and.....I might include spoilers without me knowing it so.....As a precaution, I'll apologise now.
So the story takes place 10 years after yuko's 'death' or 'disappearance' and it show how much the characters have changed. Hiwamari is married, doumeki is a professor and kohane is a student in the same university.This setting is the same as the manga yet the story is well, a side story since there isn't anything like this in the manga.
So a brief summary of the plot would be doumeki and another professor going to a mansion-like house to check out some artifacs and charms.etc. And when doumeki was there, he meets a girl, who is unnamed, an rather mysterious too.
And then the next time they went, they were going through a crate and inside that crate was a bell. and once the bell was rung, the bashes open a door and starts acting all berserk and bites the professor and causes havoc.
doumeki and watanaki investigate further to find shes some izura tamer or something like that.
The storyline confused me. So a girls gets possesed, and then destroys everything and then a pipe fox comes to the rescue, and they find a box and then she turns into a fox?! It was just too much to keep up with.
And I'm the person, whho judges alot of anime and manga by endings. A bad and incomplete or rushed ending ruins the anime no matter how good the storyline was.
xxxHolic rou's ending was confusing as well. What happened to an equal payment? How could a few words be enough for a girl to turn into a fox? What happened to yuko?
The ending wasn't rushed, I was just incomplete. I felt like it needed more episodes.
The storyline was the only thing that ruined it for me. And it was such a shame because this could've turned out really good.
But thats just me. Maybe your not as absent minded as me and you might understand the storyline.
The art was the usual xxxholic style art, the simple eyes, and matte colours.
Kohane grew taller and looks a lot more mature, yet doumeki hasn't changed, nor has watanuki since those ten years. Apart from that, the art was brilliant.
The music, was outstanding. It created the right atmosphere and setting. If your were to watch this anime on mute, you might not even realise that this anime is horror.
The character development was probably the things that stand out the most. Kohane is a (half) carefree girl and she is no longer the insecure child she was before. Although doumeki......hasn't changed at all. He's still the demanding, emotionless type of guy. But on the other hand, watanaki has changed dramatically. He's become alot like the serious yuko. (and when I said serious yuko I mean when she's around her customers and has that eerie demeanour not the playful sake ridden one) He no longer spazzes and no longer does those overly dramatic reactions that I love. Instead, he smokes a pipe and takes in a very serene tone and formal yet demanding manner.
This anime or ova was different, from all the other xxxholic ovas out there because it has a different setting to it.
I enjoyed it,even though i didn't get it, and that's pretty impressive.
I'm gonna end this awfully long review with this oh-so spoilerish line.
"Welcome back, Yuko."
