| There's no comment/reply section for reviews afaik, so I'm putting the discussion here. After seeing 3 reviews in a row writing off the intentional gimmick of the anime as a problem, I thought I'd pitch in to say why it was one of its strengths. (I'd also like to mention that it's weird to act like an intentional gimmick is an accidental flaw.) Throughout the anime I thought Juuni Taisen's "formula" was hilarous. From episode one, seeing the anime go through all of that just to conclude the first episode that way, was a great comedic pun. The show's first impression was to get a really good laugh out of me, which is short to say - it had me well entertained. Going into that episode blindly without knowing what this anime's gimmick is, makes that first occurrence a real "wtflol" moment, because it's a silly thing to make a twist upon. The irony was fun. After episode two you realize it's going to keep doing this, and the initial surprise wears off. But the irony stays, and now you can start asking yourself the one thing that's really unpredictable (until later): Who's actually going to win? What is the win flag? During the first half of the anime, you don't actually have a way of telling who will win in the end. You have a vague idea that it'll probably be Ox or Rabbit at best. And the anime knows this. The people who made this anime designed it that way. Around this point you might still be guessing to yourself or your friends, is it supposed to be "the coolest character" or perhaps "the one that's actually presented as the most powerful" or perhaps "the anime likes to completely turn things around in a silly way so maybe it'll be the one that seems the weakest". After a few more episodes you catch on and realize that everyone who isn't getting their stories told, are the ones surviving, narrowing it down to the final 3 and ruling out the others. And that's the entire pun of this whole series, aside from the part where "almost everyone who planned to cheat the system died", or the stuff you learn about the winner in the final episode. Whether or not you enjoy this series depends on whether or not that pun sits well with you or not, and also how interested you are in hearing about all of the character's backstories and abilities (which I was also very interested in, I love hearing about characters with different or out-there philosophies, seeing their fighting styles, and seeing how everyone'll die). ---- One thing I've started to right off as a flaw in storytelling is when you find things to be too predictable. This is stuff like Fairy Tale, Naruto, etc - you know the main character will win. Your entertainment value breaks down to whether or not you enjoy the action or not. It's not a huge flaw, not something that makes any anime unwatchable for me, but when I thought about it, it made me yearn for more unpredictable and surprising stories - like Baccano! And then Fate/Apocrypha airs, which immediately makes things unpredictable from the get-go until you get about halfway through when an actual "villain" is "designated". For the first half though, there's no clear good and evil, you're not sure which side has "plot armor", and you are still able to have a bit of that suspense in wondering, "who's going to win this fight"? (That's not to say that Fate/Apocrypha doesn't kinda... devolve, and it did have its moments where I had to joke to myself about how, "it looks like the production budget dropped a lot for this episode.") Juuni Taisen is another anime that gave me this feeling of an unpredictable outcome very early on, for every character who hadn't already had their backstory shown. Very early on you only know that "whoever has their backstory shown will die", and you've only seen the backstory of 2 characters. The other 10 warriors are still wildcards at this point until you get near the end, so the feeling lasts. Once they finally "tell" you who the last 3 / winner will be, they've let their gimmick run its course and concluded it. From there all that's left is to enjoy whatever action/storytelling is left, which is alright on its own. |
ChdataDec 19, 2017 12:37 PM
| ~ Ch-ch-ch-data Visit my Discord community: VGData. For games, anime, & music. |
| And I have a wish. Forget that I watched this. |
| @RebelPanda My friend, you've got yourself a fan. Niice |
There's a way to tell the winner, you know...  There's a story about the ranking order too: https://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/chinese-zodiac/story.htm It's not perfectly the same as the Juuni Taisen, mostly because of the snake and the dragon, but they do come as a pair, so you could say the snake counts as dead from the moment the dragon is dead too. The rabbit killed himself, so his undead self didn't count. |
GomizillaDec 19, 2017 12:51 PM
| Sacrificing sleep and sanity for more anime-induced dopamine. |
| !!! a fan :o !!! There's so much irony in Juuni Taisen that I'm really surprised more people didn't find at least some reason to enjoy it. I sort of just assumed the death order early on and it didn't change from my assumption so I guess that was where my experience differed from other people's. |
 |
| Someone already spoke out on the situation before the show finished airing. Although, I find it stupid how people still fail to see that it's intentional :/ |
Mario_Isla said: And I have a wish. Forget that I watched this. You gave Inuyashiki a 10 m8..That anime literally survives through shock value I know damn well you didn't go into this for a narrative driven experience . |
| I've surpassed your limit! |
iorn said: Mario_Isla said: And I have a wish. Forget that I watched this. You gave Inuyashiki a 10 m8..That anime literally survives through shock value I know damn well you didn't go into this for a narrative driven experience . My another scores dont change that juuni taisen is the worst garbage of the season. Just look the 6.82 of score and you can conclude that is bad in general terms. |
Mario_Isla said: iorn said: You gave Inuyashiki a 10 m8..That anime literally survives through shock value I know damn well you didn't go into this for a narrative driven experience . My another scores dont change that juuni taisen is the worst garbage of the season. Just look the 6.82 of score and you can conclude that is bad in general terms. Juuni taisen at least has a cast of semi interesting characters and deaths that mean something. Unlike Inuyashiki it has none of what I just mentioned. |
| I've surpassed your limit! |
iorn said: Mario_Isla said: My another scores dont change that juuni taisen is the worst garbage of the season. Just look the 6.82 of score and you can conclude that is bad in general terms. Juuni taisen at least has a cast of semi interesting characters and deaths that mean something. Unlike Inuyashiki it has none of what I just mentioned. Interesting? Ushio, tora, the twins, the horse. all of those have the most boring backgroung history (and the twins have 2 ep). And the purpouse of the juuni taisen dont have sense with the backgroung historys. The junni taisen is for that world dont have wars, And then all backgroung historys have wars. Nothing have sense in juuni taisen world, also the ending is the most boring with a pseudo filosophical reflexion. |
Mario_Isla said: iorn said: Juuni taisen at least has a cast of semi interesting characters and deaths that mean something. Unlike Inuyashiki it has none of what I just mentioned. Interesting? Ushio, tora, the twins, the horse. all of those have the most boring backgroung history (and the twins have 2 ep). And the purpouse of the juuni taisen dont have sense with the backgroung historys. The junni taisen is for that world dont have wars, And then all backgroung historys have wars. Nothing have sense in juuni taisen world, also the ending is the most boring with a pseudo filosophical reflexion. Is English your first language? Not to be rude or anything...But I can hardly fucking understand you. |
| I've surpassed your limit! |
| I kinda thought rat had some sleep related mindreading ability, and wasn't sure if he'd just die in a stupid way after we find out that he's super OP or not (which is a situation that would've been funny to me). So his actual ability came as a nice surprise to me, especially since it pretty much invalidated all of the fighting that happened beforehand, which is ironic and kinda funny. I was kinda skipping the ED most of the time for this anime so I dunno if it would've spoiled anything more than telling us who was dying in the next episode with the preview. I'd say predictability being bad or not depends on its usage and execution. When an anime like Fate/Apocrypha becomes predictable, it kind of soils your suspense as to who's going to win in the end. When I imagine a Fate/Apocrypha where Shirou and Jean's philosophies were always portrayed as being equally as potentially good/just, where neither is being painted as the "obvious evil", I feel as if it could've been a much more interesting struggle and as if I wouldn't be disappointed by the latter half of the battles pretty much being set in stone by the good side's "plot armor". The lack of a clear good side is what I liked about Fate/Apocrypha starting out. Juuni Taisen tells you it's predictable from the start, meaning there's no room for me to get disappointed halfway through because it 'suddenly became predictable', and that the focus of its entertainment is elsewhere. ---- Inuyashiki had a great first episode. After a while it kind got generic to me, but it's still nice to see an anime that portrays a hero and a villain as formulaicly as it did. And it was funny seeing how the old man fights. I only have it at 10/10 because of that first episode, but it is the kind of anime I'll probably bump down to 9/10 or lower in the future for "not leaving a strong impression on me". |
ChdataJan 29, 2018 9:43 AM
| ~ Ch-ch-ch-data Visit my Discord community: VGData. For games, anime, & music. |
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