After what for most, was the peak of Wixoss, Selector spread, came Lostorage incited. Now in all honestly, I found my self feeling a slight disappointment that the original characters were no longer to be found in this new series. HOWEVER, this disappointment was soon to be turned to into an endless flow of love for the new characters and hype for what's to come. Especially for the next season, since it was hinted at times, that the original characters would be returning at some point. For example in the anime opening, a scene of Mizushima Kiyoi, also known as piruluk-tan, who was originally the
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LRIG (a person within a card, who a selector uses to battle another selector) of Akira (whom I like to call aki-lucky) was shown, in which she is human and her old LRIG form is flashed onto the screen momentarily. At this moment I was incapable of holding in my disbelief, and hope of a spectacular return of the original characters was reborn in me. As well as this, the now human Kiyoi becomes a crucial character later on, and especially in the next season, winning a spot as one of my favourite characters. Her nonchalant tone contrasting with her unyielding determination to end the chain of suffering after experiencing the pain of being a LRIG, established herself as an amazing character, who evolves even further in Lostorage Conflated. (fair amount of spoiler tbh but I don't think it affects enjoyment much)
The MCs:
But that's enough rambling when she isn't even one of the major main characters of this season. Now for Homura Suzuko, the main character of Lostorage incited. A girl much like Ruuko in terms of being warm and caring, however unlike her predecessor, she is bound by the childhood memories of her best friend Chinatsu Morikawa (aka Chi-chan, a very interesting character btw, I will get to her soon enough), who she has lost contact with. She starts off highly dependant on others, she spends each day replaying her memories of Chi and when she obtains the LRIG, Ril (whom she named based off a doll given to her by Chi-chan, Ril is another character I love) she is quick to turn to Ril for guidance and is soon unable to function properly without her. However, after the predictable yet impactful encounter with her best friend, Suzuko begins to change. Chinatsu, opposite to Suzu found her childhood memories painful, weighing her down and bringing unnecessary stress from trying to live up to Suzu's high expectations of her (I personally found it cool how Suzu's overeliant nature helped cause Chinatsu's change), along with other factors such as difficult living conditions, Chinatsu becomes twisted and seeks to use the wixoss battles to overwrite her childhood memories of Suzu and finally be free, no matter who she hurts along the way. Chinatsu is also a character I love dearly, she brought really dark or heart aching moments to the show, I found myself caring for and pitying Chi-chan despite her evil acts, which are generally rare coming from a show's main character. I wished for Suzu to be able to rescue her, Chi-chan was truly a tragic protagonist turned bad. To shorten what I could speak about forever, Suzu ultimately renews her passive nature and grows in confidence and strength alongside her trusted partner and friend, Ril, as she overcomes numerous wixoss battles in an attempt to bring Chi-chan back (who in her twisted state is being manipulated by a greater evil and the main villain Satomi Kou, more on him later), Suzuko's growth was one that really pleased me, bringing fresh air to the previous set of Wixoss characters and cleansing our pallet, so to speak, before the breathtaking finale season that is Lostorage Conflated.
The battle system:
With this new season came a new type of Wixoss battles. Instead of the previous reward and punishment of either being granted your wish or having the opposite of your wish occur, a selector (one who is part of the battles) is granted up to 5 coins representing their memories and a LRIG (the person within a card who a selector uses to battle another selector), who's personality and other aspects are formed based off of the selector's memories and experiences, for example Ril, knew all of Suzu's memories and acts in a stern yet caring way towards Suzu as a result (or at least that's what I believe). When battling a selector, winning means taking the opponents coin, which of course means the loser, has their coin taken along with the memories it represents. The stakes seem low compared to the previous seasons, right? That's what I thought too until I found that the loss of all a selector's coins mean they disappear from existence and their body is instead inhabited by the LRIG they once owned... I mean damn. Furthermore one of my favourite aspects of battling, coin betting was introduced, by offering to lose another of your coins if you lose the battle, a selector can use an ability specific to their LRIG, bringing a very fun aspect to selector battles raising the stakes of battles even more, I was very hyped when coins were bet, to the say the least. Oh yeah I completely forgot the reward hehe... Winning 5 coins means you get to change a memory in any way... Great reward to risk ratio am I right... WELL TOUGH Wixoss has never been about things being fair and balanced, the cruelty of selector battles is emphasised by this reward in my opinion. I'd imagine, merely being able to survive these battles if I were in a selectors position would be a tremendous relief. Once again the old way of battles has evolved after Ruuko (the previous protagonist) fought Mayu and supposedly destroyed the wixoss battles, only for the battles to be reborn as an even more convoluted way of torturing humanity. The idea of the build up of humanity's negative emotions resulting in the wixoss battles was an idea which impressed and intrigued me deeply. To me it made great sense, where would the strong feelings of stress, sorrow, anger and hate, go in the world? Would they just simply disappear with time? No, it makes much more sense to me that these strong emotions result in something befitting of the pain everyone had suffered because of them. What else than the birth of the new selector battles which force innocent people into a cruel battle for their precious memories, birthing more pain and suffering and continuing what Kiyoi calls 'the endless cycle of darkness'. Once again I'll stop myself from rambling further on about this.(i forgot to mention that coins disappear over time if no battles occur, so avoiding battles is not an option for the selectors)
Satomi Kou, villain:
Satomi kou is a man, who was previously a LRIG and is now inhabiting the body of his previous owner, who I assume lost all their coins. He is known to selectors as the bookmaker, since he runs a service where he sets up battles between selectors who have signed a contract with him so as to ensure they have selectors to battle before their coins disappear on their own. However, the battles they get set up with are compulsory, even if they did not want to battle for whatever reason. Kou finds the torment and pain selectors experience stimulating. He prides himself in setting up selector battles to produce the maximum amount of despair. It is his revenge against the selectors who heartlessly used their LRIGS like tools, as well as his twisted method of fulfilling himself. He recruits Chinatsu as a subordinate to carry out this despair, I found it heartbreaking watching Kou's venomous nature seep into Chi-chan, as she recruits innocent selectors into the bookmaker's trap. On a final note I really enjoyed observing Kou's sadistic nature as he guides selectors to their dooms (the faces he makes are especially breathtaking in my opinion lol)
I decided to review Lostorage incited, specifically because it is the least liked of Wixoss' seasons, I wanted to project how amazing I found the characters (many of which I haven't mentioned), and how well this season performs in both following Selector spread, which could have been a finale in itself, as well as setting up perfectly for the true finale, Lostorage conflated, which was able to win me over and choose the Wixoss series as my favourite anime despite it's obscurity and unpopularity.
I wish more people would share the same love for Wixoss as I do (If you wanna help you could... i dunno maybe rate every Wixoss season a 10 or another high score (; or don't, just a thought... please do it!)
Extra Notes:
I found it so satisfying whenever Ril and Suzu bet a coin and went "coin bet! HONEST!"
The contorted evil faces the characters made at times were amazing, Kou and Chi-chan making them were to be expected since they were more on the evil side, but then Ril makes one too, ahh it got me good.
When the selector who lost his sister (his name eludes me, guess I should rewatch Wixoss) was fighting Kou and fell into a blind rage and then disappeared whilst crying , it was a very heart touching moment for me, a character who isn't too relevant being able to make me tear up is a rare thing indeed, well done wixoss, well done indeed.
The disappearance of the boy who liked chinatsu was a tragic one too, sighh
The WIXOSS OPENINGS ARE ALL FIRE, opening 1, killy killy joker is my favourite, opening 4 unlock is a close second, and 3rd is opening 2 girls rondo worlds end, funnily the lostorage incited op is the lowest of the 4 openings but it's still an opening very dear to me, I cant help but headbop to the wixoss openings.
oh yeah when chinatsu tells suzu not to give up, "Suzu Gamba *smiles*" warms my heart every time i think about it, I use it as a charm when the going gets tough, always works lol.
The character Hanna is also an amazing one but I don't wanna speak forever so i'll stop.
Man I love talkin about wixoss.
Dec 27, 2020
Lostorage Incited WIXOSS
(Anime)
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After what for most, was the peak of Wixoss, Selector spread, came Lostorage incited. Now in all honestly, I found my self feeling a slight disappointment that the original characters were no longer to be found in this new series. HOWEVER, this disappointment was soon to be turned to into an endless flow of love for the new characters and hype for what's to come. Especially for the next season, since it was hinted at times, that the original characters would be returning at some point. For example in the anime opening, a scene of Mizushima Kiyoi, also known as piruluk-tan, who was originally the
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