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I wanted to wait until I've seen the second season, Selector Spread WIXOSS, to write this as it seems clear to me it is a direct continuation without much of a pause between the two shows, but I decided I'd have to take a break, not being able to handle anymore of the series for the foreseeable future. This isn't because I don't enjoy the universe, in fact quite the opposite (more on this later), I just needed a break and didn't want to forget too much about the specifics before writing this.

Ultimately, Sector Infected is a decent show held down by a myriad ... of pointless baggage. I originally watched the first episode of it in Spring 2014 when it was first airing. I set it aside, intending to come back when I had a season that I was watching less. Due to a long break from anime, that wasn't until now. WIXOSS, at first glace, appears to be a show about cute girls playing card games. What wasn't to love about it? I quickly found out: a lot.

Examining and explaining the story without spoiling it is difficult, but I'll try my best. Overall, I enjoyed the concept and the path that the plot took. But like I said before, I feel like it is weighed down for absolutely no reason. In terms of what I enjoyed, while the plot was predictable it was still entertaining. I found myself almost excited to see what happens next, eagerly moving on to the next episode. With all of WIXOSS' flaws, the story was still intriguing enough to make me want to keep watching, which should of course be its first goal.

The overall concept is intertwined with one prevailing theme: the greed of almost every single character, the exclusions at times being the MC and her close friends. While this could be interesting, especially when you factor in the goal of the WIXOSS card game and why it is that girls are going forward with being Selectors, it essentially just becomes a boring plot device rather than saying anything compelling. The show offers no insight on human greed and offers no answers to it, merely using it to propel the story along. Why are all the characters acting like terrible human beings? Because they want to get something out of it, giving them a reason to be in the situation they're in (not a great answer IMO). In my opinion, a theme in an narrative work should do more than just, well, exist. There's nothing that made it stand out or make me think about the series more. Perhaps the second series utilises this better, but for now its simply uninspiring and frankly quite boring.

Like a lot of contemporary anime, WIXOSS consistently attempts to mind fuck the viewer with its twists and turns. The problem though is that these twists are easily predictable and often seem pointless. Of the numerous times that the show tries to drop a bomb on audience, I was surprised a whooping 0 times. All these twists do is detract from any development and attempt to hide the show's lack of depth behind them. It's as if the creators somehow think that they can substitute character development with something sp00ky happening to one of them, even when that character almost fails to even react, accepting whatever happened as fact and failing to grow. The writers' attempts to be edgy has gutted the show's potential and left it with little to keep it standing.

The show looks like 70% of all other contemporary anime, failing to stand out. The battle animations look decent at times, but it shows little flair and again wastes the potential it has. You would think that would be one of the highlights, but the battle scenes are rather lazy at times and nothing to write home about. There was just not enough complexity or depth to make it impressive. While the different LRIG's designs could be cool, they were often boring and uninspired, the opposite of what shows that try to sell a card game should be doing. The real world character designs were meh as well, none of them really standing out. They look like what you'd expect out of any generic high school anime.

Sound design is probably the category I had the most difficulty defining, not really making a strong impression on me in any way. Maybe I just wasn't paying attention, but there wasn't much to say about it one way or another. The voice acting was what I expected out of a girls playing card game show, while the soundtrack was forgettable. Truthfully, this aspect of the show played little into my overall rating of it. But I suppose that best sums up WIXOSS mediocrity, there simply wasn't much there.

Every single character, excluding the MC for the most part, is so one dimensional that it hurts to think about. Every character is motivated by one simple goal and lacks any sort of humanity, touching on the aforementioned theme of the show, having it substituted by unyielding greed. These goals completely dehumanise 80% of the cast and make it difficult to empathise or even like any of them. This isn't just the case for main characters who are playing the WIXOSS game, literally every single character except for the one male high schooler is willing to step on anyone to get what they want, even if what they want is a ridiculous cause to tread on someone's humanity. Sure, everyone knows that high schoolers can be unforgiving, but at times it just becomes ridiculous and hard to watch. While attempting to show the dark side of humanity and its greed, all WIXOSS has shown me is how lazy they were with fleshing out their cast. It wouldn't have been too difficult to demonstrate some kind of internal struggle, expanding on the theme of greed and contrasting it with characters who are willing to sacrifice personal gain for the greater good, but we simply never see anything of the sort. Instead all we get is a very basic thematic structure that rigidly defines almost every character and how they interact with each other, making it even more predictable and boring.

The MC does sees some development, but its superficial at best. She changes very little, and when she does it was hard to even make a comparison with her from before the change as it didn't do much. Most of this development also happens in the blink of an eye, stemming from her finding friends and becoming less lonely. The show lacked any sort of change and development over time, the most being the weird motivation of really wanting to be in battles but going nowhere with it. The show is constantly alluding to there being more to her without ever actually demonstrating it, devaluing her to being driven by one of the most boring character traits that could be imaginable in a show like this. Bloodlust, or however you'd describe her constant need to fight, can be an interesting aspect of a character, but not when they lack any depth or personality outside of it. The only other trait that the MC possesses is the desire to keep her grandmother happy, which is also pretty lame. While some of the MC's close friends do sort of kind of change through the show, these changes are simply predictable and follow the logical path for that character and what their singular goal is. These changes also don't really qualify as growth, more as lateral changes in how they react to the events in the world around them. Not much is done with the characters of WIXOSS, leaving them to be husks with little development and giving me no reason to care about them.

With all these flaws, I still however find WIXOSS somewhat enjoyable. It's not a super fun show to watch, but the potential for the devices to be used effectively remains, making me come back for more. The show may be lackluster in many departments, but there is still enough mediocrity left standing to keep you reasonably entertained.

For me, WIXOSS is a show with a lot of problems but just enough answers to make it watchable. The story is underwhelming at times but still holds together somewhat, with the art and characters trying to do the same. If I was on a deserted island and could only bring one show to watch, WIXOSS would not be anywhere near my first choice. BUT it still brings enough to the table to warrant watching it, assuming you don't have much else to do with your time. While it doesn't have much to say, it can still be enjoyable to a reasonable extent.