Card Games Are Serious, Serious Business - Selector Infected WIXOSS Review

Anime has long been a medium for creators to flex their muscles and pull out new storylines and concepts that break the mold. It is just like any other kind of fiction in which you have your groundbreaking staples of the genre and the large number of knock offs that then try and ride the hype wave. One theme that has been catching on in just about everything is that dark and edgy is the only kind of cool. We honestly have an obsession with things being dark (myself included) to the point where we shunt anything that doesn't have those properties to the sidelines. This unfortunately leads to a lot of shows trying to be dark just for the sake of being dark; attempting to grab the limelight in any way that they can. This unfortunately brings us to the topic of today's review of the anime Selector Infected WIXOSS, a show with enough zetsubou to make even the most hardened of souls cry. However, is there more to this show than misery? Let's find out.

Our story takes place in modern Japan where a new trading card game called WIXOSS is sweeping the country. The show also makes sure to note that the game is especially popular among girls and that trading card games aren't just for otaku boys anymore (which makes me even more conscious about being Yu-Gi-Oh! player). Our protagonist is a girl named Ruko who is a quiet girl who wants nothing more in life than she already has: a loving home life with her grandmother and older brother. However, her brother is worried that in her new school she isn't making any new friends and so he buys her a WIXOSS deck so that she has a way to meet new people. It's truly a loving gesture because as a TCG player we all know that its a self-destructive habit...thanks bro. Getting back to the plot, it turns out that Ruko's WIXOSS deck is not exactly ordinary. Her LRIG (think of it like a card playing avatar) is alive within her own card which makes Ruko freak the hell out. After running into another player with the same problem named Yuzuki, Ruko learns that she has been chosen as a Selector. Win enough games of WIXOSS as a Selector and one becomes an Eternal Girl, one capable of granting the Selector's most desired wish. On the other hand, lose three games and one loses their right to be a Selector and will never see that wish granted. Ruko's problem is that she doesn't have anything that she longs for and thus has no wish; she just likes playing WIXOSS because its fun to battle. However, Ruko along with her friends Yuzuki and Hitoe eventually find that being a Selector isn't all fun and games leading them down an extremely dark path.

Time to duel

What you get is a cross between Yu-Gi-Oh! and Madoka Magica. The show starts off rather slow but if you can stick it out for about 5 plodding episodes you begin to get into the real meat of the show. Like Madoka Magica, Selector Infected WIXOSS hides truly broken people behind the cute facades of Japanese schoolgirls. It actually does manage to get into some really dark material and I can tell you already, these girls get put through hell. It isn't the best paced storyline, like I said, the first few episodes are really boring to be honest but do a good enough job setting up the characters. The show spends zero time actually telling you how to play the card game. This means that whenever the Selectors get whisked off to a duel you really have no idea what is going on. You're not even sure if there are rules to this game...so basically its the first season of Yu-Gi-Oh! You'll see that the card game is hardly the central point of the anime which sounds counterintuitive because WIXOSS is a real trading card game which this show was made to promote. Strangely enough, the card game is more of a walking plot device rather than the focal point. It is used solely to bring the conflicts to a head which usually aren't even card game related and more of two girls needing to just beat the stuffing out of each other. That being said, even without the rules, the games are still at least cool to watch, sort of. The action of the LRIGs fighting is cool but the games consist of the girls just sitting at desks and yelling at each other for the most part. Like I said, don't worry about the game just focus on the bigger issue of each battle.

The main problem with Selector Infected WIXOSS is that it is trying so hard to be like Madoka Magica. Now, this goes without saying that no show should really be slammed for being "inspired" by another show. However, WIXOSS doesn't even try to hide its Madoka-ness to the point where I can hear the the creative team's discussion. "Hmm, are we going to promote this excessively complex card game? Ahhh wait! I know! Remember that show back in 2011 that was all about magical girls and got super dark and despressing and it made everyone want to cry? Remember how popular and well-liked that show was and still is? Let's do that!" I mean, as soon as the whole Selector business began I already knew where it was going. Hell, even the musical score goes with a medieval leitmotif that just has Madoka echoes all over it and just screams out a similar tone (I unfortunately can't find the exact song I'm referring to). The real problem with this is, WIXOSS wants to have that deep dark, plot twist filled plot that Madoka has but it doesn't do it nearly as well as Madoka. In Madoka we had a deconstruction of the entire genre as well as the idea of heroism with plenty of Faustian themes floating around. WIXOSS' plot gets going, you start to get into it and then the big twists come and it leaves you just saying...well...that's it? They feel like twists just for the sake of having them, rather than serving some greater purpose. I won't lie, I was really intrigued by the plot and was honestly hooked by episode 5 or 6. The first big twist I think was actually really well done. However, after that the show just dicks around for a few more episodes before realizing "OH CRAP, WE HAVE A FINALE TO DO!!" It isn't that what WIXOSS goes for isn't interesting and dark material. Its just that other shows have done similar things and have honestly done them a hell of a lot better. I'll be honest about the final episode too, it's pretty great mostly just on a "what the hell just happened" sort of level. I'm hoping the second season (currently out and completed) will answer those questions because the ending of this first season was pretty mindblowing.

Used to it, there's a lot of suffering in this show

The characters of this show are lucky that they're carried by an intriguing plot because the cast of characters is rather unremarkable. I was more attached to than plot because I wanted to know what the deal was with the Selector game rather than how it would impact any of the characters. Ruko as a character is extremely underwhelming essentially being Madoka without any of the redeeming qualities. She just sort of reacts to every situation and is indecisive about literally everything. Now, Madoka was hardly perfect but she made up for it in spades. Ruko's character never really goes anywhere. Her big conflict is the fact that she doesn't have a wish, she just likes playing WIXOSS. Now, this bothers a number of other Selectors because they see her indifference as her simply just being a huge jerk. Then it tries to sell us on that Ruko secretly enjoys beating down other people to a near sadistic intent. That would have actually been a cool storyline and a good path for Ruko to go down for her character development. Instead her character, like the show's plot stays stuck in neutral for the show's last 3-4 episodes. In fact, Ruko, despite being the main character, feels less like a main character when it comes to her gung-ho friend Yuzuki. Now, I'll try not to let this get too out of hand but...Yuzuki's character motivation is rather cringe worthy. Let's just say that anyone who finds the subject of incest uncomfortable might want to avoid this show. My issue with it is that while the other characters seem to condemn it, the show really really wants you to want it which didn't entirely sit right with me. I get that love is love but it was rather difficult to wrap my head around this one. Our third main character is Hitoe, the glasses girl who, to be completely honest, totally sucks. She's a walking cliche and only seems there because the creators clearly were too lazy and were just like "WE NEED A MOE GLASSES GIRL". The LRIGs do function as characters as well but only seem there to provide exposition or in the case of Ruko's LRIG, named Tama: to be annoying as all bloody hell. They felt more like walking plot devices rather than their own unique characters. The villains aren't much better either. Akira is extremely shallow and we're never given any reason as to why Iona acts the way she does. Simply put, you don't watch this show for its characters.

From an audio and visual standpoint, WIXOSS cleans up rather well. It's well animated, there isn't anything egregiously bad, and the characters are all rather inoffensive...well except for this dude. The biggest complaint would be that it all feels very uninspired and reads, we made this show simply to sell cards. The music is another average part of the show filled with a mix of upbeat electro tracks and some more downtrodden ones that seem to have been left off the Madoka soundtrack. The opening and ending themes aren't anything especially amazing either.

In closing, there is a decent bit to like about Selector Infected WIXOSS. It could have just been a mail it in show meant to sell cards but the creators actually put the effort in to create something of higher quality. Unfortunately, it still fails to hold itself up to the standard that it is clearly trying to emulate. I guess the bottomline is that it is just a distinctly average anime, good enough that I can't tell anyone that they shouldn't watch it but not good enough to wholeheartedly give it the "add to list right now" recommendation. If you like shows in the same realm as Neon Genesis Evangelion or Madoka you'll find some stuff to like here but even so, there are still shows even from this past year that handle the material this show handles in a better way (see. Death Parade). With all of that said, Selector Infected WIXOSS is better than your average anime fare and even merits a watch of its second season but you shouldn't be in a rush to watch it.

My Score: The most 3/5 show I've reviewed yet...