English Dub Review: Juni Taisen “A Tiger May Die, But It Leaves Its Skin”

Son of a Lich!

Overview (Spoilers)

The duel between Tiger and Ox is about to kick off, but before we see it, there’s something that needs to get cleared up. Her rage towards Ox has made no sense up until now, but if we look into her past, things start to come together. During her days as a wild war-beast, she ran across Ox on the battlefield. He mistook her for a civilian and decided to protect her by killing all the “evil soldiers” targeting her. Completely unaware of her inner power, he offered to take her to a nearby shelter. Tiger sat in awe. Ox just does everything right. She wished she could be like him. She had made a complete mess of her life up to that point. So, Tiger asked how he does it. He explains that the hardest part of doing the right thing is to decide to do the right thing. Many people get tripped up on how to do it when you must first decide TO do it. This inspired her. She cleaned up her act, stopped being a wild, drunk, she-beast and became a respectable warrior. She scoured every battlefield she could, trying to meet Ox again. Trying to earn his respect. Then, a friend of hers told her that the Juni Taisen was coming up, and her father still hadn’t chosen a representative for their family. She crawled back to him on her hands and knees, showing the upright warrior she had become. She was chosen as Tiger, and left for the Juni Taisen, hoping to see him there. No, she doesn’t hate him. Though, she is angry he didn’t recognize her.

The battle begins, but shortly thereafter, an arm with a scimitar comes flying through the air at Ox. Tiger pushes him aside, taking the blade herself. This gives Ox an opportunity to hack the flying body parts into tiny bits. Still, they continue moving on their own. They hadn’t been the ones to kill Rabbit. He did that himself by biting his tongue. Ox picks tiger up and flees with her, but she is bleeding profusely, and won’t last long. She asks that he kill her so that Rabbit can’t turn her into his puppet. He agrees, but on one condition. This shouldn’t be an execution, but a duel. She deserves to die with honor and dignity as a true warrior. They introduce themselves, and he stabs her. In the end, she recognized the right thing. Then, she did it. Even if it was her ending, she finally lived her dream.

Our Take

So, hot on the heels of an episode that brought Tiger from throwaway fanservice girl into a complex and interesting character, we get this. This is an epilogue on her life and the full circle of her growth as a person. I found her story touching, honestly. After seeing her fall from grace in the previous episode, her climb back up to grace was fraught with self-realization that felt so real. She is faced with the fact that her alcoholism was just hovering over her suffering, not erasing it. Coming face to face with her pain, Ox’s words can take root. Really, Ox isn’t an intellectual philosopher. He’s just extremely straightforward. Like a bull. However, when life is full of disappointment and disillusionment, straightforward philosophy is exactly what you need to find the right path.

The animation of this episode was almost entirely traditional… as far as I could tell. There were a couple of spots that I suspect had the characters as CG, but I can’t tell for sure. I tip my hat if that were the case. Having CG good enough to fool me into thinking it’s traditional, that’s impressive work. But, the episode didn’t need much CG. Despite the fact that a duel was supposed to happen, there wasn’t much action. Most of the episode was talking, so it didn’t need exceptional action animation. That being said, all of the chunks of Rabbit’s body flopping around to attack Ox was the stuff of nightmares. Partly because of the subject matter, but partly because of the care they put into animation those twitching chunks.

What made all the talking good was Colleen Clinkenbeard’s performance as the suffering, introspective Tiger. She portrayed a wide range of emotions, and some more subtly than others. It was vital that she get this right. A bad job of voice acting Tiger here would make the episode come off as cheesy or hackneyed. Colleen injected some real depth into Tiger’s inner monologue and made it so we could hear the difference between her past self, present self, and dying self. It shouldn’t come as a surprise. Colleen has been in anime voice acting for thirteen years and has portrayed many much-loved characters, such as Riza Hawkeye in Fullmental Alchemist. She was also recently in Sakura Quest as Angelica, owner of the fortune-telling restaurant.

The other main speaking part, Ox, was far too monotone to get much out of Ian Sinclair. That is until he begins reacting to Tiger’s sacrifice. Bit by tiny bit, Ian allowed Ox to break. As much as he held himself together, he got touched by her. This is a great touch and revealed a new side of the almost Terminator-esque character. He wasn’t just killing systematically because he’s a robot. It’s because he’s simple-minded, and lets that simple interaction between intent and action be a barrier from feeling. Here, he’s forced to feel, because there is nothing he can do.