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×××HOLiC (pronounced -holic as in alcoholic, as the '×××' denotes a variable) is a manga series planned and presented by Clamp. It has been serialized in Kodansha's Young KC Deluxe periodically since 2003 and currently published in the United States by Del Rey Manga.
The animated movie ×××HOLiC - A Midsummer Night's Dream (劇場版 ×××HOLiC 真夏ノ夜ノ夢, Gekijōban Horikku - Manatsu no Yoru no Yume) was released in Japan on August 20, 2005. The DVD of the movie was released on February 252006 and a TV animation series began airing on TBS on April 6,2006 in Japan. Both the movie and TV series have been licensed by FUNimation for the USA.
Plot
The series' protagonist, Kimihiro Watanuki (四月一日君尋, Watanuki Kimihiro), is a high school student who is continually plagued by supernatural monsters (youkai) and spirits which are magically attracted to him. The creatures are invisible to all but him, and as a result he feels extremely burdened by them. When he quite literally stumbles into a shop that grants wishes, his life changes drastically.
Within the shop is the seductively beautiful Yūko Ichihara (壱原侑子, Ichihara Yūko), a witch of many names and esoteric renown. The seemingly all-knowing witch soon gets right down to business: she offers to grant Watanuki's wish to be rid of his ability to see spirits. However, a price equal to the power required to grant the wish must be paid. Yūko discovers that Watanuki is very skilled with his hands and a hard worker. As a result, Watanuki soon finds himself forced to perform housework and odd jobs for Yūko until he has done enough work for his wish to be granted.
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Shortly afterwards, other characters become involved with Watanuki's position, including his love interest, Himawari Kunogi, and his 'rival', Shizuka Dōmeki. The three become increasingly 'friendlier', despite the amount of times Watanuki gets annoyed with Dōmeki's unflappable attitude.
Another recurring theme in the manga storyline is that Watanuki's growth and change will be because of his experiences of meeting one person. Yūko, according to a fortune teller in Volume 2, is the one that will change Watanuki. However, it's implied that he will be linked to both Yūko and Dōmeki and that all their connections were foreseen.
Plot elements
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One major factor in ×××HOLiC is the connections between Clamp's other manga; many of Clamp's characters outside of ×××HOLiC appear in this comic. In the beginning, Yūko tells Watanuki about a girl, Sakura, the protagonist of Cardcaptor Sakura, and Sumeragi Subaru of Tokyo Babylon and X/1999. In the 8th chapter, characters from Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, one of Clamp's other series, appear in the story. ×××HOLiC character Yūko Ichihara likewise appears in a corresponding chapter of Tsubasa. In the following chapter, when Watanuki goes to a drug store, he meets Kazahaya and Rikuo, characters from Legal Drug. In addition, various items, like headphones resembling Persocom ears (from Chobits), or Sakura's wand from Cardcaptor Sakura, appear. The link between other series is one of the focal points of ×××HOLiC, and the two series Tsubasa and ×××HOLiC are intimately linked and frequently crossed over.
Clamp has stated that Tsubasa and ×××HOLiC are meant to tie all of their works together, yet still stand alone as their own stories.
Recurring Themes
Because ×××HOLiC partly serves to unite Clamp's works together, some recurring themes from their previous works are prominently featured.
One such theme is the concept of hitsuzen (必然), first introduced by Yūko. Hitsuzen has no direct translation into English (which is why Del Rey has opted to keep the Japanese term whenever it appears in Tsubasa or ×××HOLiC), but can be interpreted as referring to "inevitability", destiny, or fate. Interpreting hitsuzen as "fate" is not inaccurate, but in the context of the story, "fate" is implied as something that is immutable and definite, giving the idea that whoever is bound by fate is nothing more than its puppet. Instead, hitsuzen is the idea that an action is inevitable because without it, other related events in the future could not happen. Therefore all decisions and actions are related, and there can be no coincidence, only hitsuzen. Hitsuzen has been mentioned in Cardcaptor Sakura by Kaho Mizuki as she remarks that "there are no coincidences, only hitsuzen". Other English translations of the remark have rendered hitsuzen as "inevitability". It could also be interpreted as a form of Determinism.
Another theme present in ×××HOLiC and other Clamp works can be observed in the first volume of the series. When Watanuki introduces himself to Yūko, he gives her his real name as a common courtesy. Because his name is also an obvious reference to the date of his birth (April 1, shared by Cardcaptor Sakura's Sakura Kinomoto, the incarnations of herself and Syaoran in Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle), he has given her two key bits of information that will inevitably give someone the power to discover everything about him (based on his birthday) and control his destiny (from his name). This theme has previously appeared in Tokyo Babylon, where Subaru Sumeragi made a similar mistake revealing his true birthdate to Seishirō Sakurazuka.
An orphaned boy cursed with the ability to see yōkai (spirits), Watanuki entered into an agreement with Yūko-san to work for her in exchange for the fulfillment of his wish–to never see spirits again. However, despite the fact that he hates his ability, Watanuki often goes out of his way to help people that he comes into contact with because of his power, even when he is not required to do so by his job. He is also very independent, because he has had to live alone for most of his life, and is an excellent cook and housekeeper.
Watanuki is infatuated with his classmate, Himawari-chan, and frequently tries to impress her in any way he can. He looks on his other classmate, Dōmeki, as a potential rival for Himawari-chan, even though the other boy has never really expressed an interest in her. Because of Dōmeki's ability to repel spirits, Watanuki must spend increasingly more time in his presence, and this has begun to alter their relationship to a sort of grudging friendship. Despite this, Watanuki outwardly reacts in a very hostile way towards Dōmeki, though his actions towards him often speak differently than his words.
Even though Yūko-san is strikingly beautiful, seductive and often a tease, Watanuki seems to be unfazed being around her and his romantic attention still revolves around Himawari. In fact, Watanuki seemed to be more irritated than anything else when Yūko teases him.
When Watanuki was critically injured in the manga, forcing Himawari-chan and Dōmeki to make a wish of Yūko-san to save his life and make payments for her services, a Syaoran from Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, whom Watanuki saw briefly when he arrived to make a wish, also paid for his life in advance. Watanuki's relationship with this Syaoran has not been revealed yet.
Being one extremely experienced in her industry, Yūko is not foolish enough to give away her real name like Watanuki. That aside, Yūko-san has served as a major catalyst for Watanuki's transformation, acting somewhat as his mentor. She loves to drink and eat Watanuki's wonderful cooking and dragging Watanuki on crazy outings at the drop of a hat.
Despite this immature and free-spirited attitude, Yūko-san has been known to be sage-like and serious when the time calls for it. Yūko seems to know the true hitsuzen that Watanuki will follow, and has often offered cryptic messages to warn him of impending danger or a folk tale that he should take a bit more seriously. She also seems to truly care about him, making sure he is safe at night, sending the Kudakitsune (pipe-fox) with him for extra protection, or calling Dōmeki when he needs saving.
Yūko-san is very powerful when it comes to magic and knowledge and is highly respected within the spirit realm. However, she doesn't often appear to get directly involved in things beyond whatever contact she has with those making wishes. Sometimes, she sends Watanuki to do jobs for her, such as when she granted a wish from Himawari-chan. Yūko-san seems to take the role of someone playing chess when it comes to the big picture of things that are going on.
Dōmeki is Watanuki's classmate and one-sided rival. He is part of the school's archery club and often participates (and tops) school competitions. He lives by a shrine owned by his late grandfather.
Dōmeki's personality is a total opposite that of Watanuki's. He has a cool, calm and often sarcastic character. Much to the annoyance of Watanuki, he seems to hang around him especially when Watanuki gets a chance to be alone with Himawari.
While Watanuki is monster bait, Dōmeki is monster repellant, due to his grandfather's exorcism abilities that were passed down to him. The fortune teller from volume 2 foresees Dōmeki's arrival into the story, stating that Watanuki will gain a friend that he'll constantly fight with, but their relationship will "run deeper".
Yūko advises that Watanuki stay close to Dōmeki because his very presence drives away the spirits that attack Watanuki, but Watanuki's jealousy and general annoyance with Dōmeki's mellow, laid-back demeanor keep him from liking Dōmeki–or at least admitting that he does. The fact that on several occasions Dōmeki has had to come to Watanuki's rescue doesn't help, especially since most of these situations involve Watanuki passing out and Dōmeki having to carry him somewhere to rest, or Watanuki falling from a building just to have his wrist caught by Dōmeki at the last second. As payment for his services, Watanuki makes him bento lunches (sometimes with Yūko's nudging, sometimes without), and Dōmeki often demands really difficult or impossible lunch requests for the next day just to irk him.
According to the way he holds his bow, Dōmeki is right-handed. Also, after having his right arm injured while saving Watanuki from falling off of a building, Himawari comments on this being a shame, considering he's right-handed.
Before chapter 119 of the manga, Dōmeki could only see a vacant lot where Yūko's store was supposed to be. Yūko explains in volume 8 of the manga that since Dōmeki does not need anything from her, the shop does not physically or visually exist to him. However, after Watanuki falls out of a window in chapter 117 and is seriously injured, Dōmeki is able to enter Yūko's shop in order to wish to save Watanuki's life.
Watanuki's main love interest. He has been infatuated with Himawari ever since the beginning of the series and even some cryptic remarks from Yūko like "are you sure she's good luck?" haven't deterred him.
Himawari is caring and kind towards Watanuki, but she has her own reasons to avoid him to become closer to her, as for some reason she was born with the power to cause serious misfortune (although unintended) to those around her, an issue that even brought death to her grandmother and sometimes put her friends in trouble.
A spirit girl (Vestal sprite) who has a crush on Watanuki. In the manga, the Zashiki-warashi first appears at Valentine's Day determined to give the perfect chocolate to Watanuki, which nearly results in the death of Dōmeki. She next appears when Watanuki is sent by Yūko to a place of pure chi to return the Kudakitsune to its normal small size. While there, he finds the Zashiki-warashi on a small rock (reisan) where he gives her a White Day present (a pair of hairpins with an angel wing design) as a token of appreciation for the Valentine's Day chocolate (even though he couldn't eat it). Her third appearance is when Watanuki agrees to go rescue her from the evil Jorō-gumo. She was captured when she attempted to recover Watanuki's eye from the Jorō-gumo. Her fourth appearance is when she and the Ame-warashi come to visit Watanuki, who'd recently been severely injured.
Zashiki-warashi are prone to mischievous thoughts, though this one is actually quite shy and sweet and very prone to crying (those who make her cry will be attacked by her guardians, a group of tengu-karasu). She lives on a mountain with pure spiritual energy and, as a result, is vulnerable to evil energy.
In the anime, Zashiki-warashi's first appearance was during Ochugen (a Japanese festival), which she misunderstood for Valentine's Day. Watanuki visits her to thank her for the aburage (deep-fried tofu) which she gave to him to help him with the Kudakitsune.
Later in the manga Watanuki notices the change in her voice, identifying it as more grown up. The Ame-warashi explained that this was the effect of the Zashiki-warashi's feelings for Watanuki, causing her to change and grow-up.
She is based on a spirit from Japanese folklore, the zashiki-warashi, accounting for her childlike naiveté and innocence.
The Ame-warashi is also known as a rain sprite or rain maker. She is a proud, high ranking spirit/sprite who has a very hostile attitude toward humans due to the fact that "humans have no care or regard whatsoever with living nature". She comes to Yūko to ask for the service of Watanuki to save someone at the park with park containing ajisai, or hydrangeas. In the anime, she is portrayed as a good, protective friend of the Zashiki-warashi.
She also has the ability to detect differences in characters and likely special abilities, as implied by her ill feeling of Himawari and the "refreshing" or "pure" scent she detects emitting from Dōmeki. She appears again with the Zashiki-warashi to see Watanuki and remains hostile towards him, though she also makes a cryptic remark as to Watanuki's true nature.
Her hair in the anime is red, however there are colored Clamp pieces that show her hair as blue. The concept of an Ame-warashi is based on a spirit from Japanese folklore.
The Kudakitsune, a pipe fox spirit, later re-named Mugetsu by Watanuki, was the payment given to Yūko by the Ame-warashi for Watanuki's help. It became attached to him right away and often accompanies him on trips of the more dangerous type, but will go with him anywhere if he lets it. It used to annoy him at first, but Watanuki has warmed up to the wormy furball. The Kudakitsune has two forms: a snake-like mini version, and the traditional Kyūbi when it reveals its true power. It is able to create gigantic fireballs, also known as Foxfire or streams of fire, and can detect evil beings like the wing parasites and the spider lady in volume 8. It takes a large amount of pure spiritual energy to revert the traditional kyūbi back into its portable snake-like form. When that happens, Watanuki is forced to take the Kudakitsune to Zashiki's mountain. Watanuki later names it Mugetsu (無月, lit. moonless or no moon) for the way its eyes seem to disappear when it transforms, because the Kudakitsune became upset that Watanuki named Himawari's bird but left the Kudakitsune unnamed.
In the anime the Kudakitsune's favorite treat is deep-fried tofu, but too much of it is bad for him. If he eats too much in his larger form the markings on his head will disappear one by one and soon he would not be able to return to his pipe form, as Yūko informed Watanuki.
A cute yellow bird hatched from an egg Yūko gave Watanuki while he was recovering from a near fatal injury as payment for retrieving water from a well. According to Yūko, the bird was born for the sake of Himawari; after Watanuki brings the bird to Himawari, it becomes very attached to her. Watanuki, at her request, names it Tanpopo (タンポポ, lit. dandelion). This is possibly the same egg that Sakura got from their visit to Kamui's world in Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle.
He was introduced in the last chapter of volume 10 of the manga. His name was given to him by Watanuki in volume 11.
Tanpopo is unaffected by Himawari's unlucky jinx and thus can keep her in good company.
Maru and Moro (short for Maru-dashi and Moro-dashi) are the two girls that led Watanuki into Yūko's shop. It isn't stated whether they were created by Yūko, Clow Reed, the both of them, or someone else entirely, but since they have no souls and cannot leave the shop, it can be assumed that they were created there.
Possible Powers-In chapter 126, Yūko explained why Maru and Moro are required to stay inside the shop. The shop itself is not seen by anyone unless they are fated to do business with Yūko. Maro and Moro's concentration is what is keeping the shop in existence. As a side-effect, they have long deep bouts of sleep.
They help out around the shop, but mostly act as the cheering squad. They almost always speak in unison, or close to it. Watanuki seems to get along with them most of the time, at least when they are not dragging him into one of Yūko's plans.
It is noted that Maru and Moro, when translated, mean "Flashing" and "Streaking" respectively, something that is quite possibly a pun on the XXX part of ×××HOLiC. Even though ××× is intended to act as a variable in the title it is almost synonymous with pornography, which given the target seinen audience is probably intended.
There are very few instances that Maru and Moro are in serious scenes. In the parasite angel chapter, Watanuki invited them to join him in the festival, however Maru and Moro said in unison (in a rather dazed look) "those without souls cannot leave this place... for their bodies will disintegrate."
They also show some concern not only for Yūko but also for Watanuki despite the fact they always annoy him. In volume 6 of the manga, when Watanuki came home from visiting the "lady in the park", Maru and Moro immediately sensed that something was wrong with Watanuki. When Watanuki finally collapsed, the two dragged Watanuki as far as the store's gates, saying "This is as far as we can go" before tossing Watanuki out to a waiting Dōmeki. In the anime, Watanuki also shows signs of slight affection to the two; in episode 18, when Dōmeki read a letter to Watanuki written by Mokona and Maru/Moro, Watanuki was somewhat pleased to see that they thought of him.
While the white Mokona left to travel the worlds with the Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle group, the black Mokona stayed behind to act as a liaison between the Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle group and Yūko. Mokona likes to be around Yūko, drink with her and eat the meals that Watanuki has made, and mostly chirps in with Maru and Moro. Yūko has mentioned that the Mokonas were created a very long time ago by herself and Clow Reed, in preparation for a future event–the arrival and subsequent journey of the Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle group–as well as to stop Fei Wong Reed's plans and save "two futures".
Note: In the ×××HOLiC anime, the Tsubasa: Reservoir Chroniclecrossover, does not occur (however we do not know if it will occur later in the anime), since Mokona is not brought by Watanuki to have the Mokona assist the Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle group; rather, Mokona is found by Watanuki when asked by Yūko to bring one of her "drinking buddies" for a party.
A young girl about age 11 with exceptional exorcism powers. Because of this she has been featured on Ghost and Supernatural TV shows. She is introduced volume 9 in the manga. Her mother at first seems to be very overprotective of her, but Kohane feels that she and her mother do not have a strong bond with each other, since her mother is more focused in advertising her business of exorcising spirits.
She mentioned to Watanuki that she hasn't been called by her first name as far as she can remember, marking Watanuki calling her "Kohane-chan" as a first. Her first name in kanji is translated as "small feathers" and her last name literally means May 7th.
She and Watanuki seem to share a bond, likely because, due to their spiritual abilities, they have both been exposed to the occult at a young age.
Dōmeki's grandfather and the Shinto priest of the shrine where Dōmeki now lives. He died sometime ago but he is always mentioned in Dōmeki's stories. The reason for his death hasn't been mentioned yet. Haruka looks strikingly like Dōmeki, but he has a somewhat more cheerful and outgoing personality than his grandson. He seems to have taught Shizuka a lot of stories regarding folklore, mythology and shrine practices. He has also an immense library that now Dōmeki uses and keeps.
As the priest of that shrine, he had the power to exorcise spirits and see them as well, an ability passed on to Dōmeki (although Dōmeki could not see spirits). His style of exorcising spirits, like Dōmeki, was shooting a bow and arrow made of chi. When Yūko saw the wards Haruka had made for the library she indicated that they were of high quality, attesting to his skill and knowledge of the occult.
Volume 9 of the manga marks his first appearance: in a dream provided by the Yumenai's balloons, which were originally Haruka's. He acts like a guide to Watanuki as Yūko does, asking him why he really likes Himawari and pointing out that since he met Himawari, things have gone bad for him, as well as asking why he found Shizuka Dōmeki irritating. When Watanuki fell from the school window, he entered a dream-like state in his near death condition. It was Haruka who crossed into this dream-like state and brought Watanuki back to consciousness.
Watanuki continues to see Haruka in his dreams. In chapter 127 Haruka has been shown to have the power to not only enter Watanuki's dreams, but can also bring him "across" to another person's dream. His statement that this is because all dreams are "connected" and thus it is possible to travel between dreams, is an idea that has been shown in other CLAMP works, notably in X. Haruka's ability to "cross" dreams and perhaps using them to sense certain knowledge is one that is characteristic of the yumemi from X.
Syaoran and the Tsubasa characters
Since ×××HOLiC and Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle's plots are intertwined, the characters sometimes appear in each other's series, acting out the same event only from different perspectives. Watanuki has only met the group once, but said he felt as if he knew Syaoran for a very long time. He is sometimes around when Yūko talks to them through Mokona, but for the most part they do not communicate much. This relationship isn't closely stated or revealed in the anime (this is largely due to their connection with Mokona which has been removed), although in episode 8, Morodashi can be seen using Fay's staff as a carpet beater.
The real Syaoran of Tsubasa visits Yūko's shop in volume 9 of the manga. Yūko grants him the wish to go where his other eye is. In chapter 119 of the manga, it is revealed that he also paid a part of the price of saving Watanuki's life. Yūko was wearing the same clothes she wore when the Tsubasa cast visited her first.
Trivia
Watanuki's birthday is on April 1, the same day as Sakura Kinomoto of Card Captor Sakura. The date is also Syaoran and Sakura's birthday in Tsubasa as well as the date the group CLAMP formed. This date is also the false birthday of Sakurazuka Seishirou from Tokyo Babylon. As a pun, Watanuki literally means "April 1". A point of interest is that "Kimihiro" means "to search for someone".
Mokona is the penname of one of the Clamp members.
In the ×××HOLiC Movie, we learn that Dōmeki likes to collect stamps while Watanuki collects grocery stamps/coupons (although it seems they were making that up).
The name of the hamburger shop Duklyon is another crossover Clamp series seen when Dōmeki and Watanuki go out to eat. However, the characters from Duklyon aren't present in either the manga or anime, only the shop's logo is shown. The shop also appeared in Chobits and Card Captor Sakura. Duklyon's original establishment is a cafe bakery in the Duklyon manga and original crossover with Clamp School Detectives.
In Volume 1 and Episode 6, Yūko bought a red bat and named it after Goemon's sword from Lupin III. After slicing the woman's laptop, Yūko quotes Goemon's famous line: "Once again I have cut a worthless object."
The hair pins Watanuki buys for Zashiki-warashi for a White Day present are of the brand Piffle, the same name as Tomoyo's company in Piffle World in Tsubasa, and also a popular clothing store from Legal Drug, the Angelic Layer company in Angelic Layer and a café in Suki.
The apartment complex that Watanuki lives in is the same building that Hideki Motosuwa of Chobits rented, managed by Chitose Hibiya. Is also the same apartment that Hanato Kobato stayed in Kobato. A clearer picture of his apartment is at Volume 8.
In episode 19, when Yūko invited the Ame-warashi and Zashiki-warashi to a snowman competition, the Ame-warashi kept, at the beginning, a civil distance from Himawari. However, at the end, they all sat together inside a makeshift igloo. This scene is specific to the anime; the manga chapter the scene is based on featured only Yūko, Watanuki, Dōmeki, and their snow creations.
Anime
Both the movie and the anime series are directed by Tsutomu Mizushima. Ageha Ohkawa, Clamp's director and main scriptwriter, is executive producing the TV series. The anime is not as complete as the manga is largely due to the Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle and Card Captor Sakura references being removed (though Sakura's staff from CCS and Fay's staff from Tsubasa are seen in episode 18 when Watanuki is in the storage room, and Fay's staff is also seen in Episode 8 being used as a rug beater). At some points the anime is warmer and more lighthearted than the manga. For example the lying woman in the second episode is not killed, instead she is hospitalized and comforted by Watanuki.
Yūko gets a request from a woman to investigate a mansion which belongs to her but by some reason she can't get inside anymore. Taking Watanuki and Dōmeki with her, she discovers an auction being held there to fanatical collectors but the auctioneer doesn't make an appearance.
One after another, each collector disappears and a number of other strange occurrences happen during the night. The real reasons behind the auction must be discovered in order for Yūko and company to get to the bottom of this mystery. In the movie the characters know about the characters of Tsubasa, and Syaoran and Sakura appear briefly at the end to ask Yūko for help.
The movie had been officially selected for the prestigious Annecy International Animated Film Festival 2006 in the Feature Films category with other top four nominees: Asterix and the Vikings, Gin-iro No Kami No Agito, Wallace and Gromit, and Renaissance. It did not win in its category.
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