「予兆／夜明けと未明」 (Yochou / Yoake to Mimei)
“Omen / Daybreak and Dawn”
Secret spilling time: I actually like WIXOSS. Yeah I know, this series rubs some the wrong way, but there’s something about psychologically screwing with girls while playing card games that’s just fun to watch. Who knows, might be my past obsession experience with Yu-Gi-Oh! and Magic: the Gathering. While last season in Lostorage incited was arguably a letdown after the shenanigans enthusiastically dealt with in Selector infected and Selector spread, I still got a blast covering that and was honestly looking forward to this sequel ever since its announcement. WIXOSS may not be to everyone’s taste, but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t do its job well.
While needless to say you should have at least seen the previous season if reading this now (seriously, do so unless you like spoilers), the opener did an alright job of covering the past while teasing the future. At least it better have given it was the OVA scene for scene—not amused JC Staff! As a refresher though Suzuko (Hashimoto Chinami) was the victor in the previous Lostorage, saving her childhood friend Chinatsu (Iguchi Yuka) from the machinations of one Bookmaker, although at the expense of Chinatsu’s childhood memories. Bookmaker of course lost to Suzuko for that to happen, being replaced by his LRIG Carnival, who herself is now left to roam planet Earth in pursuit of, well, something apparently to do with LRIG manipulation and evil within Selector hearts. This mystery and its solution obviously will involve more battoruTM, although to what degree and with what twist remain tantalizingly unknown. The WIXOSS Selector battles after all always have a hidden mechanic at play, whether it be Selector infected’s/spread’s wishes or Lostorage’s memories, but which version we get this time is up in the air. Body switching will remain a thing of course given it’s a WIXOSS staple, but the battle currency (ex. wishes, memories) is something we’ll just have to wait to discover. I imagine Lostorage conflated has a new payment in mind to keep things fresh, but hey, you never know—we could just have a combination of wishes and memories both on the table.
What will likely keep things further interesting in this season is the characters we get. Yes, your card loving eyes aren’t deceiving you, that’s Ruuko (Kakuma Ai) in the flesh, complete with Aki-lucky, Yuzuki, and little Tama god bless her rambunctious battoruTM soul. All the main Selector infected/spread cast looks to be featured here which makes for some really intriguing matchups if the OP is anything to go by, and some serious questions as raised above about the purpose behind these new fights. I can get behind battling to stop evil LRIG from upsetting dreams of world peace for example, but will that be it? Kind of hard to make the Selectors suffer if there isn’t something selfish to squabble over. Also how does Piriluk (Oonishi Saori) and her anti-evil squad (in the making) intend on permanently halting the battles for good? We’ll find out before too long, but I wouldn’t be surprised right now if it involves returning Selectors to their rightful bodies and LRIGs to where they originated from. Much was made about LRIGs retaining their Selector’s memories and their birth from girls’ despair this week for example, and we conspicuously never got an answer for where defeated Selectors disappear to in last season. There’s plenty of gristle here for a “return to origin” story, it’s just a question of whether Lostorage conflated is meant to be a proper conclusion, or just another arc in the franchise.
Needless to say with my professed WIXOSS love I’ll be returning to this one again next week. With two Selector/LRIG casts and a new set of psychologically suffering battles up for watching I’m eager to find just out what this one has in store. It could very well crash and burn and set my delicate expectations alight, but I’ll be an optimist. With Tama and Aki-lucky both (at minimum), Lostorage conflated will have a hard time disappointing.
OP Sequence
OP: 「UNLOCK」by Yuka Iguchi
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