Luckily I am not someone who reads reviews before deciding to watch an anime. Had I done that, I would probably not have touched this one.
Would I have missed out on something? Surely not on something great, that much I must say, but this one is far from bad.
Story
Whoever decides to watch this under the assumption that this is an action-packed battle shounen will be let down. This is first and foremost a comedy. If you don't watch it under that assumption, you will have a bad time.
The only original thing about the stroy is the pretense: 12 messengers of the gods, represented by the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac, protect Japan. Once every 60 years the ETM12 is held, an event to determine which representant of the 108 clans is fit to be one of those 12 messengers. And while, with that pretense, you could probably make an actual battle shounen, this is a comedy, so that is as interesting and original as the story gets.
That being said, comedy is a matter of taste. The comedy is at times so fast paced and random, that even the characters themselves can't keep up and the battles are about half and half actual battles and seemingly random competitions. To be frank, it's pure chaos. That, combined with casual self-aware 4th wall breaking, is something you need to be able to enjoy if you want to enjoy this series. Because that is as entertaining as it gets content-wise.
The story is flat and unoriginal and, of course, at the end everyone just forgives the baddy for being a baddy. And if this wasn't a comedy, this would be a major downer.
Story/Content: 7/10
Animation and Sound
I am absolutely not a fan of most CG animated characters I have seen. Just a few days ago I dropped a series after 2 minutes of the first episode (Kemono Friends, btw) just because the characters were CG animated and it looked terrible.
Accordingly did my mood drop when the first battle started. But as it went on, I was genuinely surprised as to how well the creators pulled the CG animated characters off. I daresay I have not seen CG animations of this level before. If that could become standard, that would be awesome. And while some effects seem over the top, they fit this show perfectly.
The only thing that stood out sound-wise was Nya-tan's borderline annoying voice. This was, however, evened out by Uri-tan (desu desu).
Animation: 8/10
Sound: 5/10
Characters
If there was a "Generic Anime Character"-Award, this show would get it. Overly kind MC that just accepts everyone and everything? Check. Annoyingly loud dumbass? Check. Obligatory pervert? Check. Strict yet kind powerful masters? Check. Know-it-all sidekick? Check. Baddy with a sad past driving her to be a baddy? Check. A bunch of easy-to-forget background-characters with no purpose? Check.
Comedy this or that, unimaginative characters are this show's weakness, no matter how much you are into weird over the top comedy.
The only somewhat interesting character was Piyo-tan, who forgets whatever she was doing when taking 3 steps. She didn't save the cast, but kept it from being totally terrible.
Characters: 3/10
Summary
This show is not for everyone. It's probably not even for most. If you are into crazy random comedy and gloryfied ridiculousness or if you just want to try something different, this show will be a nice time killer, but nothing more. If you expect a battle-shounen with comedy elements, look elsewhere.
Overall: 6/10