with the leader, who wants to subvert him to his cause. His variation of the evil scheme is that he wants to use the D2's as a sort of force for Eugenics. Causing them to attack populations he judges as inferior. The music festival was one of his set-ups. And Destiny's appearance put a crimp in his plan.

The leader of the Symphonica has identified so strongly with the D2's that his plan is to eventually surrender all of North America to them. And part of that involves building a structure in the Symphonica headquarters that will summon a huge mass of them and destroy the otherwise untouched city.

Anna can't accept that there is nothing of Colette left in Destiny. And she keeps calling her Colette for at least the first half of the season. Destiny indulges her somewhat merely because she and her Conductor need her for transportation and support.

Couple of pics:

(You can find WAY more at Tenka Seiha) (For some reason I was focused more on faces in my choices, and Hell. Damn my white hair dark skin obsession) (Click to Embiggen)

Waif-Fu personified!

Crazy eyes... And they get crazier.


MUCH crazier.

No question in my mind, he stuck it in crazy. Regularly.

Hell, The leader, and Heaven

It's important to make a good impression. In the Wall.

Not a Beach episode. But I did want a full costume shot. And you can see how Takt's damage has spread. It's nearly lethal at this point.


But at least in the end she's learned how to love. Near Necrophilia is love, right? Love the shoes.

In the end, he's put in suspension until they can figure out a cure. Destiny continues to be studied at the Symphonica (and she starts to fill out that dress quite a bit more), and Anna enlists, having resigned herself to having lost everyone and having nothing better to do.

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