Juuni Taisen episode 12 review — Yes, it’s anti-climatic but you knew that.

Hey everyone, Merry Christmas Eve!

It’s the final episode of Juuni Taisen, and naturally it is anti-climatic.  Of course, this has been a theme throughout the entire series as Nisio Isin appears to want to subvert the genre of climactic battle royale anime. Thus, our battle ended last episode, but this episode is nothing more than Rat trying to figure out what wish he wants granted.

I’m going to crappily draw these people I met, then forget them all, leaving me confused about who these people were.

Even Rat is disappointed with his win. I will say that Rat is my least favorite character of the series–this reflects my own bias of course. I always found overly cynical try-to-hard-to-be-edgy teenagers to be obnoxious when I was in high school, and still find them annoying now. Of course, we can say that Rat has a reason to be cynical–his ability to see a hundred paths, including those in which he does not win, leads him to often see the futility of many actions.

One of the things I like to think back on is the difference between Monkey and Rat. In Monkey’s episode, she correctly notes that much of Rat’s cynicism is born from his own youth and naivete. The notion many people have as teenagers that the world sucks and is awful often stems from the fact that many of these teens have just encountered negative, depressing, or shitty people and events for the first time. This leads to sudden disillusionment and to some, a sense that the world is awful and shit, and nothing is worth anything.

Just a nice picture of Monkey, who Rat admired.

However, when they get older, like Monkey, they grow to see that a lot of those shitty people mature and become regretful of their bad behavior. Many negative, stressful events had unexpected upsides that helped them grow. Monkey saw that the world was shitty, but that good can happen regardless. Despite what many Juuni Taisen viewers claim, Monkey is among the least naive characters of the series. She is well aware that failure happens, but she knows successes do too, and strives towards that.

Rat is both expanded by, and restricted by, his 100 paths ability. He saw that Monkey’s plan never happened. He saw that his crush rejected him 100 times, and he had no choice but to enter the Juuni Taisen. However, paths and multiple universes are infinite. Rat is not Dune’s Paul Atreides, he cannot see that there could have been a 102nd path in which Monkey’s plan worked, or a 213th in which he could have avoided the Juuni Taisen. He believes too quickly in futility because of these restrictions.

However, we cannot blame Rat for not wanting to wish for a 1000 Paths of Nezumi. It’s too taxing a power, and he would still be restricted in determining favorable outlooks, just not limited as much.

The best part of the episode, is Rat’s reflections on his temporary teams with other contestants. We learn the wishes of the other characters. Many are not surprising, but they show a vulnerability and depth we did not see before.

Dog is actually not a completely awful and boring guy.

We finally get a better backstory for Dog than the pedestrian mobster one we saw in episode 02. Dog is a preschool teacher, but one that inadvertently sold a child to a pedophile. What we saw at the beginning was Dog getting her back. She makes his shitty life more bearable. I suspect that Dog has never liked the work that he does but has felt forced into it for some reason. Now I’m wondering what will happen to Dog’s daughter.

Sheep wanted youth. This was predictable, but we can’t blame him–he wants to see his grandchildren grow. It’s interesting that Rat dismisses eternal youth as a wish, despite the fact that Sheep’s older age would make his wish stem from a place of experience. Of course, even I would not want to be 15 years old forever. Better to be 32 years old if you’re going to be immortal!

Chicken was being surprisingly honest with him.

Chicken just wanted confidence. I like how her wish shows her to be more self-aware than she lets on. She knows her amnesia has left her morally groundless, and I think she wants the ability to have her own decisions be based on her own morality. If she had confidence, she could truly be her own woman, not just some pawn of an amoral House. I think we all know that given how Monkey had gotten to her, Chicken would be a good person at heart. The one thing that interested me about this scene is that Rat asks Chicken if it would be better to wish to not be a warrior. Oddly enough, I don’t see where he refuted that wish. And it’s a shame, because this would have been a good wish for Rat. I don’t know why he dismissed it–he clearly does not like being a warrior.

Horse, poor horse, just wants more talent so he doesn’t lose. Rat is right about one thing–Horse suffers not from a lack of talent, but from a huge lack of confidence and belief in himself. We saw that with Horse from the beginning, so his wish isn’t surprising, just sad. Horse’s formidable defense could have enabled him to win the Juuni Taisen, as he was tough for even Ox, but the guy just crumpled after fighting Ox and never recovered. Horse is a man paralyzed by failure, more so than even death.

Boar, delightfully, decadently, wish for “Harem, harem, harem!” She’s utterly awful, but I had to laugh. Rat is too embarrassed to wish for something like that.

Rabbit, the strangest and least fleshed out of the characters, wants to be friends with everyone. Of course, as Rat is terrified to recall, that means everyone dies. I don’t know if I’ve pointed this out before, but this recalls to me Jeffrey Dahmer the serial killer. Dahmer said the he had tried to create “zombies” of his victims because he did not want to be alone. I don’t know what happened to Usagi, but I suspect he was intensely lonely in his formative years.

Drink, Rat, Drink!

We all know Tiger’s wish because she got it! Rat tiredly listening to Tiger talk about Ox was one of the highlights of this episode. Especially as she coaxes him to drink. I’ll miss you the most Tiger.

Rat thereafter enumerates a list of a 100 potential wishes that he dismisses. Some of them are large, others simple. Some are baffling to me in that some of the dismissals are not that strong. He dismisses telekinesis because “Why have hands?”. Well, just use your hands when you can, and telekinesis when you need to Rat, it’s not an either/or situation, dude.

He reflects on whether it would be good to bring Monkey back, but thinks that she might not want him wasting his wish on her. Normally I would find this good reasoning, but his ultimate wish leaves this sentiment of his useless. He does think that if he wishes them back, they might not be back in the same form. This is probably the best reason not to wish for them to return to life. It could be like those Wishmaster movies in which wishes don’t come out as planned–they could be zombies. Though, you’d think Rat could use his 100 Paths to see if that would indeed be the outcome. Hell, I would have done it.

Ultimately, Rat makes a copout wish to forget the Juuni Taisen. While I get that he was traumatized by all that dying, why not just wish to not feel pain from those memories, but retain those memories? Rat never wanted his wish–it was too burdensome, fine. Why not remove the 100 Paths, or cease to be a warrior?

While I loved this series, and I understand it’s not going to be a typical battle show with typical happy battle ending, Rat’s wish was simply obnoxious. By erasing his memories of the battle, he erases all that he has learned from Monkey and the others. This renders their journeys as useless, since the only survivor has chosen to forget them.

Perhaps, though, that is the point. This was a series about the uselessness of war, and the uselessness of the Juuni Taisen. The only one to carry their memories, is us the viewer and perhaps that is enough.

Some questions and observations

1. How would have the character’s wishes been realized? Are those that hold the tournaments gods?
2. It’s interesting to see that Snake and Dragon, at least Dragon, did care about each other. They appear so superficial and money-hungry, but neither character cared about cash–it’s all a front they show to other contestants. Dragon’s seeming apathy toward his brother’s death was a front as well.
3. Despite Tiger telling Ox that she was not “girly” and did not want a kiss, it seemed in this episode she was insinuating she wanted something more with Ox. Difficult to say though. This show’s best ship, though.
4. We never did learn what Ox wished for. According to the light novel, though, it’s “to be saved”. In that case, Ox absolutely got what he wished for as did Tiger. Tiger saved him.
5. So…is Ox’s horns real? I suspect Sheep’s was real as he had them as a young man. Even stranger is Dog’s appearance. This appears to be a world in which people can have real animal parts and no one questions it, even people who take their kids to a daycare.
6. I realized that the reason Usagi kills Snake first is because he wants to make use of his fire power. Or rather, Usagi realizes that Snake’s fire is one of his greatest weak points, since it can destroy zombies. As soon as Usagi has dispatched Snake, this threat was under control.
7. Had Monkey not restrained herself, she could have easily won the Juuni Taisen as she was physically stronger than the others. She could have also transmuted the poison to render it ineffective. Or perhaps not, she did not anticipate Snake’s head.
8. Is Rat still going to be sent to battlefields? Why is he even sent to battles in the first place if he has no fighting ability? Does he just tell generals the outcomes they want? If that’s the case, he has never really been a warrior or fighter, just a sort of active psychic with the ability to act on it.
9. Rat’s hair is stupid. There, I said it.
10. My favorite characters in no particular order: Tiger, Ox, Monkey
11. Least favorite character: Rat. After that Sheep and disappointingly, Horse who I had hoped would be more fun, but wasn’t.
12. Is Dog’s kid going to be okay? Heck, if I were Rat and I wanted to bring back a character, I would have at least used the 100 Paths to suss out if this was an okay one to try. You don’t want to leave some kid without a family.

<–Don’t forget this was all based on a light novel that you can find here–>

 

• Anime
• Television