xxxHolic – 19 – Best. Snowball Fight. Ever.

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”.