Reviews for xxxHOLiC (6.74) 115t38

What it's about: xxxHolic is a story of a boy who is able to see and interact with spirits. He one day finds himself stumbling into an old building he had never noticed before. Inside, he meets a woman named Yuuko, who claims to be a witch. She says she can help him, but for a price.

Animation: The animation is just bad. There is no excuse for this. I've seen my fair share of extremely low-budget productions that still managed to top this.

For starters, only important characters are colored. Everyone else is left uncolored and poorly-lined. The palette is a bunch of unrealistic poorly-shaded vibrant colors, which makes the white crowds stand out even more. The focal point is the main Characters of course, but what you're really thinking is something along the lines of, 'what's up with the white spaces?'

Body proportions are also pretty bad. Everyone is drawn with an angular skinny quality and because of that, they seem a lot taller then they really should. This makes you wonder how a person who appears 7 feet tall made it through a normally-drawn doorframe of roughly 6' 11'' without any problems at all. it also distracts from any current dialog, causing you to miss out on important details. Yuuko at least is drawn beautifully, but in most scenes her neck appears freakishly long. I'm not sure if this was done intentionally, but in my opinion it makes her look like a cross between a Japanese geisha and a swan, and not in a positive way. She's given an oddly-distributed torso, tall on top and then mostly legs on bottom. Long, long legs. Really long legs.

Another issue is the skin tones. A characters skin is typically alright, maybe a bit too pale or dark, but nothing major. Then someone gets thrown into the mix who has pallid, sickly gray skin or off-white skin, and it's hard to look past that. For example, Doumeki's skin is constantly deep gray, giving him a dull, dead appearance. The shading done to skin sometimes turns it into a sort of messy badly-colored peach tone that looks almost diseased. This probably appeals to some people, but to me it was a real turn-off.

Usually the eyes are like old-fashioned Mickey Mouse eyes. You know, giant commas somehow attached to their face? Yeah. I think I might have missed the point of that. Worse, they're very flat, making everyone have a zombie-like quality. This is worse on the people with gray skin (covered above) and makes xxxHolic very hard on the eyes.

Sound: The sound is much better then the animation, luckily. It is usually done with a light technical/traditional merging style that's easy on the ears and pleasantly conducts the plot and animation on. The lipsynch is fine where the animation manages to pull through. Any inconsistencies are probably more the fault of the imagery then the sound itself.

The opening theme is a light song about a crazy love. It's matched nicely with scenes from the anime and some cameo appearances. The entire thing draws you in and leaves you feeling very relaxed, mellow, and open to the plot.

Both ending themes are fine. Not awesome, but definitely not bad. They also match the series well, so I haven't got any complaints in this department.

Story: The story is a really interesting one. The main character, Watanuki, is cursed with being able to see and interact with spirits. This keeps him mostly confined to his house because he's afraid of encountering the spirits when he leaves. Fascinatingly the spirits aren't remnants of humans, but rather something else entirely, which is gradually explained. When Watanuki stumbles into the witch Yuuko's shop, she says she might be able to help him. In exchange, Watanuki has to work for her. Watanuki excepts, but then later feels bad because of the unspoken cost of getting rid of the spirits.

Watanuki's work for Yuuko is mostly kitchen-work. He also cleans the shop, though. He is often seen in a feminine apron and handkerchief. When he complains about being overworked, he is ignored by everyone. He works like a maid and doesn't have much free time to relax or interact with peers of his choice. He doesn't get along with Mokona or Doumeki, often seen in the shop, and doesn't even try to be kind to them.

Occasionally Watanuki does tasks dealing with the supernatural. It's not hard for him because he's still more prone to paranormal experiences then the average boy. Usually he's forced to bring Doumeki (a classmate Watanuki dislikes) along, because Doumeki is able to repel spirits, preventing them from harming anyone.

Watanuki's job with Yuuko leads him to meet the other people in the shop. There's Maru and Moro, the 'twins' who look nothing alike but are the same apparent weight and height. They help do menial tasks for Yuuko but never do anything really important. Shortly after we meet them Mokona also appears to drink Sake and party with Yuuko (who binge-drinks ritualistically.).

We also get to see Watanuki's schoolmates. He seems to be able to spend a lot of time around his crush, Himawari, but unfortunately has to spend a lot of time with a person he considers his rival, Doumeki, as well.

Yuuko frequently drags Himawari and Doumeki along with Watanuki on her crazy supernatural adventures. This leads to plenty of arguments that only compliment the feelings of a family setting and make the series more enjoyable. Watanuki is the housewife to Yuuko's 'lazy drunk' parent. Himawari would be the ever-present best friend and Doumeki is like the brother Watanuki hates. Maru and Moro just run around and cause trouble for them occasionally, and Mokona stays glued to Yuuko unless told to do otherwise.

It really is a fun storyline to follow.

Characters: The characters all, as I mentioned earlier, seem to form a dysfunctional family. They compliment and offset each other in exactly the right ways, leading for a lot of mix-ups, disasters, and overall fun.

Watanuki himself is a kind and generous young man. If he sees a person struggling then he'll try to help them, even if they are a stranger to him. He has faith in Yuuko's magic, and sometimes brings her people whom he asks her to help. Watanuki's crush on Himawari is pure and innocent, letting us know that he really is a gentle and loving-spirited boy. He is prone to more erratic and emotional behavior when he's upset or stressed or feels abused, but (most) of his threats are empty.

Doumeki is a brisk and apathetic guy. Even though Watanuki considers them rivals, this seems to be purely one-sided. Doumeki doesn't deliberately compete with Watanuki. In fact, he usually pays him only a bare minimal of attention. At first he seems completely shut off and too disconnected to care about anything. However, when he believes Watanuki to have been injured he stands and waits in the rain for 7-10 hours without a coat or umbrella, revealing that he really does care, he's just entirely incapable of expressing it. He's asked out frequently, but always turns the girls down for some reason.

Yuuko is much more expressive. She's cunning and manipulative, usually without any regards for the cost. However, when she's calm she's very intelligent. She drinks too much and often fails to explain things properly, but her talent as a witch is unbelievable. She uses Watanuki like a servant, but treats his friends as though they were her own, much to Watanuki's frustration.

Himawari is a cheerful character lacking in apparent depth. She's not terribly bright and doesn't seem to comprehend the supernatural events that happen around everyone.

The mystical characters are surprisingly human. What separates them is knowledge of the strange and occult forces that drive and alter life. As a general rule of thumb they treat Yuuko with respect and tolerate or befriend Watanuki.

Value: xxxHolic points out interesting factors and presences in the human psyche. Yuuko is often the one who explains a behavior after we observe it for a while. Reading further into it is something that has to be done with the knowledge gained from watching. It is a whimsical yet somehow down-to-Earth example of a supernatural comedy and is highly enjoyable. You don't have to think terribly hard to get through it, which I know can be a plus sometimes.

At times the series dwells annoyingly on Watanuki's ranting about being forced to do 'women-work', which knocks it down from a rating of nine to a rating of eight.

Enjoyment: This is a very interesting and unique story with characters you won't be able to find duplicates of elsewhere. The supernatural and human elements co-exist peacefully, one not dominating the screen more then the other. This makes for a more pleasant watch with a series that is decidedly many dominant genres at once. The realistic portrayals of people and fun fantasy draw away from the abhorrent animation.

This is something that you will watch the first season of and then want to take a break from, but I can guarantee that you'll watch the second season. this series can't be done in context by someone else without seemingly like a dull rip-off, and it can't be forgotten once viewed.

All in all, though there are some shortcomings, it's definitely worth it to watch xxxHolic.