Now that’s what I call music.
What They Say:
“Music -Reincarnation-”
It all began ten years ago. D2s attacking Boston, a blood-soaked concert hall: The incident known as the Boston Tragedy. The conductor who lost his life in that tragedy was none other than Kenji Asahina, Takt’s father. After losing his father, the boy decides to devote himself to playing the piano and he lets his rage play through his melodies. The one who took care of him was a girl named Cosette, who looked just like Destiny.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
After an opening episode that showcased everything this series was going to use to draw people in, it’s time to step back and let the audience it hooked learn how our characters ended up where they are. To go all the way back to the beginning, we take a look at ten years prior to see the Boston Tragedy that began the D2 attack. Since we already got a primer on the D2s and it’s a simple enough concept, we don’t spend much time here, just enough to reveal that Takt lost his father, a conductor performing music that attracted the D2s to their first slaughter on Earth. While Sagan from Symphonica urges people to avoid playing music in public, Takt retreats into his home to single-mindedly play piano for years.
Most of the episode focuses on a trio that’s almost completely familiar, but not quite. Takt and Anna are there and look about as they did in the first episode, but Destiny is replaced by a girl who looks very similar but has a different name, Cosette, and appears to be a normal human with a very different personality. Takt likely wouldn’t have survived on his own, since he would’ve just done nothing but play piano until he died, but Anna and her sister Cosette keep him alive, especially Cosette. Destiny’s deadpan character type makes for great comic relief and has some moe factors of its own, but Cosette is much more of the idealized housewife childhood friend anime girl, taking care of Takt even as he fights it. She’s the kind of character who immediately looks like a target for tragedy in a series like this, especially when we already know she doesn’t quite exist in the present.
Anna briefly mentions the possibility of moving to New York, but the main focus here is on the relationship between Takt and Cosette, how music connects them, and ultimately a music festival held by Symphonica. It’s easy and clichéd to wax poetic about the power of music, but most superlatives that can be mounted on the art form are universally accepted truths, and nothing expresses that better than beautifully animated, intimate classical duets. To lose that would be unthinkable, even if the premise is a little forced.
I don’t know when this story was written or if this was an intentional connection, but so much of this episode plays out as a transparent COVID-19 allegory. Because of a life-threatening phenomenon that appeared in the world, people are no longer able to engage in the way they want to, leading the government to prevent people from doing so in ways that would cause death for themselves and others. But once they get confident that their measures are mitigating the issue enough that they’ll have it under control and allow for festivals that carry inherent risk, the tragedy repeats all over again. It’s a delicate balance between keeping people safe and letting them connect and enjoy life the way they used to. It’s hard to imagine there was really no thought behind this paralleling the real world, but maybe it’s just that the state of the world permeates all thoughts these days.
Of course, this episode wasn’t going to be all sweet tranquility; this show has made it clear that it’s not the thing you want to be watching for that kind of content. It does an effective job of making the audience drop its guard over the course of around 20 minutes before pulling out the rug for maximum impact. It’s all still very typical and arguably a little overly emotionally manipulative, but it serves its purpose very well, and gives us plenty of time to enjoy what a slice of life in this world can be.
In Summary:
Nowhere near as flashy as the debut episode, this follow-up starts to dig into the circumstances that led to the main story we’ll be following. It’s a tender expression of nuance and love of music, ultimately culminating in a shocking – but not that shocking – climax to make us more invested in the cast and their struggles going forward. Perhaps most different isn’t the lack of action or fantasy for most of the episode but the lack of the style of comedy found in its predecessor, but the tone all fits with what it’s going for.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll