Do you like battle royale-like anime? Are you a fan of Nisio-sama’s work? Are you into the zodiac signs and their philosophy? Do you like seeing people slaughter each other? Then you should definitely watch Juuni Taisen. An anime with a pretty simple story that makes you speculate about the ending from the very first scene.

Synopsis

There is a tournament named Juuni Taisen that takes place every 12 years. In each tournament, 12 Warriors representing each of the 12 Chinese zodiac signs are called to compete against each other in order to win the ultimate prize: one wish of their choice granted, whatever that is. In the 12th tournament, the warriors are asked to swallow some poisonous jewels that will kill them after 12 hours. In order to win, the winner must gather all of them before the deadline. And so, the merciless battle begins.

Plot & Story

The plot of the anime is quite simple, and to a point, a bit predictable. All the characters are introduced in the first episode, and then the series focuses on specific ones as the story goes on so we can learn more about their past, their special powers, and their fighting style along with the reason why they fight in Juuni Taisen. As a battle-royale anime, you have to expect that most of the characters die pretty early on, so don’t be too eager on choosing favorites. The pacing of the story is very nice at first but gets a little tedious as the show goes along. There is a lot of unnecessary screentime for uninteresting character backstories and not much fighting and blood-shedding scenes happening. Although, there are some characters like the Rabbit, Rat, and Monkey who are quite intriguing and exciting, with original elements and nice development. Overall, the plot of the anime really reaches its climax in the last 2 episodes. The way the story is unraveled justifies everything that happened so far, and the ending, for me, was very fulfilling and somewhat relatable for that kind of scenario.

Art & Music

Oh boy. I have to warn you that the animation for this show will confuse you greatly. The first episode is a m a z i n g in every aspect. The animation, the voice acting, the special effects, the fighting scenes, everything is so well done that you will be like ‘Damn, they really spent a lot of money and time on this’. But, unfortunately, later on, the animation quality drops tremendously. The fights and the battles are top-notch but during the backstories… the animation is horrific. Spaced out eyes that make the characters look all goofy and retarded, badly polished animation and just really low standard on everything. I am pretty sure that they just didn’t have the time to finish the anime properly and that’s why we got this kind of results. Generally, the music and the voice acting is really good with exceptional performances from Rabbit (Nobuhiko Okamoto), Monkey (Saori Hayami) and Boar (Yōko Hikasa), with good and detailed character design. I loved how the attributes of each zodiac sign were shown in the characters’ hairstyles, accessories, or costumes.

Themes & Trivia

The taglines for each character are quite interesting since there are some hidden meanings behind them, like idioms or small details that represent the characters attributes even better, which was rather refreshing. In my review of the final episode, you can find more about them.

Also, the anime was based on Buddhist philosophy and followed the ‘In order to be peaceful and achieve enlightenment, one must be free of desire’ state of mind, which is something that really puts you into thinking.

Comments

The anime was good. The first episode hyped me way too much, and later on, I was disappointed by the loss in quality, but I really enjoyed the ending. I loved Boar’s story and the pacing of the first episode and I really wished that the whole anime would follow the same standards. It frustrated me that the order of the killing was so predictable and I would have liked to see more action, because most of the fighting scenes and deaths were very anticlimactic and boring. I was also very upset that we didn’t get to see all of the characters backstories and some characters were given so much screen time and we were shown pointless details that no one cared about. The ending, though, was exceptional and I didn’t expect it at all. Showing how the winner struggled to figure out what wish he wanted to be granted and the final wish he chose made the anime so fulfilling to me.

What would you wish for?

Plus:

• Nice fighting scenes with good animation
• Lovely character design
• Good voice acting
• Interesting ending

Minus:

• Bad animation in the majority of the backstories
• Anticlimactic outcomes and deaths
• Plot got a bit boring in some parts

Juuni Taisen didn’t go crazy but it was fun to watch. The ending of it really wins you over because it’s very real and relatable, something that you don’t get to see in anime very often. The winner at the end made me put myself in his shoes and I realized that I would be almost the same in that kind of situation… Damn it, I think I would have even gotten mad in order to decide what the hell I would have wished for…

What do you guys think? Loved it or hated it? Do you think the winner deserved to win? Did you like the ending and the wish he chose? What would you wish for if you were given the chance to get any wish of your choice granted? Let me know in the comments! Cheers!