A woman who has a bad habit, her little finger has been stiff, and smoke has been coming out of it. Seems familiar, no? Still, xxxHolic manages to turn it into something worthwile once more. The main theme of the episode is “pinky”, as all of the rituals and symbols introduced have got something to do with the little finger. The red strings of destiny, the “Pinky Swear”, the Pipe Fox who imitated a red string of destiny and the amusement park attraction which involved a guillotine which would attempt to cut two lovers’ embraced pinkys, but missed (sorry if this sounds a bit vague).
The woman in this episode does tell lies, though her real bad habit is running after too many men at the same time, fakely promising them eternal happiness and “manipulating the red strings of destiny”, as Yuuko tells us at the end of the episode. It’s good that the episode only focused on three of these men, instead of trying to show too many at the same time, so the show can focus on the three individuals.
Domeki and Watanuki are also getting more interesting as every episode passes. On the surface, Watanuki dislikes Domeki, and Domeki finds Watanuki weird. But still, the two of them end up taking the same route homewards. Domeki doesn’t turn his mind on something else when Watanuki suddenly runs off, and Watanuki isn’t scared to tell Domeki about things that happened. Oh, and the little dance that the Pipe Fox made Watanuki perform in front of Domeki was hilarious.
Despite all of the themes introduced in the series, I have one small problem with these. Or rather annoyance. As this show is takes place in Japan and is focused at a Japanese audience. This means that only Japanese customs are being dealt with. I’d love to see some habits and symbols from other countries pass the spotlights. There definately is enough material for it. But then again, this show has specialized like no other on the area of spirituality, so it’s also nice to see such an in-depth explanation of them.
Another little detail I loved: Mokona actually drinking almost half a bottle of liquor. Who ever said that cute and fluffy animals couldn’t enjoy themselves? ^^ I’m also wondering about the price that the woman was supposed to give Yuuko. And what was the meaning of the ring? These parts were a bit neglected, unfortunately, though I loved the way the climax was executed. Nothing was said at all, but you knew that if the knife was to go down, it would be hitting, and cutting their fingers off. Overall, I liked this episode. It’s not the best xxxHolic had to show, but I had a really good time watching it.
Testing, testing.
1, 2, 3
I understand that you are annoyed by the fact that it focuses on Japanese customs but realize that its a “Japanese” Manga and Anime. Not only that, they could mess up another countries customs and misinterpret their meanings if they were to misinterpret those they would probably piss off a lot of countries, right? You said it yourself “As this show takes place in Japan and is focused at a Japanese audience.” It should be focused on Japanese Customs. Of course they could have another series about different countries but they would have to research, study the language and talk to citizens, then tranlate. Tranlating in itself if difficult. Some words cannot be translated perfectly because of the difference in cultures. For example: Hitsuzen. The english translator for the Manga didn’t translate it at all versus the show which translated it to “certain.” Also the manga is different from the show about the “lying woman.” In the english manga she lies about everything but doesn’t even realize it. It becomes a habit. She also has “been around.” They don’t even know her job. She is assumed dead but it is also “possible” that she never walks in again because she changes her ways hence the “I doubt she will ever walk in here again.” A reoccuring theme in this manga is “interpretation” in the Augury/Fortune teller story the “fake” augur says “your father is gone” Watanuki assumes “dead,” she also says “problems with people” which Watanuki assumes as demons vs the augur’s assumption of average teenage trials.
There are many obstacles in putting other countries customs into a “Japanese-custom” based manga. But maybe they’ll create another manga based on other cultures practices.
The whole point kind of IS to focus on everything Japanese. As you watch more episodes to come, which I assume is to follow the original manga as the series has so far, you start to see what CLAMP(artist team behind the manga) is doing. CLAMP touches on a great many very Japanese customs or folklore, or just little tales that Japanese children grow up knowing, and they come up with interesting stories to explain them. CLAMP doesn’t tell you how things are known in Japan, they come up with creative ways to explain common things entirely from their imagination.
So you have to see the series from a step back. It’s CLAMP retelling Japan. There would be little point for them to step out of bounds on it.