Juni Taisen: Zodiac War, Vol. 4

Juni Taisen: Zodiac War #4

by Akira Akatsuki

Twelve fighters enter, one fighter leaves—who will win the 12th Zodiac War?

Every 12 years, 12 fighters take the form of the Chinese zodiac and engage in a battle royale. With their strength and mysterious powers, they fight to the death and the sole survivor is granted the ultimate prize—any wish.

With most of Rabbit’s zombie army out of the way, only one thing stands between Ox and Tiger and taking down Rabbit for good—Monkey. Her sheer strength and power, once disciplined in life, are completely unhinged in death, making her far and away the strongest fighter! With only four fighters and one zombie remaining, who will come out victorious? Don’t miss the thrilling, unexpected conclusion to the twelfth Zodiac War!

Genres: Manga, Comics, Graphic Novels

208 pages, Paperback

Published April 2, 2019

About the author

Akira Akatsuki (暁月 あきら) is a japanese manga artist.

Reviews

[❝ rachel ❞ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun little series. I enjoyed it for what it was even if I did wish Rabbit had won 😔 He was the true star in my opinion

[Christopher Funk · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a rabbit, so I was cheering for rabbit. Missed it by that much. Darn. Good ending still, very cool power!

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Juni Taisen: Zodiac War Story and Art by Akira Akatsuki, Nisioisin & Hikaru Nakamura

Official Synopsis:
Every twelve years, twelve fighters take the forms of the Chinese Zodiac and engage in a battle royale. With their strength and mysterious powers, they fight to the death and sole survivor is granted the ultimate prize-any wish. With most of Rabbit’s zombie army out of the way, only one thing stands between Ox and Tiger and taking down Rabbit for good—Monkey. Her sheer strength and power, once disciplined in life, are completely unhinged in death, making her far and away the strongest fighter! With only four fighters and one zombie remaining, who will come out victorious? Don’t miss the thrilling, unexpected conclusion to the twelfth Zodiac War!

Genres: Horror, Action, & Chinese Zodiac
Book Style: Manga (Japanese Comics - Read Right to Left)

I decided to read Juni Taisen: Zodiac War by Akira Akatsuki, Nisioisin & Hikaru Nakamura because I've read volumes 1-3 and wanted to see how the battel plays out from where I felt off. Once I started reading this book I was ready for the very insane, action packed and gory of a story! I really love how this story is written because you can't figure out what's gonna happen next; very unpredictable and shocking. Each Zodiac character has special abilities when it come to the fighting and each of them has an interesting backstory. I really love the art style because it's very clear to see, each character has a special design so you know which zodiac animal they are, and the action/gory scenes are incredible! It's better to not say too much about this book because it's better to read that way. This is my favorite cover of the whole series because The Fighter of the Rabbit: Usagi is one of my favorite characters in this book. Also I was very scared of what Usagi turned into in this volume after what happened in vol.3. The ending was very different than I was expecting but it wasn't bad and we finally got to figure out what each fighters wish is when one of them would win the war but one wish we'll never find out though. I would recommend this book to horror fans because this give you plenty of it and the storyline is amazing!

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another case where I had to read through the price sticker for the ISBN.

Also another one for $2.95. Turns out this volume is where I kept my receipt. They did indeed charge me $9.99 for Volume 2. Twice, apparently, but I made them refund me.

I've alluded before that I purchased this manga in its entirety because the store didn't have early volumes of Inside the Tentacle Cave or The Witches of Adamas (actually, I didn't namedrop these, but still, for the sake of "lore," that's what I was looking for), so I picked these up to at least kinda-sorta "justify" having browsed the manga section for like a full half-hour. But, as a pleasant surprise, there was more than enough goon material in these four volumes. So it all worked out in the end. Maybe.

Deaths: Rabbit, Tiger, Ox. Fights: Zombie Monkey vs. Rat, Rabbit vs. Tiger and Ox, Tiger vs. zombie Rabbit, monster Rabbit vs. Ox, zombie Monkey vs. Ox, Rat vs. zombie Monkey and Rabbit.

Anyway, this manga is a decent supplement to the novel. Possibly an adequate replacement if, for whatever reason, one might not feel like reading a rather short and brisk novel. The only major difference between media is that Akatsuki introduces Navi as something of an audience-surrogate to avoid having a singular main character, even though the novel just cycles POV each chapter, and the manga functionally ends up doing the same thing but with Navi occasionally remarking on what he sees. But, more importantly, Akatsuki adds a hell of a lot more fanservice than the novel, which is extremely chaste when compared to e.g. Monogatari by the same author (NISIOISIN, not Akatsuki).

****

Boar, interestingly, looks the cutest in the school uniform, of all the girls...!

Tiger lower back, ASS, HIPS, and THIGHS in two-page spread of her attacking Rabbit...!!!!!!!!!! 🥵🤤🥵🤤🥵🤤🥵🤤🥵🤤💦💦💦💦💦

Tiger booty and thighs (and thigh-gap, and hips) from behind while Navi assesses her and Ox's superior fighting ability versus Rabbit...!!!

Tiger itty-bitty kitty titties, tummy, hipbones, puffy mons, and thighs on the first page of Chapter 23...!!!!!

Tiger hips and thighs in her uniform when imagining Ox praising her...!!!

Tiger DONK and thighs as she leaps to save Ox on the first page of Chapter 24...!!!

Tiger boobs and thighs when she gets impaled...!!! (I... I don't think I'm into guro...)

Tiger arched back in her imagination as a zombie...!

Zombie Monkey naked HANGERS...!!!!!

Zombie Monkey BOOBA, tummy, and thigh when she's straddling Ox...!

Zombie Monkey ass when Rat asks Ox's last words...!

Monkey uniform boobs when we see her wish...!

Tiger sideboob and tummy when we see her wish...!

****

The back of this volume contains a preview for sequel novel Juni Taisen vs. Juni Taisen, which apparently came out in Japan in 2017, but I guess an official translation was cancelled, like so many other NISIOISIN projects....

[47Time · Rating 2 out of 5]

After all this running around, fighting, ressurecting and planning, the winner is the participant who did the least actions. He remained on the sidelines until the very end and then blew everything up. Or rather, he used his power to run through 100 possible futures until he was lucky to find one where he survived. Now all he has to do is use his power again to find what to wish for as his prize.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an amazing conclusion to the manga series! I absolutely loved watching the characters develop all the way through the volumes. You never knew what was going to happen to each of them during the zodiac war. I loved the way the author incorporated the zodiac signs to show how different people can be but, also added in life lessons to teach along the way!

[DonutKnow · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was awesome! I wish Rat had an epic wish and that he was less disengaged, but technically he lives so many lives at once that it must get exhausting to feel so much for each lived experience 😅 But still, it was great to hear the kinds of wishes the other Zodiacs had, which I agree with Rat, were quite modest wishes.

[Hazel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This series was horrible and good at the same time. I don't know if that makes sense, but at the end of it I just questioned why I was re-reading it.
The only characters I liked in the end was bunny, rat, tiger, and ox.

[Stephanie A · Rating 4 out of 5]

I honestly did not expect rat to win, he’s one of the last people I thought would but I did think it was funny how he just didn’t seem to care like he was cruising through the whole thing and I guess he was lol definitely not the character I would’ve wanted to win but it is what it is 🤷‍♀️

[Cristiano Monteiro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing ending, loved the entire series!!!

[Esther Kidd · Rating 4 out of 5]

That was the sweetest and the funniest ending I ever read xD

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

That was a very good ending to this manga! I’m ready to read the novel now!

[Lachlan Cameron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a good and short series

[Aaron Meyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Volume three was probably the best in my opinion. This was pretty close to it as well but the ending to me was a little bleh. I definitely hoped for more.

[superficialtitties · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tiger was my queen and should’ve won…. I’m mad

[Kejty · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

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