English Dub Season Review: Juni Taisen: Zodiac War

We have now entered the year of the Bloody Carnage.

Overview

Every twelve years, the twelve noble houses come together for the ultimate blood sport: The Juni Taisen. Each sends its own representative to duke it out in a battle royal. The houses use this tournament as an opportunity to settle international disputes, betting on competitors not with money, but in land and whole countries. Of course, the competitors are compensated for their troubles. To the winner, the spoils are a wish. Any wish. Even the Resurrection of the dead or immortality, if it is asked for. But, only one of the thirteen contestants can survive, and each Juni Taisen is different. This time, an entire city is evacuated. The warriors can go anywhere they want. They must each eat a special crystal at the beginning. In order to win, they have to collect all twelve crystals. Despite the open space to work in, they have a limited time. The crystal within them slowly seeps poison into them and will kill them in twelve hours.

Each episode of Juni Taisen focuses on a different one of the twelve fighters, giving you a bit of their backstory and mindset. However, no matter how much you might sympathize with or admire them, don’t get attached. Anyone of them could die at any time. You see, just as the Juni Taisen can grant supernatural wishes, these warriors have superhuman powers and will use them to turn their opponents into chunky salsa. For example, Boar has the power of infinite ammunition and takes advantage of it by utilizing a pair of heavy machine guns. I’d love to get into each one, but there is no way to do so without giving you spoilers as to the plot.

Our Take

I went into this anime expecting a brainless action romp. I am pleased to announce, good friends, that I found much more. These characters are deep, and each has complicated reasons for fighting, much less being in the tournament. Ignore the character designs. Yes, they are thoroughly schlocky and overly thematic. They are each based off the Chinese Zodiac, and oh is it obvious. Looking at the picture below, you can tell you are looking at Dog and Rooster. This makes for cheesy, unrealistic outfits, and the girls are extremely fanservice-y. Don’t let this fool you. Tiger has a tigerskin bikini, and a story that is heartbreaking and true to the experience of many war veterans. Monkey has some of the shortest shorts you ever saw, but is probably the most noble hero of the bunch.

Though I won’t spoil anything, the series doesn’t stop developing characters just because they’re dead. In the end, the winner reminisces on the time they spent with the other warriors, and we get to see details about each one that we never considered before. What I see here is a running commentary on the effects of war on those that fight it. Each person reacts differently to it, and processes the trauma in their own way. These characters are no different, and none of their backgrounds feel campy or heavy-handed with the morals they deal with.

This anime was a project of love by the animators, and they had a ton of fun putting together complex cinematic shots. During Rooster’s backstory, they blend CG and traditional elements to pull off a long panning shot that would normally only be possible with a real camera. There is a ton of great choices for visual direction, and smart uses of CG. Later, they use the computer animation to make it easier to do complicated action sequences. Even then, the characters don’t look stiff or fake. Care is taken to give them personality and bits of error in how they move to make them feel like they have a life. The exception is with Ox, whose motions are exceptionally precise. I’m honestly stunned by how much they accomplished with the animation here.

The voice acting is superb. I was blown away by the performances of Caitlin Glass (Monkey) and Monica Rial (Rooster), and just how much emotion and character traits they bring into their characters. Similarly, the brothers Dragon and Snake are well acted, by Clifford Chapin and Matt Shipman. The two sound like twin brothers, and have great sass. Honestly, this show’s got such great voice work, especially for a show that appears on the surface to be a gory war-fest.

How To Watch

Despite all of the awesome that is encapsulated in this show, I would have to suggest that you spread it out over time. This show is very compressed, despite the fact that it still has twelve episodes. Watching it all at once will probably leave you feeling like there wasn’t much there. By giving some time between watching, you’ll get some time to digest what you’ve seen, and you can feel like there’s more there.