xxxHOLiC Kei ep.02

April 10, 2008 | 19 Comments

I'm a bit confused now. I had expected the 2nd episode to look worse than the 1st episode but that wasn't the case. This one actually looks a lot better than the first one. Maybe it's because the scenes take place mostly indoors and in areas that were not previously used. That means PIG has to draw some new settings and they look pretty good. The characters also look pretty good when they are chibi-fied. In other note, I just saw Library War as well and while the character design looks fantastic, the story makes me want to go back to sleep. Anyway, while the scene at Doumeki's library and Yuuko's porch looks nice, the high school scene looks as awful as usual. The story itself blitz through rather quickly. I remember this story being rather drawn-out in the manga but in this adaptation, things seem to be happening quickly one after the other. It makes me wonder if the animators are going to adapt other stories in between. There's one episodic story that I'd like to see and I'm not sure if it has been covered in the first season or not (the one about the moving portrait).

Doumeki continues to investigate ways to regain Watanuki's eyes. His idea of doing this is to spend hours at his grandfather's library. Watanuki unexpectedly shows up to bring him some boxed foods. After talking and posing in a Lelouch kind of way (Fukuyama Jun should really stop doing this. It's getting hard to distinguish his roles), While Watanuki notices the presence of the seals within the library, Doumeki already busy stuffing his mouth with the food and begging for tea. Watanuki didn't bring tea but he did make Miso soup and tells Doumeki that if he bow three times and bless it maybe he can have it. Since Doumeki doesn't do what he says, Watanuki tells him that these are just leftovers from Yuuko's house. In response, Doumeki tells him to bring the croquette next time. After dinner, Watanuki tells Doumeki that he doesn't mind with his current state but Doumeki tells him that he does. He suggests that Watanuki goes home because spirits usually come out during this time. Watanuki refuses and instead decides to stay and help. In the process, he uncovers a book that was written by Doumeki's grandfather.

Within it, there is a solution to regain eyeball that has been taken by a spider. It suggests that one gets a water from a well on a night moon and washes the missing socket with the water. Before they can read further, however, a book that Watanuki gets from Himawari start to open. From inside a book, a text spirit in the form of a snake begins to devour every single word in the book that Doumeki is reading. Watanuki manages to contain the spirit with a bentou box but realizes that they need Yuuko to help them. All of a sudden Yuuko arrives at the place and agree to get rid the spirit. She uses the 4 seals within the library to feed the spirit. After consuming all 4 seals, the spirit unravels into ball of threads. Yuuko points out that the spirit is called 「本の蟲」 - Hon no Mushi (Bookworm). It lives in books and loves to devour important words in those books. Unfortunately, this means that the creature had consume all text which could give a hint on how to recover Watanuki's eyes. Yuuko believes that the spirit originated from a book. That book is the same book that Himawari gave Watanuki. The situation turns comedic when Yuuko reveals that Watanuki purposely made those Bentou for Doumeki. So it wasn't leftover like he said before. Aww.

Because Yuuko wants to sit and talk to Doumeki, she demands that Watanuki makes something for her. Doumeki suggests that he raids his fridge and make them some croquette. Despite bitching back and forth like photocopy machine, Watanuki ends up doing what is asked from him. The next day, Watanuki looks tired thanks to this but he rebounds quickly when he sees Himawari. However, after explaining what happened to the book, he can't help but remember what Yuuko said about Himawari. After school, Watanuki walks on his own when he sees goldfish floating in the sky and a cat girl keeps jumping from one place to another devouring them. When the girl sees Watanuki, she tells him that there's a mad rush for his eye in the non-human world. She actually wants the eye as well but if goes for it, 'that kid' will get angry at her. Unable to understand what she means by this, Watanuki asks Yuuko. She explains that the cat girl is Neko-musume. As for what the girl said, Yuuko suggests that unless they hurry up, Watanuki may not be able to get it back. The next day, Watanuki returns to being his cheerful self after Himawari agrees to walk home with him. Along the way, the two talk about Kohane-chan, that creepy clairvoyance girl.

After the two part ways, however, Watanuki sees a mysterious woman appear in his supposedly missing eyes. All of a sudden, he sees a woman getting hit by a car in the intersection. Before he can process the situation, Karasu Tengu come and hit him, blaming him for something. They also demand that he follows them despite Watanuki's protestation that he must help the woman. After meeting her, Karasu Tengu tells Yuuko that they have a request to make. She warns them that there's a price to pay for it but they still want to make the request. As for the request, they want her to save Zashiki-warashi. They want to save her but they can't get to her. Yuuko understands that they're talking about a kekkai (barrier) that is designed to destroy them. As for the payment, it's 「天狗の扇」 - Tengu no Ougi (Tengu's fan). Yuuko grants them their wish but tell them that the one who can breach the Kekkai is none other than Watanuki. Yuuko warns Watanuki that it's dangerous but he wants to go anyway. Because of this she gives him Kuda-Kitsune before sending him and Karasu Tengu to their destination with the Tengu fan. After they left, Mokona asks Yuuko if it's okay that she doesn't come with them. Yuuko tells her that this is something that Watanuki needs to do on his own.

Impression:

I can't remember if the story in the manga was this fast. I get the impression that the entire Jorougumo arc takes several weeks or months. IIRC, there are other stories that happened between Watanuki getting trapped in the spider web to him confronting Jorougumo herself. In this adaptation, however, the entire arc happens in a matter of days. Although if one thinks about it, it's probably more realistic this way. After all, how functional can an eyeball be after spending weeks outside its socket? As for the actual episode, it was quite funny and lighthearted. It was amusing to see Watanuki sweating after Yuuko reveals to Doumeki that the bentou he just had was hand-made by Watanuki. That is so embarrassing. I'm not even Watanuki but if someone tells another person that I made a boxed meal especially for that person, I think I'd dig a hole right there and then so I can hide for good. Especially after telling that person that the food I gave him was actually a leftover. It's also good to see Watanuki interacting civilly with Doumeki. During the first season, his anger towards Doumeki was a bit too much that it borders on annoying. Now, however, he seems capable of engaging in a few minutes of decent conversation with Doumeki before jumping up and down as usual.

Personally, I think the story (both the manga and the anime) over-exaggerate Himawari's role in Watanuki's misfortune. I mean sure, she's related to it but it's not as sinister as the story seems to imply. Or maybe it was originally meant to be sinister but CLAMP changed their mind halfway through the story? One thing that did creep me out and feels like an unexplained story is the vision of the mysterious woman in Watanuki's eye and the accident that Watanuki witnessed. I can't remember at the top of my head if they are related or not. As for Karasu Tengu, they're useless as usual although their Tengu Fan looks like a fantastic item. Does that mean if Yuuko has to send someone to another world, all she has to do is to use that fan? That would have been handy. It was surprising to see Watanuki wanting to save Zashiki-Warashi without even being prodded by anyone. This and his treatment of Doumeki, shows that he's slowly becoming more mature. Speaking of him and Doumeki, I just remember that CLAMP has found another way to link them even more after looking at the preview. Overall, this is a more pleasant episode than the first one, mostly because the animation quality seems to be better. I think what the animators need to do is to redraw some of the plainer-looking backgrounds.

Preview

On next week's episode: Watanuki is probably thinking that the important thing is the destination not the journey.

© memento 2003