xxxHOLiC

Surprisingly enough, xxxHolic is the first request I've had for a Clamp review. For those of you who aren't familiar with the group, they're an all female group who started out writing doujinshi before moving on to professional work in 1987. They've been fairly prolific, but their end products tend to range considerably in quality. Some being spectacular, others being terrible. xxxHolic leans toward the latter.

xxxHolic is an anime that doesn't have an underlying plot so much as a series of loosely connected episodes that are all based off of Japanese folk lore. A young man named Watanuki can see spirits. He finds a shop ... that grants wishes and ends up working there part time. Shenanigans ensue. Most of the episodes have only very loose connections to each other. An anime can be setup like this and still be well done, but xxxholic isn't. One major issue that pops up multiple times is that serious moments, which should have some impact on the characters or the plots to come, are dropped and never mentioned again instead. Another issue is that the episodes don't really do anything interesting with the folklore. Instead it just throws the reference at you, follows up with some faux intellectual statement to wrap things up and moves on to the next thing. The comedic aspect is another area where it fails since there are very few moments that are actually funny. Most of the humour is based on Watanuki having really over the top reactions to what's going on and it's not particularly funny when they do it the first time. So doing it multiple times every bloody episode just gets repetitive and really boring. The semi-serious moments they try to have are also ruined by them always reverting to "comedy" quickly after those moments end.

The characters certainly don't make up for the largely absent plot. Each one has one or two exaggerated personality traits that define them. Watanuki over-reacts to things and is a tool. Doumeki helps Watanuki and has no visible reaction to anything. Himawari either doesn't understand the obvious or toys with Watanuki for fun. Yuuko always knows what's happening but only deals with issues personally when she has too. She also drinks a lot. And I just described the four major characters completely with a few adjectives. I could do the same for the secondary characters, but that would take a while. One other issue with the characters is that there are several plot lines involving individual characters that seem like they could potentially lead to development, but they either get dropped or go unresolved in favour of keeping the status quo.

The art is terrible. I'm used to borked proportions in anime, but xxxHolic just takes it too far. The characters have ludicrously long and slim limbs and bodies with tiny little heads. This makes them look more like models made out of string cheese than actual people. The backgrounds are generally sparse and the supernatural beings don't have much impact. They just look bland most of the time.

The voice work is difficult to judge. There are a lot of really talented voice actors working on this such as Nakai Kazuya, Ohara Sayaka, Itou Shizuka and Fukuyama Jun but they all adopt these really exaggerated voices which add to the lack of depth for their characters. I blame the direction since I know that all of them can do roles with depth. The music ranges from bad to generic.

The yuri factor is a 2.4/10. Simply because Yuuko gets really touchy with some of the other female characters and it comes off as a bit homoerotic.

My final rating for xxxHolic is a 3/10. The art is bad. The characters have no depth. It's not funny and what little story there is lacks interesting content. If you want a good anime grounded in Japanese myths there are far better options like Mushishi or Kino's Journey. If you want something by Clamp specifically there are still better anime, like Magic Knight Rayearth or Cardcaptor Sakura. As for xxxHolic, you can skip it.

If I could attribute one state of mind to the show xxxHolic, it would be boredom. It seems whenever I try to watch this show, I tend to fall asleep. I even showed this show to my friend, who also FELL ASLEEP. What is it about this show that is so dreadful, well...

The story revolves around a boy named Watanuki who has the uncanny ability see generic, uninspired spirits. He runs into Yuuko who runs a stupid and useless store, in which I have no idea how she would be able to obtain any sort of decent revenue. Maybe she sells drugs as a side ... job? From there, there really isn't even a story, just a mash of random and uninteresting events.

The art in xxxholic is hideous. All the characters are extremely lanky and pencil thin to the point that they are unattractive to look at. The main character, Watanuki is one of the worst characters ever conceived and is an extremely annoying protagonist who easily gets on my nerves.

Overall, I don't recommend xxxHolic to anyone. It is a bland unimaginative show that needs to be thrown in the trash. The only reason to watch xxxHolic, is if you are having trouble sleeping.

xxxHolic (pronounced "holic") is an anime adaptation of a CLAMP manga of the same name. The anime was made as a 24-episode advertisement for the manga. There's no real overarching plot or even an end. The show expects you to read the manga if you want any kind of closure. This series is exactly what you'd expect from CLAMP. It's in each episode the main characters solve a person's problem, making the person happy by the end of the episode. If you've read anything by CLAMP you'll know what to expect. On top of that, the character designs for xxxHolic are downright ugly! Every character ... looks like some kind of demented Ent-frog with their tall, skinny bodies and long limbs. As much as I'm hating on it, it's not a terrible show. It's a lot like CLAMP's other non-Cardcaptor shows, remarkably average. So, if you've read the manga and want to see the exact same thing animated, then it might be worth checking out. But if you're not already in love with CLAMP, then you might want to skip this one.

xxx.....xxxxxx.xxxx...xxxx..xxxHolic xxx.xxxxxx.xxxx follows story of Watanuki high schooler who started working for Ichihara ,type of exorcists/spiritual helper and with her guidelines Watanuki explores spiritual world of ghosts .

I can't really call show uninspired since it came out in 2006, way before mongatari series, Mushi-shi or most over shows which are about super natural phenomenons middle of normal life. But unlike shows which all take this story aspect in their own direction, Holic doesn't really do anything interesting with the concept, but that's not here nor there ,show has few issues but this isn't really one of em.

Anime stories follow two ... structure types. Either, they are linear narrative shows where every episode servers to move the story forward or there are episodic shows like Holic which tell individual summed up stories in each episode or on span of few.

Making plot episodic means thats each episode needs to carry their own weight, a slow or rushd episode can't be compensated or be hidden behind overall well made show like one can with linear stories and xxxHolic doesnt do that. Each individual episode isn't exciting or interesting to watch.
A. Charecters aren't interesting. Watanuki main traits are him being loud and over reacting to everything and having crush on Himawari. Shizuka is always calm and collected , looking like he is business veteran even tho he only started 1 week ago. Himawari well she doesn't really do anything as far as her motives or interests go. and Yuuko main female is know all who just is used as source of exposition and to wrap up each episode.

Their interactions are repetetive, its very stale and boring, once you seen it once you have seen it all.

B. Animation is choppy. Im not talking about character design, their absurdly slim nature didn't bother me as much it seems to have other people. but animation and movements are awkward and lack fluidity.

C. Well story in each episode is expected . Evil spirit appears for Reason B and our skooby do gang deals with situation with method C.

So what we end up with is a episodic show with no overall narrative to make each individual episode worth tanking through, and each episode is complete shit.

Bit of Trivia, i started watching Watanuki to be to some level narcisisst but competent individual and show would be about his introduction and mastery of all matters spiritual(something like Yagami or lelouch).Well that what it looked liked based on its poster and i didn't want to read reviews and etc cause maximum enjoyment its best to get into show with as little knowledge about it as possible. Imagine high hopes i had and their following destruction then watenuki ended up being whiny brat who would complain about being tasked with a job and yet finishing it 5 minutes latter .

I ended up dropping show little after half after i realized show wants going anywhere with Watanuki or any of characters.

To so um it up, show is trash, animation is aslide show, world it self is boring and characters are one of the most horribly written i have seen

NOTICE: This review covers the whole franchise; not just the first season. No need to make different reviews for the exact same show.

THE STAFF
- Animated by Production I.G. which means it will have a good budget but the characters will behave like robots, or in this case like string puppets.
- Directed by Mizushima Tsutome, who has some fame for his fondness of making comedies with cute chibi girls who act all erotic and/or violent (Hare+Guu, Dokuro-chan, Punie-chan, Squid Girl). Other than that, he is not good in anything else he was part of (especially with the crap he did in Blood-C and Another) and since ... this show is not about chibi girls it is not one of his better works.
- Based on the manga by CLAMP, one of the most famous team of mangaka in the 90’s. Most of their numerous works have been adapted to anime and most of them were a hit in airing shares and sales. They have a style that combines the cute with the dark and know how to create spicy premises and hot romantic pairings. Sadly their stories are good only as far as premises go; their plots always fall apart under the lack of proper handling of their themes. You end up reading or watching just for the kinky situations and give up on the story. A note must be said here that they primarily make shoujo shows with lots of action and romance that ends up appealing to both genders. But since the shoujo is their base template, it is expected to focus almost entirely on character chemistry and visual aesthetics than… well, anything else.

SPECIFICS
It is an almost entirely episodic show about Watanuki, a high school boy with a curse, working for Yuuko, an eccentric witch, in order to remove it and together dealing with supernatural cases concerning ghosts and demons. There is very little to write about the story; you can read the description of the premise and this is as far as the whole thing goes. There are some episodes in the second season that offer development to the main characters but it is still close to zero. And there is an OVA that exists purely to have a cross over with Tsubasa Chronicles, another CLAMP title that was nothing but a parade of cameos.

Because of the episodic nature there is very little character development throughout the seasons. Watanuki is just a typical hyperactive high school boy, and Yuuko is just an enchanting witch that loves to change clothes every episode. Just like in all CLAMP works, you mostly like them for their simple-minded personality and eccentric clothes. You tolerate everything just to see the sexual tension of Watanuki building up slowly next to the super hot Yuuki and you just wait for some spicy romance to occur… slow as always. There are some other interesting secondary characters from time to time but the show barely tries to offer backdrop stories for most of them, so they too have close to nothing as far as fleshing out goes.

The artwork is very good as far as cinematics, clothes, and decorations goes. There is a lot of detail given to make everything dark and plethoric as means to attract your attention. It is average to bad when it comes to animation, backgrounds, or character designs, since there is little actual motion, the sceneries are simplistic, and the characters look damn skinny and simplistically drawn.

There is nothing overall great regarding the music part. The first opening is somewhat good and there are some famous and professional voice actors in the cast but in all there is nothing I found above average or memorable. Most dialogues are dull, most BGM is passable.

Having close to no on-going plot and mostly style than substance is of course nothing new in the genre but it definitely looks less interesting than its cousin shows.
- Mushishi is far better in atmosphere and philosophy.
- Mononoke is far better in aesthetics and fleshing out the characters.
- Bakemonogatari is far better in cinematics and fan service.
- Natsume Yuujinchou is just… cuter with those cats.
So in all, it is a boring and passable anime.

And now for some excused scorings.
ART SECTION: 6/10
Analysis: General Artwork 1/2, Character Figures 1/2, Backgrounds 1/2, Animation 1/2, Visual Effects 2/2

SOUND SECTION: 6/10
Analysis: Voice Acting 2/3, Music Themes 2/4, Sound Effects 2/3

STORY SECTION: 4/10
Analysis: Premise 1/2, Pacing 0/2, Complexity 1/2, Plausibility 1/2, Conclusion 1/2

CHARACTER SECTION: 4/10
Analysis: Presence 2/2, Personality 2/2, Backdrop 0/2, Development 0/2, Catharsis 0/2

VALUE SECTION: 1/10
Analysis: Historical Value 0/3, Rewatchability 0/3, Memorability 1/4

ENJOYMENT SECTION: 1/10
Analysis: Art 0/1, Sound 0/2, Story 0/3, Characters 1/4

VERDICT: 3.5/10

Quick Thoughts:

This show did not need to be 24 episodes. A premise is established early on regarding the main character's (Watanuki) ability to see spirits as well as his destiny in relation to his boss Yuko, but the show hardly delved deeper into it. Instead, xxxHolic follows an episodic format whose formula grew stale just several episodes in.

Story:

Yuko runs a shop that "grants" wishes, and these wishes are usually linked to something spiritual. Each episode generally involves Watanuki using his ability to see spirits to help Yuko fulfill those requests. There are some variations; such as more slice-of-life centered Watanuki's friend group, or episodes with ... more lighthearted interactions with spirits, but Yuko's requests are the main focus. Episodes conclude with the wishes being fulfilled, usually in a monkey paw type of way, and then Yuko monologues about the theme of the episode. This episode structure isn't bad, I think the elements supporting it (characters, art) were too weak too carry for 24 episodes.

Art:

Visually, xxxHolic is underwhelming at best. It seems like they were trying to go for a dark, mysterious vibe, but things like most of the background characters being grey silhouettes made the art seem flat and lazy. I never got used to the characters designs either; they're ridiculously lanky. It didn't seem consistent either. They would look fine in closer shots, but it seemed like as camera zoomed out, their heads would shrink and their limbs would extend. Animation-wise this show was fine. nothing notable.

Sound:

The soundtrack was simplistic, but pretty good overall. In particular, it worked well with the parts of the show that were more eerie in tone. Voice acting was solid as well. I did find Watanuki's voice a bit annoying, but it seems like that's the kind of voice they were going for.

Characters:

I think the characters and how they interact were a large part of why the show got stale so quickly. The main cast reacts to each other in very predicable ways. An example could be Watanuki's friend group: Watanuki either overacts to other character's antics in his shrieking voice or swoons over his love interest Himawari, Doumeki eggs him on by reacting nonchalantly, and then Himawari giggles and says Doumeki and Watanuki look like great friends or something. That's basically the slice-of-life portion of the show in a nutshell. The more serious side isn't much better. Having someone as goofy as Watanuki be the main character takes away a lot of the tension they try to build. Yuko helps mitigate this when she's actually on screen, but she's usually in the background playing a more supportive role for Watanuki.

Enjoyment:

I kind of enjoyed the show for what was in the first several episodes, but it dragged on too long and got repetitive in the latter half. Can't say I enjoyed it that much overall.