The three key things that define Juuni Taisen as a show are it's characters, it's thematic storytelling and it's anti climaxes. And all of them have their ups and downs.
So i'll start with characters. It's hard not to be immediately drawn in because all the characters have pretty stellar designs, both visually and how they're written. None of the 12 participants feel interchangeable and clear work has gone into making them interesting and fun to watch. A lot of the good stuff in Juuni Taisen is just watching these characters interact and deal with one another across the show's runtime. We're given a decent amount of time to learn about most of their backstories, their motives and their goals and they work well with their actions.
Unfortunately the strength of these characters is cut short as, since this is a death game, the characters tend to die off very quickly before they can have any actual development in the show. Once you know a character's backstory, for the most part, it's just a countdown to when they'll die, so sometimes it can be hard to get attached to them, especially early characters. There are some exceptions to this, for instance Tiger is easily one of the more standout characters and Rat also have some development, but they're drops in a bucket.
Onto the plot, the strength of it is definitely in the themes of the show. Every character having clearly defined goals and methods means their actions and even deaths are particularly fitting. It's nice as well that it's not drawn a huge amount of attention to and there to expand on for the more eagle eyed viewer who spies a cue in a certain backstory or in dialogue.
However, the plot itself is very bare bones and basic. It's your standard killing game affair with a rich group betting on it and somehow being able to grant wishes, none of which is given any detail. And on top of that, the plot does get predictable quickly, thanks to the show being based on the story of the Chinese Zodiac, if you're even vaguely aware of the story, you already know who the winner is and who will die in what order, which for a killing game is kind of detrimental.
What will surprise about Juuni Taisen is its use of anticlimaxes, something not often seen in anime. These tend to be both good and bad, sometimes they will earnestly catch you off guard for how sudden an action is or how shocking an event was and other times you'll feel somewhat robbed of a potentially interesting payoff.
The animation itself can be pretty good when the show actually decides to use it, certain fight scenes later in the show are pretty good but unfortunately a lot of the actual 'animation' is just used on simple talking scenes and it's something of a shame because when fight scenes are present, they tend to be pretty good and make you want more.
Overall, while I personally got some enjoyment out of Juuni Taisen, this is definitely not a show for everyone. I'd say give it the three episode rule and if you're enjoying the characters and can get over the predictable nature of the plot, it's a fun but bumpy ride right until the end. If you're just here for action and violent scenes, you'll get some of it, but probably not as much as you're craving.
I'm glad I watched Juuni Taisen, but it's only getting a polite round of applause from me.
