I'm grateful to this bad show. It weaned me off WIXOSS. Until now, I'd thought I was a WIXOSS fan, thanks to Mari Okada's 2014-16 "selector" series. Now, I know better. I'm specifically a fan of Okada's original, leaving aside the inferior 2016-18 "lostorage" series and this 2021 version. They're dispensable. Don't bother with them.

There are things I like about this series, admittedly, but it's a generic trading card battle anime. It's not even trying to continue Okada's story (although that's probably impossible), despite having minor "selector" references, e.g. ep.6 name-dropping Tama-chan. You see, WIXOSS is a real trading card game, published by Takara Tomy. All the anime series are just tie-ins. The purpose is to advertise the game.

The first half of the season is mostly worthless. Girls have WIXOSS battles. There's no dark secret, no LRIG system, nothing lurking under the surface. You don't make a deal with the devil (aka. an LRIG). You could lose a million matches and nothing bad will happen. It really is how it seems at first glance. Battle-battle-battle, cliched dialogue, staple character types, etc. Our heroines are a three-girl group, colour-coded for your convenience. Hirana (red) is the irrepressible, slightly dim protagonist who says things like "to make our dreams come true" and "if you don't give up, there are no limits!" Akino (yellow) is timid and needs dragging into participating. Rei (blue) has a reputation for being a cold solo player who dumps any teammate who doesn't meet her standards.

There are also (clothed) boobs. This isn't a fanservice series (except maybe in ep.8), but expect to see well-developed bosoms and extreme battle outfits.

The season's second half is okay, though. Ep.7 reunites Rei with the former teammates she dumped, which is a decent episode. The emotions and motivations are nasty and complicated. Ep.8 is light relief with a hotel, swimsuits, onsen nudity and censor steam to ensure that you don't see anything, but it also has some rival girls being sleazily villainous. Our heroines' blazing evil eyes at the end made me laugh. Then, finally, the last four episodes have a plot and a rival team who are so far out of our heroines' league that the gap is actually two divisions. (Hirana, Akino and Rei are C-league, while Deus Ex Machina are A-league.)

Mind you, ep.9 has a creaky plot contrivance. Hirana's arranged to go shopping with Rei and Akino, but she gets sidetracked because she's gullible. Fair enough. That was funny, but please, Hirana, let your friends know before running off somewhere else. We know you're an airhead, yes, but you have a phone. Use it. Alternatively, why can't Rei and Akino phone Hirana? Presumably she must have turned off her phone or something, since lots of missed calls and/or messages from Rei build up on it, but the episode doesn't even try to justify should have done this. Then, further straining plausibility, Hirana shortly afterwards gets another message... and her phone makes a ping alert and she immediately notices. What happened to that noise earlier, then?

This show isn't as pointless as it looks in the first half, but it's still not worth seeking out. I liked the second half. I'll be ditching the episodes now I've finished, though, along with my "lostorage" episodes from 2016-18. I'd definitely still recommend "selector", though.