English Dub Review: Juni Taisen “The One Wish That Must Be Granted, and the Ninety-nine That Can Be Done Without”

A wish is a terrible thing to grant.

Overview (Spoilers)

Well, that’s it. The Juni Taisen is over. Twelve warriors are dead, and Nezumi, warrior of the Rat, has won. His reward is one wish. Anything he wants. He told Duodeculpe that he’d think about what it is, and get back to him. Nezumi returns to the real world to ponder his choices. But, that’s the rub. Nezumi’s power was always the ability to return to a particular point in time up to one hundred times. This gives him a unique perspective on making choices. He is the master of causality.For every action, you must deal with the reaction, and he can’t see many of his options working out. He asks a classmate for what she would wish for, and she said that she’d wish for everyone to be happy. Problem with that is you’d also be making some terrible people happy, and that’s not something anyone wants. There are ethical dilemmas with many of his choices, and he figures that doing the right thing was more of Ox and Monkey’s territory. Then, he thinks of bringing Monkey back. But, there’s an ethical problem with that too. Who is he to decide who should live and die? Who is he to decide who is righteous? He thinks back to his time in the Juni Taisen. Each of those people went in with a wish they wanted, but he didn’t. He was just following along because none of the hundred paths he tried got him out of the tournament.

But, each of his runs through the murderfest, he befriended a different warrior and asked them what their wish was. Some, like Horse, Boar, and Rooster, wished for psychological fixes to fill their own insecurities. Ram wanted eternal youth. Snake, Dragon, and Dog all wished for money, but for different reasons. In the end, Tiger was the only warrior to truly get her wish: to see Ox again and get his recognition. Nezumi begins to drown, processing all the possible wishes he could make. With each one, he sees the moral or logical downside to it. This even starts to give him anxiety. It shakes his resolve as a person to know that he is living his life without a purpose. As he huddles in an alleyway, pondering his choice, Duodeculpe appears. He adds another possibility on to the list. He could wish for 100 wishes. But that would just be the same trap. Ultimately, Nezumi chooses the wish that is not only best for him but best for everyone else…

…To forget the Juni Taisen, and his wish had ever happened.

Our Take

This was a difficult episode for the writers and director to work with. The entire episode is a giant inner monologue, as Nezumi agonizes over his choices. In most anime, an episode like this would have been so boring, I would be struggling to stay awake. Here, however, the writers do something magical. Even after the other warriors are dead, they take this opportunity, seeing through the hundred paths of Nezumi, to continue their development as characters. We get to see all new content, get time to talk to characters we barely knew, and see parts of stories that were withheld from us. Seeing Dog’s “bonus content” was heartwarming. Knowing that this dude with black sclera and dog ears is a preschool teacher is a shock, yet is totally in character for the year of the dog (I know, I am a Dog). We also get all the development of Nezumi. You know he’s developed now since I’m not referring to him by Rat.

But really, when the whole episode is a monologue, what is it that we have to look at? This episode doesn’t slack off with visual direction and makes solid use of CG in interesting places. Since they’d have a bear of a time animating Boar’s guns as she raises them, they animated those (and just those, she was done with traditional). Their CG commuter train was smoothly done, even adding in the tilt of it as it rounded a curve. One shot, where Ox asks Nezumi his wish, has such incredible composition. Even though it’s a simple cycle for his speech, the detail and style give the scene weight.

And wow, that voice acting. Every character, except for Duodeculpe and Rabbit, show entirely new layers of emotion here. I’m again brought to Dog, by Chuck Huber, who actually shows a softer side, even in how he talks. Monica Rial reminds us just how good she can be with Rooster’s dialogue. Though short, it is extremely expressive. Even Daman Mills brought new levels to Nezumi. Throughout, the warrior of the rat is deadpan and expressionless. Here, he displays a variety of emotions, even if they are a bit subdued.

I’ve seen that a lot of people felt like this ending was a rip-off. They wanted some big, Dragon Ball-esque wish that would bring back characters, or end the Juni Taisen. Their biggest problem was that they couldn’t relate with Rat, and they felt like his wish was underwhelming. However, that wasn’t the story they were telling. This wasn’t a story about the good guys winning and evil is trounced. This is a story about people surviving a tournament. This is Hunger Games. I feel like this was a believable ending for Nezumi. If you went through all that one hundred times, you’d probably want to forget it, too. The ending was in keeping with his character, and while it doesn’t give us any catharsis, it is the ending that brings him peace.