It’s the end of the Zodiac War. The winner is revealed, but I guess if anyone sees the pattern of how the episodes go they would’ve guessed it long ago.
Ox mistaking Tiger for a little girl is golden, haha. His tone is like how an adult would talk to little kids. When she asked him how to do the right thing, he’s just like ‘welp one you do the right thing and two you do the right thing, ‘nough said.’ (Although he still proceeds to clarify his explanation on more serious terms and the scene got very philosophical, but that was still funny.) Lots of reused shots here, what in the world happened to the line art? It’s like they used the wrong brush to draw it or something.
Huh, but seriously Juuni Taisen, can you please stop killing everybody in one second after fifteen friggin’ minutes of exposition?!?! Am I supposed to feel sorry for the characters that died or something when I already know they’re supposed to die?! Lots of potentially great scenes being thrown away here, people!!! You gave Tiger two, two episodes of spotlight and suddenly rabbit’s arms just start moving, she shoves Ox out of the way, and gets fatally jabbed? And then the rest of the episode is just absurdly long dying monologue and Tiger being a tsun deciding if she should tell Ox about her feelings or not. In the end she didn’t even.
Isn’t it sad that Tiger pretty much threw away her life by joining the Zodiac War just to see Ox again? I checked the fanfic sites the other day and oh boy so many ToraxUshii ships flying around.
And I just found out the other day the original novel of Juuni Taisen was by Nishio Isin, the same dude who wrote the Monogatari series and Katanagatari. Huh. No wonder this is so character centered.
The idea of Monkey+Rabbit combo is pretty cool. I’m not a fan of how loooooooooong Ox’s monologue is as he gets pinned down by Monkey. He talks all about the right timing but all he did was ramble on and on inside his head while Rat waits for him to finish his inner monologue just to talk. Still, eew, creepy. Creepy Rabbit still creepy. If I hadn’t watched the remaining 2 episodes of Mnemosyne this year I would’ve said this was the creepiest thing of 2017. This is as creepy as Bacterial Contamination. Ughhhh just imagine that thing walking up to you on a chilly night.
The order of death goes just as predicted in the last post, Tiger in 10 and Ox in 11. Mythology reference: the rat rides on the ox’s head and leapt off, becoming the first in the zodiac. Not that the predictability is bad. Maybe Juuni Taisen isn’t about action (despite being labeled blatantly as ‘action’) but about the characters’ clashing motivations or something like that. I don’t have anything to back that idea up, though.
Once I think about it, a lot of the warriors have the ability that if things had gone differently, they are sure to win. Dog is immune to the poison crystal. Rooster has eyes everywhere and can kill people from the shadows using her birds. Horse is also immune and is insanely strong even Ox can’t injure him. Monkey’s ability to change the forms of matters and her expertise in martial arts can allow her to win against anyone that crosses her. Dragon can just hide in the air until everybody kill each other and come down for the final air raid. Rabbit is…extremely cunning and eager to win, can turn dead people into allies. The more corpses the stronger he gets. Ox is insanely strong. Rat’s ability is cheating.
Rat’s power is finally revealed: the power to choose the best possibility out of 100, just like a video game. It throws him into this infinite loop feeling, kind of like Re Zero or Higurashi. Wait a minute, does that mean that if the possibility of him winning is just 1 in a 100, he’s sure to win anyway?
I think I figured out why nobody puked the poison out: the shape is so that once you swallow it, it will get stuck in your esophagus if you try to puke it out, like an arrow head that is very painful to pluck off.
I still don’t really get what the point of this whole Zodiac War thing is. So instead of waging pointless battles everywhere, the 12 clans send their best man to fight each other to decide the power balance? What’s the betting for? Where does the fancy abilities come from? Is no one there to stop it from happening? Who started it? What happens now that everybody lost the bet?
The biggest and final conflict of the anime isn’t anything fancy… it’s Rat’s ‘what the heck should I wish for?’ problem. Although he seems to be a regular teenager with teenager mindset, the meetings with other warriors have changed him somewhat. The biggest surprise is that his normal hair actually looks like a rat. I thought that was just his head gear.
It’s nice how through Rat’s power, we get to see what it is those people who were one-slash-KO-ed wanted to wish for. (Boar’s wish was funny as heck.) Those moments made even the sly and despicable ones seem…human. I thought the last episode will be some emo teen’s rambling (well…it is), but it has some actual fighting that could’ve taken place.
I’m really starting to think that Juuni Taisen is actually about our hidden protagonist finding his reason to live. Some of the wishes he comes up with are legit, but he also has a legitimate reason to refute all of them. (Reincarnating others, for example, would be bad since he isn’t the one to decide what others want to do with their lives and it would be kind of pointless if they didn’t want to be revived in the first place.) Other wishes are just random, like getting a girlfriend, tasting the most delicious food, or having a little sister with boing boing boobs. His biggest issue is that he doesn’t have anything that he wants and can’t decide what is it that he truly wants above all else.
Others have wishes they want to accomplish, but he just took all chances from them. You could say he doesn’t really know himself that well, like a lot of others who are struggling to find what it is they truly want in life. It the end he wishes to forget everything…and I have to agree with the clap your hands guy that it’s really fitting with Rat’s personality. Essentially resetting his character development from the anime back to zero, but meh.
Welp, let’s just pretend that whole damn battle didn’t take place.
Rat is sadly, one of the characters that I do not give a dang about. He barely does anything but walk around, talk, and brood. He doesn’t have an interesting story behind him, no motivation, no nothing. Just brood. Aaaaaaand I hate his hair.
Overall, Juuni Taisen was an enjoyable watch. Sure, the art got pretty klunky at some point but it has some striking scenes. Characters are, no matter how bad of a human they are, are still quite likeable. (I talk like I hate Rabbit but actually he’s pretty likable in his own strange way.) They are their own person, some have unexpected sides to them, and their clothes are iconic with questionable fashion sense. No matter how predictable the deaths are, I still feel a bit sad that they died. Music fits the scene. Rapture is amazing. Fighting could’ve been extended. Some deathbed monologues are way too long. Sometimes it’s just ‘oh I should’ve done this’ ‘oh no Imma die’ and sometimes it’s ‘ah i saw my whole life flash in front of me now Imma take five minutes of screen time just to die’. There’s something about Juuni Taisen that keeps me watching despite being one of those Battle Royale that I don’t like too much because the death of likeable characters are inevitable.
I would’ve enjoyed the last episode a lot more if my wifi didn’t decide to give up just like Rat did on his wish. Lastly, thank you Juuni Taisen for introducing me to Tv Tropes. Now I have a new place to waste my time.
Do I find the ending satisfying? Well, it brings Juuni Taisen to a closure in a way, so I’m good with what the author chose for his story. Regarding how little we know about the actual competition itself, it would be stupid if Rat wished that the Juuni Taisen would end. It will be like having this epic closing battle without any exposition as to why this is happening. He wouldn’t wish for humanity to perish because… oh I don’t know, because there’s still people like Monkey out there? And the anime can’t end with the epic explosion of Ox’s death because they haven’t developed Rat yet. I think the ending could be a lot more powerful, but alas that will not happen.
What I have to compliment this anime for is that it breaks away from the usual ending of Battle Royales, where the survivor is left to repent or think about their death nakama or some weird organization intervenes. Although in another twelve years a battle like this can happen again, forgetting about the whole thing is the way for Rat to find solace after going through a battle a hundred times.
Well, that went on a lot longer than I thought it would… That was Juuni Taisen: Zodiac War. Thank you for reading.
bonutzuu 