Category: xxxHolic

You know, for a final episode, this was a pretty non-standard one. You could say that the previous episode closed the anime, while the current episode was more of a side-story, dedicated to Watanuki’s past. Again, taht doesn’t change the fact that I loved this episode. It’s about Watanuki while still a middle-school student. Tehre, he meets up with a boy who’s been taken away by spirits. For some reason, he returned for a month, and he and Watanuki became good friends. Still, that changed at Watanuki’s birthday, or the day the boy was taken. Because then, he disappears again, and leaves Watanuki one of his bones. I’m not sure how, but that bone was really helpful to Watanuki.

We then switch to the present time, also at Watanuki’s birthday. I kept wondering when this one would show up. Watanuki has really understood now how nice it is to cook for others. It’s sad to see this series go. It was definitely fun watching this. According to some commenters, there’s still lots of manga material left, but I doubt that this will be getting a second season.

Sayonara, Watanuki. Things have been fun.

I think we may have caught our first real Tsubasa Chronicle-reference. At least, if you ignore Fye’s staff who keeps showing up at random places. Remember last episode, in which Yuuko was away for a long trip? This episode shows a small shot of her, while on a boat, heading for a strange, rocky island, wearing her Tsubasa Chronicle-dress. This probably means that somewhere in the future of Tsubasa Chronicle, Yuuko and black Mokona will be coming in action, to help Syaoran and Sakura. I can’t wait for it. ^^

Anyway, about the real meat of the episode. I’m very delighted to say that this was the best xxxHolic episode yet! The previous episode has been building up for this perfectly. It’s just so sad. I think the creators saved so much time for this on purpose, and it works out awesomely. I really thought that Watanuki would listen to Yuuko, and stop seeing the woman. Instead, it gets even better. Watanuki feels so much for the woman that he actually goes to meet her, even when he knows that he’s going to die if he keeps seeing her! Talk about awesomeness!

Maru and Moro also were exceptionally cute when it seemed that even though they were soulless bodies, they id feel sympathy for Watanuki. They actually tried to take care of him, and at the end of the episode, when Watanuki was resting, they actually tried to be very quiet, in order to not wake him up. This episode also was meant in order to bring Watanuki and Doumeki closer together. After all, when Domeki shot the woman, he did it on his own. Yuuko didn’t tell him anything that time.

This also was one of the few times in which Yuuko decided not to explain certain events to Watanuki. It also happened with the snowball fight, though that was because of different reasons than during this episode. I’ve actually got a small, totally speculated theory about the identity of the woman. What if she was Watanuki’s mother, who took on a different form in order to meet him, and somehow swore not to give away her identity? Still, I’ll say it again: this is just something that came up in my head for some strange reason.

Now that this, and most other series I’m watching are coming to an end, I can’t help but wonder how this series will end. I wonder whether xxxHolic’s ending will be able to stand out in some kind of way. I think that there are two possible options: Watanuki stays with Yuuko, or Watanuki gets cured and cuts ties with Yuuko. Regarding Himawari and Doumeki, I don’t think that their relationship towards Watanuki will change much. They likely continue to be friends. The Vestal Sprite could go all kinds of directions, though. That’s why I think that she’ll be a major actor in the actual ending.

Another Watanuki-centred episode. And a quite touching one as well. I love the theme they used for this episode. The case is like this: Yuuko is away on some mission, leaving Watanuki alone. He then runs into a strange woman, and the two become friends. Very soon, they find out about each other that Watanuki lost his parents while the woman lost her son. It’s easy to figure that both start caring for each other. Every time his school finishes, Watanuki meets up with the woman.

The great thing is that there’s something fishy about this woman. After a while, she starts to give Watanuki a strange cold-like illness. It starts with a few innocent coughs, though very soon he faints while in PE, and the episode ends with him, phoning Yuuko, coughing up blood and collapsing. It must be really hard to believe that someone you care about actually is making you horribly sick. Especially in Watanuki’s case. He’s finally found someone who can understand him, though now it seems that he’ll have to cut ties with her. That was the great thing about this episode.

Watanuki and Himawari also spent a lot of time together during this episode. Without Domeki, for once, as he’s busy preparing for an archery tournament. It’s quite interesting to see. Especially seeing that Watanuki’s silly behaviour greatly entertains Himawari. So far, this is the second two-episode arc in xxxHolic, and I’m wondering what else will happen in order to be able to cover for another episode like this. It’ll definitely be interesting.

I’ve got one problem with this episode. The case this time is focused on Watanuki, instead of a customer. The episode is about superstitions. At one time, Watanuki’s clipping his toenails, after having heard that you can’t clip your toenails at night, because if you do, you won’t be with your parents when they die. His parents are dead, so he ignores this. Because of this, he gets attacked by a giant pair of scissors.

Well, the problem I have lies with Yuuko’s explanation. The people who came up with these superstitions were trying to prevent people from doing something. They knew you’d be attacked by a giant pair of scissors if you clipped your toenails at night, that’s why they subtly tried to warn others. But that doesn’t make any sense, as why is Japan the only country who believes in this? If this really were true, rumours and stories like these would appear over the entire world.

But now that I think about it… the scissors could also have been Yuuko, who tried to make Watanuki believe in superstitions.

Watanuki basically had it right: there is no such thing as superstitions. When you believe in things like these, you start paying attention to the details. For example, when you break a mirror. Every time you have bad luck, you notice it, and blame it on the mirror. Tons of good things may have happened, but you don’t even notice these. You just keep focusing too much on the bad parts that you loose your view of the overall picture. Most of the superstitions work like these, and that’s also the reason people are still believing in them.

I think that this episode was just one big attempt of Yuuko, trying to play with Watanuki’s mind. First of all, Watanuki never turned into a cow. His body just got heavy. I think indigestion problems can be blamed. His obsession with Himawari’s ribbon was just something psychological. He already was a bit ill, so he couldn’t concentrate on things properly. He then focused his eyes at Himawari (logical, as he has an eye on her), and concentrated on the most attention-catching aspect: her ribbons. His mind, meanwhile, told him that he was a cow, and for some reason, he began to think that cows chase after red, moving things. He probably was at the point at which he began confusing cows with bulls. And at the beginning of the episode, at which Watanuki tripped over his own shoelaces was also some good timing by Yuuko. She just made him forget about tying them, which can easily result in him tripping over them.

Still, Watanuki’s story about how the death of his parents made him stop believing in superstitions really was touching. He also reached a nice conclusion. It’s always nice to believe in them, as long as they’re fun. Overall, the episode was nice, but frankly, it dealt with a theme which has been a bit too much overused (that, or I just watched way too many American cartoons when I was young).

A very interesting theme yet again: the burden of murdering someone. It still remains interesting how fast Watanuki and Yuuko can switch from playful and bickering to serious, as showed in this episode. This also is a case in which Yuuko is the main character, with Watanuki just as a bystander/observer.

The case is like this: a woman killed her best friend by pushing her off a cliff. Somehow, a photo of this got taken, and it keeps haunting this girl. It’s interesting that she couldn’t throw it away or burn it. It keeps haunting her unconsciously. She asks Yuuko to keep it in keepsake, sealed away. But even Yuuko’s seal isn’t strong enough. In the end, the girl begs Yuuko to erase the picture from the face of the earth, at the price of anything. Not a wise thing to say in front of Yuuko. She erases the picture, though the price is high. If the girl ever gets captured on photo, image, video, etc, that picture will appear instead.

It’s like Yuuko said. The burden when you kill someone is high. The picture gave her a huge psychological pressure, as it kept reminding her of the things she’d done, while it couldn’t be thrown away or burned. After Yuuko erased the picture, the pressure will probably lessen. But in exchange for that, she has to be careful for her entire life, avoiding all cameras at all costs. She won’t have a minute of rest, unless she’s at her own house, with the curtains closed.

That’s not a good way to live.

In any case, xxxHolic is just like Mushishi in a way. It doesn’t seem that it can produce bad episodes. Or bad moments for that matter. I really enjoyed this episode, it’s another example of the greatness which xxxHolic can achieve.

God… this episode was incredibly creative. And incredibly fun as well. Yuuko invites Watanuki, Domeki, Himawari, the Rain Sprite, the Vestal Sprite and Mokona to a playground in order for them to have a snowball fight. Though it’s not a normal snowball fight. Each of the contestants has to create some kind of snowman. These snowmen then get miraculously animated and have to battle against each other. Some of these fights were extremely interesting to see. The ultimate prize is a Pandora’s box, which gives the one who opens it anything he desires.

First of all, everyone’s snowman is unique in some kind of way. And some were freaky as well. Very freaky, if you consider that they’re just snowmen. But that made things just better. These are the snowmen everyone managed to produce:
– Watanuki: a small bunny, made of snow. Cute, though a bit powerless.
– Domeki: a steel can, with a snowball on top of it and arms and legs attached to its sides. It looked kindof creepy. And strange.
– Himawari: the standard base for a normal snowman, turned upside down, and given the ears and arms which makes it look like some strange kind of teddy-bear.
– the Rain Sprite: two ice statues of Fuujin and Raijin, the storm and thunder gods who have made more appearances in different anime. Surprisingly life-like, but what else do you expect from a rain-sprite? ^^
– the Vestal Sprite: a large, chibi Pegasus.
– Mokona: a huge white Mokona. And when I say huge, I mean HUGE.
– Yuuko: some kind of sci-fi jedi-robot-thingy, which shoots snowballs, prepared by Maru and Moro.

Fight one: Watanuki vs Domeki
Domeki tests out the system, makes his snowman walk, make a snowball and throw this at Watanuki’s bunny. The bunny seems a goner, though it digs itself in right before it gets hit, preventing his own demise.
Winner: tie.

Fight two: Mokona vs Watanuki
Mokona’s huge monster starts chasing Watanuki, with surprising speed as well. Mokona then breaks the control of the monster and then it loses control. It trips over a slide and falls apart. It also takes out Domeki’s snowman in its fall.
Winner: Watanuki. Loser: Mokona. Unlucky bystander: Domeki.

Fight three: Watanuki vs Vestal Sprite’s henchmen
The Vestal Sprite’s henchmen see the Vestal Sprite crying, because she’s glad that Watanuki’s bunny managed to survive. They, however, misinterpret this and think that Watanuki purposely made her cry. They start attacking him, though the Vestal Sprite tells them to stop. In the end, she sacrifices her Pegasus in order to protect him.
Winner: Watanuki. Loser: Vestal Sprite’s henchmen. Unlucky bystander: Vestal Sprite

Fight four: Watanuki vs bunny
Watanuki gets hit by a snowball, thrown by his own bunny. He begins to chase it.
Winner: tie.

Fight five: Yuuko vs Rain Sprite
The episode takes a very strange turn when these behemoths duke it out. Especially when Fuujin and Raijin suddenly start out creating tornadoes, rain and lightning in order to launch it at Yuuko’s robot. If there ever was a king of snowball fights, this has to be it.
Winner: Yuuko. Loser: Rain Sprite.

Fight six: Yuuko vs Himawari
Himawari’s snowball possesses the strange ability to absorb all of the snowballs Yuuko’s snowman shoots at it. In the end, it pops right before all of the snowballs run out (Maru and Moro got bored and stopped providing the snowballs).
Winner: Yuuko. Loser: Himawari

Fight seven: Watanuki vs Yuuko
Yuuko isn’t happy when she finds out that she’s run out of ammo. Watanuki’s bunny isn’t doing much either. Then she realizes that she’s been standing on the hose transporting the snowballs for a while. One snowball is left over. However, right at the moment that the snow was supposed to arrive, her snowman looked into the hose, attempting to find out the problem. He then gets shot because of his own stupidity.
Winner: Watanuki. Loser: Yuuko.

So far, fight two remains my favourite, though all of the others also were great to see. Yuuko, however, asks Watanuki, right before he opens Pandora’s Box, what they’re having for dinner. The box then contains the things he planned for the next dinner. The rest of the episode is made of everyone having food, while Watanuki has to work as a slave. He doesn’t quite like that.

On a more serious note, I’ve noticed quite some changes in both Watanuki, Yuuko and Mokona during this episode. Both Yuuko and Mokona were much more demanding of Watanuki than they were usually. They just kept ordering and ordering him. Even though they normally do this as well, it’s never been this extreme.

I’m not sure whether it is because of this in particular, or rather the whole picture, but Watanuki was rather blunt this episode. He insulted people more than he usually does. He was more keen on not participating in the snowball fight. He acted like a sore loser when he won from Yuuko and he actually insulted Himawari. He really sounded like a jerk in this episode. This most definitely is because of Yuuko’s influence on him. He just can’t seem to understand to have fun.

Yuuko also was a bit different this episode. She actually was a bit competitive, and wanted to win no matter what. When she lost, she really didn’t like the fact that she did. Only then, she came with plan B, and started acting. Maru and Moro also were interesting. They actually defied their master’s order, at one point, they didn’t want to shovel snow all the time. Could it be a design flaw of Yuuko, or is it something that they wanted to on their own accord?

On a more unserious note, Yuuko really has some kind of prophetic ability. Or she uses a special kind of paper which can change its text at will. Watanuki also was very funny when he found this piece of paper in his locker, thinking that a girl wrote a love-letter for him. Mokona also was very cute when Watanuki insulted him for a “pet thing”.

Haha! This was yet another great example of a good xxxHolic episode. The theme of the episode once again was fascinating, the Vestal Sprite was very cute once more, but especially Watanuki was very interesting again. And funny. ^_^

This episode is about the Demon Parade, or the Hyakkiyakou. It’s a gathering of spirits, which happens once a year. This episode, xxxHolic gives its own version of the Hyakkiyakou. Yuuko seems to be a frequent visitor of this event, though now she lets Watanuki go instead. During the parade, each of the guests present has to carry a Demon Lantern, otherwise known as some flower from some tree which looks suspiciously like a paper lantern. The parade then goes to a huge, talking tree, which will provide nectar to every lantern. It seems that Yuuko loves this nectar. ^^

When Watanuki and Domeki arrive at the parade, it seems that none of the spirits has any bad intentions, as Watanuki doesn’t feel sick or nauseous. Only when Watanuki accidentally lets go of the lantern, the demons immediately notice him. It seems that humans in the spirit world are a big taboo, and the demons get extremely worried. They then decide to eat him.

I liked how this episode enjoyed to toy with predictability. The vestal sprites helped Watanuki escape by offering one of their flying boards, so the Vestal Sprite herself had to be near. When Watanuki falls from the sky, it’s indeed obvious that she’d save him, like she did before. She indeed wants to help Watanuki and Domeki escape, though when she grabs his hand, she gets scared, causing Watanuki to fall. After all, she’s extremely shy, and she’s in love with Watanuki. When he touches her hand like that, she’s bound to have such a reaction.

In any case, Keith and his gang get to be the ones to break Watanuki’s and Domeki (who fell along with him)’s fall, though in a very unorthodox way. The other spirits, however, still are after Watanuki. You’d expect that the Vestal Sprite would talk them out of it. She tries, indeed, though she’s way too shy to make any impression. The saviour also doesn’t get to be the Rain Sprite. It’s the child fox from episode four. He shows the monster the Haja arrow. This only shows how important such an item must be.

When they return, Yuuko seems to have waited for them. She then reveals that she loves drinking that nectar. She also tells Watanuki that there isn’t any alcohol, though I doubt that that’s true, as Watanuki seems to be getting drunk after he drinks it. It also seems that he’s very easy to get drunk, and he quickly sleeps in. Then, Domeki brings up something he’s been wondering: why did Yuuko meet up with the two of them once they returned? After all, Watanuki and Domeki’d just go to the shop and deliver the nectar to Yuuko. It seems that Domeki doesn’t need to enter the shop. Only people who have a need to enter the shop may enter it, and Domeki would disrupt this balance. Still, this is weird. I could have sworn that I saw Domeki at the shop numerous of times. At the end of the movie, for example.

On a side-note… am I the only one who noticed the magic rod from Sakura, from Card Captor Sakura between Yuuko’s stuff? It makes you wonder why Sakura needed to pay her a visit. In any case, it was very funny to see Akari and Yuuko have a pleasant conversation, right on top of Watanuki. He had more of these funny moments like this in the episode. ^_^

I also think that I’m beginning to understand how Yuuko’s planning to cure Watanuki: by making him well-known in the spirit-world. Akari already said that many spirits have heard of him. This episode only made him more famous. I think something’s bound to happen when enough spirits know/acknowledge him. I’m also getting more and more interested about Maru and Moro. They’re bodies without souls, though they still helped Mokona write the letter.

Oh my… this surely was a unique episode. And I mean that in a good way. I’ve honestly never seen an episode in which so much emphasis was put in just characters talking. 85% of the episode contains just Yuuko and Watanuki, talking about the case of the episode. 10% of the time is spent showing the woman while during the last 5%, Watanuki has to buy a couple of fake glasses. No Doumeki, no Himawari. Heck even no Mokona, Maru and Moro. Is it also me, or did the 85%-part of the episode feature no background music at all?

I really am left utterly silent because of this episode. Clearly, this manga chapter was taken in order to save a little budget, but the results turned out pretty awesome because of it. The woman in this episode has tendency to deliberately do all kinds of things which aren’t in her best interest. Things like pressing fire alarms, deliberately failing her tests, throwing a cup of coffee at Yuuko and even getting hit by a moped.

It’s easy to think that the woman’s got a problem, though Yuuko explains that she actually was busy balancing her life. For every good thing which happened to her, she’d compensate with something which wouldn’t be so good for her. But she’d never do something which would ruin her life, and the aftereffects of her actions all were only bad in short terms. She would easily be able to recover from all of them. After all, pressing fire alarms would get her in detention and she’d get yelled at. If she fails her tests at one school, she can just try another. Yuuko can get pretty angry if someone threw a cup of coffee over her, though it’s just someone she’d never see again, and Yuuko would quite probably forgive her for it. And fractures, indeed, heal.

The interesting thing was that there was also no spirit involved at all. Everything was going on in her mind. The question, however, remains whether she liked her habit or not. After all, everyone of us has some kind of strange habit. Some of them we like, some of them we don’t mind, and some of them we hate. The woman clearly was unconciously in the middle-category, but she did ask Yuuko to cure her. I think that Watanuki made her see that the things she’s doing aren’t very healthy, and that she’d indeed better stop. You can compare this with smokers and drinkers.

Yuuko uses the good old placebo-effect in order to cure her. In case you don’t know what this means: give a sick person a worthless item, tell him it’ll cure him and 10 to 1 that he’ll feel better afterwards. It’s very strange, but interestingly enough, it does work somehow. It also does in this case. Because the woman thinks that the glasses help, she tries to lose her habit. We don’t see how it’ll turn out, though the does manage to surpress the need to get hit by a car.

Yuuko also definately was interesting during this episode. After all, there had to be a reason for her to know that the fake glasses would be useful. The fact that she ordered Watanuki to buy some must mean that she knew or anticipated that someone with a problem which could be cured with the placebo-effect would come to her. Or was there more to it? Was her reason to put this order all the way in a locker near a train station just to tease Watanuki (which worked perfectly, by the way) or was it some method of aquiring things you need before you even know you need them? Or maybe it’s just me, thinking too much.

Overall, now that I think back, this was an awesome episode of xxxHolic. Some may find it boring, though I loved the fact that the episode just consisted of people talking. xxxHolic sure does know how to bring a bit of variety in its episodes.

I’ve got just one problem with xxxHolic. It’s a great series, but why does every victim have to be a woman? Seriously, apart from Watanuki, Domeki, the foxes and the guys who dated the woman back in episode 9, every single one of the appearing characters has been female. Was this also the case in the manga? Or did the creators of this anime decide to leave out every manga arc dealing with a male as victim?

Memorable Moment: Watanuki, finding out about Yuuko’s order.

Wow, that was touching. It seems that Himawari is going to have a rival. It’s going to be interesting, since she doesn’t think of Watanuki as someone who’s in love with her. Also, for some reason, it appears to be good for Watanuki to interact with the Vestal Sprite. In any case, according to Yuuko.

We start with Watanuki, who’s having some trouble with the Pipe Fox. For some reason, the creature turned big again, though it didn’t lose its tendency to hug Watanuki at every possible moment. Meanwhile, the Vestal Sprite pays Watanuki a visit, though she’s a bit too scared to show herself. Therefore, she throws stones in order to get his attention to a package of deep-fried tofu, which happens to be the Pipe Fox’ favourite food. Yuuko gets a strange look when she sees this. One of the spots on the forehead of the fox disappears when he eats the deep-fried tofu.

The next day, when Watanuki, Domeki and Himawari are walking to some place, Himawari runs into a jewelry shop, and it seems that she likes things like these. Watanuki then decides to buy something for her as well, though he’s probably too scared to directly give it to her. Later, when Watanuki feeds the pipe fox another bunch of deep-fried tofu, Yuuko warns him about it. Even though it may be the pipe-fox’ favourite food, it isn’t really healthy for them. If it eats too much of it, it won’t be able to transform.

In order to make the pipe fox transform back at this stage, Watanuki needs to enter a place full of pure spirits. Yuuko then offers a special vase, which has to be filled with water and crystals, while the light of the full moon shines on it (there are a lot of full moons on xxxHolic, aren’t there?). It then brings him and the pipe fox into some kind of dimension which is full of animated daffodils who can change their size. They’re apparently pure spirits, as the fox changes back.

Afterwards, Watanuki meets up with the Vestal Sprite, and ha eactually gives her the present he intended for Himawari. I also like Watanuki for the fact that he doesn’t blame others for the mistakes they made (except Domeki, of course), as he never mentioned the fact that deep-fried tofu is bad for Pipe Foxes.

Overall, the episode was surprisingly touching. The Vestal Sprite is surprisingly cute.

Memorable Moment: The Rain Sprite getting her umbrella stuck in a tree.

The new ED seriously rocks. It’s still on my mind. Anyway, the episode was great once more. The previous one introduced the problem, while this one solved it. And it was indeed more than just telling the older twin to “always look on the bright side of life”. The younger twin proved to be much more of a problem. She not only had more confidence and was more cheerful, she also kept believing that her older sister indeed was worthless. Even worse: she kept reminding the older sister of it. Believe me, it isn’t good if you keep getting told that you’re not good at anything.

Words are a bit theme during this episode. It doesn’t focus at something supernatural, just something mental. Overall, it was great. The interesting thing is that Watanuki has the same problem as the older sister, though a bit less extreme. When he’s in front of Himawari, he too gets too scared to say anything. It seems that he still doesn’t have this courage, after Yuuko gets evil at the end of the episode. Things are going better, though.