2020 Reflection: xxxHolic

xxxHolic was written in July 2003 by Mangaka group CLAMP. Watanuki is a teenage boy with the strange ability to see spirits who proceed to make his life a nightmare. He accidentally stumbles upon the store of mysterious witch Yuuko Ichihara who can grant any wish so long as the wisher is willing and able to give of equal value. To get rid of the spirits haunting him he agrees to work for Yuuko and the series proceeds to be mostly the hijinxs, philosophy and otherwordly strangeness that comes from working under the great witch Yuuko, granter of wishes. I find it funny that of my favorites 3 are CLAMP series, 2 of which are magical girl series Cardcaptor Sakura and Magic Knight Rayearth and the third is so radically different plot structure and tone, although to be fair CCS and MKR are not hugely similar despire both being magical girl series.

3 Reasons I love it:

1: Yuuko Ichihara, I mean the cast of characters, is great. 😋 The series has a really good cast of characters in general; Watanuki and Doumeki are widely agreed to one of CLAMP's best pairs as a pair of loveable lover-frenemies, Larg is quite amusing, Maru and Moro thread the needle on being cute and amusing and not exactly creepy but otherwordly. I also like Himawari, I know some people think she's kind of dull but I think she's pretty sweet and especially her manga self with the backstory I think is actually pretty interesting. That said obviously Yuuko is the outlier, an absolutely fantastic character that fits all kinds of moods and plots. She can be maternal, mischeivous, sultry, sinister and everything in between. She can be great fun in comedic scenes but also very emotionally resonant in serious scenes and very cool in both with her slick manipulation and eccentric habits. I only appreciuate Yuuko as a character more as I get older.

2: The series makes you feel like a genius, or at least makes me feel like one. The series is full of sophistication and people making interesting commentary on reality, society and so on. That might sound pretentious without context but the series does a really good job of imparting actual wisdom without being pretentious or preachy. So much of the series is various person coming to Yuuko with a wish, but lying to her or themselves about why they want it as Yuuko manipulates things to do her best so solve their problem. It's like the perfect fusion of moralizing series for children with lessons each episode and likes tales from the crypt; tales of dark irony and supernatural mischief, yet is as far as I can tell actually very wise and gives good advice.

3: xxxHolic is a very versatile series that takes full advantage of it's very weird tone. It's genre is Occult Fiction and it takes that one element entirely serious but it uses that serious Occult Fiction to comment, sometimes comedically on human society and psychology. As such the series can vary between comedic to serious, darkly cynical to brightly optimistic, nihilistic to saccharine. It is the supernatural world represented by the Witch laughing at the human world's silliness, laughing alongside it as she explores it for her personal fun, and very ocassinally being moved by it.

3 Flaws:

1: Probably the biggest flaw with the manga in particular, it get really confusing. Before anyone tells me "it makes perfect sense if you read Tsubasa Resevoir Chronicles", firstly you shouldn't have to read a seperate (and fairly lengthy) series that it's not a sequel too just to understand this one, and secondly I actually did read TRC and no it still doesn't make sense. 

2: I am really not partial to the ending. The anime still doesn't have an "ending" but the manga's if you count the ending to the main manga and don't go into the sequel series if very unsatisfying as an ending. Everything after (Heavy Manga Spoilers) Yuuko disappears loses the feel of the series beforehand and it's versatile atmosphere and obviously greatest character. I do like the actual scene where Yuuko fades, that part gives me the emotional chills, but after that not only does Yuuko leave but Watanuki is immortal and outlives Doumeki and Himawari so their entire character dynamic is also gone. 

3: This doesn't bother me a huge amount but sometimes the series can be a bit on the nose with it's messages. The series does avoid preachyness, vary rarely putting much moral judgement entirely for the various clients of Yuuko's but sometimes at the end of  an adventure there'll be a signfigant part where Yuuko will give a small monologue about how "people think x is like y, but really it's like z..."

Favorite Part:

My favorite part (Manga Spoilers) is actually a part I mentioned earlier, the disappearence of Yuuko. Watanuki over the course of the series has come to understand Yuuko's inner feelings including her sadness and loneliness and promises to grant a wish. It is revealed that Yuuko was actually the one who saved Watanuki along with Syaoran from Fei Wong Reed, causing him to exist and not disappear. Due to the events of TRC, Yuuko is no longer frozen in time and beginning to disappear and she speaks to Watanuki as she begins to fade away. Watanuki is in despair, saying he never granted her wish and Yuuko, for the first time shown both physically and emotionally vulnerable, says that her wish is for him to keep existing and as she disappears Watanuki promises to wait for her to return no matter how long it takes, becoming the Dimensional Sorcerer in charge of the story, taking up her role voluntarily. It's just a beautiful emotional moment and the perfect reversal of their roles with Watanuki now being the wish granter.