xxxHOLiC ep.3

April 20, 2006 | 24 Comments

Well, I think it's pretty much obvious now that the anime writers are hellbent on removing all sorts of Tsubasa reference from this series because once again, a cross-over scene which originally appeared in the manga has now been eliminated from this version. I am not too happy about this but since my main interest in following this series has nothing to do with Tsubasa, I figure it's not that big of a loss. I am a lot more concerned about any modification that the writers do on some of the darker storyline. Thankfully, this time around they seem to keep most things intact, Tsubasa nothwithstanding. As long as the series remains as dark and creepy as the original manga, I think I'll still be interested in it. Animation-wise, this week is a mark improvement over last week's episode. I'm also quite amused to see Chobits joke that is contained in this episode. It helps that Doumeki looks a bit like Hideki and there's a reference to A City With No People storybook here.

The episode begins with Watanuki and Yuuko playing baseball in a park. But because of her enthusiasm, Yuuko ends up smashing the glass window of someone's house. Watanuki is not happy about this especially when Yuuko asks him to pick the ball. His mood, however, turns 180 degrees for the better when Himawari also arrives at the park. Yuuko immediately greets Himawari and after introducing herself, asks Himawari what kind of help she wants to obtain. Because of this, Himawari tells Yuuko that it actually has to do with her friend's high school. Apparently the school has been a bit weird lately because many students have been playing Angel-san. Yuuko explains that the game is actually called Kokkuri-san but regardless of the name, she thinks that it is a rather dangerous game to play. Yuuko agrees to take on the case but ends up passing it onto Watanuki. She, however, believes that she needs one more person to help Watanuki.

At the same time, Watanuki is not happy having to do the investigation himself. He, however, changes his mind after Yuuko tells him that if she had taken the case herself, Himawari will have to pay her. Watanuki immediately realises that if that happens, Himawari will be in Yuko's clutches. Despite this, Watanuki doesn't like the fact that he will have to go on this mission with Doumeki. On top of this, Yuuko has prepared a special headphone in the form of Chii's (of Chobits) robotic ears. Cue in the twins reciting the story from A City With No People for a good crossover measure. Watanuki at first refuses to wear the headphone but in the end has no choice but to bear the shame as he meets Doumeki while wearing the item. Through the headphone, Yuuko asks Watanuki to deliver her greetings to Doumeki. After introducing herself, she asks Doumeki to take care of Watanuki tonight. She believes that as long as Watanuki is with Doumeki, he won't be in danger.

This, of course, annoys Watanuki to no end but he decides to go on with his mission. However, upon climbing the school's fence, he notices a large black spirit circling the school. Doumeki, however, can't see this so Watanuki thinks that the other guy doesn't believe him. Once the two are inside the school, they decide to follow the black spirit by climbing through one of the class' windows. Watanuki immediately smells something bad once he gets inside although it appears Doumeki can't smell a thing. The two eventually make their way to the rooftop where Watanuki sees 3 girls in the middle of playing a game of Angel-san. The girls claim that they want to stop but they can't because if they do, they'll be cursed. But they're also mortified because the pen is forcing them to write that they'll keep doing this until they die. In the end, Watanuki has no choice but to pull their hands apart when the pen starts to violently jerk the girls' hand.

The girls are mortified upon being separated and start to scream around. Because of this Watanuki asks Doumeki to help him calming the girls down but much to his horror, Watanuki can't see any girl in the rooftop. The girls quickly reveal themselves as evil spirit and they proceed to push Watanuki off the rooftop. Before Watanuki can plummet down to his death, however, Doumeki manages to catch his hand. They, however, are far from safe because the spirit has now morphed into its true form and starts to hurt Doumeki's hand, causing it to bleed. Through the headphone, Yuuko warns Watanuki not to approach them because they are not humans. She tells Watanuki that they are actually just accumulated garbage from the many sessions of Angel-san. The game is actually a form of spirit summoning but because it's done at an amateur level, nothing ever actually appears. Because of this, some students wished that something bad would happen so that things will get interesting.

While listening to Yuuko's explanation, however, Watanuki notices the black spirit that he saw hovering around the school earlier has appeared underneath him. Yuuko tries to explain that the snake is the guardian of the school but Watanuki can't seem to hear her voice. Just when things look grim, however, the black spirit morphs into a snake-shaped spirit, which proceeds to devour the leftover spirit that is trying to injure Doumeki. Doumeki uses the opportunity to pull Watanuki up into the rooftop. Unfortunately in the process of saving Watanuki, the headphone gets thrown far away from the two. To make things worse, the snake then corners the two and makes them unable to move. Luckily for the boys, Yuuko's voice suddenly appears through the headphone, asking the snake to devour the headphone as a sacrifice instead. Upon hearing this, the snake eats the headphone and slithers away from Watanuki and Doumeki.

After the snake left, Watanuki tells Doumeki that he doesn't care if Doumeki doesn't believe what he says. Much to his surprise, however, Doumeki tells him that even though he couldn't see anything he believed in Watanuki. Doumeki claims that if Watanuki says that these things exist, then they also exist to him. He, however, also adds that Watanuki is pathetic for complaining about them, causing the other guy to become angry again. Later on during a picnic, Yuuko explains that even though the snake saved them, it's not exactly a saviour of their life. The snake basically appeared because it was searching for Watanuki. To the snake, Watanuki is one tasty snack. This is why it's important for Watanuki to be near Doumeki. When Watanuki refuses, Yuuko points out that Doumeki saved his life. Watanuki is frustrated about this latest development but can't do anything apart from complaining about it. The episode then ends with Yuuko saying that things will get interesting from now on.

Impression:

Himawari seems to be a rather mysterious character here. It seems strange to me that she went out of her way to ask Yuuko to help her friend's school while the friend in question never came to ask for help directly. I wonder if she actually did this on purpose. I also wonder why Yuuko didn't grant Himawari's wish right away even though she's capable of it. Is it because she wants to force Watanuki to work together with Doumeki or is it because of something else entirely? Either way, Watanuki and Doumeki seem to work rather well together despite the occasional irritation on Watanuki's part. This episode also establishes the fact that despite his constant sarcastic remark towards Watanuki, Doumeki actually believes the other guy's words. The most interesting part of this episode is the concept of Kokkuri-san itself. I guess it's some kind of Ouija board only this one is done with pen and paper. The entire thing for some reason reminds me of The Exorcist.

I think my only problem with this episode is the way the demonic spirits are represented. Most of them usually appear in the form of a cloud or an abstract shape. In the manga, they look great but in the anime, they look like one giant mess. In general, however, I'm glad that the anime decides to keep the creep factor from the manga this time around. I would have been sorely disappointed if they actually don't show the blood flowing from Doumeki's hand. I hope that they'll continue this in future episodes. Anyway, I'm not sure if the anime will ever show the ghost story chapter from the manga but next week episodes tell the fake fortune teller story from the first volume. But if the first season turns out to be only 13 episodes in length then I assume the anime writers only want to use some of the best stories from the manga. I just hope that they'll have the time to cover the Monkey's paw chapter of the series since that's one of my favourite stories from this series.

© memento 2003