One day a high school student named Kimihiro Watanuki is assaulted by an apparition. Trying to get away he stumbles upon a strange house whose fence seems to save him from the attack. Inside he finds a mysterious store with an even more mysterious proprietress. She’s willing to get rid of the spirit that attached itself to the boy… for a price. Watanuki agrees and soon enough is freed from this burden. In exchange he becomes a part time worker in the mysterious shop that deals in wishes. His life, already full of the supernatural, is going to get a lot more fantasmal.
Despite having a few recurring characters the main cast consists of three characters:
Kimihiro Watanuki - our protagonist. The boy didn’t have an easy life. His parents died when he was still very young and had to manage by himself. Thanks to that he’s dependable, a skilled cook and compassionate. Too compassionate as some episodes show. He also has a special skill - he can see and interact with the supernatural. Ghosts, apparitions, spirits and other, sometimes more sinister creatures are almost a daily occurrence for him. That said, he isn't like the protagonists of more recent anime. Most modern anime have a MC who is a blank page with mostly goals and little to no personality, that can’t make mistakes, the world bends over backwards for them and are OP in the confinement of their world rules. Watanuki isn’t like that. He has some personality. While it is true that he’s a bit of a pushover and does most things that he’s told he doesn’t just take it lying down. He’s rather mouthy when he doesn’t like something… or someone. He complains, loudly and despite often being ignored he still gives everyone a piece of his mind. He also makes mistakes. A lot. Some of them are rather costly. Because of his recklessness his friend (although Watanuki wouldn’t be caught dead calling him that) - Doumeki, is injured and risks his health and life to keep Watanuki out of harm's way. He also has a crush and isn’t especially shy about it… even if that got him nowhere. His power isn’t exactly all that powerful as well. He can see the supernatural but doesn’t have a special attack that can exorcise evil spirits that try to harm him, or even a sustainable way to ward it off. He’s very much vulnerable.
Shizuka Doumeki - Watanuki’s classmate and friend / rival / enemy (?). Yeah… they are friends, let’s be honest, but none of them would admit it, especially Watanuki. When it comes to demeanour he is the polar opposite of Watanuki. He’s stoic, at first glance cold and often sarcastic towards Watanuki. Despite that he helps him a lot even gets injured and saves his life on numerous occasions. He’s a member of the archery club and excels at it. A skill that helps him because he’s able to exorcise spirits using an arrow mage of energy he shoots from his bow. He isn’t able to actually see most of the apparitions but because of his upbringing he doesn’t make fun of Watanuki for stating he sees ghosts, nor he states he doesn’t believe him. Something that really rubs Watanuki the wrong way is the fact that Doumeki is popular with girls and even some spirits are in awe of his spirit. He loves to treat Watanuki as his personal chef but is more than willing to risk his life to save him.
Yuuko Ichihara - The true mystery of the show. She’s beautiful, mysterious and seemingly omniscient or at least close to it. She runs the shop that Watanuki works at and is responsible for freeing him from one of the apparitions that stalked him. Her shop deals in wishes and only people who need to find it even get to set a foot inside. She believes in equivalent exchange. For her services there always must be payment and always of equal value. No excess or scarcity is allowed. Something she uses against Watanuki everytime he needs her help. Despite being more than happy to use Watanuki as her personal errand boy the cook, she also acts like a mentor for him. She often warns him about the dangers that are nearby but allows him to make his own choices and mistakes simultaneously keeping a watchful eye on him. From the very beginning it is hinted that both she and her store are much more than meets the eye. Her knowledge of the supernatural and a collection of magic items hints at a long life of dealing with them. She seems to be fascinated by Watanaki and the path he will travel through life and doesn’t shy away from helping him grow… even if she does make him work more as payment.
I would like to make something clear:
I don’t mind the heavy stylization of the characters. They give me a vague “Nightmare before Christmas” aka burtonesque vibe and as a fan of Burtonesque I can’t really complain. It may not be as detailed or full of personality in the case of Mise-en-scène as a proper burtonesque but the character stylization does the job. As a result I don’t intend to comment on the visuals. Simply put I don’t mind them and in some cases I believe that they amplify the drama.
The show is episodic in its format, we often get one problem per episode, sometimes per two episodes but that’s very rare. It uses urban legends, folklore and ghost stories as fuel for it’s plot. Most of the clients that come to Yuuko’s shop have wishes that can be granted with little to no supernatural help, just some good old fashioned armchair psychology from Armchair psychology from Yuuko combined with a little scare and maybe a touch of blackmail for good measure. That said, even in those cases there is often something supernatural. Like a smoke that is visible by Watanuki when a compulsive liar tells Yuuko her story or a visible sound wave when a young girl is depreciating herself. Other times Watanuki is faced with real spirits and other apparitions. Not all of them evil, like a fox running a food stand or a shy Zashiki-warashi that has a crush on him. Other times he is in serious danger like when facing a kind, gentle and loving spirit that sucks away at his life force (which she regrets… it’s hard to describe it without spoilers but those two episodes with her can hit pretty hard) or when a whole procession of spirits wants to eat him and Doumeki (and yes, it was all Watanuki’s fault).
The mysteries of the show are its weakest points unfortunately. There are four secrets that I was interested in but the show never really touched upon. Those were: Who/what is Yuuko? What’s the extent of Watanuki’s power? What’s the extent of Doumeki’s power? Why is Yuuko keeping Himawari close? It is hinted that there is a secret to Himawari but it’s treated as a throw away line. The everyday mysteries, if they can be called that way, are much simpler and often You know the answer before Yuuko turns into an exposition dump and just lays everything for all to hear. To be fair to the show because it wants to retain its “one problem per episode” format it has no choice but to be heavy handed and reliant on info dumps. Not all of them are bad but more often than not Yuuko just says obvious things that don’t mean much. Because of that the show suffers from lack of originality and immersion. It gives an interesting premise of the episode but then just resolves everything in a manner of minutes, like the aforementioned liar episode.
There are some episodes that were clearly given more love than others. The best example would be episodes 22 and 23 that have more personal drama and stakes for Watanuki than any other in the show. Another would be the episode with twin sisters, one an extrovert and the other a shy introvert or the snowball fight where everyone uses snow golems to fight. Even episodes that are seemingly lacking in originality like the one when Doumeki has his soul stolen have a twist that changes everything about them. More episodes should get this kind of love and imagination.
As a whole this show has a very similar vibe to “Petshop of horrors” or “Hell Girl”. Both use the supernatural to show different sides to human drama. But where those shows keep a more pessimistic, dramatic and suspenseful atmosphere for almost all of its runtime, “xxxHOLiC” doesn’t shy from a more optimistic, comedic and hopeful tone. Between the drama of people that come to the shop, the show gives us a look at the interaction between the cast. And it’s honestly pretty solid. Repetitive yes, I’m not gonna lie about that, but it’s entertaining enough that it helps with the overall pacing. Watching Watanuki interact with everyone and having a different approach to them is pretty solid and relatable writing (even if he does have one face for one member of the cast most of the time). The rivalry and banther with Doumeki, the infatuation with Himawari and a mix of respect and annoyance with Yuuko give the show a comic relief that it needs to let the drama breathe and give more of an impact.
All in all I don’t think the show is bad. I really enjoyed it with all of its pros and cons. Yes it lacks originality and most of the problems are resolved too fast in an info dump way but it still produces solid episodes and very likeable characters. I wish we got more episodes with Zashiki-warashi and her interactions with Watanuki and maybe more about Yuuko herself but the writing is decent enough to not bother me that much… until I got to the last episode and was disappointed that I didn’t get anything about her.
Would I recommend this show?
That depends. If You liked “Hell Girl” or “Petshop of Horrors” You will enjoy this one. Probably even a bit more thanks to it pacing and giving a breather after one drama before setting up another one.
On the other hand if You expect good writing and organic plot You will be disappointed.
Personally I liked the show despite all its flaws
