Personally I would've given a slighter higher rating to the show but it's alright because here is my contrast, every time that I watched an episode, I felt sleepy and fall asleep,lol. But I forced myself, yeah force myself to watch the whole show and I have no regrets. I was satisfied with the voice actors and art work. Your review is refreshing and was a treat to read, I enjoyed it thoroughly.
xxxHOLiC tv Review
Kimihiro Watanuki sees youkai and ayakashi spirits. Seeking to get away from the spirits who literally haunt him, he finds himself one day pulled by a force into a shop; there, he meets Yuuko Ichihara, also known as the Dimension Witch, who tells him that this meeting was Inevitable (Hitsuzen).
Yuuko grants wishes for the appropriate price. Sensing that Watanuki's dearest wish is to stop seeing spirits, she promises to take the spirits away in exchange for Watanuki working in her home as a cook and cleaner. Bound perhaps by the inevitable, Watanuki agrees.
However, this is only the beginning. Watanuki beings to participate in 'jobs' with Yuuko, and his unique powers are often the reason for the job itself. In order to complete these jobs, Watanuki must work with his hated rival, Shizuka Doumeki, who possesses exorcist powers. But under these jobs hides a plot, and unbeknownst to Watanuki, Yuuko is using his help in order to stop it...
Description: twinklebyte
Story & Characters
Review of Season 1
________________________
xxxHOLIC is the dream that never came true. While watching through these 24 episodes, I kept hoping that there would be
some overarching plot, some sort of actual character development, some sort of comedy, some sort of ANYTHING to make me
feel happy/sad/dramatic. But in the end, I finished these 24 episodes with just a sigh. What had just happened? Nothing
at all.
xxxHOLIC is all about the story of a high school boy who can see dead spirits. Because of this ability, he's been living a sad life because he is basically all alone. One day, he stumbles upon a mischievous yet kind-hearted wish-granted-mediator Yuuko. Although she piles a ton of household chores onto him, she also makes life more exciting and comfortable.
One would expect that the whole point of this tale is to make Watanuki into a better or happier person. However, from start to finish Watanuki does not change. He is the same gaga over Himawari, stubborn towards Doumeki, servile to Yuuko and annoyed at Mokona. His behavior never changes, his way of thought never alters and overall he's just the crappiest main character one can find. This anime also violates one of my biggest pet peeves - CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT THROUGH FORCED DIALOGUE. In other words, Watanuki's personality is own shown through what other people say about him and not what he does - since Watanuki does nothing. We basically have to rely on other people saying "ohh you're so (insert some adjective here)". Very frustrating. To be honest, the only reason why I watched this to the end was to watch Yuuko. But she ALSO doesn't change. While I also like her mischievous side as well as her character design, it was very frustrating to see nothing progress at all in this series.
The story is also quite annoying. About 75% of the story is on some weird 'moral of the day'. It begins with some random person wandering in who has some trouble. Yuuko says, "ok, i will grant your wish for a price." Watanuki is there with her... he becomes worried... and he sacrifices himself to help this person that wandered in. Even if it is out of his reach, in the end he learns some sort of lesson about life - and this is basically it is. The episodes I did enjoy (the snowball fight, the demon parade) were the FILLER EPISODES. Go figure.
Overall, xxxHOLIC is a very bad anime. I haven't been this disappointed in such a long time. I felt like there should have been more substance, but in the end they decided not to do anything with the characters. We never know the significance of what these people are (who is Yuuko, what is Himawari?). Leaves one with a very unsatisfactory aftertaste.
Rating:
Art
I loved the character designs, even though CLAMP style has oversized bodies and small heads. However, the lack of fluid motion is extremely bad - amongst the worst I've seen.
Nevertheless, this beautiful art design is the only reason I managed to get through this slow progressing anime
Rating:
Sound
Nothing memorable here. I don't recall or remember any poignant moments elevated by the music. OP/ED were pretty basic, as well. Voices were good, though.
Rating:
Presentation
Review of Season 2
_____________________
Given the disaster that was the first season, I was quite impressed by this second season of 13 episodes. Although it
was generally uneventful as a whole, I believed it successfully carried out its main goal - to leave one with a very
CLAMP-esque story of optimism, mysticism and friendship.
The most positive aspect of xxxHolic's 2nd season was that they tied all the episodes together somehow. Sure, each episode had stories that weren't really reflective of the overarching arc, but it was also not the typical one problem a day episode. Rather, in each episode, I really felt that Watanuki discovered more about himself, as well as the limits of his optimism. Certainly, character changes were not that drastic or dramatic, but pretty good relative to the first season. Another positive aspect is that we finally find out why a bunch of bad luck plague Watanuki (although the reason is kind of dumb to base a whole anime off of).
Note - to those who have not seen this anime before, I would recommend that you stay away from this. We get no real re-introduction of character (which is good), and it pretty much goes straight into the storyline.
Reflecting upon this anime, it really makes me wonder what the point is. Is it for humor? Well, having Watanuki cook food for Yuuko, go gaga over Himawari, and stubborn to Doumeki is really pretty uninteresting. How about the mystical part? Well, design-wise it was kind appealing, but otherwise there are a lot of other paranormal anime more dedicated to this topic. Hm... how about just pure light-hearted fun? Not really fun, considering nothing really substantial goes on. If you aren't a seasoned anime watcher, you may enjoy this, but otherwise... there's no real point.
Anyway, for those who liked xxxholic remotely, this second season is a must. Otherwise, for people like me who really want to find meaning and drama (or at least SOME kind of emotion) this is a waste of time. I realize that there are some merits to this type, but it's just not for me (someone who wants more involvement/engagement/interest in his anime).
Rating:
Final Verdict
6.1667 (average)
Reviewed by nauxolo, Nov 12, 2008
Comments
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sasmith20 Nov 13, 2008
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MapleRose Retired Moderator Nov 16, 2008
Nice review, I like how you analyzed the story and the character development (the lack thereof). I've been a bit curious to watch this (since I've read a bit of the manga), but I might not bother XD
However, I wish you'd elaborated on the voices. You said they were good, but given that there wasn't much character development or anything exciting, did the voice reflect that? Did it contribute to the lack of character, or did the actors do their best with what they were given?
Also, You said the animation is pretty bad, yet you gave it a very high score, just based on the designs alone?
Lastly, I was slightly caught off-guard that you did a brief review for season 2 in the presentation ^^;; If the seasons are related closely enough to combine the reviews, I think you should put the analysis of the story and characters in season 2 under "Story & Characters", and then comment on its impact and presentation on both seasons in the "Presentation" section.
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torihimura Dec 19, 2008
I LOVE the manga, but the naime is lightly dissapointing. The animation sucks and the story is kind os slow becase they try to embelish the series to make it last longer. its give a 6.2 at best, mostly for domeki's great voice actor
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MetalhedDex Dec 21, 2008
Great review. I feel very similar to you. I liked the manga but the anime just didn't cut it for me. It has a nice art style but the story was dragged out alot more and the animation was terrible.
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pompo Dec 21, 2008
Hmm i like both!
??when you watch anime on 3.00am that's feel's good ! ha ha(very scary!) , but manga give more detail after watch anime.(in my country anime come fisrt.i think this is a reason why i didn't hate anime)but why season2 very serious and drama T_T" <i Don't like it.
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peta14 Dec 23, 2008
A good review. I have to admit I agree with your in regards to the art work. As much as I love CLAMP, the style of art in this series was a little... different to their previous works. But still a good series nevertheless ^^.
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tsuyoshi7171 Feb 21, 2009
yuuko es genial
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narunarunarunaru Feb 28, 2009
how a bout season II?
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beryl0402 Mar 16, 2009
the manga looks really cool.
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chumbariwap123 Apr 23, 2009
interesting review, i should try knowing this
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rukasu04 Mute Member Apr 28, 2009
The anime is cool, but manga is perfect 8d
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yuyuppi Jun 07, 2009
yuuko so cruel,but it's fun
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pappo1 Jun 09, 2009
yuuko is great and fun
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pmgbapm Jun 23, 2009
funny season!
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ResonantSoul Jul 23, 2009
I couldnt get past the first ep of the first season.
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Bertha0402 Jul 25, 2009
i'm watching this anime :D
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Ilona Aug 04, 2009
I watched this anime not that long ago. I understand your frustation but not all anime have character evolution. It seems like it's the kind of anime where we are back at the beginning... maybe the manga isn't but the first season gave me this feeling.
I watched it more because of Watanuki's seyuu though... well it wasn't his Lelouch's voice XD .
Anyway compared to Tsubasa Chronicles, I think the slow place fits it more, because it's more an anime to think about acts and consequence while going to a walking pace for an action anime like TRC is supposed to be is completely ridiculous. -
yukirina Aug 06, 2009
This anime is great
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SchRita Aug 23, 2009
Thanks for the review!
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Ninininha Aug 30, 2009
Thanks for the reviwe!
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Rodrigo0010 Sep 03, 2009
good job! nice review
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SchRita Oct 31, 2009
Thanks for the review!
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sjou Nov 09, 2009
The manga, is great, but the anime is a piece of sh**. :(
I couldn't even finish the first season. The second was slightly better, though I couldn't finish that one either.
Watanuki has quite a lot of character development in the manga, but I can't talk about the anime, since I didn't really watch it. -
animalandia Nov 14, 2009
Buena rese
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