War... War never changes. In some ways, that old saying is true. Technology may evolve, tactics may change, the lines of battle may shift, but humanity will always find the means, and the purpose, to wage bloody battles against each other, the true beneficiaries of the conflict sitting deep behind their own lines and watching from the lap of luxury while their pawns, mostly made up of enthusiastic zealots and the desperate poor, act as their proxies. To this end, and only to this end, the Zodiac War is just your typical war. In every other way, it’s revolutionary. Every twelve years, the twelve most powerful families in the world send twelve zodiac themed warriors to one location in order to ~~sing the twelve days of christmas~~ participate in a deadly tournament, using special powers and unpredictable tactics to kill each other off until only one is left standing. That survivor will be granted one perfect wish, while the family that sent them there... Unclear. It doesn’t matter, though, as the Rat, the Ox, the Tiger, the Bunny, the Snake, the Dragon, the Horse, the Sheep, the Monkey, the Chicken, the Dog and the Boar are about to clash for, what will be for eleven of them, the final time.

Juuni Taisen is a very strange anime, for a lot of reasons. It’s a mixed bag in every sense of the word, to the point that it both does and doesn’t look like any other anime I’ve ever seen. The production choices are more or less conventional, but there are also some really subtle details that kind of throw me off, and I think this might have something to do with the fact that the studio behind it is also rather new to me. Studio Graphinica has a surprisingly short resume behind it. They’ve done exactly nine TV shows in the last nine years, with five of those being released over the last fourteen months. Their first show, released back in 2013, was a weird children’s show that’s so obscure it doesn’t even have a wikipedia page. Aside from Juuni Taisen, the only projects they’ve done that I’ve actually seen are Expelled from Paradise(which I’m ashamed to say I barely remember) and Hellsing Ultimate, which they only worked on for the final three episodes. Looking into its history, there are quite a few studios from the past that have their DNA in this company, from Gonzo all the way to Hal Film Maker, and just looking at Juuni Taisen itself, it does in fact feels like there were a few too many cooks in the kitchen.

Like I just said, this show is a mixed bag, and nowhere is that more the case than with the visuals. There is a lot to like about this show, from a production standpoint. It’s directed really well for the most part, and while some episodes do look better than others due to the rotating stable of individual episode directors, lead director Naoto Hosoda had a bevy of experience under his belt when he took this project. The action is fast paced and well choreographed, battles between characters are suspenseful and reflect the personalities and tactics of each combatant beautifully, and since the story takes place in an abandoned city(more on this later), they clearly had a lot of fun playing with this environment. No two battles take place in the same set-piece, various locations are used in inspired and imaginative ways, and there is collateral property damage galore.

Movement outside of combat, however, is a little hit or miss, and there are incidents where a character’s animation can look a bit janky, especially in the distance, and they do occasionally go off model. Animation is mostly fine in close-up shots, but one of the more unique elements of the series also comes into play in shots like these... Both close-ups and mid-field shots alike, actually... And that’s a trend of weirdly blurry outlines, like someone tried to erase the frames of the characters, but only managed to scrub them about halfway off. It’s not as off-putting as the broken-frame “runny eggs” aesthetic, which this show does manage to avoid, but it is still noticeable and kind of distracting. The series looks best during night-time scenes... IE, pretty much the entire tournament... But when we move out into the daylight for some of the characters’ backstories, that’s when the biggest issues with the animation become exposed. This is most evident in the twins’ two-part backstory episode, where the animation feels heavily stilted, and the lighting is so poorly thought out that it looks at one point like one of the two brothers is wearing a mask, because of how the shadows cut off right below his chin.

Thankfully, one of the more consistently impressive aspects of the visuals is in the character design area. This is kind of a double edged sword, and I’ll talk more about why this is in a bit, but in a show where each character represents a different animal of the zodiac, they all look fucking awesome, hitting somewhere in the sweet spot between realistic and grounded enough to be unmistakably human, but still flamboyant and imaginatively detailed enough that you can still tell at a glance which animal they represent, to the point that they could all easily pass for Batman villains. The only two drawbacks to this are that a few characters go way too absurdly in the direction of fanservice... Two women and one man dress in elaborate bikinis, while the most conservatively dressed female in the cast is the one who looks like she lost her pants on the way to the meeting... And a few characters have actual animal parts that are never really explained. Still, everyone looks awesome, and at the end of the day, that’s all I’m asking for.

As for the English dub, it is just spectacular. Funimation threw some of their best names at this project, both well known and less common, and everyone connected effortlessly with their roles. An interesting note is that because this show was simulcast, episodes were being released in English alongside the Japanese release, and as a weird little consequence of this, Funimation assembled the entire cast without knowing what order they were going to die in, so when a character is eliminated from the story, it’s just as much a surprise to the actor and ADR team as it’s supposed to be for the audience. Several of the characters are duplicitous in nature, so quite a few actors had to play both sides of one being’s personality, and while Monica Rial does the best job of this... Her performance here is basically a slightly tweaked version of Tanya Degurechaff... Quite a few of her costars also nail it. Aside from Monica, the other two standouts are Caitlin Glass in the role of The Monkey, a pacifist who keeps a positive, hopeful attitude despite knowing just how much of a lost cause it all is, and Jerry Jewel, who plays the psychotic bunny with skin-crawling ferocity. Almost every character gets their own focal episode where you get their backstories as well as a shitload of voice-over monologuing, and it would be so easy for this to get boring if the entire cast didn’t add so much depth and complexity to it all.

One of the most important pieces of advice that I can possibly give to an up-and-coming reviewer is that you have to learn how to separate your personal taste from your professional taste. Just because a piece of media left you feeling emotionally satisfied, does not make it a masterpiece. Just because it made you cry, does not mean it deserves a 10/10, although quite a few anime over the years have used blatant emotional manipulation to sucker you into this. I can’t count the number of times I’ve said something negative about a beloved piece of media only to get dogpiled by defensive fans who are desperate to either make excuses for the thing I’m pointing out, accuse me of taking media too seriously, not knowing the difference between reality and fiction, or in the case of several Studio Ghibli movies, just arguing that the piece of media is so magical that it’s above such silly standards. I’m not immune to this myself, though, because my tolerance for the negative qualities of a piece of media is greatly affected by my level of engagement. If I’m not entertained fast enough, I might launch into some Cinemasins bullshit, making criticisms that I do stand by, but I can still see other people ignoring. The opposite, however, is also true, but for me, my tunnel vision usually wears off during my second viewing.

You may have noticed that with some of my reviews, the score I gave an anime changes from what it was previously. This is because the second time through, I’m way more likely to view it with a critical eye, and I’m way more likely to pick up on things I didn’t notice or just flat out ignored the first time. You’ve probably heard the phrase “Be critical of the media you love,” and while it doesn’t mean you have to stop watching an anime because it’s problematic, it does mean you should at least be honest and aware of its flaws. For example, my favorite movie is the Tim Burton film Big Fish, and while I’ve poured out countless tears over it, even the most diehard fans have to admit that there are elements of Edward Bloom’s backstory that have aged like milk. When it comes to Juuni Taisen, I was so thoroughly entertained by the battle royale aspect of the series the first time around that I ignored a lot of shit. I love battle royale stories in general, that shit is like crack to me, and while I do still like this series, I will admit that it probably doesn’t deserve the 8/10 I initially gave it, and I think it’s long past time I revisit it to explain not only why it’s not as good as I thought, but while I still refuse to condemn it.

First off, we need to rip the band-aid off right away, this entire premise is dumber than a box of hammers that ate paint chips when they were kids. I’m not sure there was ever a clear reason given for the tournament to be established in the first place... I THINK I recall someone at some point saying that it was considered an alternative to war, but I can’t for the life of me find the spot where they said it, I am NOT going through the series again just to find it, and in any case, that doesn’t make sense, because war is still happening. If the combatant who wins gets a wish granted, what does the family they’re representing get? Does the family not have any input on said wish? If Boar’s father won the previous game, what did HE wish for? If Sheep is the only returning combatant, why do so many of the other fighters know each other on sight? A few of them are explained, like how Tiger knows Ox, but Boar knows about half of her competitors, and it’s never explained how or from where. It’s also never explained how they were able to evacuate an entire city overnight. Even if that did sound plausible, wouldn’t making everyone fight on a private island be more efficient?

Probably the dumbest detail of all is the fact that the tournament is even zodiac-themed in the first place. That sounds like a really random gimmick to just throw into the mix. I get that each combatant would dress up to represent the animal they’re assigned to, but where do their superpowers come from? In several characters’ backstories, we’re shown how they went about receiving their family’s selections, but wouldn’t selecting the person with the best superpower just be the most obvious standard to have? I get that this is nothing new for NisiOisin, as his work is usually centered around bizarre gimmick-based characters, but most of the time, his works also take place in bizarre worlds. This story, as far as I can tell, takes place in the real world, with the Zodiac War just slapped onto it like a refrigerator magnet, and not one damn thing about it makes any sense. There’s a ton of social commentary about war, told from the perspective of a writer who is generally not in favor of it, and while they did go the extra mile of making war into a motif throughout the story as well as an important element of each character’s backstory, I’d still argue they focused way too much on showing us A pointless war, rather than exploring WHY war is pointless, rendering any attempt at the aforementioned commentary feel overall kind of hollow. That wouldn’t be such a big deal, by the way, if they didn’t focus SO MUCH TIME AND DIALOGUE on the subject, which the writer clearly feels strongly about, but just doesn’t fully understand.

Okay, so Juuni Taisen is dumb, and maybe even just a smidge pretentious, but is it a fun battle royale story? I mean, I’m predisposed to like battle royale stories in general, so I might not be the most fair judge of this... The worst battle royale story I’ve ever seen was The Condemned, and I’ve never even disliked that movie... Actually, you know what? I hated King’s Game and Another, they kind of count, I’m good. Well, viewed purely as a battle royale show, there are things it does right, and things I will admit it kind of falters at. First and foremost, a battle royale series needs a cool cast of characters, and that’s a big checkmark from me, I think all twelve of these characters are great. The twins are the slimiest and least likeable of the bunch, but they’re still fun antagonists to root against. The Horse is the only kind of boring character, but having a big bulky badass turn into a coward as soon as his death seems likely is still pretty interesting. There are a few wardrobe choices that don’t make a whole lot of sense, but everyone still looks cool, I’m actually pretty disappointed this show didn’t get more merchandise. I will admit, a couple of characters go through development that feels comically abrupt and undeserved, but I’ll still allow it.

Second, the order of eliminations has to be unpredictable, which... Yeah, there’s kind of an elephant in the room with this one, which is weird, because there’s no elephant in the zodiac. Whether or not this series is predictable to you will depend on how familiar you are with the zodiac, because there is a pattern to this. Characters in the zodiac war die in reverse-zodiac order, with only one or two half-exceptions. It’s possible to be surprised by the eliminations if you’re not aware of this, but I wasn’t aware of it my first time through, and after a few episodes, even I picked up on the fact that almost every character was dying right after their backstory was revealed, often in the same episode. And hell, even if you didn’t notice THAT, the ending theme also slyly gives everything away! To make matters even worse, while the WAY each character dies is unpredictable and fun to watch, it’s kind of weird how most of them die for the same exact reason... IE, because they underestimated an opponent. Still, if you weren’t able to pick up on any of this, it can be an unpredictable series based solely on the fact that there’s no clear main character throughout.

The drawback to THAT, however, is that there really isn’t anybody to root for. Outside of the survival of the contestants, there aren’t any stakes to the tournament, so there aren’t really any outside forces to make us care or get us invested. The poison everyone ate is kind of a ticking time bomb, which might have meant something if it killed even one fucking person. Remember how Battle Royale opens up with one character’s collar exploding, just to show us what happens? That was a good idea, and plenty of similar shows have (smartly) copied it, but not Juuni Taisen. I would also argue that adhering to the reverse-zodiac pattern meant they were forced to kill several of the most interesting characters off way too early, including one that is a genuine travesty. I’m not gonna say who, but there is a character who is the most likeable and sympathetic by far, and while I’m certainly not one of those “The hack writers killed my favorite he had so much wasted potential” losers, this character felt really important from a narrative and thematic perspective, but too bad, they were the fifth one killed.

This wouldn’t be so bad if there were another character who was strongly written enough to take their place, but things really start to wind down when the cast is whittled down to the point where everyone’s either bland, flat or evil, and the most interesting motivation comes from a drunk Tiger who only joined the tournament to kill one guy she had a conversation with years ago. Don’t get me wrong, I like all of these characters to some degree, but the way the story is executed leaves the first half feeling at least twice as entertaining as the second half, and that’s a problem that could have so easily been avoided, not only by changing the order of elimination up a bit, but by diversifying the kills a little more. I’m not saying it’s a bad idea to have a character be unceremoniously killed after telling the audience in detail what their plan for victory is, but it only works once or twice, guys! And you have to have at least one fan favorite callibre character survive until the final three! Still, there’s way too many enjoyable elements to it for me to call it a bad show. There are just so many cool ideas in this show that I can’t find anywhere else, like, they do things with flocks of birds that would give Alfred Hitchcock nightmares. I know it’s not high praise to say that you have to turn your brain off to enjoy something, but this is one of those rare shows where I don’t mind doing just that.

Juuni Taisen is available from Funimation. The original light novel and manga series are available stateside through Viz Media.

So all in all, we have a battle royale type anime that’s not as intriguing as The Savior’s Champion, Not as unpredictable as The Belko Experiment, not as smart as the original Battle Royale, not as emotionally powerful as The Hunger Games, not as exciting as a good Royal Rumble(at least, back when good Royal Rumbles were a thing), and not even as dramatic or suspenseful as your average reality show. Can I really recommend Juuni Taisen just based on cool points alone? Well, that depends. For most people, no, not really. I get why this can be a hard show to like. But if you’re a hardcore battle royale fan like myself? Yes I can, and yes I do. You might not get the appeal of an anime like this, but this is MY Shit with a capital MY S. I’m not even going to pretend like all of its negative qualities bother me... Oh, they exist, they’re bad, and I do acknowledge them, but purely in my opinion, the dumbest and shittiest qualities of this anime just make it more entertaining for me. I’m not going to defend it from being torn apart by other critics, but I will straight up bite anyone who tries to take it away from me.

I give Juuni Taisen: Zodiac War a 6/10.