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Oct 1, 2024
While Na Nare Hana Nare may appeal to CGDCT fans, I don't think it's quite fair to reduce it to such. It focuses more on drama, characterization and "healing" (iyashikei). In fact, much more so than Sports — a label which it gets purely by convention. The theme of this show is less cheerleading itself and more 応援 ("ouen", i.e. rooting for or supporting someone in a general sense).
As a Brazilian viewer, my score and review for this anime come from obvious motivation. Anna-chan might genuinely be one of the most accurately portrayed Brazilian characters I have seen in anime so far. In fact, a
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quality of this anime is being mindful of how stereotypes can (should) be used only as stepping stone to further understand a person.
The characters are at the same derived from their archetype but also have elements of a mental universe which extends beyond it. For instance, Anna is the extroverted and out of place Brazilian girl who often fails to read the room and adhere to cultural manners. While this element is initially played for flavor and cuteness, it's later shown to have strongly influenced her past, especially when first moving to Japan. This aspect explains much of her personality and how that has lead her to nurture a deep passion for music, given that she was "rescued" by Y.J. — owner of the vinyl record store which, by circumstance, became a shelter for Anna, a home where she was able to feel welcomed. Similar deconstructions happen with other characters.
As encapsulated by the last episode, Na Nare Hana Nare has an interest in talking about fears, and how these fears become barriers for one's achievements. In order to answer these conflicts, characters need to develop trust in one another and form strong bonds that ought to enable them to keep pushing through their struggles. That being said, while its intentions are kind, it lacks in depth. The show is empathetic, yet fairly shallow.
It lacks a concrete main plot and some kind of lasting message. As mentioned with Anna, the anime does have the ability to be tactful and delicate in how it portrays culture, personality and psychological conflicts — yet, those conflicts are stake-less and "solved" within the spam of 1-2 episodes with the power of cheering.
On the matter of production, Na Nare Hana Nare also suffers. Its style features a poor combination of colored contour lines with a pastel color palette and simple scenarios, resulting in something that is, cryptically, vibrant yet watered down. There is also a more detrimental issue when CGI is used for most of the cheering scenes. This is combined with no camerawork whatsoever, which makes those scenes very bland, if not ugly. But I should leave a positive nod to the work behind the OP and ED, as they are very pleasant to watch, and the art throughout the show is mostly consistent.
As it is, the anime in general lacks originality and depth to persuade a spectator about anything regarding its theme which they wouldn't already be willing to agree with. I did not care about cheerleading before it (as a real life practice) and I've experienced no change in that stance afterwards. Ultimately, one who comes to the show with the proper expectations will be satisfied. I guess it's more accurate to say this show is "comforting" rather than "healing". At the end of the day, this is entertainment, and not meant to provoke thought. It succeeds in such with characters that are generally quite charismatic.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Apr 7, 2022
Should you ever watch Tokyo 24th Ward?
It depends on whether you're expecting something particularly good out of it or not. It should be noted that this show had severe time constraints which lead to many serious production issues, to the point that even the key animation director manifested his pessimism towards the series on a personal Twitter account. Considering this context, the reader is invited to investigate the matter and I will not add another negative comment about the production to the existing pile.
Regardless, I will say I had fun watching this series and was genuinely surprised at the amount of interesting concepts and characters
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they managed to include despite the aforementioned problems (though I'm a little biased towards the sci-fi genre). However, these same characters and concepts never get fully explored, and the show lacks in providing a strong or specific message about anything that sticks to your memory. Many of the themes revolve around philosophical issues that humanity will likely face in one way or another in the future, such as how accurately can we predict incidents or accidents within society; how preventable these situations are; and how should we ethically respond to that knowledge. Yet, the anime either never had the time to or was never interested in exploring these themes in a fulfilling manner — it feels more like an introductory class on philosophy and technology. The characters that participate in the story, while some likable and believable, are not very deep either, and will sometimes only act in favor of the plot, with no prior indication that their behavior was in line with their mindset or moral beliefs (this is because we never get to know those things in detail, or they are simply not there).
It saddens me that the show never got to seize its full potential, for it had enough good ideas behind it that it could make up a long and iconic series had it tried to be one. However, due to the rush of the current industry and most likely a lack of inspiration from low-spirited animators and writers, it was never meant to be something great.
If you like futuristic narratives and want to watch something off the genre for entertainment, then I'd recommend it as long as the sadly very unpolished animation and frequently off-model characters don't bother you (as well some other VFX issues, such as a low quality blur on the screen in various frames). But if you worry about good animation and expect to engage in a complex story or become familiar with three dimensional characters, this show will probably only disappoint you.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Dec 21, 2021
「音楽。心を照らす光。」
"Music. The light that illuminates the heart."
- Asahina Takt.
Yes, you read it right. Those are the deepest words that Takt (and any other character in the show, for that matter) has to offer on what music is. Music is a metaphor for light. For visuals, not sound, not touch, not even heat. Light. This sums up pretty well what the anime has to offer.
The positives of "Takt op. Destiny" are art style, character design and, in most occasions, animation (though it gets lacky at times). You can see the pattern. Visuals, not music. To be fair, the soundtrack and sound effects in this show are...
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acceptable. They are well structured, there is technical knowledge behind it, clearly... but it lacks any "soul", anything that would make it memorable or meaningful. Much like our protagonist Takt, who can play very complex pieces, but can't reach his audience and provide an emotional experience to them (until he does, for some reason). You'd expect this to be intentional and a major point for the development of the story, but it's not. It's boring until the very end.
To talk about story, oh, well, do we really need one? Just make some monsters that hate music fall on earth or something. D2s are one dimensional evil creatures with little explanation and no apparent motivation other than stopping music, which threatens them. That goes hand in hand with Schindler, the first major villain of the show, because we need a megalomaniac human villain too, to show that not everything on the human side is black and white. Humans can be bad too. They can even hate something so beautiful and harmless such as music... because... well... anyway. Moving on.
Sagan, the 2nd villain of the show, is another bland and mentally inept character. His motivations arise as a mean to "fight fire with fire" or eliminate pain by re-signifying pain, which supposedly were to give him more honorable goals. Sagan actually comes up with a half decent idea on how to deal with the D2; although an incomplete plan, it could realistically gather support or, if necessary, even a conspiracy to his side. But no, Sagan tries to do it all alone for no good reason, and in the most harmful way possible, despite there being much better alternatives that could spare many innocents' lives... like just letting people know what he's doing and giving them time to escape.
When we stop to analyze the plot events and the tension (if any) in the story line, it can be confusing. What is the main conflict? We know that music is censored and controlled due to the D2, but they don't have an explanation. Human counterparts don't offer anything better for that purpose. Do we even have real stakes? Meaningful drama? Well, we can put some Beethoven when the generic psycho waifu is choking one of our protagonists, I'm sure the 5th Symphony- which no one ever heard before - will add more spice to that scene!
Regarding characters, the protagonist is supposed to be someone obsessed with a hobby, but he's written by a person who doesn't seem to possess that passion. There is no convincing reason for his intimate relationship with music neither through dialogue nor through his actions - yes, he always wants to play the piano, but why? The best justification is a father complex after he died, which was not further explored. In all honesty, the depth of characters in this show is nonexistent. They will be very glad to state their plot role with plain tropey words. There are a couple character deaths in the anime, but none of them felt compelling enough, either because the script was terrible and the events happened solely to benefit the plot and provide poor shock value, or because it didn't feel like they died at all. If I have to be fair, there are some fun dynamics between Takt and Destiny, but there's not much more to it.
We have to mention some questionable choices audio wise; missed opportunities, I'd say. Like the music playing in the background and the fight happening on the screen having little connection other than the obvious matching tone - fight scene, glorious combat music, sad scene, violins and a low tempo. There's also so much battle noise during some of the fights that I could barely hear the music sometimes. Why couldn't the music be the battle noise instead? There was room to make more unique decisions, but "Takt op. Destiny" sticks to the comfort zone of average direction.
Another point in that regard is using background tracks so often even though the show is trying to convince you that music is, supposedly, banned from this world. It would be very interesting if we had solemn silence instead, if the anime could focus more on using sound effects to create depth and immersion, while leaving music only for the battle scenes with Musicarts or other scenes where it's actually supposed to be playing. Then, each play would have more meaning in contrast to the consuming silence of the in-betweens. Of course, that's not what happens in "Takt opt. Destiny". Music plays at the same frequency as any other show, and has the same impact on the audience as any other show. It's generic, and not deserving of the "Music" genre.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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