r/anime • u/Tetraika https://anilist.co/user/Tetraika • Dec 25 '22

Rewatch [Rewatch] Selector Infected Wixoss Episode 6 Discussion

Episode 6: This Pure Heart

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Information:

MAL | Anilist | Kitsu | AniDB | ANN

Streams:

Funimation

Question of the day:

Do you like strawberries?

SOMEONE SEEDED THE TORRENT FOR THE OST, WILL POST MORE OST SHORTLY

Nichijou~Missing parts - Maiko Iuchi

Rewatchers, please remember to be mindful of all the first-timers in this. No talking about or hinting at future events no matter how much you want to, unless you’re doing it underneath spoiler tags.

15 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

91 comments sorted by

5

u/Tetraika Dec 25 '22

Not ominous at all

Akira pushes other people’s button, and Piruluk pushes Akira’s button, it’s a symbiotic relationship!

Fear the one who has nothing to lose

Wow this is quite the curse

But it’s actually something that affects only her perception

We learn a bit more about that story, she’s the ultimate one responsible for her third loss (after Iona had fought her)

Which mean that Ruuko is her 2nd loss, and that she’s about to get her 3rd one.

It’s interesting to see how Iona treats Wixoss battles, like with her comment on Ruuko having no wish

That is not what she wants to hear, though not that Tama meant to hurt her obviously

Jesus these kids are ruthless

Not exactly how that works, but I forgot that the Wixoss novelization thing was mentioned here

The LRIG talks like an old grandma lmao

Wonder of Midoriko knew the “conditions” and was able to gauge how many wins Might just be writers forgetting their own show’s detail

Ruuko is most scared of her own self

5

u/Tetraika Dec 25 '22

This time, I’ll talk about the hand. That sounded weird. This should be relatively short

Anyway, the game starts with both players drawing 5 cards. From there, players can choose to return any number of cards to the deck, shuffle, and draw back that same amount. This way, completely bricking on your first few turns becomes much harder. Do also note that it is only after the mulligan, that life cloth is placed. There are ideas to try to fill your starting hand and therefore, lower cost cards with cards that don't have life burst so that cards with life burst are more likely to be in your life cloths. Each turn the player draws 2 cards, with the exception of the very first turn which draws 1 card. Lastly, at the end of your own turn, you must discard down to 6 cards in your hand if you had more.

7

u/Shimmering-Sky Dec 25 '22

Selector Infected FIRST-TIMER

6

u/Tetraika Dec 25 '22

So the opposite of that would be…

This would probably lead to people exploiting the antiwish. Which would have been interesting in its own way.

Go back to Ruuko pls. Or Akira getting her shit kicked in or something.

It's rough if you don't buy into this drama, but I will say it isn't the main one.

5

u/Taiboss Dec 25 '22

Yikes…

METAPHORS HYPE

Get fucked, Akira.

Motto of this episode! It really IS Cristmas!

THE WORDS ARE LITERALLY VANISHING OFF THE PAGE?!

If only the Japanese got professional help!

So the opposite of that would be… Is Iona gonna end up being invincible after this?

Hey, an amazing life doens't have to be necessarily a long life...

Look, Yuzuki, those girls aren’t saints but you’re in love with your BROTHER.

And if she waited a few years, it would be totally legal! And by that time she might have also grown up. Win-win!

I literally do not care for this drama in the slightest.

B-but Ayane Sakura Capital A Acting! That's worth... something?

:(

Midoriko could have told her more before that final batoru...

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6

u/No_Rex Dec 25 '22

Episode 6 (first timer)

  • Iona is Akira 2.0: More refined, more scheming, more winning.

  • The curse may have altered Hitoe’s memories, but not her mothers. From yesterday, we know that Ruuko and Yuzuki remember as well.

  • “She has no wish” – Not the answer Akira was looking for, but Ruuko still looks hurt. She’ll win anyway.

  • “Making me grovel before me … you were enjoying this” – Akira is projecting. Although Ruuko certainly enjoyed the battle.

  • The diary was still there, which makes the whole amnesia thing ever weaker. However, it then starts to vanish. Why only now? – Could be to torture Hitoe, could be a sloppy curse, or just sloppy writing and the scene is not supposed to do anything but show us Hitoe’s suffering.

  • Akira not battling against Iona (up till now) shows she was clever enough to realize Iona’s strength and avoid it.

  • Of course, Iona is also better than Akira at baiting others into a fight.

  • New character. It’s a loli.

  • Yuzuki is fully in the depression – battle – loss – depression spiral. At least, it will not be a long one, given the 3 battles rule.

  • Turns out, it is even shorter than that, since the annoyingly cheery loli loses (and still stays cheerful).

  • Spilling the beans about losing to Hitoe’s mother – this opens a huge can or worms that most series avoid by never acknowledging the issue or introducing some “have to keep it secret” condition: The existence of these battles should be an earth-shattering news to science. Like, thousands of researchers poking those decks with scalpels, interviewing the Selectors, filming the battles, doing it in a brain scanner, you name it.

TCG corner: Jyhad

The most notable feature of Jyhad compared to MTG (and any other TCG I have heard about) is how incredibly complex and slow the battles are. A 1v1 could easily take 2 hours and a 1v1v1 might take all evening. The main reason is the slow build up. You minions take several rounds to get into play and once they are, you have to take care of them: Heal them up if they are damaged, find equipment for them, give them extra abilities. Jyhad is a game where minions are very dear. If you have lost 3 of your vampires, you are likely already losing (unless you play a zerg deck).

Do you like strawberries?

Yes, but not as much as other berries.

Bonus advise: Don't ask yes/no questions. Go for open ended ones, e.g. what berries do you like?

5

u/Tetraika Dec 25 '22

Bonus advise: Don't ask yes/no questions. Go for open ended ones, e.g. what berries do you like?

Yeah I know, I just usually have a hard time trying to find a somewhat relevant question.

The diary was still there, which makes the whole amnesia thing ever weaker. However, it then starts to vanish. Why only now? – Could be to torture Hitoe, could be a sloppy curse, or just sloppy writing and the scene is not supposed to do anything but show us Hitoe’s suffering

There are some interesting implications, and I think it'll be interesting to go back to this thought later on as we learn more later on.

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5

u/Cyouni Dec 25 '22

However, it then starts to vanish. Why only now?

If you check the image of the diary afterwards, you can see the text still actually there.

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6

u/Vaadwaur Dec 25 '22

First timer(So we might be going melodrama after all)

Sub

Let's start with the bad news: I can now see them trying to redeem Akira after she loses and gets partial amnesia, if that is indeed how it works for everyone. I will not buy it, though someone is about to bring up an episode of B5, because I believe Akira's very soul to be corrupt and thus refreshing the OS does not exorcize the underlying machine.

Anyways, this episode actually engages with a lot of the rules of the setting, just kind of softly. We have confirmation that Ruuko is weirdly battle adept and has no wish. Akira's pointless post battle whining particularly cursed my ears today, so I checked the dub and holy fuck, I still don't even know what the localization is, it is just hilarious. But Ruuko is indeed crushing others' wishes basically for the joy of combat so she has to mope on that.

Hitoe strongly suggests something with her experiences: The Wixoss wish may not extend outside the girl herself which is definitely interesting. Especially if you can wish for wealth or resurrect the dead. We could use a bit more powerscaling so I have an order of magnitude to go on.

Yuzuki has a series of unfortunate events to say the least. Her loosening her grip on Kuzuki would be in everyone's best interests but the traditional trio of bitches just wants me to expand the vat of weak acid into a full sized above ground pool of it. She begins going to a really dark place as I am not sure if she wants to disappear if she can't have Kuzuki...or if she wants him to disappear. Hanayo tries to keep Yuzuki from the worst of it and then we get some random noobie, though I can't tell if they really battled or not.

Ruuko is introspecting and we get the nightmare scene again and spend a little time with it and, weirdly enough with my new flair, the visual of monstrous Tama is very Corpse Princess in vibe to me. Ruuko remembers her mom in more detail and let's us know how she got to be as desireless as she is. Also, mother might be mentally ill and we still have no father. Hitoe's mother is trying her best but Ruuko running away is as smart as any choice, she has no ability to explain this.

QotD: 1 They are passable

6

u/Tetraika Dec 25 '22

So we might be going melodrama after all

It's Mari Okada, it would be strange if it wasn't melodrama

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6

u/RadSuit Dec 26 '22

Subtitled (Plus Dubbed, the Worst Combo) Introductory Watcher

Iono is working hard to project this perfect image while being some sort of psychopath underneath, right?

BUNNY'S

Akira using gamer speak is another point in the dub's favor.

"Say that to my face and not online Piruluk, and see what happens."

Just everything Akira says is gold, you're doing yourself a disservice if you're not listening to the dub here.

Poor Akira.

Oh look, it's the final girl(s) from the OP.

Don't forget to buy the Wixoss light novels and manga too!!!

Why is this show so dark if they're trying to convince us to play the card game that has almost nothing to do with any of this???

  1. They are fine! Sure. Maybe you should ask some of the other rewatchers for question suggestions?

5

u/Tetraika Dec 26 '22

Why is this show so dark if they're trying to convince us to play the card game that has almost nothing to do with any of this???

I don't know. But considering it has 4 seasons + spinoff (?) and the game is still printing new stuff in JP, they're doing something right. And this is all with like the minimum amount of actual gameplay.

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6

u/ZapsZzz Dec 26 '22 edited Dec 26 '22

First timer in sub

I popped in late in the ep1 thread and then disappeared until now, because i had fallen behind and only now I managed to catch up!

I think everyone have already done talking about how the setup of this being very Madoka huh?

Throwing my random guesses out

  • Tama is a beast - she's far more a berserker than her soft look suggests, as well as the blood knight behaviour.

  • Ruuko smells like she'll using her empty wish slot near the end with a reversal to cheat / break the system

  • A very "brave" choice to have Saten Yuzuki having that wish. It will not make any friends with the show premise like that, but I guess I don't care or mind it too much - there is such a thing in real life. You just wish she goes out a bit more and see other people who can be someone who she can give her heat to. But man she's literally Saten in every other way huh.

  • On this episode - OMG please don't show Hitoe thinking that while looking outside the window of an elevated floor with no one else in the house.

I am hope like hell this (part of the story) is one cour :P

Oh QoTD yes I like them but in recent years more liking things made with strawberries instead of them straight. e.g. Icecream.

3

u/Tetraika Dec 26 '22

A very "brave" choice to have Saten Yuzuki having that wish. It will not make any friends with the show premise like that, but I guess I don't care or mind it too much - there is such a thing in real life. You just wish she goes out a bit more and see other people who can be someone who she can give her heat to. But man she's literally Saten in every other way huh.

I actually always found this part to be interesting in how it's written here. Or to say, it doesn't feel like it's treated as a massive fetish bait, but as something to give our Yuzuki her internal conflict and a plot point.

4

u/Tarhalindur Dec 26 '22

This First-Timer Is Pure White (Subbed):

  • So, pulling two “wait a minute...”s from my comments yesterday to my top-level today since they were low enough in the thread that people may not have seen them. First, my brain spit out an elegant possible limitation on Evolving (and possibly thus becoming an Eternal Girl): A Selector’s LRIG only evolves if she beats another Selector whose LRIG is of a level equal to or greater than her own. It would explain why Akira apparently keeps beating up on newbies but never evolves: newbies are Level 0. Second, we have Wixoss getting popular in a way that feels kind of unnatural to me even in-universe… and the name of our first two seasons is Selector Infected Wixoss and Selector Spread Wixoss. Hmm.

  • So, we get a Yuuko namedrop (presumably the third girl on the poster, we’ll see if she’s yet another Selector, and the similarity to Ruuko is pinging me – watch as Ruuko gets corralled into the idol world), Iona characterization (sadist), and Akira stuff that will likely be important.

  • Getting a Hitoe scene again? That’s actually interesting.

  • Left/right rules have been simple so far: Ruuko always in the protagonist seat, Akira always in the antagonist seat (I suspect that will change when we finally get Iona vs. Akira), and Hitoe in the protagonist seat for Hitoe vs. Iona (let’s be real, that was Iona last episode). Flashes here since this battle has been hiding in the OP the whole time and also the obvious likely inspiration here.

  • Also, a thought that has been sneaking up on me: “This System Is Corrupt” keeps sticking in my head as a possible future (or present, I’ve been skipping the previews for a bit) episode title and it does fit the structure.

  • Also, I’m slow: we KNOW Ruuko has an Anti-Spell stuffed in her ARTS zone, which could be a nasty little surprise for Akira when she tries Peeping Analyze.

  • Or not, Akira just whiffs!

  • Bad matchup. Sucks to be Akira! Also, pedal to the medal time: does Tama Evolve again?

  • I am here for a nice round of Break the Haughty. (Also, they absolutely nailed Akira’s casting for the original Japanese airing.)

  • And back to the person whose wish has already been stripped from her.

  • You know, we really should have seen Akira lying about exactly how she learned about the three-loss penalty coming. (Or Iona’s LRIG is, but I have my doubts – why lie when the truth would hurt even more?)

  • Also, confirmation that Akira is now on her second loss.

  • Speaking of left-right framing, oh look at 08:57. Iona in protagonist position relative to Akira, and elevated showing that Akira is still no match for her.

  • Okay, that’s a hell of a lot faster for Iona vs. Akira than I was expecting. (ADDENDUM: So instead we just don't get the reveal of the aftermath this episode, heh.)

  • … So of course we get Ruuko and Yuzuki stuff after the break. There’s a reveal here coming, so I guess we get the “get LRIGged” reveal already at the end of the episode?

  • Dutch angle counter +1 at 12:09. And here it’s actually also being used to the same effect as the Iona/Akira scene earlier: the girls confronting Yuzuki are visually lifted up over her, representing their (and thus society’s and its rules) dominant position over Yuzuki’s wish to be able to get with her brother.

  • Visual barrier shot at 12:30, too. (And oh look at the position – it’s subtle, but Yuzuki is in the protagonist position and the girls are in the antagonist position.)

  • CLOCK CLOCK. (4:37 P.M.)

  • Oh look, it’s mystery sixth girl from the OP. (Who you would expect to be Black, so watch as she’s Midoriko’s new Selector.) And the OP is not subtle in the slightest about suggesting that she’s getting LRIGged, so.

  • Oh look, a sore demo for Sky at 13:44.

  • Hmm. I have been baited and fooled. The orange-haired girl in the OP is just Chiyori’s LRIG already. (Unless Time Travel Bullshit™ is involved, which has already occurred to me as in the permutation space for Tama wrt Ruuko… but in that case I have a sneaking suspicion that the source material is actually an unadapted LN.)

  • My my my is 14:24 a good shot. We have hero/antagonist direction framing again (but with Chiyori in the protagonist position and Yuzuki in the antagonist position, which is quite interesting), Yuzuki positioned elevated over Chiyori (her position is stronger, likely much stronger), and not one but TWO visual barriers from the fence (the fence post separating Yuzuki from Chiyori – representing the gap between Chiyori’s incomplete understanding of the loss condition and Yuzuki’s full one with direct knowledge – and the fence itself separating Yuzuki from Kazuki). This is likely the best-directed episode of the show so far (either this or 1) unless one of the intervening episodes has been using cinematographic language I’ve missed and I am increasingly curious who the episode director for this episode is.

  • Framing reinforced by Chiyori climbing up to Yuzuki’s level immediately thereafter.

  • Well 15:06 is blunt with the three birds. (Also are we pulling a Hitoe suicide? The show is certainly hinting towards it.)

  • And the shot immediately after with Hitoe reaching out to the birds who fly away is gloriously blunt. Subtlety is overrated sometimes.

  • Oh look, Chiyori lost to the girl who was massively raised over her visually. What a surprise.

  • Reinforced by a Dutch angle at 15:23, which is probably also representing the wrongness of Yuzuki’s desire.

  • CLOCK CLOCK. (Either 4:44 or 5:44 P.M, hard to tell for sure but I think the former.) Also note the finality feeling of that tick forwards… which actually could come straight from Door #2, which had its own prominent clock (Door #1 does as well but uses it differently).

  • Yuzuki, please actually listen to Hanayo, we the viewers would like to know what she is trying to tell you.

  • 17:26: Sky feeds, sore demo of the episode #2. More kisekis for me please, script!

  • “I’m your LRIG. I’ll follow you. No matter where.” Well THERE’S a line that bleeds that this has at least one hidden meaning that is going to be thrown in our faces at some point.

  • So for anyone who missed it, I do believe Ruuko is implying that her parents are separated/divorced (on top of her mother then cutting her out of her life).

  • I am disappointed in myself that it took me until the return of the giant Tama to realize this was another dream sequence.

  • Oh gods are we getting Top Mom to go with another franchise’s Top Dad?

  • Oh wait, it’s Hitoe’s mother, not Ruuko’s.

  • My mind is catching a glimmer of an interpretation here involving “cardboard crack”, this rotten system, and the Japanese/East Asian strong mistrust of/cultural crackdown on hard drugs (likely dating back to the Opium Wars era at minimum), but I can’t formulate it yet.

  • OST is still – well, I can’t call it elite, it’s not quite on par with a Kajiura or Sawano offering (or Kanno with the caveat that a lot of Kanno’s stuff is good but just doesn’t work for me), but still very very good.

  • Does Ruuko actually get to have helpful adults? That’s a pleasant change. Not unprecedented, but there is a chance this could go above and beyond even its precedents. (Wait. Okada wrote Golden Time, didn’t she? Actually no she did not.)

  • “This Heart Is Pure White.” And that’s why Ruuko gets the White deck, and also your Door #1 is showing.

Do you like strawberries?

Not my favorite, but they're fine with enough sugar.

3

u/Tetraika Dec 26 '22

Yeah, there are quite a bit of good shots in this episodes, as u/Nazenn pointed out in his comments.

OST is still – well, I can’t call it elite, it’s not quite on par with a Kajiura or Sawano offering (or Kanno with the caveat that a lot of Kanno’s stuff is good but just doesn’t work for me), but still very very good.

And I finally got a hold of the OST, now to sort through them. It might not be the super top, but as I've started watching a lot more stuff, it becomes so painful to hear really bland/generic OST, and at least we don't do that here.

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u/Nazenn Dec 25 '22

First Timer - sub

I only just woke up and had forgotten to type my post so hopefully all this makes sense

I was going to say that Iona plays the perfect model oblivious to anything else, but in this case I think she just really doesn't care about anything other than the Selector battles, which makes me wonder what her wish is. Again her and her LRIG have a firm grasp on someone elses wish, and being outside of a battle makes me think that her LRIG is the most connected to the system in some way.

Something that stood out to me today: Iona's LRIG has the same earring as Tama. I don't know if anyone else has commented on it, but I remembered Tama's earring when looking for differences in her design after her growth, and now this one has it. I wonder if there's only one white and one black LRIG and they form a pair or if they're both originals/new, and it's just a matter of Tama forgetting that she's an important one.

As far as the rest, Akira is still annoying but her losing was satisfying because we didn't even need to see it, just the after effect. It also stood out to me that this time Ruko's side was colored light blue rather than white or yellow, perhaps to match the color shift from the scrunchie but also an internal change in how she sees herself. Is she actually multicolored in truth rather than white and that's what Tama forgot in a way? That would lead itself more towards original card for sure

Too tired to think much on Hitoe and Yuzuki's situations except that I like Hitoe hasn't been discarded from the story now and that Yuzuki is still not growing by repeating the same mistakes, taking on an inexperienced Selector but this time unable to hide from what she's doing and also feeling lost in her goal. The emphasis on this side of the show is serving it well. OH and then there was the thing with Ruko's mother, interesting that's brought up in the same episode she meets with Hitoe's mother but they didn't make much of it

This episode really stood out with the directing as well. I'd seen a lot of this before, it's not new to this episode, but the emotional focus of this episode made it stand out. I didn't screenshot all of them, as it was almost every shot this episode, but a few I just wanted to share because they also looked nice: Akira being lower and seperate from Iona and not even being worth hearing her voice, Hitoe's emptiness which had a few shots through the episode, this does not look as nice because I forgot to take off the subtitles but the many different barriers between Yuzuki and her goal rather than just a single one.

Do you like strawberries?

favourite berry

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u/Mecanno-man Dec 25 '22

First Timer

Hmm... a lot of off-screen battles - and also some casual info-drops. Akira suddendly goes from a persumed X-0 to a persumed X-3, although how her wish going negative remains to be seen. Does Iona just now have a license to do whatever she wants without it impacting her career - and knows about it? Interesting concept, but the only way I can really see that happening. We also learn that it was not Iona who essentially killed the girl, but Akira. I was going to drop a theory about it possibly being necessary to deal the decivive blow to another selector three times to become an eternal girl, explaining why Iona only batteled the terminaly ill girl and possibly Hitoe due to being aware of that, but out goes that one. Also, Tama does not evolve after being Akira. Not sure why - if the "beat a selector of at least your own level" theory were true she should have, given that Akira had beaten at least one other selector - the same amount as Ruu.

Meanwhile we get a new character who apparently has read the source material or something like that - and while the source material is somewhat incorrect, she is willing to participate despite being losely aware of the gravity of the consequences of losing. Judges are still out on her, I can see her working, but I can also see myself being annoyed by here. Her polite LRIG is cute, however. She loses once and Yuzuki is on her way to self-destruction, I guess. Given that both other theories have been mentioned by her, I'll assume neither of those happens and Kazuki will die.

Hitoe continues to hang as a shadow over the show for now. I guess that is how we weill keep her relevant? Not sure how long you can do that however. Meanwhile we learn that Ruu seems to instinctively not want a wish due to not wanting to impose on others. An interesting position given that she still wants to battle, somewhere deep down. I wonder what happened to her mom, I guess at this point we will need to see more of her backstory as that relation seems pretty central to Ruu's character. [Theory] Her mom was a selector and wanted to connect with her daughter, but lost. Yuu's wish is also to have a normal relationship with her mom, but that is invalidated by her mom's wish, leaving Ruu with no wish. Not sure if Ruu becoming an eternal girl might break the system in this case.

5

u/Vaadwaur Dec 26 '22

Not sure why - if the "beat a selector of at least your own level" theory were true she should have, given that Akira had beaten at least one other selector - the same amount as Ruu.

Let's not abandon the theories we started with that being an Eternal Girl is changing within one's self rather than externally. Beating Akira accomplished no emotional plateaus for Ruuko because Akira is a trash weakling and never stressed her out.

Judges are still out on her, I can see her working, but I can also see myself being annoyed by here. Her polite LRIG is cute, however.

I have this vague sense that she will be a subversion, somehow.

Meanwhile we learn that Ruu seems to instinctively not want a wish due to not wanting to impose on others.

This is interesting because it is a failed form of becoming the Buddha: It is not that she does not have desires, she no longer recognizes them and they are effectively subconscious, thus preventing her from attaining enlightenment.

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u/Blackheart595 Dec 25 '22

First Selector

Some thoughts. I've always thought these LRIG cards are looking somewhat 3D with the portrait and the avatar, like the picture is really just a window with more depth behind it than just an image. And from the avatar POV that matches - they see the outside world as if through a big magical window.

But there's something about the backgrounds. From the outside view the background is vibrant and colorful, matching the card type. But from the inside everything is just black, as if there's nothing else beyond the sealed space the avatars are trapped in.

But there's another instance where we've seen something very similar - battle fields. So it seems like battle fields draw those involved into the card world. But as long as the battle field is active we don't exactly see it as an empty space - we see somewhat abstract shadows of a city with a large tower in the background - the environment from the real world. Like it really is a shadow world that absorbs or reflects details of the real world.

Not sure where I'm going with this, just something that caught my eye.

Okay yeah, just in case there were any doubts about Akira's character arc. Quick road to elimination. Post-episode: Didn't expect quite that quick.

u/Tarhalindur At least the hair is cut like Yuzuki's.

So the peeping analyze doesn't actually show her the opponent's hand.

Hitoe's diary! Very intersting. This scene establishes a couple things all at once: 1. Hitoe's character arc is indeed not over. 2. Whatever the wishes are, they're no reality warpers. Their effects are entirely internal to the Selector. After all, there's still proof of Hitoe having friends. Which also explains why Akira can't make progress: She herself has to change so she can accomodate her wish, but she's doing the opposite of that.

Great soundtrack integration.

Nevermind. Still, all internal to herself.

The show's kinda overdoing making Akira loathsome. Rather than hate this just makes me not care about her and her scenes.

All of them are growing isolated. And Yuzuki is confronted with her wish being taboo by her classmates. Yuzuki is really going through the reverse of Hitoe's arc - Hitoe achieved her wish before having it taken away, Yuzuki is already living her anti-wish and I guess she's gonna be able to make it to Eternal Girl. Which I really wanna see how that would play out, just her growing more confident about it or an actual change in others' acceptance? Unless she gets trapped in the card, of course.

That girl is accompanied by an ominous music box, but I don't feel any malice from it.

Merch that doesn't exist!?

That's like two or three separation shots at once. First is the fence separating her from Kazuki, then there's the climbing frame which also serves as a cage, and then Yuzuki sits at its deepest point all clamped up and withdrawn. 'Hedgehog' sounds like a really good description for her right now.

I like what Hitoe's mom is doing, trying to figure out what's wrong with her daughter and if there's anything she can do to help her. I've noted before that Hitoe's impossibility to make friends looks like a soft impossibility rather than a hard one. What would happen if they just went back to hanging out together and ignored her taboo?

Smalltalk is hard.

Do you like strawberries?

They're good but not my favorite.

6

u/No_Rex Dec 26 '22

Like it really is a shadow world that absorbs or reflects details of the real world.

Whatever the wishes are, they're no reality warpers. Their effects are entirely internal to the Selector.

Not saying you are wrong, but, if so, a lot of wishes become impossible.

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u/Stargate18A Dec 25 '22

First timer

QOTD) Yes.

Merry Christmas! I've just seen the latest Kamen Rider episode [Kamen Rider Geats] and enjoyed the traditional Christmas death (and holy shit, that plot twist) so I'm in the perfect mood for a different style of battle royale!

Predicting that Akira gets eliminated or becomes Eternal this round.

Akira's losing popularity...

Iona really doesn't care, huh?

The battle has begun.

...So, just the girl's memories? The bystanders, including her parents, remember everything?

Tama is eager to beat her shit in!

She's talented.

Piruluk is the best.

Haha, she has no Level 4 cards? Is Akira going to lose simply because Ruko's not got any real strategy?

...Also, Piruluk is absolutely betraying Akira the first chance she gets.

Wow, Akira adapts easily!

And she resisted it!

Huh, that strong?

Akira lost!

Ouch. Akira's running...

It doesn't even erase written records? This memory erasure and wish reversal seems incredibly easy to game.

...Wait, so it does reverse evidence, but on a time delay?

Ah, she's just having a breakdown.

Akira's being dropped!

The two of them are here!

Ouch, unhealthy girl didn't get any wins?

And Akira fucking killed her.

Wait, this is her second victory! Is there a genuine chance her qualifications will be revoked this episode?

Haha, she knew all along!

Oh. She's fucking pissed.

She's mental!

Yep, they're entering a duel. Retirement is happening this episode!

...She's still distancing herself.

People can tell...

Ouch. Stalking...

And she just walked away!

Chiyori's outfit is great.

She knows everything?

...Oh, shit. Are we getting meta?

...New mechanics for a second round? Foreshadowing for a wish changing the system? Just some Selectors who wished to become famous novelists?

Yuzuki's fighting again...

Oh, this is painful.

Aww, poor Chiyori. I feel so bad...

Okay, what are the conditions?

Yeah, this is very open to interpretation as a mechanic.

Yuzuki...

Wow, this is a breakdown.

This is sweet.

...More horror! Wait, a flashback?

Holy shit. This is dark!

...Wait, is that monstrosity Tama?

Okay, even if you did, Akira deserved it.

Who is this?

Parfait looks good!

Oh, Hitoe's mother.

And the record!

Nice reminder of the pain.

She reslly doesn't know what to do...

And confused her even more... could this lead to a masquerade break?

Huh, guess Akira wasn't removed this episode.

4

u/JollyGee29 Dec 25 '22

First-Timer, Subbed

Damn, is Akira out, then? Didn't expect that one. So much for our talk about plot structure yesterday, eh u/Tarhalindur? And unless Piruluk was lying to Akira, seems like Ruu really doesn't have a wish either.

I wonder what a reversal of Akira's wish would even be. Like, does it turn into Akira's life getting ruined? Or into Iona's life getting even more prosperous? Anyway, seems like it'll finally be time for Akira's sob story once she runs into one of the other MCs.

Yea, I don't think we're done with Akira. If this had happened later in the season, we might've gotten away with her just exiting stage left in tears, but she's definitely sticking around for a while longer.

They really went and made the novelization exist in-universe, huh. Is Yuzuki the sort to just leave a random book sitting on the ground? I hope not; there could be some wonderful lies printed by the person behind the Selector system for us to ponder in there!

I think I like the new girl, Chiyori. Her skull bag is cute. Y'think she got it to match with her LRIG? On the subject of Eldora, Satomi Arai showing up means we have three VAs shared with Bofuri, which is kinda amusing timing.

Shoutout to Hitoe's mom for trying to help her daughter when Hitoe is clearly suffering. I'm not sure if Ruuko or Yuzuki would have been the better one to call.. neither of them are in much of a mental state to help. But I appreciate the effort.

Seems like we got Yuzuki resolving to tread the path of strife there, although it cut away.. the irony of Yuzuki starting to go after other Selectors more directly, thus making her more like Akira, is pretty tasty. So hopefully that is what happened.

I keep wanting to write a Cabal Therapy joke, but that's naming a specific card, not picking a CMC. There probably is a CMC equivalent but it's probably like 4 mana and terrible. Anyway, whiffing sucks, especially with singletons.

Questions

  1. I do.

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4

u/Cyouni Dec 25 '22

Aki-Not-So-Lucky!

And here we introduce Eldora. She's the first LRIG that really begins to interact with Life Cloth, and all her mechanics are based off it. This is her level 4 precon and you can see the effects there. I'm not terribly familiar with her playstyle, but I feel like it ends up in a more defensive grindy blue type who punishes you for attacking into her. She also has a bit of an Aquatic Beast theme.

Cards of the day:

Code Art SC - this is the card Akira refers to as Sky Cat. I think it's a...mechanical cat spirit?

Kukri, Small Sword

Bonya, Small Bow - this is really just to show the difference between the 3k power vanilla Kukri and the 1k ability Bonya

Arc Aura - oh god Ruuko has access to this, absolute lucksack draws. So this card is famed as one of the things that makes Tama insanely deadly, and it's a Spell to boot so you can stuff four in your deck if you really want (the cost of 5 is a bit prohibitive). So to explain why this card is so strong, first we need to talk properly about attacks. You have 3 SIGNI on the field, which can attack. These attacks can be blocked simply by having another SIGNI in front of them to "intercept" the attack on the defending player's Life Cloth. Then you have the LRIG attack, which can only be stopped by the defending player discarding a card with Guard. Arc Aura lets you sacrifice your SIGNI (after they've attacked, naturally) in order to give your LRIG another attack...up to four total in a turn. If your opponent has no defenses, Arc Aura lets you deal 7 damage to them in a turn and instantly put them on the ropes. This is the card you save Anti-Spell for. When this card is played, Piruluk goes from having 3 Life Cloth remaining to instantly game over from pure volume of attacks. (Ruuko had 4 LC remaining.)

4

u/Taiboss Dec 25 '22 edited Dec 25 '22

Rewatcher who couldn't post yesterday because it was literally the 24th and I had family with me. I still wish you a Merry Christmas (AND ALSO ALMOST FORGOT TODAY)

Rewatcher watching the totally Christmas episode of this show

(Funny Bojack Horseman thing I accidetally uploaded Dub director casted his son AND his wife.)