Gippy said:Easy 1/10. I had this at 2/10 up until the final episode. Was a fan of the previous WIXOSS shows. And I did try to give this a chance.
- Recall that in Selector WIXOSS, there were guys who played WIXOSS! Only chosen girls could be Selectors (and in the show, being a Selector certainly wasn't a gift), but guys could certainly play the paper card game. We don't see any guys in this show. The concept of WIXOSS Live is dangerous because it's established that Simp Selector Points, which play a factor in a team's standing, are donated by fans. The Diva Live events also discourages guys from ever playing the game. The original show at the very least showed that everyone could play the game. WIXOSS Live is a girls-only club. This sends mixed signals when the real-life card game that Takara Tomy sells is attempting to appeal to everyone. At least Yu-Gi-Oh showed a mixed cast.
- By focusing more on the actual card battles instead of the story, the viewer needs to be presented with some sort of strategy. Yu-Gi-Oh's drawn-out method of explaining every card is a bit extreme, but at least it means that even a non-player knows what's going on. There are also plenty of themed deck battles with cohesive strategy in Yu-Gi-Oh. We didn't see that here other than the team that had a punk rock theme and used sound-based attacks. Selector/Lostorage WIXOSS avoided discussion of specific cards, which made the game mysterious, and it relied on the coolness factor of 2 LRIGs powering up and fighting each other. In WIXOSS Diva(A)live, it was all about the correct topdeck, then winning without any explanation.
- Rei (blue hair) was the most unlikable protagonist I've watched in a while. She left her previous teams, but stuck around for No Limit. Maybe there was some shallow reason to leave Madoka, but she could've been the better person and talked it over with her. The show never gave Rei her comeuppance for being a total jerk. Instead, Madoka remains clingy with Rei.
- Akino (yellow hair) didn't like the idol/simping "Diva Live" aspect of WIXOSS Live and considered leaving because of it. The show could've shown some maturity by having Rei and Hirana (red hair) respect her wishes and decline appearing in Diva Live. Nope! Akino backpedaled after two minutes.
- Episode 7 was insulting. It was there to taunt the old fans, acknowledging the past WIXOSS seasons with a callback to the Aki-lucky stabbing scene in Selector Spread ep8. But Rei got off easy, and made up with Madoka after a few minutes.
- The forced drama at the end of episode 10 where Ex beat up Hirana made absolutely no sense. WIXOSS Live is an online system with administrators. An action like that would've been immediately been noticed by an admin and Ex would've been banned from the system. Bullying Hirana could've worked in the more fantasy-like world of Selector/Lostorage WIXOSS. But getting pushed around in an online card game? Come on, Hirana could've just disconnected at any time. That's what the fans did. They didn't want any part of it.
- The CEO of WIXOSS Live put up an event that made Team Deus Ex Machina dunk on lesser teams. And that killed the fanbase; there's literally a shot with a bar graph showing the declining users. But she's happy because less Divas meant more quality! This is ridiculous; any CEO would always want more users, because more users means more money.
- The final turns of the final battle weren't animated, instead going straight to the credits with a post-battle scene, indicating that Deus Ex Machina won. This is something I absolutely hate in anime. Not animating the climax is a pathetic cop-out and robs the viewer of something they've been expecting for the entire show.
This was an absolute insult to the WIXOSS franchise, but with both Lostorage seasons having underperformed and sold under 1000 BDs in Japan, another dark and gritty season was just never meant to be. On MAL, Selector Infected (S1) has 71k users completed, while Lostorage Conflated (S4) has just 11k users completed. The show bled fans season after season. In hindsight, it was probably a miracle that Selector/Lostorage WIXOSS lasted 4 seasons and 48 eps. WIXOSS Diva(A)live will be lucky to get 2k completed on MAL.