So, this is supposed to be my anime blog, so I should probably post a thing or two about shows that I've watched.

Interestingly, one of the ones I recently completed was one I skipped entirely in the fall season. (And most of the things that I did mark on Anime Chart I still haven't finished.) But can you blame me? It had this incomprehensible description.

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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:

1 Wouldn't be the first time I used negative reviews at Tenka Seiha as as recommendation...

-j

2 The amount of effort he puts into shows, even ones he doesn't like is pretty amazing.