Well, another episode down. And another blow to my confidence in who I think will end up winning this godforsaken competition. Which is a good thing. Unpredictability is a nice quality to have.
Some of these characters drew such a short straw though. It probably shouldn’t be surprising that Dragon can fly but, like, how is that even fair? The show is random, in a very shallow way, but deeper layers look very organized. If that makes sense. The superior powers are clearly superior and the only time those powers lose is when they are caught off guard (which is happening quite a bit for professional warriors, but I digress). The ones with weak abilities or weak personalities, and especially those with both, have been weeded out now. It’s not a stretch to say we’re in the final sprint of the series.
Rabbit can resurrect people, Dragon can fly, Ox is just a badass (yet to have seen a specific power), Tiger just gets stronger and faster the more she drinks, and Rat is just seemingly omniscient. How could you ever expect someone with the power to control birds, make explosives or have unlimited ammo to survive in this? In that way, the show is pretty orderly. Naturally, this is all in hindsight. I’m one of those people who turn off their brains when watching a tv show. I like to be entertained. Critical thinking, for the most part, defeats the whole point of an anime for me. Granted, some shows it’s inescapable. Like Shinsekai Yori for example. For shows like Juni Taisen though, it’s like a secondary brain I have to manually turn on. So forgive my thoughts that may have been obvious to most people til now. I’m but a wee lad.
What an odd relationship the legendary brothers have. A constantly changing formula between sibling love, sibling rivalry, and familial obligations, with unclear boundaries. Always competing against each other, but there’s always the slightest reminders that they may actually care for each other. Maybe. Like in the warehouse. Yes, Dragon was there for a different purpose, but he did save Snake. He knew Snake would’ve been fine on his own but chose to save him anyway. 
Always have each other’s backs, but not a word of surprise or remorse when Snake was decapitated for letting his guard down.They are going to have to kill each other either way, but the backstory made them seem a bit hesitant. When they were given their titles of Snake and Dragon, they were told the specifics of the war and their reply seemed to be indicative of the fact that they had wished they’d known sooner. Yeah. just looked up the scene. Literally said, “I wish you’d told us sooner.”
Rabbit’s reaction was marginally adorable when he first saw them and wanted them both to be his friend. Then he cut off Snake’s head… and I was brought back to reality. The moe is there though! It just needs to be extracted. The fact that Monkey setting up the floor to be demolished resulted in Snake’s death is a great synopsis to encompass how flawed her plan was from the beginning. If nothing else, this show exemplified the drawbacks that come with that pacifistic type of thinking. Where most shows have the ‘justice’ character succeed in the end or, at least, not die a gruesome death and then get resurrected to kill people by a deranged Rabbit, Juni Taisen took a more realistic path in exposing how humans are humans in the end. Conflict may be temporarily avoided or resolved, but it ain’t staying that way for long.
It’s coming! The 1v1 faceoff between Tiger and Ox, I hope. Please, please, please don’t let the fire kill Tiger. I knew Ox’s plan from the start, but if the flames travel down and combust inside Tiger or something… No, no. Positive thoughts. Positive energy. There’s just so many things that could go wrong. Ox seems like he could be the honorable type, but it’s probably not wise to judge a book by its cover in this show. He may put an assured victory over honor. Plus, Tiger relies on being drunk. Wouldn’t being set on fire sober you up a tad? She can drink alcohol, gasoline, and she mentioned blood too. So hopefully something works out in her favor. Ehhhhh.
My boys Rat and Dragon are just hanging out. Rat’s actually done plenty though. I suppose Dragon’s plan is to sit and watch. No real reason to give up the advantage of flight if you don’t have to. I get it, man. And Monkey is dead dead, so Rabbit now has the power of phase shifting on his side. Yay. I understand less and less how he could possibly lose. At the same time though, Ox could probably take them all on, I bet. And with Dragon’s mastery of the sky, I mean, it’s not unreasonable that he could win too. Or they could team up and just wreck shit. There’s something very alluring about Rat though. In a game of people getting punished for underestimating their opponents, he is by and large the most underestimated contender.
As much as I want to see it, I just can’t picture Tiger advancing too much farther into this whole thing. Only time will tell!
My current guess fo victor is Rat. Fingers crossed!