xxxHOLiC ep.9

June 1, 2006 | 16 Comments

This is basically a combination of the pipe fox spirit introduction and a story about the red string of fate when you connect your little finger with another person's. I personally love the pipe fox spirit so it's nice to finally be able to see it on screen. I didn't expect it to have a green-ish colour though. I thought it will be kind of white like the wolf in Okami game. But colour aside, this is a rather interesting episode even if it's just a repetition of the theme that was presented in episode 2. I don't recall any particular crossover here but if you do notice one, please let me know. As a side note, Buck-Tick will actually perform a second ending theme for the series, 「蜉蝣-かげろう-」- Kagerou. Hmm, I don't know if I like this since I love the first ending, Reason. I think if the producer has money to spare, they should have use it to improve the animation and character design quality, which are not exactly good at the moment.

Himawari asks Watanuki if he believes in the red string of fate and proceeds to give him a book called "Fate's companion". Because Watanuki ends up being too overexcited at the idea of him and Himawari being connected with one another, Doumeki ends up being the one who give her the answer, pissing Watanuki off in the process. Doumeki then recalls an eerie story about how back in the Edo period, people used to cut their finger after betraying their loved one. Later on, while on his way to Yuuko's store, Watanuki sees a couple fighting with each other. When he approaches them, however, the two run away from him. While working at the shop, Watanuki finds Yuuko looking miserable due to a headache. He decides to help her and along the way finds out that this is because her 'Water' bottle actually contains sake. Yuuko eventually is back on her feet and decides to show Watanuki a special pipe containing Kuda-Kitsune (pipe fox spirit).

Yuuko explains that the very cute fox spirit is actually a present from Ame-Warashi because of the job that Watanuki did back in episode 7. Their conversation, however, are interrupted by the arrival of a customer, who happens to be the girl who had a fight with her boyfriend. Yuuko tells the girl that this meeting is not by chance but Hitsuzen (inevitability) so she assumes that the girl has a wish. The girl tells Yuuko that lately she hasn't been able to move her pinky finger. Watanuki remembers that this case bears resemblance to the woman who lied about herself back in episode 2. True enough, black spirits immediately comes out of the girl's pinky finger so Yuuko tells the girl that she must have lied about something. The girl, however, refuses to tell Yuuko if this is the case and tells her that she doesn't know what Yuuko said. Before the girl can leave, however, she asks the girl where she's going. So the girl tells Yuuko that she's going to see the guy that she likes.

As soon as she said this, the finger emits more black spirits, suggesting that she was lying. Because of this, Yuuko gives the girl the same ring that she gave the woman in episode 2 and tells the girl whether she wears it or not is the girl's choice. After the girl left, Watanuki realises that the same thing that happened to the woman may happen to the girl so he's off to follow her. The pipe fox spirit seems to be attached to him so it decides to come with Watanuki and along the way helps him figuring out the girl's direction. Watanuki immediately finds the girl talking on the phone and ordering the guy on the phone not call her back. After waiting for a while, Watanuki sees the girl putting on a glasses before running towards the arms of a man. Watanuki, however, is not sure if this is the same man that he saw the other day. While talking on the street, the woman tries to make the guy she's with to make a pact using their pinky fingers to confirm their connection.

Suddenly, Watanuki hears a rather eerie song about pinky finger promise and loses track of the pair. While trying to follow them, Watanuki almost got hit by a truck but is saved by the pipe fox spirit so he realises that the fox actually likes him. The next day, Watanuki whines because he has to help Doumeki cleaning up the sports field. But before he can get angry, the pipe fox spirit tickles his body and he ends up convulsing like an idiot. Strangely Doumeki seems to be able to see the creature even though he doesn't know what it is so Watanuki explains to him that it is a pipe fox spirit. Much to his surprise, Doumeki's grandfather used to tell him about these creatures. While going home together with Doumeki (not really), the pipe fox spirit drags Watanuki to see the girl he was following. This time around, she is sitting in a cafe with a different man. Because of this, Watanuki and Doumeki decide to sit in the cafe to observe the girl further.

The girl is in the middle of taking her ring and tells the guy she's with that she feels better if she wears the ring. The girl then tells the guy that she must go now since she has an appointment with her friends. The guy wonders if he can see her again on Sunday but the girl refuses but next Tuesday should be okay. As she said this, she opens her bag revealing many cell phones inside the bag. The girl then asks the guy to promise her using the pinky fingers again. So the creepy song begins to play once more but it seems only Watanuki can hear it. The girl then left the cafe without realising that she has forgotten the ring Yuuko gave her. The girl then makes her way to a nearby amusement park and meets the 2nd guy that Watanuki saw the other day. The man, however, is surprised when he smells tobacco scent on the woman's body. The woman, however, claims that she didn't smoke at all and actually hates tobacco.

The two then proceeds to go to this attraction where they put their pinky fingers together and have a big guillotine dropped from the above to see if their love is real or not. When the couple put their fingers in the cutting area, however, the black spirit caused the guillotine to fall on their fingers. Their fingers almost got cut off if the pipe fox spirit hadn't intervene and save them. The woman's lies is eventually revealed when the guy that she met at the cafe catch up to her to give her the ring that she left behind. Things become complicated when the first guy show up in front of them and asks her if she'd be willing to do the guillotine thing with him because he can't forget about her. The woman's lies is then revealed to everyone when her past boyfriends appear all at once to tell each other that she made false promise with every single one of them. This makes Watanuki wonders if the red string of fate is not true. Regardless, he is convinced that his connection with Himawari is true. Yuuko, however, tells him that Watanuki's red string of fate is actually connected to...Doumeki.

Impression:

I really like the pipe fox spirit. I think it rivals Kero from Card Captor Sakura in terms of cuteness. I am just hoping that its appearance here does not mean the story about the story about wings on people's back will not be shown in the anime. The main story this time around is basically similar to episode 2 about the lying woman. Yuuko even give the same ring that she gave to the woman to this girl. I think the difference between that woman and this one is that this one actually manipulates other people to make her life better. The first woman, on the other hand, seems to be hiding the fact that she lives an unexciting, lonely life. If one has to compare the two, the first woman seems a lot more pitiable than this one. In a way, it makes sense that the anime writers decided to spare her life back then since this one wasn't even punished for her more outrageous manipulation. I'm sure, however, that some fans are disappointed that the woman's finger didn't get chopped off.

The problem was, if her finger got chopped off, then it's likely that the finger of her companion will get chopped off as well. This doesn't sound fair to him since he's not aware of her manipulation. However, it seems the red string of fate doesn't care so much about this. If one thinks about it, this seems to be in line with CLAMP other stories involving the red string of fate. For example, even though Seishirou in Tokyo Babylon was the one who manipulates Subaru, Subaru ends up living a life full of sorrow due to his connection with Seishirou. Similarly, Watanuki's luck seems to improve after his life is connected with Doumeki's. It was amusing though to see him looking petrified after Yuuko tells him that his fate is connected to Doumeki. I thought he's already used to hear this since that fortune teller back in episode 4 foretold this particular fate.

© memento 2003