Juuni Taisen Episode 6 Discussion

poptartnyan said:
Let me just take a moment to gather all of my thoughts for this episode, we have a lot going on with a few twists revealed that I wanted to share my opinions about.

First off, I am very interested to see how the war that's going on in the flashbacks is related to all of these characters. We learned from the last episode that this war is to divide up land between the 12 regions, each of which has it's own zodiac "protector". It's plain to see that every character whose backstory has been shown so far is somehow related to the fighting. Most of them were warriors participating in the war, and I think it's safe to say that everyone will be related to the flashback war. (The flashback war was most likely the old way that the countries decided on how to divvy up the land, with this new "war" the most recent method because it means less people will die.)

I'm curious to see how rat's backstory will play in with this because he is way too young to have participated in this flashback war, since I assume it was years ago and he would have been in middle school/younger. I'm not sure exactly about the timeline of the previous flashback war, so I could be wrong, but I believe he is the youngest on the cast and was not a fighter in it. (I'll probably change my opinion on this as we get more details of his and other characters' pasts.)

Now, let's move on to Rat's fighting style. It seems like what he did most of this episode and last was evade Snake. I believe that he might have a similar ability to Chicken and might be able to switch places with his rats in order to evade people. He didn't see to have much trouble running awake from Snake (who seems to be using vibrations in order to locate his prey.) I would assume that he has some way of slipping into tight or confined places because he so easily appeared as well as disappeared from Horse's "boxed-in" fortress. Him talking about how rats can canoodle their way into pretty much anywhere suggests that he himself is almost like a rat with how he moves/dodges/hides.

I was previously thinking Rat was a time traveler, but it seems that he's just very sneaky and perpetually bored. It could be possible the rats running around town are giving him a head's up, or that he's able to posses them and jump into their bodies. I have not read the source material, so this is just conjecture based on what I've seen of the anime so far. He definitely seems to know more than he is letting on. I still believe he stayed with Monkey because he believed that she would protect him and he would only have to do the bare minimum to survive.

I think that Rat's physical capabilities are very minimal since we have yet to see him fight, as all he does is simply run away when he senses conflict. He's more than likely one of those "kill from the shadows sneakily" kind of characters in my books. I don't even think we saw him throw a punch at Snake even one time in the whole two episodes where he was being chased. He didn't even try to use defensive martial arts like Monkey or defensive fighting against Snake, from what I remember.

I do have to say I feel awfully bad for Sheep. His backstory last week was a real heart-throbber for me, and I can totally respect sacrificing yourself for your family. I wasn't surprised that Tiger disposed of him, but it was very interesting to see her fighting style. I knew that there had to be some reason she was chosen as a warrior, even if her physique wasn't very threatening at all. I'm looking forward to seeing her backstory, especially how she learned that blood made her drunk. (She also looks like a college aged student or high school senior, so I wonder if we will get a confirmed age range on her too.)

I was honestly sad to see Monkey go. I didn't see the think with Snake's head coming, especially since it seemed like Rabbit was a bit surprised by Monkey's martial arts. He must have purposefully moved the fight to where the trees were so he could utilize that trap he set. It seems like his army is growing even larger, and I will be curious to see how they do Snake's episode next week. My guess is that he is going to run into Dragon and they're going to duke it out together.

I feel so bad for Horse though. That was a really brutal death, and I can't even imagine how much breathing in smoke to death would hurt. I think his biggest flaw was his inaction, just like Rat said. If he was more proactive he could have moved to another area before the fire started or even could have taken Snake on. I feel like he was cheated a bit because he just spent most of the episodes running or hiding. (I'm honestly surprised as hell that Snake did not find drunk ol' Tiger first since she was out in the open. Like I figured someone would have found her before this late in the game?)

I guess Dragon's just been hiding out because we haven't heard a peep from him as well. He might be biding his time, waiting for the dust to settle before he strikes. I'm guessing that next week is his time to shine.

But yeah, I'm very interested to see what else will be revealed next week. I hope they talk more about the motive for this war and about what else is at stake. I'm hoping that Rat does more things because I really want to learn his ability before the finale, lol that probably won't happen though. If anyone else wants to shoot out some theories or reply to my guesses, please be my guest. I love talking about shows like this that keep you guessing with certain plot points. :)

Thanks for your time!

taynis said:
Other thing I'm trying to figure out is his "killing all" title. What does that mean? He kills by slaughtering everyone? He doesn't seem like the type tho o-o

Hinata said:
There goes my time travel ability for Rat since he asked where Sheep was but somehow know Monkey died. I'm guessing maybe he could see glimpses of the future or he's super good at predicting or some shit. Rip Monkey now you can't return to your husband/or bf.

Daniel_Naumov said:
Yeah I guess I get it now why Nishio Ishin's stories are not for everyone. Half the viewers are so inferior they FINALLY understand the order in the end shows the order in the process and boom "BaD WrItInG". So all they wanted is to see people die in spectacular way? Have a One Punch Man-level fights every episode? Stop it, get yourselves helped, sadistic millenials.

Porkypun said:
What bothers me was that Horse said he can stand the heat, so why didn't he just ran towards the entrance instead of making a new way out?

The episode was a meh
2/5

nightcrawlercyp said:

You complain he does not fight but rat does not see any reason to fight from the start. Waiting for most of the others to kill each other is a better strategy. Rats are not good at fighting but are best at surviving. In the story of the 12 animals he uses ox to get in the lead and then tricks ox and gets the first place.

staranise said:
This. Totally agree. And I think people complain more of how predictable it is because of the order of character's death. But so what if it's predictable? Didn't they even realize it wasn't meant to be unpredictable in the first place? Why is it important not to know who dies next? Do they actually know how that character will die? They see a pattern where a character underestimates the opponent then is killed by said opponent. How are they so sure that everyone dies the same way? Six episodes down and they think it's bad writing because it's predictable? Seriously? There are stories that start with the actual ending before taking the readers or viewers are taken to the beginning of the story with the knowledge of how it's going to end. Will that be considered bad writing too?

UrbanJahts said:

Oh also I find tigers voice really cute omggg

TheDoggoneGirl said:


Apparently, Horse used to be a soldier and to make him stronger he tried everything like with the help of science, weird shit, etc. Hehe. Despite of him being strong, he still lost the will to fight because he got scared. :/ I honestly didn't want him to die. Goddamnit. RIP, Horse.

Not_Important said:


Did you read the shit you wrote?

I get it now why Nishio Ishin's stories are not for everyone
Congratulations, now you know that people have different tastes and opinions. Must've been hard living under a rock, eh?

Half the viewers are so inferior
You just sounded like one of those retarded Rick & Morty fans with their bullshit that only people with high IQ can understand the humour of the show.

Stop it, get yourselves helped, sadistic millenials
The one who needs to stop is you, just sayin'

Need I remind you the trainwreck that was the Medaka Box manga ending? Oh Yeah, Nisio Ishin's works always have 10/10 writing /s.

Also, people have caught on to the ED being a huge spoiler since episode 2, what we're complaining about is how they're handling character development and the deaths of the characters. Up until now it has only been "character gets backstory, meets an enemy and dies in a completely uneventful way". It doesn't need to have shounen anime level of battles, just stuff that's on the same level of what happens on the background of the characters.

Not_Important said:


It's not a question of simplistic thinking, there's nothing suspicious regarding the similar deaths, it really is just poor writing. They're all supposed to be elite soldiers who fought countless wars and are super experienced but here they are fighting like they're a bunch of rookies. Sure, there is all kinds of pressures going on, like the poison time limit, Ox being an unstopable killing machine etc. But all of that should've made them even more cautious and alert to everything, instead they all drop their guards within minutes of a fight and die. There's not other way to explain that other than weak writing or are you gonna come up with some conspiracy theory?

MysteriousBanana said:

It's not the predictability that makes the writing bad. All the predictability does is place a greater onus on the plot and character building to carry the story; however Juuni Taisen doesn't have a plot (beyond what passes for one to qualify it as a battle royale), so everything sits on the shoulders of the character building - and that's exactly what it strives to be: a character-driven drama disguised as a battle royale.

The problem with Juuni Taisen is that the character building is uneven at best; the one thing it focuses on, that it has sacrificed everything else to excel at, isn't consistently giving us interesting characters. Boar and Sheep were the best (though their rookie-ass deaths contradict the narrative that they're highly trained/cautious killers), Monkey was interesting (if lacking a single clue why a hardcore pacifist was even included amongst the world's twelve deadliest), Dog and Rooster were bland (the only memorable thing about them were their designs), and Horse was atrociously bad (one badly animated fight and a training montage for his "story"? Really?).

Though to be fair, I'm guessing this isn't a problem with the writing in the source material, but a problem in adapting it to the 20-minute format of anime.

Sunaryt said:
best boi sheep is kill
why even bother watching :(((

SirYanako said:
I'm sad my favorite chara Monkey is now dead, BUT DID THEY HAVE TO STAB HER ON THE BOOBS???

Kagami said:
Monkey dying in such an anti climatic way is just more bad writing. She has major build up then dies in a dumb and anti-climatic way.

Its been a long time since I have witnessed writing this bad. Its almost as a 14 year old who likes anime wrote it for a school project and he gets a B+. B+ for a 14 year old project. This is a F since adults wrote it.

Episode 6 was just the official implosion. No going back.

Jonesy974 said:


You'd think with all that thicc tiddy meat he would've barely caused a flesh wound lol

SirYanako said:


i almost reported you... why is report button next to quote button...

and yeah at first i actually thought it was weird she died that way, cause it doesn't seem like the blades went all the way through her body, her heart was missed, and the only vital organ that could have been hit were her lungs. she would still die, but that kind of injury would have given her enough time to kill bunny before dying (in my opinion). i mean she didn't even use her powers on anyone! except for that time when she destroyed the floor of the meeting room.

staranise said:


This. Totally agree. And I think people complain more of how predictable it is because of the order of character's death. But so what if it's predictable? Didn't they even realize it wasn't meant to be unpredictable in the first place? Why is it important not to know who dies next? Do they actually know how that character will die? They see a pattern where a character underestimates the opponent then is killed by said opponent. How are they so sure that everyone dies the same way? Six episodes down and they think it's bad writing because it's predictable? Seriously? There are stories that start with the actual ending before taking the readers or viewers are taken to the beginning of the story with the knowledge of how it's going to end. Will that be considered bad writing too?

nightcrawlercyp said:
The problem is not being predictable is that the order seems forced. The way monkey died made no sense. Horse should have died when he met ox, again this made little sense to me. Chicken defending monkey. Some deaths were cool like boar's death, sheep's and dog's but some seem really forced just so that the order matches.

staranise said:


Why don't you just drop it and stop complaining?

nightcrawlercyp said:
The problem is not being predictable is that the order seems forced. The way monkey died made no sense. Horse should have died when he met ox, again this made little sense to me. Chicken defending monkey. Some deaths were cool like boar's death, sheep's and dog's but some seem really forced just so that the order matches.

Hydrous said:
The horse had undergone heating up inside a hot room during the flash back
so why is it hard now for him

Daniel_Naumov said:
It all makes perfect sense if you posses the power of *CONTEXT* in your being. This is truly not a story for everyone. If you are here to see a fantasy PUBG, well, congratulations, you've played yourself. I have already explained why Monkey ,alas, lost, and it all ties up to "real" world reality, apparently too vast for most fathom because "BaD WrItInG BaD FiGhTiNg". Really, go get educated, silly millenials, and do your own story. There are pathetic shows made by imbecile, deviant japs, and there is sheer ignorance of some third world USA viewer. The case with this series is the latter.

DuoraDoll said:
She was purring. The tiger girl was purring. I like her, but shes most likely gonna die. Monkey is down, Rabbit is down, Horse got his backstory but seems to have died as well from the looks of it, or he is about to.

froggy25 said:
I'm a bit tired, there's no suspense, since when a character gets a flashback, it means they'll die.

They're literally killed by flashbacks.