Sorry for the tardiness, this are just quick catch-up reviews to put things back on track…now let’s move on!

EPISODE 3

Following the previous episode, Watanuki is thrown into another world with the Karasutengu. His goal is to save the Vestal sprite who has been kidnapped by the Jyorougumo, and aided by his trusty Pipe Fox, he enters the mansion where she is being held hostage.

Upon entering the mansion, we’re treated to a Bleach like effect. Watanuki is being overwhelmed by the Jyorougumo’s aura and is finding it incredibly hard to traverse the mansion…so he goes all emo on us (not really) and cuts his hand in order to stay conscious. The portrayal of the overwhelming is done well however; it isn’t as exaggerated or as sudden as it is in Bleach. Instead, you get the feeling of a very thick and woozy air making it hard to breath and stay awake, and it’s done so well that even you may find yourself struggling for breath.

As you now know, Jyorougumo is the one who controls spiders, and thus was the relative of the spider who’s curse had affected Doumeki and Watanuki. She does look wierd, but that’s part of what makes her design well done. It’s easy to tell the type of person she is, and she gives a really malicious scent.

Yikes, blunt aren’t we? Anyway, Jyorougumo is in possession of Watanuki’s right eye, so the Vestal Sprite attempted to kindly get it back from her, but instead ended up being held captive.

The Rain Sprite is a very close friend to the Vestal Sprite. No doubt worried, she wants to take action but is told (by Yuuko) that she can only wait for them to come back.

I wonder what she ate?

The whole encounter with Jyorougumo only lasts one episode. The concise manner of this episode isn’t seen much in other anime, which would stretch out something like these between a few episodes. It fits in well with xxxHolic’s overall pacing, which is having something different each episode with a moral attached to the end. Watanuki plays ’save the princess’, but not the usual way. He doesn’t get psyched up and attain super human powers, or he doesn’t come across a miraculous savior or anything that cliched. Instead, realising how important his right eye was…he simply offered his body parts in exchange for the Vestal Sprite. This actually annoyed the hell out of the Jyorougumo; she hated the fact that someone would just blindly hurt themselves without realising how those who care about said person would feel. She made him realise what a slap to the face it would be to the Vestal Sprite who came to save his right eye, to just offer up the rest of his body parts. What I liked about this is the distinction created between Jyorougumo and most other ‘baddies’. She has personality, a functioning brain. Even though she’s evil, she’s still intelligent enough to not be a total loon. So she refuses his offer…not something your typical bad guy would do. She may be evil, but she has sense.

Another reason I loved this episode is because of the heartwarming scenes. They are done beautifully. Watanuki comes to realise his error, and wakes up on the Vestal Sprite’s lap. The power of love and friendship is illustrated in such a moving way, and thus the episode’s moral is summed up…

xxxHolic Kei’s ability to master the arts of action, drama, comedy, friendship and romance is second to none. The show hits all the right notes at all the right times, and this episode is no exception. As I said before, every xxxHolic Kei episode is like a short movie…the surrealistic events, and the variety of emotions portrayed by the show make it so.

5/5

EPISODE 4 – The Dream Merchant

This episode was and interesting and a pretty intellectually engaging one if you know how to approach it. It’s on the subject of dreams, and not much else really. It doesn’t engage the topic too heavily this time, and instead provides a light narrative on it. It’s like a relief of tension and sternness from the last episode.

Watanuki basically lives Himawari and Doumeki’s dreams. However, what’s clever is the way fate plays an obvious role this time around. You see, Himawari’s dream is actually a nightmare Watanuki bought off of her by thanking her for telling him and giving her Madeleine cakes in return (watch the episode if you don’t get it), and this nightmare was about being chased down a dark alley, and Watanuki (kinda) lives it (see pics above).

Now, after receiving the cakes Himawari asks if she should give Doumeki some, to which Watanuki obviously protests against. So here is the cool part. She gives them to Doumeki anyway, and Watanuki gets peeved off as usual, then Doumeki tells Watanuki about how he had a dream of his grandfather on a horse…

Watanuki has now unintentionally bought two dreams. He bought Himawari’s, where’s he’s being chased and caught; and he bought Doumeki’s dream which represents the other half of the dream where Watanuki is saved from the spirit, by Doumeki’s grandfather on a horse. Now imagine what would have happened had Doumeki not received the cakes. Yup, good thing Himawari didn’t listen to Watanuki and gave Doumeki the cakes right? Now you wonder, was it a lucky coincidence, or was it inevitability? As Yuuko always says:

Now onto the second half of the episode. We are now introduced to the weird but somewhat cute looking Dream Merchant. Each balloon he holds represents a dream he has raised, and thanks to Yuuko’s haggling, Watanuki gets to trade the arrow left behind (a very valuable arrow) from his previous dream by Doumeki’s granfather, for 5 balloons.

Thinking of the intricacies of fate makes this a very interesting episode. Watanuki tells the Dream Merchant to give one of his balloons to the son of the fox who runs the Oden Stand in the spirit world (who’s also a fox obviously), as they are good friends and he actually saved Watanuki and Doumeki in the past (watch the first season to understand). So you’d think, how would this affect things later on? What dream would the little fox experience? How would it affect him and what would he give Watanuki in return? And how would this also affect Watanuki in the future? Everything is inter weaved; every action spurts another; every doing sets up another doing. Thus, there is no such thing as coincidence, only inevitability. Watanuki was saved because of Himawari’s actions…one action sets in place a future inevitability. Coincidence is but a form of dibelief.

So Yuuko takes two balloons, leaving Watanuki with 2 left. He experiences one of the dreams within the balloon and meets Doumeki’s granfather, who then shows him a very embarrassing secret/picture of Doumeki’s! (watch the episode to find out!). Good thing Yuuko picked that particular balloon eh? Of course, Yuuko already knew what dreams she was picking, because she’s that awesome.

4.5/5

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