English Dub Review: Juni Taisen “Tricks Both Mongrel and Fowl”

Well, that plan bit him in the end.

Overview (Spoilers)

One of the combatants in the Juni Taisen is already down. Rabbit had his zombie slave Snake kill Boar, allowing him to turn her into another zombie. While that is going on, the other contestants disperse across the city. Monkey and Rat go into the sewers, hoping to ride out the initial wave of violence. As they do, Rat confirms his suspicions that Monkey is hiding a terrifying amount of strength. Horse wanders in search of Ox, as he believes his fellow ungulate-themed fighter to also be a moderate, and thinks he can team up. Tiger spots free samples of some drinks, and heads there. Wow. That’s stupid. Dog, in the meantime, lays low. Even though his trademark is biting, and he has a reputation for being a bit of a berserker, he has a hidden skill. His body can generate and nullify poisons. That crystal he ate? It isn’t going to affect him. That means he can afford to hide out, where most of the contestants feel the pressure to get things over with immediately. Suddenly, his heckles rise. A newcomer has entered the garage with him! It’s Chicken. And wow, does she talk. Anyways, she’s a moderate as well, but is truly creeped out by Rabbit, and couldn’t continue with that group. Her special power is the ability to talk to birds, which gives her spies everywhere. She’s been tracking Rabbit, and watching how he zombifies people. She offers Dog a team-up, as she feels that’s the best way to take Rabbit down. The two trade information on their opponents, but Chicken doesn’t have much. She’s a greenhorn in the mercenary biz, and doesn’t get out much. When Rabbit splits Boar away as a decoy, Dog decides he’s going to have to step up his game. He bites Chicken, giving her a specialized poison. It doesn’t harm her, though. It amplifies her fighting prowess, as well as her physical attributes. She freaks out from the sensation, so he tells her to get a grip. So she does. On his corpus colossum. Squishy. Oh, and Horse found Ox. He found Ox trying to put a sword inside Horse. Fun times for him.

Hey! I’m the year of the dog! Small world. Though technically, no matter what your Chinese zodiac, you’re bound to find someone in here, I guess. This series has a few interesting quirks to it that makes me tilt my head, but they seem to just be a part of the setting, not bad writing. Each of these characters has a “method of killing”. For Dog, it’s “Killing By Biting”. For Monkey, it’s “Killing Peacefully” somehow… paradoxically. What I found strange was that they tell each other what this method is when they introduce each other. It may just be me, but wouldn’t you want to keep that a secret? You go up and say “Hey, I’m Dog. Killing By Biting.” Everybody is gonna know that you aren’t just trying to make out with them, and they’ll stay away from your skeezy mouth. But, these are all professional hitmen/women/corpses/whatever-Rabbit-is and they have a reputation. It’s possible that everyone already knows these methods, and they are saying it as a point of pride. Not that I’d be proud of “Killing by Pecking”.

Our Take

The writing in this show is rather interesting to me. It feels like you’re watching the Hunger Games. Each episode focuses on one particular fight so that we get to see how they die. Before they do, we get a few of their powers and backstory. It seems like a bit of a waste of an episode to get to know someone, especially if they die at the end, so I hope the series branches out from that formula as the show goes on. Even if I could tell you which character is going to die in an episode, their death is a complete surprise. Not in a bad way. It is basically a tactical error they made or a bad assumption. Like Boar assuming it was just her and Rabbit, or Dog assuming that innocent-looking Chicken wasn’t gonna bite the hand that fed her. Their deaths are still a shock, and I appreciate that. Each of these characters is fun to watch, and the art and animation have an aggressive edge, even with the softer-personality characters like Monkey and Chicken. The action has real effort poured into keeping the characters moving just right. None of the typical anime shortcuts. Characters do acrobatic moves, and you see the whole move. That isn’t something you get in animation much anymore.

So, I’m listening to this episode and I swear, when Monica Rial is playing Chicken, I hear Pinkie Pie. Especially when she’s just talking in the background while Dog is thinking. It’s high-pitched, but not piercing, and definitely energetic. She has the cadence and everything behind it, so much so I had to double check to make sure she didn’t voice Pinkie Pie as well. She didn’t. That’s Andrea Libman. That being said, I found Rial performance as Chicken hilarious, and definitely entertaining. It was partially because of this performance that her cold-hearted skull-scrunching was such a shock. She sounded almost confused when she did that. Chuck Huber voiced Dog, and he injected humor through the character’s harsh edges. He’s a mad dog, alright, but he’s enjoying being so. He describes his poisons a “death, more death, and incredibly violent death”, and does so with a glee and a pride that shines through in the voice acting.

I have one actual criticism of this show. Don’t watch the previews, and don’t read the episode titles. They pretty much spoil the goings on of the episode. This one was called “Tricks Both Mongrel and Fowl”, while the next one pretty much declares that it is Chicken Versus Ox, and who is going to die. I get the little puns they are making off the characters, but there is a bit of suspense you might be killed by doing that.