So, in my personal opinion, it’s not too often you see something done incredibly better in the anime then the manga. Especially with the low-grade animation of xxxholic kei against xxxholic’s gorgeous art. Yet, it happened.
Episode 11 opens with Watanuki walking home with Himawari. He bids farewell, and notices his pinky hurting something bad. So he goes to Yuko’s makes dinner and serves it to her. He drops one of the dishes though, and it absolutely shatters. Yuko talks to Watanuki, asking him what’s going on with the finger, and he admits that he made a pinky promise with Himawari. Leads further into the conversation, Yuko reminds him for the 100th time, that Himawari is a bad omen. I think we got that. I guess Watanuki just hasn’t.
He will soon, in his dream. Domeki’s grandfather appears, asking Watanuki to address him by his first name. Two episodes left in the series, and we finally get his name. That strikes me as off, yes I know how it went in the manga, but it still seemed off. His name’s Haruka, if anyone’s interested. They talk, and Haruka reveals what’s going on with Himawari.
DUN DUN DUN!
Haruka tells Watanuki that now he knows, there’s no going back for him. And to make sure to visit Domeki in the morning. Watanuki then wakes up.
On the way to school, who does Watanuki see, but ‘my favorite’ loli ever? Kohane conviently encounters him, and tells him thanks for everything. He offers for them to go off alone, but alas, this time for Watanuki
THE KIDNAP ATTEMPT FAILS. HE’S NO LONGER ACE KIDNAPPER!
Okay, enough kidding around. It’s a pretty serious scene, as while it’s never spoken outright, Kohane is bidding farewell to Watanuki. It’s evident she’s no longer so incredibly relient on his company as she was earlier, and probably doesn’t intend to see him again. And this is true in the anime, I think.
As a parting gift, Watanuki gives Kohane cream puffs.
So Watanuki meets Domeki, and talks about the dream. Watanuki raises an interesting question of why does Domeki’s grandfather keep appearing in dreams? Sadly, this isn’t properly answered, just Domeki blathering about his grandfather had premonitions. What does that have to do with anything?
So Watankui finally gets to school, and meets Himawari. He notices an odd aura around her, but they keep walking, at some point Himawari taps him on the shoulder. There’s some creepy build-up, I mean creepy. That shoulder touches a window, and a pane falls out, leading to…
Okay, I know this is suppose to be a serious scene…but I giggled when I saw this. You kinda have to see the animation to understand, but who falls out of a window that way? No normal person! Maybe long skinny xxxholic people just do.
But the amusement fades, as Himawari looks down, and the next scene is shattered glass and blood. And the air is filled with the most horrified scream.
The next part I didn’t understand to well, Watanuki is inbetween the world of life and death, having reverted to a younger self. He runs to his parents, only to be saved by Haruka, who says it’s fortunate he looks like Domeki so he could save him, since Domeki couldn’t have. What?
Watanuki wakes up, finding himself alive. Yuko tells him what’s going on, and assures him that the price to save his life has already been payed.
Himawari is in the shop(put one and two together why she’s there), and stands by Watanuki’s bedside. And then is when she trumps her glory in the manga. There’s no question about it, it was a great scene in the manga. But it’s her voice. Her stone cold voice. This isn’t adorable Himawari anymore, this is dead serious.
It’s amazing.
They talk, and Watanuki decides to inform Himawari that she seems to cause bad things to happen around her, and he’s sorry to tell her. But Himawari isn’t a bit surprised.
The episode ends there.
All I have to say, is this has got to be one of the best directed episodes of xxxholic kei. It’s hard to put into worlds, but the way they appeal to emotions–excellent catharis going on there.
I can’t wait for the next one.
CJ
Crisu
Rakuen
Dave
ladytemeraire
I was surprised when Yuuko said 2 person had paid the price when I recalled that xxxHolic’s anime did not cross over with TRC (a sad thing really, since the link between the 2 stories just keeps getting stronger). But from the looks of the episode preview, the finale might be different from the manga.
I am super excited about the season finale.
I believe they decided to make the anime(s) so they’d appeal to people who didn’t wish to keep track of both. However, I feel this was a terrible move, as it doesn’t give xxxholic kei the backbone it needs to have a strong storyline instead of being episodic. And I have no idea how they intend to wrap this up with the Tsubasa tie-in.
It also makes me sad, beacuse so much of the two are intertwined right now, and reaching the conclusion, there won’t be anymore xxxholic anime.
after i got really pissed off at how the kohane arc ended, i wasn’t really looking forward to this episode. except for details i was disappointed about, i really thought that this was a vry good episode.
I agree.
I hear a lot of people say that about the Kohane arc, but it’s hard for me to be so angry with it…because I never liked it from the start.
Actually, I like how xxxholic DOESN’T intertwine with TC (because of my personal dislike of the CCS series). The directing, cast, the lousy quality of the colors (it was made on purpose to get the feel of the world of xxxholic, IMO, since the studio in charge of it was Production I.G) fitted very well.
And by the way, Haruka’s name was mentioned some episodes prior to this as well, as he told Watanuki to call him by his first name.
As for Haruka’s constant appearance in Watanuki’s dream, I have a few points that might be the reason why.
1) During the dream episode, Haruka met with Watanuki for the first time. I think Haruka’s soul sensed that Watanuki is always in constant trouble with the spirit world, and he felt that his help would be useful in the stead of his ‘introverted’ grandson.
2) Doumeki mentioned that Haruka had the power of premonitions. Maybe it is due to that power that Haruka was able to ‘aid’ the people of the past of whom had spiritual troubles.
TC and CSS are really different. I picked up TC way back when I read it, think it would be another CCS, and was very mistaken.
I do think that xxxholic is done the best it can without the TC tie-in. However, all of xxxholic’s manga art is vibrant and color, and all in all, the bad animation is inexcusable. They should be ashamed of themselves for that quality.
Okay. This was the first episode he told him to address him by his first name, guess that’s what made me think it was the first time.
Those are good ones. My pet theory is Watanuki wished for gudiance from someone other then Yuko(who tends to frusterate him) and the balloon granted that.