And here we meet the cool and calculating Sheep, and the suspense builds.
What They Say:
“A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing”
Warrior of the Ram, Hitsujii, is a legendary warrior and previous winner of the 9th Juni Taisen. He was an arms merchant who also made his name on the battlefield, but at the time, his one wish was to see his grandchild’s face. In this new Taisen, Hitsujii ranks the other warriors by their ability and plots a scheme using the poison Juseki crystal, which he somehow managed not to swallow.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
We spend a lot of time in this episode with the Sheep as he recounts his life up to this point and formulates a plan of manipulation. But let’s start at the beginning, shall we?
This week’s episode begins in a room where we see faceless stick figure-like figures sitting at computer screens are gathered in some form of control room. Duedeculpe, the man who explained the rules to the tournament to the warriors in the first episode, stands before these faceless people. He identifies them as V.I.P.s who are tuning into the tournament. We know nothing of who they are but we do learn what the tournament is all about. As Duedeculpe explains, it is a war for war’s sake; that is a ware to replace an actual war. A proxy war, if you will. The result of this tournament has the same impact that a territorial war would; it would re draw the maps of the world. They then begin to debate a little about the warriors and those they predict will win. They choose Ox, Rabbit and Monkey as the formidable opponents who could make it to the top three, though they acknowledge the threat the Sheep poses as the only warrior who has won a tournament before. This gives him an advantage of experience but also his old age and frailty a disadvantage, though his actions could sway the outcome of the tournament. In this sequence, they talk of the warriors as if they are pawns sent to do something they would rather not do. This shines light on how invaluable their lives are in this context.
We cut to the Sheep in his hiding place where he is planning his next moves. He predicts the same outcome (of the Ox, Rabbit and Monkey making it to the end) and confirms that the most sound strategy will be to pit them against each other and let them kill one another.
Then we are shown how the standoff between the team of Rat and Monkey against Rabbit and the corpse of Dragon. Dragon runs off and Rat follows. Monkey tries to talk to Rabbit but no effort can be made there so he attacks and she defends herself. Ox is wandering and he sees Boar’s guns from when Chicken killed her corpse. We then see an injured Horse whom I had expected to be dead after facing off against Ox, but alas, he lives for now. Later we find out that the Horse had somehow escaped the fight with the Ox and the Ox has begun to pursue him while killing anyone in his path.
Meanwhile, the sheep is still in his hiding place, and we now get a memory from him where he tells his grandson a story that reveals his backstory. He was an arms dealer and war was his business. He eventually married into the family of its closest client. When he won the ninth Juni Taisen, he did so by detaching an escape pod from the space station it was being held at, then killed all the warriors from that year on board by blowing it up. His wish was to see his grandson’s face. Then we come out of that story to see some scenes where he spends time with his grandson as he grows up. When it comes time for this Juni Taisen, he takes his grandson’s place in going so that he doesn’t have to experience the horrors of it.
It was here that I knew his death in this episode, if it happened, would be very sad. Not because we had come to know this character, but in the fact that he would be leaving his family behind to die there. Anything that’s all “I loved a good long life, it’s time for me to let it end” gets me in the heartstrings every time.
We get to see a bit more of Rat chasing Dragon after Rat switches roles, Monkey is being attacked by Rabbit’s corpse birds but they are ineffective since she is that good at defensive combat. Their situations are more of an afterthought in this episode; something to cut away from to build suspense, which it does effectively.
It turns out that Sheep never swallowed the juseki poison as everyone else did and he plans on manipulating either the Horse, Dog or Boar since they might be the most gullible. I like how they keep him naïve to make it more realistic. He hasn’t spoken to any other warrior so he doesn’t know who is still alive nor who is dead. This has him at another disadvantage, but he could find out in his endeavor to execute his plan. He would tell him that there is a way to get the jewel out of their system without them getting killed but then he kills them once they trust him. The Ox appears at his hiding place and he escapes, finding a new place to confirm his plans then finally does something other than plan. He runs around trying to find someone to manipulate and he stumbles upon the Tiger who is getting drunk in a park. When he rummages through his bag for something, she hears him and beckons him over, and so ends this episode.
So, we end another episode without the death of the character the episode was focused on. This show continues to blow past my expectations, while still keeping me guessing and in need of answers. The order of deaths has now deviated from the original assumption based around the zodiac story and has now either put them off or canceled them, I am not sure but I need more!
In Summary:
The predictability is gone since the Sheep, nor the Monkey has died after having an episode focused on them; a sign that the show went down that path originally so it would be familiar for the audience. Now on to the anguish and suspense around the potential death that’s about to happen whether I like it or not…
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
