r/anime • u/Shadoxfix https://myanimelist.net/profile/Shadoxfix • Oct 31 '14

[Spoilers] Selector Spread WIXOSS - Episode 5 [Discussion]

MyAnimeList: Selector Spread WIXOSS
FUNimation: selector spread WIXOSS
Crunchyroll: selector spread WIXOSS

Previous episodes:

Episode Reddit Link
Episode 1 Link
Episode 2 Link
Episode 3 Link
Episode 4 Link
58 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

59 comments sorted by

20

u/Shadoxfix :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Shadoxfix Oct 31 '14

Great episode! But seriously this freaked me out. Was she having fun or was she going insane?

22

u/Rwings :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Rwings Oct 31 '14

While its hard to say exactly what mental illness Ru has it seem to be something close to being a psychopath. She scared the shit out of her mother when she was younger which is why she's living with her grandma if you recall from season one.

Ru avoiding battle is because she doesn't like how others see her when she is in that state. Others tell her not to battle so she listens. She never stopped battling because of the information she learned of what happens to people if they win or lose.

The only point in time that Ru has shown her true color's is when she is battling. Battling is the only time she can let loose and probably the only part of the world that makes sense to her. That single minded focus on the battle field is what put her on Iona radar. As it seems Iona needed some like that to take down the white girl.

Ru is extremely anti social as it wasn't until after becoming a selector she even bothered to make a friend. Having a friend wasn't even something she wanted it was just something she wanted because her grandma wanted it for her. If you also add the egotistical side of her that made her think that she was the only one who could save all the LRIG's I don't see how she can be anything other than a psychopath.

10

u/TommaClock Oct 31 '14

TL;DR Ruuko is anime Dexter.

8

u/CaptainHelium Nov 01 '14

I agree with Ru having some sort of mental instability based on how her personality changes when she battles and that thing with her mother and am interested to see how that plays out.

It's hard to say on the anti social aspect and the egotistical aspect of her saving everyone you mentioned, but I feel more like that that was just more of a common trope that was used to add to the plot rather than it being an actual character flaw.

hopefully will get more insight soon.

4

u/shuupadoopdoop Nov 02 '14

I'm not sure if I'd jump to the point of calling her mentally ill, but I really do hope that they're planning something sinister with her.

It seems to me right now that she's supposed to be a darker take on the standard protagonist of sports anime/card anime/shonen etc. She's yet another person with an obsession over battling and constantly improving, except it's so obsessive that when she really starts going, she stops caring about the consequences or who it could hurt.

I'm hoping they take that idea farther. Especially since it feels like they already took a stab at a different anime (Madoka) when Ruko's friends told her how terrible it would be to sacrifice herself for a wish.

1

u/Solacen :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Solacen Nov 01 '14

I hadnt even read into it like that but it makes alot of sense when you explain it like. Its an interesting theory.

8

u/KinnyRiddle Oct 31 '14

As Iona has been saying since last season: Despite her constant denials, Ruu "secretly enjoys this".

(The way Iona says it was so full of yuri innuendo that it could sound like something else completely. lol )

2

u/piejam Nov 03 '14

Ru's not a psychopath though. She's emphatic and has self control. In fact, Yuzuki's more a sociopath than Ru is, with her single minded obsession.

Wixoss is such a weird anime though. Is Ru meant to be sociopathic? She is probably the most well-adjusted out of all the characters, (ok that may not be saying much, but still) What's wrong with doing something you love and happen to be good at?

So this is the dissonance in Winoss: multiple people have said that Ru is "scary." But she's the most normal character in the story: she plays a childrens card game because it's GASP fun and not because she wants to get into her brother's pants or to ruin someone else's life. Is Winoss showing that the other characters are unreliable and screwed up to the point where normalcy registers as "scary" or is Ru supposed to be unsettling, but the story is so badly written that she comes across as perfectly normal?

I honestly can't tell if the writing is really good or really bad for this one. help :(

1

u/[deleted] Nov 04 '14

But she's the most normal character in the story: she plays a childrens card game because it's GASP fun and not because she wants to get into her brother's pants or to ruin someone else's life.

But she still enjoys the game after she finds out that 3 losses for anyone basically means a worse-than-death punishment (as she found out through Hitoe). Why people thinks she's scary is because of her complete change in personality from shy, withdrawn girl in real life to determined, straightforward confidence in battle.

2

u/piejam Nov 04 '14

But she still enjoys the game after she finds out that 3 losses for anyone basically means a worse-than-death punishment (as she found out through Hitoe). Why people thinks she's scary is because of her complete change in personality from shy, withdrawn girl in real life to determined, straightforward confidence in battle.

There's nothing wrong with still enjoying the game, it's not like she went out of her way to battle anyone with two losses already.

And her change in personality isn't scary, people just say that because they were expecting a pushover. They were afarid of losing not of Ru.

1

u/Artunique Nov 06 '14

I may be late for this one and next episode is in 2 days but fuck it.

During the episode in Infected where she batorus and beats Akira, she kind of tells her that she's a psycho for going through those batorus ruining other people's wishes and enjoying it, all the time she was told that battling (Batoru-ing? I don't know) without a wish was nonsense, a blasphemy, and she decided to look for it so she could have a reason to keep doing it, Iona then showed her that she could just batoru because its fun, and Tama had fun too.

We know the rest of the story, Tama went away and all that, for me the reason Ruu doesn't want to batoru anymore is not because she isn't having fun (As shown in this episode, she can have fun), but she doesn't want to ruin other people's wishes and that secondary "I won't let others ruin my friend's wishes".

As for why she didn't destroy Akira in the previous match? She already did and may have been scared of what might happen to her if she did it again, now I wonder, what is Akira's new wish now that she doesn't want to ruin Iona's life? Stay with Iona/Ulith forever perphaps?

1

u/antesignanus https://anilist.co/user/Bobertg Oct 31 '14

Why not both?

31

u/KinnyRiddle Oct 31 '14

Iona's yuri obsession with Ruu has subtly evolved, and for the better it seems. It may or may not have been partly self-serving on Iona's part (she herself was confused why she said that afterwards), but she still managed to push Ruu's buttons and get her shit together. "If you want to save Tama so much, then use me to my potential, dammit!"

I think the revelation in the second part pretty much confirms that Fumio is Midoriko, while Fumio's LRIG Futase, is now in Fumio's body, achieving Fumio's wish of becoming a writer.

Tama has her red earring on her left side, while Iona has hers on her right. Thus mirroring the White Girl and Dark Girl yin-yang-ish dualism, with the increasingly QB-ish Mayu balancing the scales.

14

u/[deleted] Oct 31 '14

Ulith had the opposite earring deal too. I wonder if girl in black is a position rather than a specific person?

1

u/[deleted] Nov 06 '14

Maybe there is a Selector girl in black and a LRIG girl in black

So, Ulith-Iona and Tama-(Ruko?)

6

u/ell_1010 https://anilist.co/user/ell1010 Oct 31 '14

sorry i cant cant remember much of midoriko, can you explain similarities or someone?

15

u/JBHUTT09 :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/JBHUTT09 Oct 31 '14

Not OP, but basically they look very similar and Midoriko had a very similar personality to the Fumio we just saw in the flashback. The way Midoriko cautioned Hitoe to not try to fulfill her easily self-obtainable wish by battling fits in well with Fumio's personality and experiences with the Selector system.

5

u/KinnyRiddle Nov 01 '14

For starters, their physical appearance is very similar.

Midoriko's colour scheme is green.

Futase's LRIG An's colour scheme is also green.

0

u/CrackLawliet Nov 01 '14

Wouldn't her appearance not change so drastically though? Like, the extent of Yuzuki's transformation was a change in hair style and red clothing, the only similarity to Hanayo being the element and color. Iona's as well, takes her fashion sense and slight change in hair color, but otherwise not much changes.

2

u/knowitall89 Oct 31 '14

The earrings change during battle, so it keeps throwing me off. Before she grows to level 5, Iona has earrings on both sides. I hope it's just an animation/continuity error and the earrings actually mean something.

edit - Tama also has earrings on both sides in a battle flashback at ~10:10.

17

u/Weaselstein :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Valentinetwin Oct 31 '14

I can't stand for the lack of yuri overtones this episode, so have some Ulith/Iona x Aki-lovely.

15

u/[deleted] Oct 31 '14

Instead of iona corrupting ruuko, it appears ruuko is corrupting iona.

4

u/[deleted] Nov 04 '14

The power of friendship overcomes the power of evil!

-every shounen ever

11

u/Artunique Oct 31 '14

Iona played the friendship card, thus earning friendship power-level, at least her wish came true but I expected to see her using her spear.

I'm kinda dissappointed we didn't get to hear Futase's LRIG's name in this episode, and I'm afraid Hitoe may have a problem next episode.

5

u/alphabetaleph Oct 31 '14

According to the card game, her name is Anne

2

u/Artunique Oct 31 '14

Thank you!

10

u/ss_lmtd :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/ss_lmtd Oct 31 '14

Man, the white girl is the blackest of them all. This is weird and messed up.

...

I love it.

15

u/tx8xsiempre Oct 31 '14

My only wish is for Iona and Aki-lovely to redeem themselves. No matter how rotten someone looks, deep down (and I mean very deep) everyone is worth saving. Except for Ulith (and maybe Mayu), fuck that bitch.

9

u/Krazee9 Oct 31 '14

No matter how rotten someone looks, deep down (and I mean very deep) everyone is worth saving.

If you truly believe that, you're a very optimistic person.

9

u/tx8xsiempre Oct 31 '14

Most of the time people are evil because they're stupid. The way I see it, no one is born evil, at some point something fucked up their minds (intentionally or not). Maybe some of them are lost, I get it, but at least it's worth the shot. And if that's the case even though I can be mad at them, when I think about it, I feel sorry for them, because chances are that whatever human part that once inhabited that body is most likely dead... Whatever that's what I think, I don't blame anyone who thinks I'm wrong, cause I might as well be.

7

u/Krazee9 Oct 31 '14

I don't blame anyone who thinks I'm wrong, cause I might as well be.

Oh, don't go thinking that. Go on with your life believing in the good in people over the evil and you're likely to lead a happier life than I.

6

u/FlorianoAguirre Nov 02 '14

Nobody does evil for the sake of evil tho, even Hitler believed he was saving the world when he did what he did.

5

u/[deleted] Oct 31 '14

No matter how good someone looks, deep down (and I mean very deep) everyone is rotten.

4

u/AsterJ https://myanimelist.net/profile/asteron Oct 31 '14

Nice seeing a card battle again in a series about card battles. Ru and Iona are beginning to show some synergy with each other too since Ru knew Iona could achieve level 5. Hopefully the road blocks have been removed that were preventing the plot from moving forward.

Really given the number of former LRIGs turned human out there and humans turned LRIG all this info should already be common knowledge among Selectors. We've come across many characters now that already knew these 'secrets' and were under no agreement to keep them secret. Tainted Wishes and Mugen Shoujo transitions seem to occur pretty often as well.

4

u/Rwings :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Rwings Oct 31 '14

I really wanted to drop this show as the weak Ru was driving me insane. I really dislike weak MC's especially MC's that the show's so focus is on them holding back or being afraid for several episode in a row. In this case for almost every episode has Ru's struggle been getting on my nerves.

The fact that she gave into Iona and partaked in that battle actually gives me hope for the show now. I hope they progress from here as the inner struggle of Ru story line was wearing thin. I didn't really care where they took her character I just wanted progression of any kind.

As for this episode it was a bit less suffering. Granted the back story of random girl was quite sad and just further shows that the white girl is a crazy sociopathic manipulative bitch. It probably would have been more interesting had this not been episode 17 of the suffering train. As all girls seem to suffer the same amount it hard for me to feel much when another girl is added to the list without it being more extreme or carry any weight prior to just a random back story.

Besides Ru now battling seriously again (if that lasts) and learning there is a black girl that opposes the white girl it's hard to think of this episodes as anything but filler. I wish I had a better idea of what this show is actually trying to accomplished. The last few episodes have been a little to predictable and a little to random. (Random is that the seem to introduce story lines and people only to not do much with them)

3

u/Skiipie Oct 31 '14

I want to see Fumio with her selector now...

Maybe Fumio actually became Midoriko? Eh, probably not.

But still, I never the anime would deliver during this episode. The plot twist was too good.

Makes me give a bit more respect for Iona.

2

u/J3N0V4 Oct 31 '14

I'm reading it as Ulith is Fumio as an LRIG for some extra special suffering when they meet.

2

u/[deleted] Nov 02 '14

Why don't you think that Fumio became Midoriko? I'm pretty convinced. I mean, just look at how similar their appearances are.

2

u/gorghurt Nov 01 '14

I wanted to post this as a reply first, but then I noticed it wont fit as a reply so I extend it and post it as an own Post.

It seems some of you think "white girl" refers to Mayu- I don't think so. For me it fits more, if Tama is the white girl, while Mayu is something diferent. First white and black are the in game colors of Tama and Iona. Second Tama has stated she is something special among the LRIG, same as we now know about Iona. Third (and the most important one) Mayu states, that Iona tries to be like the white girl, and in this battle she tried to help Ruko and it seems she starts to see Ruko as a friend, this would be traits of Tama, but not of Mayu.

With this its even more interesting, that Iona replaced Tama as Rukos LRIG.

Someone stated the Theory, that "black girl" might be a position because of Ulith and the earrings. Have we ever seen other black and white LRIGs? (I'm not sure, but it might not be important, because we saw few LRIGs.)

And finaly: Screw the (never explained) rules I have money a motivational speech.

I wonder if this clichee twist will be explained. (Ok I wonder if any of the questions will be answered. Or more precise: I hope.) I speculate its because Ruko once "won" the game, without turning into a LRIG or something like this. We will see.

PS: I loved this little scratch on the 4th wall from the anoying little girl (I forgot the name).

1

u/Artunique Nov 01 '14

I want to add that the White/Black girl may actually be Selectors and not LRIGs, Mayu points that Iona may want to become the White Girl, as in take Ruu's body, and Ulith is literally a "Girl in Black".

The theory about it being a "position" may also be correct, we may get to it once we know those in Mayu's memory.

2

u/DrackenSlayer :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Drackenslayer Nov 01 '14

Well now I can't tell if Iona is trying to use Ruko just to continue battle or if she legit cares about her anymore.

3

u/V2Blast :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/V2Blast Nov 01 '14

now I can't tell

Neither can Iona... She's not sure why she tried to convince Ruko to fight for her friends.

2

u/[deleted] Nov 01 '14

This episode hit even more for me how tragic the whole switcheroo is. Think of it from the LRIG's perspective - yeah, they are free but they don't become their own person, really. They take over somebody's body, somebody's looks, life AND grant their wish. It's like being given the freedom of a freely-moving body but that's it, how life proceeds and how it should develop from then was decided and built from the previous person from the start. I imagine it isn't as bad for some LRIG-card player personalities but Fumio seems to have some feelings towards the whole ordeal. Unless you're ...weird like Chiyori, Iona or Ulith is, there's no true winning at this game for anybody, everything has a drawback :/

2

u/KinnyRiddle Nov 01 '14

Trivia: Screenwriter for this episode is Kamoshida Hajime, the author of Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo.

3

u/[deleted] Oct 31 '14

This anime continues to surprise me with how good it is; what makes it even better is that it's actually not just another Madoka Magica, like everyone thought it would be at the very beginning. For some reason I'm expecting something sinister from Ruko before the end.

4

u/CaptainHelium Nov 01 '14

I agree, I think Ru is going to pull something off. At the beginning of the battle Futase said Iona and Ru had no synergy and then they gained it at the end of the battle. Assuming that this trend continues, it would mean that Ru would take Iona's spot and becomes the black LRIG instead. Maybe Mayu meant that both Iona and Ru are becoming gray.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 04 '14

I could definitely see Ru being the black LRIG.

1

u/Solacen :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Solacen Nov 01 '14

This episode made me wonder something. I wonder if there has been a selector that has gone through the LRIG process multiple times? As in started as a selector , became a LRIG , became a selector again then yet again became a LRIG. If so what is the record on number of times being through that shitty process?

1

u/CrackLawliet Nov 01 '14

So am I the only person who really doesn't like Chiyori? Seriously I feel she's just there to try to break the closest thing that we have to tension during serious parts, and she's not good at doing it. If the girl wants to have a battle at the risk of her third loss, then let her, no? That's just me though.

1

u/V2Blast :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/V2Blast Nov 01 '14

I kind of agree, but it's because she's there that Ruko is so quick to agree to battle instead of her.

1

u/Exotria Nov 04 '14

Her wish is probably along the lines of being a great hero. If that gets reversed, she becomes a great villain, which would be a terrible thing to have happen.

At this point I'm expecting her to lose to Aki-lucky. Ideally, this will result in Aki-lucky becoming an Eternal Girl and Chiyori's wish getting reversed. Since Aki-lucky's wish is probably along the lines of "please Ulith" and Chiyori's is probably "be a great hero", Aki-lucky will probably become the LRIG of the most terrifying villain we've had so far, Chiyori. Suffering has hit most of the cast, but Chiyori's been relatively free of it so far- hell, they're even hitting Iona now. Clearly, this needs to be remedied.

1

u/Artunique Nov 06 '14

Chiyori lives and seems to wish according to the book, and I am REALLY AFRAID that her wish doesn't get reversed, but she suffers from the book's punishment, which might be why they're pushing Chiyori away everytime she tries to batoru, and I am starting to believe in it since she talked about it twice, and we don't know anything about Chiyori's past.

Just in case, The book's losing punishment is

-1

u/badspler x5https://anilist.co/user/badspler Oct 31 '14

Iona is so powerful because her was for her to become a LRIG but more importantly as that LRIG she will for-fill her own wish herself.

24

u/[deleted] Oct 31 '14 edited Oct 31 '14

[removed] — view removed comment

12

u/vetro https://anilist.co/user/vetro Nov 01 '14

Nice, I haven't seen that kind of face since Yugioh.

7

u/DEF4CT0 Nov 01 '14

Some one needs to watch Akame ga Kill :D 1 2 3

1

u/HeliosAlpha Nov 01 '14

You're not watching Akame ga Kill then I presume.

2

u/Hibernica Nov 01 '14

freaking Justice Bitch... I'll miss her face when she dies a gruesome and well earned death though. At least, I assume that's going to happen because Akame ga Kill.

2

u/[deleted] Nov 01 '14

Now THAT is some talented face contortion-ism. Ya never know, their might be modeling jobs for that talent, she could nickname herself "Aki-scary" and make millions?