Kara Dennison
September 23, 2021 
Upcoming anime Takt Op.Destiny bring together Madhouse and MAPPA for magical, classical action. Part of a broader media mix project based on specific pieces of classical music, the show sees women who wield Musicart — the power of music — fighting back against creatures who want to destroy music entirely. And it features legendary compositions!
The series premieres soon. But until then, here are some more anime series with classical inspirations to tide you over. We can’t guarantee the historical accuracy of any of these… but we guarantee you’ll get to hear some tunes.
Princess Tutu
The surprisingly dark magical girl hit Princess Tutu is a must watch, even on a normal day. Like Takt Op.Destiny, it revolves around magical girls fighting to the strains of legendary compositions. But in the case of this ballerina, it’s less a battle and more a dance to win hearts.
Duck is a clumsy dance student with not one, but two secret identities. One is… a duck. Yep, she’s not originally human. The other is Princess Tutu, a fairy tale character with a tragic story and a heart full of love for a heroic prince. Her “fights” are moments from great ballets, set to their original music and telling stories inspired by their sources.
ClassicaLoid
Takt Op.Destiny is all about the literal magic of classical music… and so is ClassicaLoid!… sort of. It’s a lot more screwball, a lot louder, and it has Beethoven doing a magical girl transformation. In other words, it has everything.
The “ClassicaLoids” of the title are magic-wielding people who, by all accounts, have the memories of their historical counterparts. Their magic, simply called “Musik,” which has wild effects on the world around them. So who (and what) are the ClassicaLoids? That’s up to Kanae and Sosuke to figure out — but the answer may be closer to home than Kanae realizes.
The ending to Dragon Half
Fine, we cheated. Humor us.
Dragon Half itself has nothing to do with music, classical or otherwise, as a theme. It’s more a fantasy RPG parody, if anything. Mink has fallen in love with the singer/dragonslayer Dick Saucer, which is a problem as she’s half red dragon. To become fully human and win the man of her dreams, she’ll have to slay a demon lord.
The anime ran for two whole OVA episodes in 1993, and notably features the weirdly catchy ending theme “My Omelet.” Which is just Mink (voiced by Kotono Mitsuishi) singing over Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, Fourth Movement, about… making lunch for your crush? Or just making omelets in general? And there’s some stuff in there about graduation and mahjongg… look, just listen to the song and enjoy it with us.
Takt Op.Destiny is schedule to debut on October 6.
