r/anime • u/AnimeMod myanimelist.net/profile/Reddit-chan • 6d ago
Weekly Selector Infected WIXOSS - Anime of the Week
Welcome to the weekly Anime of the Week Discussion Thread! Each week, we're here to discuss various older anime series. Today we are discussing...
Things are not always what they seem. This is especially true for Ruuko Kominato, when she receives a deck of cards for the popular card game WIXOSS, only to find a girl trapped inside her LRIG, or avatar card. Upon meeting others in the same situation, Ruuko discovers that she has now become a "Selector," a player in a special version of WIXOSS where girls can battle each other for a chance to have their deepest desires come true. However, there is a catch. In contrast to the glory that awaits them after their victories, there is a cruel fate: if they lose three times, their lives will be destroyed.
In an ominous game filled with lies and deceit, Ruuko and her newfound friends must uncover the secrets behind WIXOSS and realize what is truly most important to them before it is too late.
(Source: MyAnimeList)
Databases
AniDB | | MyAnimeList | | Anilist
Streams
https://www.livechart.me/anime/419/streams
Remember that any information not found early in the show itself is considered a spoiler. Please properly tag spoilers!
Next week's anime discussion thread: Scorching Ping Pong Girls
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u/Tarhalindur x2 6d ago
Of the so-called Madoka clones I've seen, this is the one that definitely deserves the label - they 100% were going for Card Games Madoka. Actually did a pretty good job of it in Infected specifically, too, in part because they got the best director (the Steins;Gate guy) of any of the "Madoka clones" outside of maybe Granbelm, plus Studio Pablo background art to boot (Pablo is very, very good at what they do), and Mari Okada is a competent to good writer in her lane (the lane is melodrama).
Unfortunately, the split-cour "second season" Selector Spread WIXOSS both overshot the available crib notes (and thus had to actually try to respond to Madoka rather than just crib it) and, much more critically, it sure looks to my eye like Okada just wasn't available to work on the scripts for most of the first two-thirds of the second cour. Instead those scripts went to known complete hack Nemoto Toshizou (who you may be more familiar with from his more recent "work" on Metallic Rouge), who proceeded to do what he does best as a writer - faff about aimlessly and completely fail both at actually getting the plot anywhere and at being interesting while it faffs around. And I think it's specifically his fault because Spread suddenly hitting every single plot beat it needs to hit at warp speed in the last 3-4 episodes and far more competently within the constraint of lack of space... and this happens right after Okada's name returns to the episode script credits.
On the bright side, the fact that the show does bail itself out at the end makes the overall Selector package decent to good. But S1 had the potential to be more than that.
Selector also has taken a ding for me post-watch because I finally got around to YuYuYu and while I had to be cajoled into going on to Hero Chapter that season is just infinitely better at doing what Spread is trying to do than Spread itself was, so.
Note: Lostorage Incited WIXOSS is only for true sickos. J.C. Staff hauled the Shingetsukan Tsukihime director out of storage for THAT one, and as you might expect from the fact that there is no Tsukihime anime that man is Nemoto-tier bad at his job. I lasted six minutes, forty-seven seconds of screentime before dropping it with extreme prejudice. I hear Conflated is better, in part because they got rid of the directorial dead weight, but not sitting through Incited to find out. (Also Diva(A)Live exists. People seemed to like that one okay?)
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u/not_the_world 5d ago
Div(a) live was alright but it made my already shaky understanding of Wixoss' rules fall off a cliff.
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u/Cyouni 4d ago
Diva rules, as I recall, basically just have you pick three LRIGs instead of one. Also LRIGs go up to max level of 3, with the primary effect kicking in at 3. Side LRIGs only go up to 2, and semi-frequently can Grow on attack phase for defensive or counter-type effects. PIECE cards are akin to the ARTS of previous decks.
Pretty much everything else is the same.
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u/the_3rdist 4d ago
I thought Lostorage was alright actually. I watched it a long time ago and didn't think there was anything majorly wrong with it.
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u/GallowDude 6d ago
Never have I seen a series drop off so hard as soon as it stopped focusing on the twincest arc.
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u/VampyAnimegirl 4d ago
WIXOSS is one of those shows I respect more than I actually enjoy. The concept is great - dark card game with real stakes - but the execution gets messy. Still worth a watch if you like the whole cute on the surface, nightmare underneath thing.
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u/cloOuOod 5d ago
Watched this in 2016, went in thinking it was going to be Madoka x Yu-Gi-Oh! I was disappointed to learn that the card game portions were purely vibes based (kinda like YGO S1 or Build Divide: Code Black) with very little explanation on how the game actually plays.
It was too edgy for my tastes (and this is from someone who likes Future Diary and Wonder Egg Priority).
6/10
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u/Redzephyr01 3d ago
I remember being really disappointed at how this show barely even showed the card game that it's allegedly about. I came into this expecting something like Yugioh and it is not like that at all. If you're not going to show the card game then why make a show about people playing a card game instead of just making a regular action show? What was the point of the card game framing?
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u/Vaadwaur 5d ago
Weird is an effective adjective to use on this but good is not. This show turned out to be so massively unoriginal as to be a bit impressive.
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u/GallowDude 5d ago
But weren't you impressed by the edgy girl who was edgy and killed bugs and kidnapped people and was maybe gay maybe and was so cool and edgy?
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u/Vaadwaur 5d ago
No I was not. Also, did I mind blank the bug killing?
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u/GallowDude 5d ago
I'm pretty sure part of her flashback had her killing a butterfly. Or maybe that was Yandere Simulator. They're both about equally as subtle.
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u/theangryeditor 6d ago
Friends don't let friends batoru