Juuni Taisen, one of the series I enjoyed the most in 2017. Admittedly, I love survival game/battle royale stories, but even I have some I dislike. What made me like this one? Especially considering it doesn't seem to be a favorite for most people? Allow me to explain.
First, I see way too many people complaining that the story was "predictable" because in the ending theme the characters appear in the exact order that they die. But honestly, if this is the reason why you're mad at this anime, you totally missed its point. This was obvious from the beginning.
This is the original 12 Animals of the Chinese Zodiac story told as a battle royale. The story follows the order of the original myth: the last animal to arrive at God's party (or Heavenly Gate, or Emperor's party, depending on which version you're familiar with) is the first one to die; the first one to arrive is the winner. You see characters representing each one of the 12 animals killing each other until there's only one left. It's a typical battle royale, so if you're in the mood for some free violence with fun characters, check this out.
If you're thinking of picking this anime now and you're not familiar with the myth, now you have the option of simply not watching the ending and everything will be a surprise to you. Obviously nobody would know this when the anime started airing, but now it's a possible option.
All characters have their own personalities and all of them have a unique character design, mostly with traits of their respective zodiac animals (Usagi is my favorite, design-wise). It's almost impossible not to find one that you're gonna like. However, since some of them do die very early, they have little time to make themselves likeable, or if you're someone who gets attached easily, you might suffer.
The character design is the first thing to call your attention, and you will have at least a basic explanation of the characters' personalities and backstories, this way you can choose a favorite. Some of them were a lot of wasted potential so it could fit the order of the original myth, and this is the only reason why I don't give them the highest score. The predictability of the show didn't bother me as much as the fact that a few characters have very stupid deaths that went against how badass/smart they seemed to be according to what was shown to us through flashbacks.
To this day I'm absolutely in love with the opening theme, and I also love the ending theme a lot. The soundtrack itself was decent, to be quite honest I don't remember much of it, but I assume it suited the anime pretty well since it didn't leave me with any negative impression. I really only focus on OST is they are extremely good or extremely bad, otherwise I just expect them to do their work of keeping the atmosphere of the show, and this one did it well.
The art is much better than the manga's, and less cutesy than the novel's, it was well adaptated in the anime. Sorry, Hikaru Nakamura, I love you, but your original style made the characters too cute for this show, Chikashi Kadekaru's style was better. The animation was good. Not exceptional, but decent, at least most of the time. Although I admit the quality dropped in a few later parts. The dark atmosphere suited the story well, the use of CGI was well done. I don't really have complains here.
In the end, I loved this show. It was very entertaining for me. Everything about it was interesting, the characters were attractive enough for me to want to learn more about them, the battle itself made me curious to know how it would be developed, how the deaths would happen, and I was really curious to know everyone's wishes, especially the winner's. This was a show that held my attention because it kept me interested in what was gonna happen next, even if the ending was predictable, the story was still good enough for me to want to now the means to the end.
I think Juuni Taisen is a good anime for those who are into violent action shows I would definitely recommend it.
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