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Lostorage incited WIXOSS (TV).


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Stark700



Joined: 30 Jan 2012
Posts: 11762
Location: Earth
PostPosted: Fri Oct 07, 2016 1:18 pm Reply with quote


Lostorage incited WIXOSS (TV)

Genres: drama, psychological, thriller
Themes: card games, magical creatures

Plot Summary: "We're friends forever!" She treasures her memories of her old friend from when she was little, Morikawa Chinatsu, and she's excited at the prospect of meeting her again. But when she gets to school, she finds she has trouble fitting in with the rest of the class. One day, she decides that if she learns to play the card game Wixoss, she might be able to make some friends. She stops at a card shop on her way home and buys a deck set. When she takes the set home and opens it, the girl on one of the cards begins to move, and speak.

"Welcome, Selector." Humans chosen as Selectors must battle for control of the five coins that hold all their memories. If they can retake all the coins, they win, and can leave the game. But if they lose, as a penalty--"Lostorage"-- What will become of Suzuko as she's caught up in this insane game? And just like Suzuko, Chinatsu finds herself drawn into the game as well...
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Episode 1:

Well that was actually interesting, better than I had expected.

We got the Selector battle, basic fighting mechanics for it, and they didn't waste much time to show what Homura and her LRIG is capable of.

I kinda feel bad for Homura at school though, she's like a bit of a loner as being the new kid around. In the meantime, there are other characters so I hope we learn more about them. I kinda like the theme songs they used and the OST during the selector battle.
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FenixFiesta



Joined: 22 Apr 2013
Posts: 2581
PostPosted: Fri Oct 07, 2016 1:41 pm Reply with quote
The first episode was oddly busy trying to establish how the Selector battles are clearly different from Infected, this includes potential Male Selector opponents as well as a "participation is MANDATORY" set up, the Lrigs this time around (until show otherwise) represent the culmination of the Selector's most cherished memories.
In a way, it did very well with minimal exposition, but just as well Lostorage indirectly assumes you have seen some variant of the "super serious card game" genre be it the first Wixoss series or some Yugioh/Vanguard variant.

That out of the way, the show generally looks good, the Selector battleground at least for this first episode had a decent presentation.

In the first episode, the "magical" aspect felt downplayed in favor of the "death game" aspect.

spoiler[I think an unwitting downside of the "you will be erased" rule is that the show most certainly will not have an Aki-lucky type character as the first nameless mook was a characterized expy, Akira was amazing in Infected as she effectively gets literally scarred for losing her Selector status and eventually gets goaded to "getting back on the bull" just to get revenge.
Maybe the show will surprise us, but the hopes are dim if the show becomes too obsessed on the over used transfer student angle. ]


*edit
I had to go and rewatch Infected ep 1, be it because I have seen this ep several times over on series run overs Ep 1 of Lostorage first episode is simply weak on developing our primary character of Suzuko Homura.
Both shows try to paint a sympathy character arc for why the audience should have some sort of "feels" for the established protagonist, Ruko is established to currently have "no friends in school" but just as well Ruko expresses that she doesn't mind though she does say she will "try for the sake of Grandma" after her brother presses the issue.

The issue with Suzuko is that ignoring the flashbacks, she doesn't interact directly with anybody on a meaningful level before the end of ep 1 (if we are accurately interpreting that Lrig's in Lostorage are indeed simply mental constructs, then her interaction with Riru is effectively Suzuko talking to herself)

The first Episode of Lostorage was so caught up in establishing that "this is NOT Infected" it forgot to establish our main heroine as a character proper.

This can easily be rectified in the next episode, but it shows the difference in focus as far as the writing is concerned.
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Vaisaga



Joined: 07 Oct 2011
Posts: 13225
PostPosted: Fri Oct 07, 2016 8:05 pm Reply with quote
Once again the show has absolutely no intention of explaining how to play the damn game. But that's never been a real problem as it gives everything else more time to grow.

The subtle connections to Infected/Spread are pretty neat, like how the battleground is in ruins. Apparently Kiyoi/Piruluk is going to play a role in things too, which is cool because she had an unfortunate lack of screentime in Infected.

Of course the big question is who's controlling this new WIXOSS system with Mayu gone?

Suzuko's a decent lead so far. It's clear both her home and school life aren't satisfactory but she's toughing it out. She has an understandable reluctance to get involved in the game but it didn't take her long to decide to fight. It looks like her arc is going to be a fairly standard one, but Ruko's unique "I have fun playing but it's at the cost of another's suffering and I know it's wrong but I still want to play" storyline isn't something one should try to imitate.
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
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Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Sat Oct 08, 2016 7:11 am Reply with quote
Despite this being a sequel to Selector Infected WIXOSS and Selector Spread WIXOSS, so far it appears to be acting that you do not need knowledge of the first two. Instead it would seem that they would be referred to as "Selector", while I am guessing that this will be the "Lostorage", with a subtitle of "incited".

Episode 1

Okay I was pretty sceptical. After the first series with two seasons the answer is clear to the audience that you should just not play the game because spoiler[you are screwed whether you win or lose]. But Lostorage really threw a curveball at this by changing the rules by forcing them to play, and honestly was kind of the perfect way to shake it up. Next is the LRIG. Those of us who watched Infected and Spread are aware that then we learned that spoiler[the LRIGs are actually Selectors that won], and this series sets up a twist by indicating that LRIGs are mostly blank slates who takes aspects of the Selector. It does not rule out a spoiler[similar twist, it could be something that happens when they win], or possibly if they lose they become an LRIG and have to take memories from their Selector. Also a dude was a Selector.

I was a fan of the static part of the original series, it was a cool way to convey uneasiness, even if I was somewhat disappointed with how it ended. A pretty interesting observation, the game field they are in and place their cards on in the battle is different, but during the battle scene you can actually see what appears to be a broken pedestal thing from the first two series, I think hinting that despite the nature of the battles being different, there is likely a connection that this is a continuation in some way. Although one would wonder how a new line of Selectors and LRIGs came about. Also observation, I think that it was in Chinatsu's room, you can see a poster to the novel that played a pretty big part of Infected and Spread.

Now we all just need to keep in mind that actually learning how to play is not important past the actual narrative, and I can guess it won't be a happy one. Now for some battoru!
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Raftina



Joined: 15 Mar 2011
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 08, 2016 10:07 am Reply with quote
Incited does acknowledge the first 2 series. There are several hints. For example, you can see the spoiler[destroyed player desks] from Infected and Spread when Homura battled for the first time. And the battlefield itself seems to be spoiler[amidst the ruins of Mayu's closed space]. And at least 1 character from the first 2 series is in the ending.

On the subject of who is controlling the new Wixoss game, it seems that the blank slate LRIGs bear a passing resemblance to spoiler[the Tama/Yuki archon] from Spread. I would say this gives us a suggestion of who might be running the new game, but the end of Destructed spoiler[showed Tama separated from the merge]. But maybe Destructed's ending gives us a hint of who it might be?
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Stark700



Joined: 30 Jan 2012
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 14, 2016 1:02 pm Reply with quote
Episode 2

So we get more background storytelling between the two main girls.. I'm not sure I like Chinatsu much yet though as she seems somewhat insecure about herself. The battles seems interesting although feels fast paced.

Hope they get a longer match soon (bet it will be between Chinatsu and Homura in the future).

The ED theme song seems decent, although I like the OP song better.
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FenixFiesta



Joined: 22 Apr 2013
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 14, 2016 3:28 pm Reply with quote
Ep 2
Holy crap, Piruluk cameo.

Chinatsu's tragic story is certainly better set up than Suzu's perspective, until shown otherwise Suzu simply has "generic loneliness" (unless they have a reveal that Suzu is somehow more twisted on the inside than previous lead Ruko)

Chinatsu is quickly adopting a "screw all of this" attitude which is understandable due to life always coming up a loss.
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Blood-
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Joined: 07 Mar 2009
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 14, 2016 5:46 pm Reply with quote
Ah, misery porn. I sometimes think this franchise was created simply to show girls suffering.

By the way, don't new Selectors start off with only 1 coin? If so, how did Chinami end up losing two coins before finally winning a game?
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FenixFiesta



Joined: 22 Apr 2013
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 14, 2016 6:12 pm Reply with quote
Blood- wrote:
Ah, misery porn. I sometimes think this franchise was created simply to show girls suffering.

By the way, don't new Selectors start off with only 1 coin? If so, how did Chinami end up losing two coins before finally winning a game?

I think the implication is that she won twice off screen, this would lend credence why she has an attitude of "it is just a game, right?" until she fell into a losing streak.
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Blood-
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 14, 2016 6:57 pm Reply with quote
I had the same thought, FF, but I have to say the show did an absolutely terrible job suggesting that possibility. In that it never actually did. However, since that is the only way that Chinami could possibly still have a gold coin after we know for a fact she lost twice, we'll have to go with that.
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Nate148



Joined: 24 May 2012
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 14, 2016 7:31 pm Reply with quote
remember the cards they pick at the start she must have started with 3
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



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PostPosted: Fri Oct 14, 2016 7:48 pm Reply with quote
Maybe I'm mis-remembering, but I thought all new Selectors only start with 1 coin?
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EmperorBrandon
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Joined: 04 Oct 2002
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 14, 2016 8:16 pm Reply with quote
Blood- wrote:
Maybe I'm mis-remembering, but I thought all new Selectors only start with 1 coin?

There is a scene (at around 10:10) from the first episode where Suzuko picks one out of four cards. The card Suzuko picks had a number "1" on it, and thus she starts with one coin. Chinatsu apparently wasn't as unlucky on that front.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



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PostPosted: Fri Oct 14, 2016 8:34 pm Reply with quote
Ah, thanks very much for the clarification.
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DuskyPredator



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PostPosted: Sat Oct 15, 2016 8:51 am Reply with quote
Episode 2

Chinatsu's life situation really sucks. She has always been an able person, so the work she made getting into a good school meant she had to hold onto that when her father's business fell through. She works to try and afford school, but she needs good grades to get a scholarship, the WIXOSS battles adding another stress onto it all. Work forces more shifts onto her and she tries to go out and get the battles over with on top of that, both push her grades down, and a careless comment of a classmate to a teacher suggests that she is doing something sketchy. The rumour piled up on all of the other stress has her act out, that act then making her lose her job, and to find out that her family finance situation is rock bottom. She really is at a breaking point where "screw it all" seems logical. And interestingly there is something dark with the coin bet power she has.

It would take a little looking into, but I am also somewhat interested in the implications of the forms of other players' LRIGs, like that the little girl called hers mother. Or like how that really rough guy's is really meek.
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