This Pure Heart

Key Events

With only selector battles on her mind, Akira is neglecting her duties at work. She also loses to Ruko’s raw talent and is late to work yet again so her work is given to someone else. She also meets Iona who manages to provoke her into a duel with already two losses in hand. She would risk it all to beat Iona as her wish is to see Iona fall to ruin.

Yuzuki is harassed by others at school about rumours of her and Kazuki. She is hurt by their comments and finds somewhere to be alone. After seeing a group of girls with Kazuki she falls further into depression. However she meets a new selector there and a battle breaks out with Yuzuki the victor. The other girl doesn’t seem disheartened and continues on her merry way.

Ruko later meets up with Hitoe’s mum who’s noticed Hitoe’s been acting strange and found Ruko’s number on Hitoe’s phone. Ruko doesn’t explain anything and instead runs out of the shop unsure of what to do next.

Thoughts

I’m a little unsure what to make of this episode, I suppose the fact that I’m writing this five days after watching the episode contributes to that, but still, usually it isn’t a cause for concern. Though I suppose usually my brain isn’t full of specific tax rules… well whatever, have to get used to this for a while, exam’s getting closer and I need to focus more on that.

But anyway, I think the main feeling I got from this episode was that it wanted to rile the audience. Or at least that’s what I’m getting. Two main reasons really, the first being how Yuzuki got extremely worked because of the harassment and the second being I don’t quite understand Ruko’s predicament.

So I’ll start with Yuzuki. I’m pretty sure I’ve said this before, why should she care about what others think? If she’s so committed on something then outside interference shouldn’t matter. Okay she’s young and is probably easily affected due to that. However if you’d rather disappear than have that something taken away from you, and yet fall in the face of adversity then you’re really not putting enough heart into it and I question your motivation. You need much thicker skin than this especially if you know what you want is immoral. I guess the main reason I’m irritated by this is because I was very young when I learnt that there’ll always be people out there who don’t approve of whatever you do. I won’t go into details, but I have to say, coming out of that ‘phase’ has made me stronger and gave me confidence.

The second reason is Ruko. I suppose it’s more I don’t get her rather than her problem being annoying. I mean, what’s so bad about having no dreams? Why are Iona’s words having so much affect? And to be fair what Iona said had no bearing on anything, I don’t think it even means anything. I suppose I see why she’s scared of herself being able to enjoy another’s suffering, but in all fairness what I see is just somebody who enjoys a good duel. As long as you don’t enjoy the part where you destroy their lives then it’s fine as that part is unavoidable. If you don’t challenge people and enjoy the game when a duel is forced on you then I don’t see the problem… okay I do, her conscious is bothering her. Well, it’s just one of those things, you know you should stop, but you really don’t want to. I’ve definitely had that before and I chose to stop. So rather than worrying about it, choose to stop, or to continue. It’s not a simple choice, but it needs to be made. If you choose to continue then you can’t let it bother you. But yeah, the no wish part I definitely don’t get. Iona’s words mean nothing and why even trust her anyway.

Although the whole part of destroying someone’s life for the sake of your wish is a pretty dark concept, which I quite like. After all, to get to the top, you’ve got to step on some people along the way.

I think at least WIXOSS has a fair system that you can’t just achieve your dream purely by picking on weak opponents. If you just win against weak people, your ranking won’t get any better, or something along those lines. That reinforces what I’ve said before about actually working hard to achieve your dream rather than thinking this is an easy way to obtain it. Which is why Akira never got close and never will. Though with her wish revealed, I wonder what losing means for her, that Iona will go far beyond her? Or her own career gets destroyed, but that’s already happened already.