Juuni Taisen Zodiac War 5 Review: A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

Things are starting to get more complex and some heavy action is happening with a lot of fights going on in Juuni Taisen. It’s good that with the change of the narrative the show has become more unpredictable and you are not really sure who the final winner will be. I am betting on Rat but anyways.

Japanese Original Episode Title: 羊の皮をかぶった狼

Plot

Opening scene is the meeting between the world’s VIP where they are going to bet on who is going to be the winner of Juuni Taisen, but they can’t start betting until there are half of the warriors left alive. In the meantime, we see Rabbit and Monkey fighting each other and Monkey trying to reason with Rabbit but with no success, of course, because Rabbit is a crazy psychopath. Rat is fighting Dragon, and Ox is just lurking around to kill anyone that is on his way.

In this episode, the focus is on Sheep, where from his backstory we see that he is an old man that won the 9th Juuni Taisen and the reason why he entered this war again was only to protect his family and grandson. He used to be involved in battlefields that’s how he is considered a warrior and his specialty is weapons and explosives. We also realize that Horse is still alive, and before the end of the episode we see Tiger being totally wasted on a bench somewhere and Sheep trying to sneak up on her but fail, since she spotted him first and will probably get his ass kicked because he underestimated her.

Episode Highlights

Sheep’s toys: I loved how even after the explosion and the destruction of his hiding place, when Ox almost spotted him, he left the place and got his plush animal toys with him to carry on thinking about his strategy and plan. So cute.

Dragon’s power: It is interesting how with no head he can sense where Rat is hiding and follows him around. Probably, since he is the Dragon, it will have to do with the movements and the heat in his body? Maybe yes maybe no…

Drunk Tiger is the best: I love how everyone is literally killing each other and she is just getting smashed in the park drinking all kinds of alcoholic things. Love her.

Sheep is being too smart: Since the moment he mentioned that he didn’t swallow his jewel, I was like this guy is definitely dead. People that try to be sneaky in battle royals never end up well, I mean look at Dog.

Themes & Trivia

Fun Facts: After doing some calculations, I came to this amazing conclusion: Sheep is over 80 years old. If you think about it, Sheep won the 9th Juuni Taisen. This is the 12th and there is one every 12 years. So, he won 36 years ago which at this point makes him plus 80 for sure.

Also, if you calculate it, the first Juuni Taisen occurred in 1873, pretty neat huh?

Comments

I am a bit confused with what the referee said at the beginning. He said that Ox is in the first place with 3 jewels, so Chicken, Dog, and his own and then Rabbit and Dragon are second with 2 each. Does that mean that they share the one that they got from Boar? Or did they kill someone else off screen and we don’t know yet? Or is the narrative just playing with time and the beginning of the episode is not in line with what we see? And what does it mean that the results of Juuni Taisen will redraw the map of the world? SO MANY QUESTIONS!

Sheep is such a good guy and a cool grandpa. I guess that’s why he is the Sheep after all. I am really curious to learn what the wish that he got granted was though. Hmm… And one more thing, when the VIPs were discussing about who is in favor and who is not, they said that Sheep was the sole winner of the 9th Juuni Taisen, which means that there can be multiple winners after all, and Monkey probably figured it out that’s why she is trying to make everyone work together. Or maybe every Juuni has its own rules?

Where is Dragon’s head?

No seriously, where is his head? I don’t think or remember Rabbit carrying it with him, so does that mean that it’s somewhere in the ruins of the first episode? No way. Probably Snake has it and there is going to be a plot twist with it. He can’t have died that easily. He needs to be on the spotlight as well!

NEXT TIME: Even a Champion Racehorse May Stumble (千里の馬も蹴躓く)