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Yes, this anime is cute, but it’s more than that. I know being cute is enough to pull people in by itself, but I’ll try to convey how pleasantly surprised I was when I started watching this small show that almost nobody is talking about.


Story:
Miira no Kaikata is best described as a Slice-of-Life, although the circumstances aren’t very close to normal life, at least at first. Kashiwagi Sora, our protagonist, gets sent a miniature mummy in the mail by his father, and after some thought, decides to care for it. And the anime is just this concept, although expanding by adding more characters, both human ... and not.

Most of the so-called “arcs” of this anime aren’t that substantial. Though, maybe it’s expected considering the primary genre is Slice-of-Life. The cast goes through a few basic situations and gags, and whilst the story likes to get serious from time to time, it’s never too dramatic, and it mostly leads things to return to the status quo, plus some character development. If you’re looking for shows with strong and complex stories, then don’t watch this. It’ll only disappoint you.

One aspect about the storytelling I want to highlight is how the supernatural pets are parallels to children, and the owners parallel parents. I know, drawing a connection between pets and children isn’t very difficult, considering how some people think these two might as well be the same thing. However, the way the anime showcases Mii-kun’s (The mummy’s) cute bumbling and curiosity, how among all the pets, they all gained different roles, and how it almost feels like the humans are competing on who has the best child, this coming up when one of them learns how to write. There are other examples, but I won’t get into them too much here.


Characters:
As expected of a lighthearted show, Miira no Kaikata has a very pleasant cast that rarely fight and relish in pleasantries. I swear, too much of this show’s dialogue is pleasantries… Anyways, where was I?

The human characters, being the previously mentioned MC Kashiwagi, his best friend Kamiya, their classmate Motegi, and finally another student, Takechi, are all decent characters, although nothing special. However, one aspect I enjoy how each of these four gaining a supernatural animal as a pet helps them get through a personal problem, whether it’d be Kamiya inability to show affection, Motegi’s irrational fear of lizards, or Takechi’s constant nightmares. How these characters get over these hang-ups, I won’t spoil.

On the other hand, the pets are just adorable. They have their own moments of character, of course, and their bonds with their owners feel surprisingly genuine. Mii-kun is probably the most adorable thing I’ve ever witnessed in anime, and it’s the biggest highlight of the show in cuteness. The child-demon Conny and dragon Isao are both cute as well. Mukumuku, the sleep-eating Baku, I would’ve liked to see more of, since all it did throughout the show was teleport around, pretty much. Still though, the pets are the core of the show, so if you don’t like cute animals (IF you don’t, what’s wrong with you?), then this anime certainly won’t please you.


Animation and Sound:
If I had to pick out the biggest weakness of Miira no Kaikata, it’d be the animation. Whilst every scene with the pets is made with delicate details to make it extra-adorable, I can’t say the same for everything else. It’s passable, but there won’t be any moments where you’re mind-blown by the animation.

Sound, on the other hand, has me conflicted. In terms of voice acting, the humans don’t have anything great going on. Again, it’s passable. However, once again the pets come in to save the day, as their signature small noises do what they need to do. They’re frickin’ adorable, of course. Especially Mii-kun’s voice. I can’t get enough of it.

The same level of confliction happens when discussing music. The background music is very basic and uninteresting, couldn’t remember a single track if my life depended on it. The opening and ending, though, both have great songs. Oh, and the animation accompanying both of these are the same quality as everywhere else, but still, once again, does its job by being cute.


Enjoyment:
If you couldn’t tell, I loved this anime for its pleasant atmosphere. Although, I have to say that the big thing that separates Miira no Kaikata from other “just cute” shows is that it doesn’t feel like it is just cute. All the cuteness in the show isn’t shoved in your face as it would be elsewhere. That, and this anime was clever by having the sound effects of the pets add to the whole experience.


Conclusion:
As a whole, if I had to describe this anime in only a couple of words, it’d be “Big-hearted”. The characters are enjoyable, the interactions between the owners and pets are heartwarming, the gags and the adorable bumbling are beyond enjoyable, and nothing that I’ve really seen to this capacity anywhere else. And again, the cuteness isn’t shoved in your face.

Does the anime have problems? Of course. The story is inconsequential, the writing can get pretty damn generic, and the production values are not noteworthy. But goddamn it, this show gives so much with so little. The heart of this anime is so big that I can’t even describe it. I was just in a great mood whenever I was watching it.

I definitely recommend this to anyone who’s a fan of Slice-of-Life or cute animals. If you love both, then nothing can go wrong, really. For the rest of you, I’d say to at least check it out, but be wary of the fact that I may just love it too much for personal reasons. But really, more people need to know this anime’s existence. It’s a bundle of adorableness that this medium is known to be great at, and it deserves more love.

Final score: 8

It isn’t often that I pick up anime on the spot, but, as you probably could guess, I did so with Juuni Taisen. I just remember myself looking through the currently airing anime, saw a fairly simple premise, and thought I’d give something a shot I normally wouldn’t. I am glad I did so, actually.



Story:
If you have any clue as to what a “Battle royale” is, you’ll have a decent grasp of how the story of Juuni Taisen is set up. Twelve warriors, each representing an animal from the Chinese zodiac, battling to the death trying to get a single wish granted. Simple, isn’t it? ... In fact, this story is almost too barren at points.

Whilst the story manages to keep focused on the war itself, the part we came to see, it then sacrifices world-building. How can this war be arranged? Who set it up? How did they erase an entire city’s worth of citizens? Things like this are basically just left in the air, and whilst I can understand leaving some things unexplained, these questions bugged me throughout the whole anime, and I was constantly hoping to get explanations eventually, only to then get a very minor scene at about midway, and that’s it. You could say they knew what they needed to focus on, but it’s not like the story structure of this anime was even that complicated.



Characters:
So, you might be wondering, where did they focus on, if not the story? The battles? Well, even that isn’t the case, actually. Instead, Juuni Taisen decided to build on our twelve warriors a bit, by essentially giving everyone a single episode where they were the spotlight, flashbacks and all. Just saying that out loud doesn’t sound that bad, right? At least they treated everyone equally, you may think.

Well, it is true that pretty much all of the characters got an equal amount of background, they basically shot themselves in the foot at the same time. If it wasn’t obvious already, I can tell you that a single episode is not enough time to get the viewer to care about any given character. Especially when a lot of the runtime of every episode was just those flashbacks, which weren’t even that creative. So, to sum this up, they developed every character, but then in turn didn’t develop anybody enough. Parallels the phrase “Jack of all trades but master of none” quite well.



Animation and sound:
It’s unfortunate how much potential Juuni Taisen had, only to then end up rather disappointing in the end. By that I meant that the first episode especially had above average animation-quality, and some great choreography to boot. The animation wasn’t really ever as impressive as back then, and by episode 9 I can only assume the budget got so abysmal that they had to resort to CG animation. I’m not kidding. For just one episode, the scenes in present time were in CG, whilst the flashback-scenes of the episode had just really poor regular animation. It wasn’t as bad afterward, sure, but the score for the animation overall suffered heavily due to that one episode.

So, when one comes to watch a battle royale story, it’s understandable that they would like some action, or at least mind-games, correct? Seems like the people creating Juuni Taisen didn’t quite get that memo, however. Yes, ironically enough, this battle royale anime actually has very bare-bones action. And no, this is not a battle royale that isn’t supposed to have action, it’s meant to be a brawl. So it certainly started disappointing me when I saw how short every fight of the show was. That, and only a couple characters got an actual satisfying death, and a select few of the people who didn’t, felt almost rushed or unfinished.

In terms of sound, I don’t have much to say. There aren’t any tracks that were that memorable, although I do remember it being passable overall. The opening song, Rapture by Panorama Panama Town, was a delightful surprise that I’m listening to right now as I’m writing this, in fact. The ending was also decent, although definitely not on the same level.



Enjoyment:
So far, I wouldn’t blame you if you thought the first paragraph was from a completely different review, but maybe it all starts to make sense here. Despite falling short of even good on basically every category, Juuni Taisen pulled through in one aspect; Its concept.

Not every anime has to strife to be amazing, and I feel like the author of Juuni Taisen definitely got that. The story was so simplistic that it didn’t need to do anything outstanding or unique. The animation didn’t need to be breathtaking, the characters didn’t need to be developed too much other that giving the viewers an opportunity to differentiate each of them. If anything, the character-designs were so unique already that they didn’t even need to go much beyond that. If you look at Juuni Taisen as what it is instead of what it could’ve been, it isn’t disappointing in the slightest. If anything, it delivered its promise, and its simple premise got me interested, kept me hooked, and ended the story with me having a smile on my face the whole time. A job well done.



Conclusion:
Fate/Zero was a battle roayle anime that excelled at creating memorable characters with varied ideals and ambitions, and pinned those ideals against each other beautifully. And despite having insufferable main characters, Mirai Nikki succeeded as a battle royale with giving a unique set of powers for each contestant. Juuni Taisen, however, was a good battle royale anime by being just that. It didn’t do anything exceptionally well, if anything it was disappointing in a lot of ways, but Juuni Taisen’s fun-factor and simplicity are the things that made it enjoyable as a watch.

If you’re a fan of battle roayles like me, then definitely give Juuni Taisen a shot. If not, then I say it’s up to your own discretion. It’s not something I’d go out of my way to recommend to people, but to those that are curious, I say go right ahead. Take it as what it is and you’ll definitely get your wish granted.


Final score: 7