Discussion Juni Taisen: Zodiac War

Episodes: 12 | Source: Novel | Genres: Action, Suspense, Gore, High Stakes Game
Synopsis
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Every 12 years, mercenaries who possess the highest caliber of brute strength, cunning wit, and deadly precision gather to participate in the Zodiac Tournament. Each warrior bears the name and attributes of one of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac. With their pride and lives on the line, they engage in vicious combat until only the victor remains.

The 12th Zodiac Tournament begins in a desolate city, devoid of any evidence of the half million people who recently lived there. To raise the stakes, each warrior ingests a poisonous gem, thus setting a time limit on the tournament—and on their life. With one wish for the victor up for grabs, the Zodiac Warriors start their cutthroat battle for survival.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

 

Episode 1 was good. I was actually pretty invested in the beautiful psycho Toshiko warrior of the boar. So her father was victorious in the previous Zodiac Tournament, and selected her younger sister Kiyoko as the next participant between the two sisters, this utterly devastated Toshiko. Kiyoko was apparently obsessed with killing (animals) and Toshiko seemed to be the less favoured of the two, so was jealous. Toshiko trained her and kept pushing her to kill people, which eventually drove Kiyoko insane and she killed the attendants of their family. Kiyoko got locked up in a form of isolation as a result, and Toshiko then gave her a weapon to kill herself with.

Toshiko finally is getting to participate in the Zodiac Tournament 12 years after her father, with the prize being any wish granted. The participants all swallowed a poisoned object they have to collect all of to win. They will die in 12 hours without the antidote, and the winner will also receive the antidote after the rest are all dead.

Toshiko seemed to have her strategy to win down and was mostly weary of Sharyu. Usagi also seems like a complete psychopath and had killed one of the contestants before anything started. Usagi is a Necromantist, allowing him to control those he killed, and so Toshiko seems to have died to him.

 

Episode 2 was good. Everyone seems to be of the opinion that Ushii warrior of the ox is the most dangerous and strongest of the group. Interesting to see it confirmed that the entire city of 500,000 people was cleared out for a single night. Not sure if they were killed or just moved. So the person to set off the explosion was the one to offer the peace treaty, Sharyu the Monkey warrior. Nezumi, warrior of the rat is the one who agreed to team up with her and they have escaped into the sewers for now.

Niwatori warrior of the chicken found the hiding spot of Dotsuku, warrior of the dog's hiding spot, and in the end, Dotsuku agreed to an alliance, although he intends to just use Niwatori and kill her off. Dotsuku also seemed to think he counteracted the poison, as his killing technique revolves around poison he injects into victims when biting them.

Using Niwatori's ability to control/communicate with birds, they continue keeping tabs on Usagi and his two bodies, planning on taking him out. Dotsuku bit Niwatori, poisoning her only this one was a power up. He intended for her to take out Boar or die trying. In the end, it backfired and Niwatori killed him by exploding his head.

Uma warrior of the horse had an unfortunate run in with Ushii.

 

Episode 3 was good. Niwatori was just playing the trusting part the whole time, and was always intending to betray and kill off Dotsuku after getting the power up from him. Niwatori has a pretty sad backstory herself. As a child she was abused by her parents, and ended up in some psychotic break and slaughtered her parents. The events caused her to have a form of amnesia and forget everything about herself and the events, basically making her a blank slate. This lead to her being adopted into Niwa family and was trained as a warrior in espionage and killing. Doing that line of work has warped her so she no longer can tell friends from enemies.

Niwatori had her birds take out and devour Toshiko, and when she was getting food from a store, had a run in with Nezumi. She debating killing Nezumi, but ended up agreeing to go with him into the sewers and to Sharyu, even though she originally planned on joining them in the alliance falsely to later betray them. The interaction with Sharyu had her acting strange, not sure if that's Sharyu's ability, or the side effects of the poison of Dotsuku as Niwatori seemed to think. Niwatori ended up splitting off then had an unfortunate encounter with Ushii. She was intended to pull the fake out tactic and betray him, but reacted to protect Sharyu, so I can only assume it's Sharyu's ability. She ended up killed by Ushii.

The interesting thing about Nezumi is everyone that has an encounter with him seems ot feel like they have met him before.

 

Episode 4 was good. Seems like Sharyu was trained by three monkey sages, that saw themselves as one. It's not overly clear how powerful she is, but presumably very. She helped end a lot of wars, and witnessed a lot of horrors over her life. I wonder if her relationship also ended because of her constant battlefield ventures. Almost seemed that way, but not 100%.

Sharyu and Nezumi encountered some zombie birds, so it seems like Usagi is controlling Niwatori despite not killing her himself. The showdown between Sharyu and Nezumi against Usagi and his minions begins now, with Sharyu wanting to only restrain them.

 

Episode 5 was good. So some influential people bet in the Juni Taisen at the half way point, and the purpose is to settle disputed between lands and there was even talk of controlling the world. Ox is already in the lead with 3 Juseki jewels. Dragon and Rabbit are second with 3 each with the rest having 1 each. So the old man Hitsuji warrior of the Sheep won the Juni Taisen at one point three decades ago. When he won, his wish was to peacefully grow old. He was thankful to be able to see his children and grandchildren grow up. His grandchild was selected for this Juni Taisen, and he entered in their place. Makes me kind of hope he wins.

Hitsuji was very smart, he never actually swallowed the poisoned Juseki jewel, he just pretended to. So his plot revolves around offering to use his supposed ability to retrieve the Juseki jewel from an individual he wants to partner with. Presumably he would just give up his own jewel, to pretend it worked before taking them out strategically although he presumes they would decline to start with. Ushi got his location, and Hitsuji barely scaped, but the bomb likely didn't take Ushi out. Interestingly, Ushi didn't actually kill Uma, he managed to escaped. Hitsuji stumbled upon Tiger ad she noticed him despite getting drunk.