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Now this is what the Twelve Zodiacs is suppose to be!

I've always felt the the Twelve Zodiacs in Hunter X Hunter was overrated and far too tame. Unlike the other characters in the series like the Zoldycks, the Phantom Troupe, Chimera Ants or the Chairman, they never showed us any of their skills in battle, their awesomeness or why they even deserved to be Netero's successors. They never lived up to their premise as the strongest hunters and all they did was bicker like children over the Chairman's position.

Now imagine someone else had the same idea, took that concept and did a total reimagining ... of the characters. With the same style and execution of Hunter X Hunter, with the same kind of deadly power battles and retaining the same cleverness and philosophy that runs concurrent to the series. This, my friends, is what you'd get with Juuni Taisen.

Twelve Zodiac warriors, coming together every twelve years in a battle to the death to determine the best of their number. With the reward of having their most desired wish granted, the participants will pull out all stops, to fight, to survive, and win. It's a simple concept and one that Juuni Taisen have executed with style.

The battles are wildly entertaining, you never know what's going to happen. Its like whenever think you think everything's gonna be ok, something comes along and unexpected things happen.
The enemies are clever. They play mind games. They're over the top and do tons of crazy stuff. It's such a thrill to watch because often, in many animes, especially shounen types, you pretty much know how a fight is going to turn out before it even begins. But this? No way. I've never seen protags gets off'ed in such unexpected ways. lol.

The music was superb and very well suited to the show. I especially liked the OP with the badass shadowed frames, almost like a homage to the Madhouse series.

As for the characters, they are definitely a varied bunch in this series. Love'em or hate'em but you've got to admit they're unique. They just ooze personality. And I think that's part of the charm. It's such a wild clash of egos and character types. In keeping with the Zodiac theme, it's almost like an experiment of what would happen if you threw a bunch of wild animals like tigers, rabbits, snakes, etc into a room together. Only they're not normal animals but are equipped with machine guns, explosives and super powers!

Yet beneath all that chaotic fighting, the story still goes into enough depth of the background of each character that you still find yourself rooting for them as time goes by. Some of their philosophies may be flawed, yet it also shows they're human. With all the contradictions therein. It's a nice touch that speaks to the quality of writing.

In conclusion I believe this is one hell of an underrated gem that has flown under the radar. It's so good that I wish they should straight up replace the whole HxH chairman election arc with Juuni Taisen! Then it'll be the perfect series ^^!

(BTW don't read too much into negative reviews, like SAO it's just unfairly targeted by hater trolls on this site.)

I thought this anime was going to be like SAO, Log Horizon, Vanadis or some such. You know, like an RPGish anime with a fantasy setting? With lots of action, some laughs and some interesting background story.

But what I got instead was a day time soap opera masquerading as anime.

Nearly all the episodes in this anime revolves around these characters walking around and talking about their "feelings". I'm not kidding. You got one girl who cries all time, 2.5 people playing tsundere (1.5 too many) and a main character who's got a whinny 'woe is me attitude' all day long.

Another thing is that ... the characters are all pretty stupid. They're stupid in their social interactions (naive, no social skills), they're stupid as hell in battles (outsmarted by goblins, nuff said). They got no goals or plans. They don't even realise they've been press ganged as free border patrol soldiers, and are even willing to pay 40 silver for the privilege.... I could go on but you know what, nevermind! Basically they all suck.

The people here just don't have any of the qualities or abilities that typical protagonists should. Kirito or Glasses devil they are not. In fact the story can summed up as - a bunch of stupid small fries getting owned by the weakest generic mob - goblins, then spending the majority of the 12 episode anime crying about it. That's it. Does this sound like something you want to watch? No, at least it wasn't for me.

Another thing I should mention is the story. Or rather the total lack of it. In the beginning it seems all the characters was transported from the modern world into this fantasy setting world. Right that could be interesting.... But then it's never mentioned again. WTF is that all about huh? You might as well have them be born in the fantasy world to begin with! Then the characters just grind goblins til the end of the anime. Without any explanations or plot or anything. I mean seriously, that is probably the most half-assed story I've ever seen in an anime.

Angel Beats was better.

Charlotte had a lot of things going for it. An interesting premise, nice plot twists, entertaining characters, and a great music ensemble, but the execution was too lacking compared the previous Key anime.

Everything in this was too damn rushed. There's many incidents that weren't well explained, too many things been glossed over and certain characters making stupid choices to move the plot along.

There was one surprising good plot twist in the show, after which the episodes pick up in tempo and intensity. I was thinking it had the potential to fix the previous failings, but no. The creators decided to rush ... it yet again and jam everything into one or two episodes. If this was any other anime, it could of been enough material for one or two seasons at least. *sigh* Makes me think this could of been handled sooo better if this had more episodes or done in visual novel format.

Anyway it's not as if this show wasn't entertaining or anything. It was still fun to watch. If it had been more polished and better thought out it could of something truly great. Oh yeah and hopefully next time Key can employ people who can speak accentless english like in their prev work! That terrible Japanese accent is just too distracting in serious scenes.

Just finished this anime, have to say I enjoyed it thoroughly. Haven't seen such a smart and fun anime like this in a while.

I especially love the musical accompaniment. It is absolutely genius! Like in episode 3 when Sora has to stop a coronation ceremony... and what does he do? He stops it by busting in the throne room and starts a CHALLENGE by playing electronic MORTAL KOMBAT music on his phone. Lol. Appropriateness = Godlike right there, as any gamer will testify.

Its not just comic timing either, the soundtrack is genuinely very good. There's alot of nice funky tunes in there. Its upbeat, modern, ... and of course sometimes a lil sad or mysterious when the scene warrants it. Its so good I even want to buy it on a CD and listen to it separately. I also spotted alot of tracks that seems to have influences from old school Final Fantasy background music. A fitting tribute for an anime about games hehe.

Loved all the characters in this anime. There's no crazy evil villains out to commit unspeakable evils here (even bandits in this world are nice since they can't commit violence), just a whole lot of cute girls tryin to beat each other in games. Speaking of girls, this anime has probably the smartest way of handling censorship I've ever seen! I mean they have girls going totally naked, and boobs bouncing up and down.... The whole works! But its ok. Through their cleverness, the producers somehow made everything PG-13 family safe. Chk it out yourself to see how they did it. XD

Also extra points to protagonist Sora, who doesn't mess around and knows what to do right from the start (not a weak and useless crybaby). He's a manly man who knows how to get things done, with the appropriate appreciation for womenz, and none of that fake shyness or over-humbleness that permeates many-a-Japanese protags. Sora also happens to have a very good relationship with his sister Shiro. Now this is how good siblings should be. They back each other up, respect each other's boundaries, joke and have fun play around, and when the going gets tough, they're willing to put their lives on the line for each other. In animes recently, there seems to be a trend in brother/sister relationships where the sister yells abuse at the brother all the time, calls him a pervert and uses violence to smack him down. (Eg Oreimo). The story always implies this kind of abusive behavior as funny or acceptable. Other times they'll be straight up boning each other (Eg KissxSis), which is not good either to say the least... So major kudos to NGNL for showing a healthy and loving brother-sister relationship where they don't commit incest or encourage domestic violence.

Good music, smart writing, funny jokes and out of nowhere popular references (ARROW TO THE KNEE!) makes this one of the most entertaining anime I've seen this year. I eagerly await the next installment!