Juni Taisen Zodiac War Volume One (Manga Review, Spoilers)

Like Hunger Games meets Suicide Squad, in Juni Taisen Zodiac War Volume One, a supervillian fight club pits various cuddly psychopathic furries possessed by the animals of the Chinese zodiac in a duodecennial bloodbath.

While I found a little to like in this manga, it left a bad taste in my mouth, and not for any of the things you would think, such as the gratuitous death of the initial viewpoint character for the blatant purposes of shocking my sensibilities; nor the rampant furry murderdrome ambiance, not unlike a Mad Max Muppet theater; nor the profound lack of a sympathetic character, not even the cute, “good,” ones. In fact, in a manga which has a rabbit-powered “necromanticist” who befriends by decapitation or impalement, the most disturbing elements were Sharyu and Niwatori, two shonen shake and bake supervillains, who at first seemed like the only two shiny and interesting baubles in this manga–not unlike two unpopped bubbles in forty miles of mangled bubble wrap–until Niwatori disgorged her stale backstory, and left me no longer wondering what would pop from Sharyu’s mouth in volume two.

In place of the eternal battle of mainstream comics or the karmic wheel of most good genre fiction, the world of Juni Taisen Zodiac War is a victimization ring, in which a hierarchy of super-monsters abuse those beneath them not only without fear of retaliation but in a completely uninhibited, libidinal way, as if they’re getting off on it, and without the checks of moral predators, whether superheroes, the police, or even a Dirty Harry. When you think Niwatori might be that karmic agent, instead she’s revealed to be a slick and phony superpredator, who lulls her more despicable prey by projecting incompetence, and survives more by generic feminine wiles than her lame superpower of bird-whispering.

While you will not care about anything that happens in these pages, Akira Akatsuki draws admirably in creative page layouts, and taken individually, each panel seems a window into this tawdry fictional world. That said, if you’re looking for an immersive, gripping story, look much, much further, for Juni Taisen Zodiac War is unabshedly big on spectacle and cheap thrills and short on heart and charm.

Viz Media sent the review copy.