...although, unfortunately, it's not as good as Madoka.

Ruuko starts playing a new card game called Wixoss that's all the rage at her school. Then she meets a girl named Yuzuki who tells her she's a Selector, and that she wants to battle her. Selectors can actually interact with the character on their main card. Ruuko's card has a character named Tama, while Yuzuki's card character is called Hanayo. They then go round finding other Selectors to battle. Each time you win a battle, you get closer to becoming an Eternal girl, who has her deepest wish or desire granted. If you lose three times however, you lose your ability as a Selector, and worse, which I won't spoil.

I initially thought this show would be something like Yu-gi-oh, which sounded way too kiddy-ish for me, but it's actually a lot darker than that. There's definitely similarities to Madoka as well, but I prefer Madoka to this. The animation is decent and the characters are all good, and while it was dark, I thought something was lacking, although I can't quite put my finger on what. It was certainly better than Black Rock Shooter, which I hated and was worried this would be similar to. Worth a watch if you have the time and like predominately female, special power stuff.

With the overwhelming success of Puella Magi Madoka Magica it was inevitable that the copycats were going to start coming. Then enter the Wixoss series a series not only built to push merchandise but also be the dark and edgy answer to card game and tournament based shows the way Madoka Magica was for Magical Girl shows.

Produced by J.C. Staff the and split into two series, the first series known as Selector Infected WIXOSS delves into a popular card game played by teenagers known as you guessed it, WIXOSS. The second series then picks up shortly after the events of the first series to delve deeper into the psyche of the games and the girls who play them. At least it would if this show had a good script.

The plot of WIXOSS is a fairly messy. From the unanswered questions about our main character to why the game only seems to appeal to girls and to wishes and what it means to lose your wish. While I do feel this was a series made to capitalize on Madoka's popularity it still does enough to stand on its own without being too much of a copycat. But it's definitely not as tight as Madoka in scripting.

Mari Okada is a pretty weak writer, most of the stuff I've seen by her is really bland and this series isn't much different. It seems like she has a lot of great ideas but those ideas for whatever reason just pitter out when executed. Frankly, a lot of this series comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.

So many times you get moments building up to something only to amount to nothing. It's rather ironic because this series actually is kind of a slow moving one. It's nice to see a show build on its atmosphere and take its time but somehow in all that it doesn't do much to develop its main character. Take for example Ruuko, it's apparent she was abandoned by her mother for some odd reason but it's never explained why. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal but there are a few scenes that actually show her mom saying something cryptic about Ruuko. Character ambiguity is fine, but don't tease and hint like there's something important only to not pay it off later. Even Akira doesn't delve into her history and use it against her like she does with Yuzuki and Hitoe. It's a shame because that certainly would have made for a good episode and a good duel to have.

And given that the character Mayu was neglected and abandoned wouldn't that have been a very interesting parallel to delve into? Instead of the entire back story of the random author who served only to give MORE exposition? We learn more about the supporting cast than our own main character! Many times problems like these come out through short season lengths but the Wixoss series had TWO seasons and much of Spread Wixoss already felt padded out. Much of the dialog ends up getting muddled down in trying to explain the rules of the game but I don't even think Okada understands the rules herself. There's also a pretty gaping plot hole with Hitoe bouncing back from her own tainted wish.

The animation is nice…mostly; the character designs are pretty good the art direction is all right but the battles are nothing special because there's so few of them and when we do see them it's mostly one firing an attack and the other absorbing the blow. For a show about card game battling in a supernatural parallel universe, it surprisingly features very little card game battles. Yeah it's refreshing to not see battles stretched obscenely long, especially considering this series was made to promote the game but they always seem to be over in just a few moments or worse we cut away before the action can start only to come back when it's over.

The bright spot of this mediocre series is surprisingly is the music. The theme songs in either season aren't anything memorable but I really do like the original score by Maiko Iuchi. It really adds to the overall atmosphere building suspense, tension and mood. I really want to find this OST because this is really one of the better scores I've heard in a long while. It's a dark psychedelic electronic score and it meshes so well into a series.

The two WIXOSS Series are OKAY at best. It does some things nice like not dragging card battles out for many episodes at a time and the music is really good. I do like much of the cast but Ruuko in particular could have really used more development and some of the battles could have gone on a little longer.