xxxHolic Vol. 5 Review

The volume starts with Watanuki meeting a girl named Nurie while running an errand for Yuko. Nurie has a problem with accepting happiness and has a pattern of purposely sabotaging herself to keep herself away from things that could bring it to her. Bringing her to Yuko though, she makes a wish to overcome.

            In the next two episodes, Watanuki and Doumeki will get their time in the spotlight. In episode eighteen, Watanuki will receive a special gift from one of Yuko’s spiritual friends. Using the item, Watanuki and Doumeki will travel to a new plane where they will take part in the annual monster procession while Doumeki learns some new truths about Watanuki and what role working in the shop will have on him. After that, the mood is lightened a bit by a huge snowfall. Getting into the spirit of things, Yuko will challenge everyone to a snowball fight that takes on epic proportions after Yuko adds her own twists into things.

             The volume closes with another woman who needs a wish granted from Yuko. It’s Valentine’s Day and while Watanuki is more worried about chocolates and Himawari, the woman who enters the shop is more concerned with a photograph. More importantly, making the photograph disappear and never return. It seems that there are some truths that you can’t get away from no matter what and as xxxHolic has taught the audience, every wish has a price.

Good and the Bad

            Changing things up right away, the series moves into the format that it has used in previous episodes when dealing with a more spiritual theme. Episode eighteen does everything right in a single episode that xxxHolic has made attempts and half successes at previously. The artwork in this episode really stood out as amazing with details on all the different types of monsters. During the episode, Watanuki makes a comment about being in a world of drawings and the statement isn’t far from the truth.

            All of the monsters drawn in this episode have a very simple hand drawn quality to them. The audience will not be able to help but be drawn into the details that are included and while not everyone in the audience will be able to actually name many of the monsters, they are fascinating to look at none the less.

            The naturally frustrating thing about this episode however is the standard method of storytelling for xxxHolic: give the audience just enough and then stop. While the episode shows a lot of great things and even develops on a couple of relationships, the actual amount of new information that the audience gets about Watanuki and where he is headed is next to nothing. With the first season so close to being completed, I really thought that I would have more information by now about where the conclusion of the season was headed.

            The animation in this volume has wonderful examples throughout the volume. Episode eighteen with the process of monsters is very well done. The sheer amount of detail paid by the animation staff is very noticeable. Also well done in this volume is episode twenty. The early CG animation during the photograph sequence looks amazing and the transition to the smooth still frame animation later is incredibly smooth.

Music

xxxHolic does a remarkable job with its music. Two themes in particular will make the audiences take notice almost as soon as they start playing. The theme that plays during the monster procession is very well done and has a wonderful quality to it that almost feels haunting but not evil. It’s hard to describe but the tone of the scene when Doumeki and Watanuki first see the procession is aided very well by the music.

            The creepy theme that plays in the photograph scene of episode twenty is also very well place and composed. The episode has multiple scenes that are well aided by music though. The closing theme during Yuko’s monologue is equally nice in how well it matches the scene and dialogue.

Dub vs. Sub

            With this volume, many of the Japanese terms are translated into English. This eliminates the issue that the series has run into previously with words coming from characters not sounding natural. The dialogue remains strong on both language tracks though and the performances are strong. Brina Palencia as Zashiki-warashi and Kate Oxley as Amewarashi were fun as always in their recurring roles.  

Extras

            Sticking with the same trend, just clean animations and an image gallery.

Overall

            The series has done its best to create fun characters that you want to see develop it something more than what they started as but they sure haven’t made it easy. With only hints dropped in these twenty episodes, I am no closer to knowing what fate awaits Watanuki or even Doumeki than I did during episode one. With not even a cliff hanger to keep me interested, I don’t imagine that I am going to go out of my way to watch the conclusion to xxxHolic season one.