With so many Anime collections being released in 2009, it’s become hard to sift through the piles of cliché tales from stories filled with intrigue and plenty of nuances. xxxHolic is one of those Anime collections that dances the cliché line of teenage melodrama, yet still manages to deliver a subtly humorous intellectual allegory on the mysteries of life.
xxxHolic features your typical socially awkward high school boy, Kimihiro Watanuki, who constantly fawns over a girl he can never have, Himawari. Where’s the twist you ask? Kimihiro suffers from monster-lure. For some reason, Watanuki not only sees spirits, he also attracts them like a magnet. This results in more than one sticky situation for Watanuki and is the driving force behind his character.
The story begins with Watanuki making a deal with a wish-granting witch, named Yuko. His one wish is to not see spirits anymore. Each wish comes at a price, which Yuko exacts from all her clients. Yuko exploits Watanuki’s cooking talent and turns him into her personal chef and housemaid. That’s not the only price Watanuki ends up paying. Unlike the “perfect wish” granting Shenron of Dragonball, none of Yuko’s wishes come without an offbeat penalty. In order for Watanuki to avoid spirits, he must often hang out with Domeki, a stoic athlete who just happens to be the opposite of Watanuki in that he wards off spirits. Watanuki also believes that Domeki is his rival for Himawari, which results in a few funny situations and over-the-top reactions.
Where xxxHolic comes up on the cliché side, it more than makes up for with its philosophical approaches to unexplained things. For example, through several interactions with Yuko, we learn that the spirit world controls everything from bad habits, like lying, to feasting on your inhibitions. If you’ve ever seen prime time news, when a murder victim or murderer has several relatives or neighbors state, “he was always a quiet kid,” xxxHolic will present its own unique answer to that.
The artwork is characterized by long slender drawings similar to that of “One Piece.”
xxxHolic is a fun series, but unfortunately it seems to end without accomplishing much. At first you think the overall story arc is going in a direction of explaining the origins behind Domeki and Watanuki, but this never really happens. The last two episodes begin to look like an origin story, but end up falling flat. By the end of the 24-episode series, the characters only show off moderate growth, and you’ll get the sneaking suspicion that you were cheated out of a better story. Whereas other short series, like Aquarion, had definitive endings, this series seems to just fizzle out into obscurity.
Title: xxxHolic: The Complete Series Box Set
Studio: Funimation
Release Date: July 28, 2009
Rating: 7.0 / 10
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