“Being alive without taking action is the same as being dead.”
- Nezumi, Chapter 14
Juuni Taisen: Zodiac War is a good battle royal style manga that does what it says on the tin. The use of the Chinese Zodiac is an interesting approach to take as it allows for more creative character design and personalities. It is also a series that understands itself and so doesn’t try to do anything too out of the box. This leaves it feeling complete with no unresolved plot threads hanging over the plot.
The art doesn’t shy away from the gory nature of the story, and is fairly easy to follow; something that works well with action scenes. The fights utilise the characters and it doesn’t unnecessarily draw out fights for longer than needed, although it would have been nice to have some longer fights.
While the plot itself is predictable, the narrative becomes more about how characters will die and why they are fighting. This moves away from the usual tension surrounding when they will die and this works in Juuni Taisen’s favour as we get to explore their psyches more; allowing different ideologies to interact. The concept in itself is enjoyable and also strong enough to carry the manga. Sometimes it can become a little bit trapped within its concept, but this doesn’t cause too many issues due to its short run.
The mix of supernatural abilities and the setting of a rather mysterious world that is never fully developed leaves a number of questions but whether they are resolved or not doesn’t affect the quality. It allows the reader’s imagination to fill in the gaps for the wider world rather than trying to explain every little element.
The characters themselves are a slightly mixed bag, with some shining more than others; but each is unique enough that they can carry their part of the story. By focusing on each one individually, this series manages to mostly avoid the usual battle royal pitfall of characters disappearing into the background and remaining unnoticed. It also means that no character becomes over-focused on which often leads to them becoming annoying.
The biggest flaw with Juuni Taisen, much as with other shorter series that focus on rather grand concepts, is that it can veer from relying heavily on exposition to leaving some intriguing concepts unexplored. It can’t seem to settle on an approach to focus on and so ends up mixing both styles which can be a little bit annoying to read.
Overall Juuni Taisen: Zodiac War was a fun read that offers an interesting spectacle. And if you are in the mood for a battle royal, or a short and violent read, then this is well worth a look.
