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(All episodes watched): I was extremely confused by the last incarnation of WIXOSS, and WIXOSS in general has been a fun but also frustrating thing, what with the complicated rules, countless characters, and identity switching. So, I was pleasantly surprised by what seemed to be a clearly defined and easily understandable premise of this sequel: there's trouble in WIXOSS-land, and the veterans of past series will need to team up and go fix it. I'm glad to see that the usual cast of characters will be employed (going all the way back to the original series, apparently) rather than yet another one being created. This felt like fun, and as I watched I found myself mentally composing alternative dialogue for the characters to recite. That must be a sign that I am not at all confused as of yet--or at least that episode one hasn't confused me any more than I was already confused by the myriad rules regarding how LRIGs and Selectors operate even before I watched it. Perhaps the word had reached the people behind WIXOSS that new series need to make sense even to newcomers, and they had taken care to make it so. This episode seemed pretty cool, and I was enthusiastic. During episode two one of the characters concisely summarizes the relationship between Selectors and LRIGs, and I thought for a moment that I finally clearly understood it (After a Selector wins three battles her wish does indeed come true, but it doesn't do her much good because the unexpected price is that she becomes an LRIG herself). Then, after a couple minutes of euphoria, another comment threw that crystal-clear concept into doubt. It wasn't completely wrong, but as one might expect, the whole truth is far more complicated than that. What was I thinking, to dare to believe that I could completely understand what's going on in a WIXOSS anime? Still, I wouldn't be watching if the various twists and turns that the plots take weren't fun, even if they would have been more fun if I completely understood the rules. For example, there was the intriguing scene where a bitchy girl runs into the embodiment of her former LRIG, who she blames for her previous losses. I have never completely understood the written and unwritten rules of WIXOSS, and now they have been changed yet again. And there are so many characters that I can't keep track of them all. The cast of Conflated consists of the casts of all previous versions combined. And characters morph over time; for example, is that person the same person they once were, or is an LRIG now occupying his/her body? You need a photographic memory to keep track. Still, it's kind of fun to see characters I recognize and came to like from previous incarnations of WIXOSS making appearances. These are plucky girls who are trying to do what's right, even if they must take major risks to do so. With things as confused as they are, however, and the attendant risks as great as they are, I sort of wonder why anybody risks taking part in battles--I probably would not. It takes a fair while for who is the ringleader behind this plot, and what he/she hopes to achieve, to become clear (or as clear as anything ever gets in WIXOSS). I wish that just once when one teenager 'kidnaps' another to force a third to do something (like 'Battle' her), the third would promptly call the police instead of trying to fix the problem herself. We get the standard version in episode eight, and I was not impressed. The plot of the show as a whole remained confusing and vague, which was a disappointment since episode one had seemed to promise that things would be more focused. I typically find that I have to watch WIXOSS incarnations twice in order to catch a number of things which I miss the first time. Though, to be fair, that is sometimes because they are deeper than they seem at first glance. Still, if only someone had been hired to make certain that keeping track of the plot wouldn't become too onerous for the average viewer, and make recommendations when potential problems arose. As of episode nine, I am still confused about who exactly the main villain is. 'Carnival' doesn't seem to be completely behind this, and some new person/thing called 'Eternal' is introduced, but I have little idea what it is (or what this 'key and door' business is about). Again, I wish the team behind Conflated had started off by vowing that they would make a show which would make sense even to viewers who hadn't watched the previous incarnations of WIXOSS. I was slightly surprised when in episode 11 the girls apparently have 'won' the round of games and are therefore entitled to send someone to the White Room (or whatever); surprised because I had sort of gotten the impression that the games would continue indefinitely. Is Yuki the messed-up girl who started the Selector/LRIG business in the first place, back in the original series? I wish that was made clear. I was hoping this would wrap up in 12 or 13 episodes, because making sense of it was too much trouble to warrant watching another season. I would probably need to rewatch this season before I could proceed to another one. Fortunately, it does indeed end with episode twelve. It was kind of fun; a sort of major league Selector fight between Kiyoi and the girl who started all of this (apparently she couldn't just rest in peace). Various LRIGs come to Kiyoi's aid, which was neat. As is often the case, I was left with only a vague idea of why things worked out the way they did, but it was a happy and satisfying ending. This battle and the combination of the casts from both previous incarnations were basically about all that Conflated had that was unique. It seems as if everything is fixed and there is no reason to expect yet another season of WIXOSS—but it felt that way at the end of season one, too. Trivia: This appears to be the only page at Mikomi in which the word 'Conflated' appears. Last updated Friday, January 22 2021. Created Monday, April 16 2018. | ||||||||
