Lostorage incited WIXOSS

Episode 7

The most frustrating thing about WIXOSS right now is how much potential it has, compared to how little of it breaks through the show's clumsy writing decisions. Last week, I noted how the show seemed to be spinning its wheels, rehashing the same emotional beats and character notes while making precious little narrative progress. This week fared a little better in that regard as a better-directed episode overall, but I still can't help but feel that the show is stalling. I haven't given up hope on the series, but my warning-bells are going off. If WIXOSS doesn't pick up the pace soon, it might not be able to recover from this mid-season slump.

The biggest issue right now is Chinatsu. I won't rehash my qualms about the ambiguity of her motivations, but that's not even the main issue at this point. Even if we take her desire to erase her own memories at face value, her in-the-moment behavior has become dreadfully repetitive. For the past couple of episodes, she's essentially been repeating the same pattern. Step One is to manipulate some poor sap into battling after charming them into submission, though with male opponents it's more overtly played as straight-up seduction; she's used the phrase “Will you do it with me?” enough times now for the subtext to be painfully obvious. Then she tricks that person into signing a contract with the Bookmaker. It plays out this week almost identically to how it went down last week, except this time Shirai is the one caught in Chinatsu's sights. The battle between them serves little purpose other than to work as a “See how far she's fallen!” set piece, but the problem is we've seen that a few times now with all the other Selectors Chinatsu has fought, including Suzuko. We need some honest to goodness plot development soon, because “Chinatsu Being Creepy and Manipulative” has lost its shock value and its entertainment value.

Suzuko and Hanna fare a little better this week, with the former deciding to train under the latter after reconsidering how serious this situation she's in has become. While I appreciate even this slight bit of forward momentum on her part, we still end this week having barely progressed at all. The show is still playing coy about Hanna's backstory, so all we really get this time is seeing her refuse to play nice with Shirai. It's something, I guess, but certainly not enough to fill the B-story of a 22-minute episode that's already being stretched ridiculously thin.

That's all we get this week. Hanna and Suzuko make up, Chinatsu continues to be sketchy, to what purpose is anyone's guess. There were some good moments this week, despite my frustrations; the Bookmaker remains an entertaining (if too cryptic) antagonist, and the final moment of the episode was a powerful one, even if the message itself was redundant. This show still has potential. It's produced by a clearly talented team with production values that are generally quite good; it's the script that's the real drag. We're past the halfway mark by my reckoning, so WIXOSS is going to have to step up its game or risk getting swept up in the mire of its own aimlessness.

Rating: C

Lostorage incited WIXOSS is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

James is an English teacher who has loved anime his entire life, and he spends way too much time on Twitter and his blog.