It’s safe to say that Juuni Taisen (also known as Zodiac War) was one of the most anticipated anime of this year’s fall season. With an intriguing plot (12 warriors who are burdened with the names of the 12 Chinese Zodiac members fight with each other’s lives and pride at stake, all to grant just one wish), awesome character designs, and stylistic animation, it seemed like it was going to be good. Coupled with the fact that it was based on a story written by Nisio Isin, one of the most popular Japanese authors (Monogatari, Medaka Box) , there wasn’t anything that could possibly go wrong… or was there?
First off, let’s start with what I liked about the show, animation-wise. Overall, the show has a solid art direction. The character designs are, as I previously mentioned, awesome, and every character has their own distinct charm without looking too out-of-place. I was also very surprised that a show with this sort of plot would have stylized animation, as the outlines of the characters and the backgrounds of the setting are quite striking. While I do feel that the 3D animation was not the best, – insert joke about the Japanese not being able to animate in 3D to save their lives here – and the quality drops off quite a bit in the later episodes (as expected of a rather new studio), the animation as a whole was alright.
As for the sound design, both the opening and ending themes are some of the best anime songs of 2017 as a whole, and I myself never skipped them for all 12 episodes. The ending theme “Kenshin No Kemono” by Do As Infinity was a great treat, as it is composed by Hiroyuki Sawano, widely considered to be one of the best music composers in anime (see: Attack on Titan, Blue Exorcist, Kill La Kill). Not to be outdone by the ending, the opening song “Rapture” by Panorama Panama Town is also an ear worm, with catchy punk rock vibes. All the voice actors did an excellent job, but the best performance has to go to Nobuhiko Okamoto as Usagi, with a voice that made Usagi sound both absolutely terrifying and incredibly childish at the same time.
Moving on to the characters, I thought that the show did a good job of making every character feel unique and interesting as a whole, although not all of them got the same amount of screen time because, remember, this is a death game show. Most of the entertainment from Juuni Taisen comes from the characters, as you’d expect from a show with a paper-thin plot. All the characters have very distinct personalities and special abilities (most of which are related to their assigned zodiac) which are revealed over time. Another aspect to mention is that each of these characters have their own backstories, which make you more inclined to to pity them (somewhat) and become endeared with their struggle to win and have their one wish granted, no matter how overdone you may think their personalities are. However….
The plot as a whole was one of the weakest aspects of the show. Juuni Taisen understands how predictable stories in the Battle Royale genre can be, and it plays with this idea of predictability. It’s a show that acknowledges the nature of its genre, i.e all of the opponents in a death game but one will die eventually. It rubs its predictability in your face, so you don’t try to figure out who will die next, but analyze the show’s other aspects, namely, its characters. However, it soon becomes obvious that the plot is the most undercooked part of the show. There is little mention of how this whole Zodiac War was set up, or why it occurs. Occasionally in character backstories, said characters will offhandedly mention the Zodiac War as a sort of myth, but never explain it fully. Furthermore, we do not know who’s idea the War is, or what purpose it serves to the few anonymous VIPs who watch it. Even the referee, Duodecuple (also known as ‘Mr. Everybody Clap Your Hands’) has little to say about it. Nevertheless, at the end of the day, the characters are really what matter the most.
You know how Fate/Zero, a show with a very similar premise, is constantly praised for its visuals, which it relies on so heavily because theres really nothing else going for it? Juuni Taisen doesn’t have the luxury of fantastic Fate animation, which is why it devotes time to the characters and their intriguing personalities. In the end, Juuni Taisen is just a good time, a good time to watch an interesting cast of characters fight to the death. Go into it with an open mind, and you’ll probably enjoy it as much as I did.
Final rating: 7.5/10
The Art Archive 