Juni Taisen Zodiac War Vol. 3 [Review]
Summary
Every twelve years,a dozen assassins and killers take on the names of the zodiac. In abattle royale setting, they fight until there is only one survivorusing any weapons or special abilities along with their wits andfighting styles. The winner and sole survivor is granted one wishwith no limitation. This is the tale of the twelfth Zodiac War.
Story Arc
The story picks upfollowing the death of Sheep, with a ranking of the remaining livingsix warriors. We get to follow Horse as he walks through the city andencounters Ox. Having witnessed Boar be reanimated and forced tofight as a zombie, he now seeks to kill all of the remainingfighters. Believing that if he can kill those left they won’t bedefiled by Rabbit’s necromantic abilities. The fight is brief andinconclusive as Horse, being unable to use his incredible defensiveabilities, flees.
Barricading himselfinto a bank vault, Horse surprisingly encounters Rat. We’re treatedto a bit more of the Rat’s morbid train of thought, as he explainsthat he enjoys purposefully cracking his screen phone to make cooldesigns. Rat also casually drops that Monkey is already dead,although how he knows this, new comers to this story won’t know fora bit longer. While at the same time subtly laying in that doingnothing might as well be the same as being dead, that hiding wassimilar to a horse with a busted leg waiting to get shot. Rat soonleaves, although just how is a mystery as he just seems to blink outof existence with a warning that Snake might come to the vaultlooking for him. And that doing something might be a better ideathan just hiding.
His advice comes abit too late however. As Horse contemplates and comes to terms withhis own cowardice at running he discovers that the bank is on fire.As it turns out, that pack on Snake’s back is a flamethrower and ina short time the bank and everything in it is burnt to cinders. It’sat this point, our third party observer proves a bit useful in thathe explains Snake has the ability to sense vibrations in the groundthrough his feet. Explaining how, even though he’s lacking a headwith all his sensory organs, Snake is able to still chase and fightother warriors. Snake only stays long enough for the short backgroundand his relationship with his brother Dragon and how it’s rare fortwo warriors to be a team during this events and to have such trust.Noting that his only goal seems to be chasing after Rat, Snakeinstead runs into Tiger.
Snake and Tigerquickly come to blows, or more accurately bursts of flame and wittyremarks. Until Tiger rushing through a burst of flame manages tosteal Snake’s flamethrower...and then drink the contents. Givingher a substantial boost, Snake enters a fighting pose and...Tigerwalks away. Coming to the realization that corpses don’t have bloodfor her to drink to get a better power boost, she decides it’s notworth the effort. Seeing that Snake was ordered to chase Rat and killanyone that interferes with him, the guidance hits a contradictionsince there wasn’t instructions for what to do if someone walkedaway from the fight. He doesn’t get stuck in this loop long though,before Ox appears and removes his remaining arm.
Tiger hadn’tgotten very far away of course, and Ox’s goal of killing everyfighter by his own hands. It’s speculated that Tiger might have apersonal vendetta against Ox explaining why she came back to fightarguably the strongest warrior. Only for their stand off to beinterrupted by Snake’s dismembered arms grabbing both fighters bythe neck. Dragon finally makes an appearance, from high in the airwatching the two of them be slowly strangled. Meanwhile on theground, Ox attempts to make a temporary alliance with Tiger sealingthe deal by promising that he would challenge Tiger instead of theother way around. The only instruction he gives her is to keepvomiting.
Having freedthemselves, Ox explains he learned how by coming across Horse’scorpse before hand. The fight isn’t over yet though, Snake’s bodyis still capable of continuing and stands off against the two ofthem. Meanwhile, Dragon continues to watch the fight, contemplatingif he should use this time to kill Ox and Tiger while his undeadbrother distracts them. Only for his brother’s severed head to landin his arms. While the severed head of his brother attempts to gnawhis arm off, Dragon flashes back to his interactions with hisbrother. Including when he was killed by Rabbit before the start ofthe competition. Analyzing the situation, he decides the worst thatwill happen is the lose of his arm. At least until Monkey catapultsRabbit into the sky to attack Dragon directly. Slowly drifting downthe two brothers join in a two on two fight with Ox and Tiger.
Until Rabbit returnsfrom his erstwhile jump at any rate. Tiger and Ox are overwhelmed,only able to defend themselves against the relentless attacks fromthe three other warriors acting in perfect harmony with theirattacks. Both skills of Tiger and Ox are pushed to their limits asthe severed portions of the two brothers allow them to attack frommultiple directions. Feeling himself taxed for the first time inyears, Ox declares it’s time to use a fancy trick to win. Realizingthat the weapon on Dragon’s back hasn’t been used even thoughSnake used his at every chance, they finally understand what theyneed to do. Cutting up the zombie brothers would only increase thenumber of opponents they need to fight their only other option wasfire. Or to use the liquid nitrogen within Dragon’s weapon. Thebrothers undone finally and put to rest, the only remainingcombatants finally square off for what can only be the closing bouts.
Review
This volume had alittle bit of trouble getting started. Having left off on somewhat ofan awkward story position to lead into for this story. With Horserunning from Ox followed by what felt like an eternity as Rat gavehis perception of Horse and his choice to hide. Thankfully it didn’tlast long, and quickly led back into some heavy action. By this pointit’s been long enough that I actually can’t remember if the showrevealed this much about Rat and his abilities, but reading thegraphic novel after seeing the show definitely gives me a little moreknowledge than I had before.
At this moment Ithink that this volume is my favorite of the four currently out now.The second half, more than making up for the slow start of the firsthalf. And with the brothers dead, it certainly feels like the nextvolume is going to be the final one in this saga, so be sure to watchout for my review on that one.