I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say I liked it. Quite a lot too. Sure, it was predictable at times, and sure, the quality of the animation took a huge nosedive about halfway through, but I really don’t think it deserves all the hate I’ve been seeing it get lately.

First off: the story. It’s true that from about episode 3 you can tell who’s going to die based on how the anime works. But that doesn’t actually take away from the enjoyment. It’s just like having a friend tell you a major spoiler for a series – the surprise might be gone, but sometimes you enjoy it all the more for that. (The only difference here is that the anime spoilers itself.) I personally didn’t mind knowing who was going to die, it just meant I knew who to focus on when watching an episode.

Character development was basically episodic. One episode per character (although there were exceptions). I thought Tiger’s story was great – that was probably my favourite part of the anime. Most of the backstories were interesting (with the exception of Snake and Dragon, or at least that’s my opinion), and the characters were just quirky enough that I enjoyed watching them without getting bored. That’s actually one thing that can be a con for an anime, but in this case was a pro; the amount of time spent on each character was manageable - bite sized pieces, if you will.

The ending, whilst not necessarily a brilliant one, was nevertheless a fitting send-off for the show. The anime did take a rather different approach during the last episode – much more philosophical – but it addressed the question raised at the beginning. I thought the way the wish (the overall point to the story) was handled was very thought-provoking, and even though I didn’t necessarily agree with the wish itself, it was very human. That humanity is something that the anime needed after the Taisen bloodbath. It gave the show…closure, you might call it. There were some plot-holes, and some questions that remained unanswered, but in relation to those I don’t think answers were actually needed.

There were a lot of fabulous fight scenes (at least in the first half), and some pretty good music too.
The anime was faithful to its Battle Royale/Hunger Games trope, and even though there are parts of it that I feel could have been handled better, I respect it for that. (In regard to parts that could have been handled better…I’d say basically everything to do with Rabbit. My main bugbear; there was so much potential…)

Nonetheless, if you like the survival horror trope, and like seeing a mix of interesting characters (but don’t mind if there’s not much plot), I’d recommend you check out Juuni Taisen.

Enjoy watching! XD