Much like the first season, Selector Spread WIXOSS really shines during its darker moments, and they don't even wait til the end of the second episode to really start laying in on thick. From the psychotically nasty to the horrifyingly sensual, WIXOSS certainly hasn't lost its darker edge that subverted its cutesy-moe look and gave it the edge that it had back in the Spring season earlier this year. As for departing from its Madoka base, the story shapes up pretty well during its first two thirds as the tension builds around what actually caused WIXOSS to be created in the first place. Unfortunately, I found the ultimate revelation to be a little bit underwhelming, though this may be more due to it feeling a bit rushed and poorly explained. In the end, I suppose I was sort of able to believe what happened, but it still felt very fuzzy on a lot of the details. I will say that the final episode was very solid, though certainly nothing we haven't seen before.
Strangely enough, the character development for this season actually seemed to flip-flop a bit. While Yuzuki and Hitoe were the big stars of last season, Spread now focuses on Iona, Akira, and a new fangirl character named Chiyori. While I wouldn't say that Chiyori's character was poorly developed, I will say that she was exceedingly annoying in many parts, though this may just be because she is a WIXOSS fangirl, and fangirls are annoying by nature. Iona and Akira, however, actually present a rather interesting contrast in development, with Iona apparently being influenced by Ruko's kindness and purity, while Akira is driven to madness over her obsession with Ulith, who now inhabits Iona's body. However, I do have to admit that our lead antagonist, Mayu, turned out to be fairly weak as far as antagonists go, and while the final revelation with her character was fairly solid, she felt very basic and unplanned when compared to other antagonists within similar genres.
Much like last season, the animation was done by J.C. Staff, and their hyper-moe style blended with unique color palettes certainly brings this anime to live once again. I was a little bit disappointed that there wasn't as much of the horrifying imagery that we had in the first season though. I should also give props to the final episode for some particularly interesting and well-animated environment breakdowns.
As of yet, there has still not been a dub announcement for this series, though if FUNimation were to announce it, I would imagine that it would be very well-acted and well-scripted.
The music is still composed by Maiko Iuchi, and her eerie ambiance style is still very present during the tenser moments. However, I've started to dislike some of the more dubstep-influenced moments of the soundtrack, as they don't seem to fit well with the creepy nature of this series. The opening theme "world's end, girl's rondo" by Kanon Wakeshima gives us an upbeat and eclectic blend of string, piano, and drum set to play us in, while the ending theme "Undo: Ashita e no Kioku" by Cyua gives us a heart thumping outro with parallel octave harmonies in its chorus to send a bit of a chill down your spine.
Overall, Selector Spread WIXOSS is just as solid as the first season of WIXOSS, but doesn't do much to move beyond that.
