Will Chinatsu ever get a wake-up call and realize she’s been messing up? Who else falls into despair this week?

(Spoilers in this review)

Let’s take a look at what our (rapidly dwindling) cast is up to this episode one by one, shall we?

Suzuko

Tries to cheer up Hanna-chan through the time-tested method, “home-visits and dropping off baked goods.” But it doesn’t really work.

She also gets into a Selector battle but we don’t even get to see her opponent’s face, let alone her opponent’s LRIG. We don’t see what happens, but I’m pretty sure Suzuko wipes the floor with her.

Hanna

Still freaking out about how her neglect caused her younger brother to die. Suzuko’s attempts do actually slightly help, but it’s up to Hanna’s onee-chan to try to convince her that it was just an accident.

Chinatsu

Hasn’t been working for the Bookmaker as frequently and visits the place where the LRIG jumper committed suicide in order to drop bouqets of flowers in her memory. She accompanies Shou for one last visit to their middle school and ends up ditching him as he gets sentimental.

She then asks Meru if she’s doing the wrong thing. Unfortunately for Chinatsu, Meru says no and encourages her to keep destroying other people’s lives. I’ve not been impressed with Chinatsu’s behavior for a while, but I have to admit that Meru is at least partially to blame. LRIGs are not good news.

Towards the end of the episode she hears about how two Selectors, both down to their last coin, have started battle. It just happens that she knows both of them.

Bookmaker

I actually can’t remember his name, but I think he’s only good enough to just be called Bookmaker. Or maybe scumbag. Man, he gets me angry.

He makes sure Rio is down to one coin by giving her a tough opponent. Then he goads Shou into a fight and brings him down to one coin, too. Well, you should know what he does from there if you’ve read Chinatsu’s part. That’s right, he pits the two of them together to make sure one of them is erased.

Kiyoi, Aki-lucky’s former LRIG, also shows up and challenges him to a Selector battle in an attempt to stop him from messing with humans.

If you’re in the mood to read / hear some dirty talk, the Bookmaker doesn’t disappoint. It’s clear he likes chatting about sex while he’s in a Selector battle. Nothing new in the WIXOSS franchise, to be honest.

Kiyoi

After Chinatsu’s meeting with Shou but before her battle with the Bookmaker, we see Kiyoi swearing to stop the Bookmaker from messing with people’s lives. Is she the heroine WIXOSS needs to stop the madness once and for all?

Unfortunately, it looks like she isn’t. She gets destroyed by the Bookmaker, who basically shatters her heroic cause and brings her down to his level by claiming they’re similiar people due to her past as a LRIG where she ruined people’s lives without a second thought. Furthermore, her coin ability is essentially useless since the Bookmaker’s heart is just pitch black darkness.

I guess she won’t be the savior WIXOSS needs. Maybe she should have waited for an episode or two. But Kiyoi will be back. I hope.

Her LRIG is super toned.

Shou

The poor guy has lost a lot of his memories by now, but he asks for Chinatsu to hang out with one last time for… I’m not sure what the reason was, actually. He said it was his last attempt to convince Chinatsu to stop working for the Bookmaker, but he just talked about himself and his memories. It wasn’t a very persuasive strategy, to be honest.

He then gets goaded into fighting the Bookmaker. No one in this series can resist getting baited, I swear. As a result, he’s left with one coin. Then he gets pitted against Rio, the loli. Since both are at one coin, one of them is going to disappear. Shou being a good guy makes it really obvious who wins and who throws the match loses.

Chinatsu uses Batman-level deduction skills in order to find where they’re fighting after the Bookmaker tells her about the fight, but it’s too late. Shou is gone.

Rio

Fuck Rio.

Final Thoughts

• The only male Selector left now is the Bookmaker. All the rest have disappeared and have been replaced with their LRIGs.
• Kiyoi’s LRIG basically has no personality.
• With Kiyoi’s loss to the Bookmaker, it demonstrates the levels that exist in this WIXOSS series. Kiyoi demolished Hanna, who had thrashed Suzuko. Suzuko has a steep mountain to climb (we e-Sports now).
• I actually had a hard time deciding which picture was best suited for the featured image.

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 Next week’s episode is titled, “The Two / Suzuko and Chinatsu.” Here we go, folks. This is going to be a big episode since it has the name of our background main character and her bitchy childhood friend. Flawless logic, surely. Look forward to it?

See you next time!