Posted by OP Sequence
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OP: 「19才」 (19 sai) by スガシカオ (Suga Shikao)
Watch the OP! Mirror 1 Mirror 2
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Summary:
A boy named Kimihiro Watanuki is running through the streets with an evil spirit bearing down on him. It’s only when he touches a nearby fence that the spirit disappears. This fence surrounds a mysterious house that Watanuki then gets drawn into. Two children welcome him at the door and take him inside. A voice tells him that it’s hitsuzen (a foreordained event/inevitable) that he was brought here. He’s led to a room housing a woman with long dark hair lounging on a chair, and he explains how he ended up here. She says that it the wall he touched is a barrier. Watanuki tries to leave, but the woman gets him to give her what’s in his pocket – a pocket-watch. When she asks, he tells her that his name is Watanuki, and she immediately knows that it’s written like “April 1st.” As it turns out, his birthday is on that exact day. The woman introduces herself as Ichihara Yuuko but then tells him that it’s a fake name. The two young ones are Marudashi and Morodashi (Maru and Moro for short).
Watanuki tries to leave again, but Yuuko re-emphasizes that nothing is coincidence, everything is hitsuzen. To prove it to him, she places a special board into a tub of water and is then able to say things about his life, such as how he doesn’t live where he was born and how he can see supernatural things. His blood attracts these supernaturals. But as compensation for telling him that, she takes the pocket-watch. Yuuko explains that compensation is necessary, but not too much or too little, only an equal amount. Otherwise there would be injury. She then tells Watanuki that this is a store, one that makes wishes come true. She convinces him to tell her his wish: to be rid of the strange things that follow him around. Yuuko says that she’ll fulfill his wish, but again she wants payment, this time in the form of him working at this store.
One of his first tasks is to go shopping with the black manjuu that is Mokona. While he and Mokona are picking up food, Watanuki notices that there is a spirit nearby. It starts to follow him, but Watanuki’s attention is then turned to the group of girls walking in front of him. One of them is telling her friends about how she’s being bothered by something supernatural. Watanuki can see spirits and notices that the girl has nothing around her. He intrudes on the conversation and tells her that she’ll be ok because she’s not possessed by anything bad. The girl snaps back at anger, saying that he and other normal people don’t understand. Watanuki then gets distracted by Mokona again and accidentally bumps into the girl. In doing so, the spirit that was around him now attaches to the girl. Yuuko later explains that it traveled to the girl because she wished it. A person can wish for anything, whether it be happiness or unhappiness. As he’s leaving, she reminds him that there’s significance in their meeting. Moro and Maru are worried, but Yuuko says that it’ll be ok because the connections that link them have not disappeared. And sure enough, Watanuki shows up again, saying to himself that he’s only here because he has to pay her.
ED Sequence
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ED: 「Reason」 by Fonogenico
Watch the ED! Mirror 1 Mirror 2
It’s been a while since I heard a Suga Shikao song; in fact the last one was his theme for the xxxHOLiC movie. I actually really like this song, though I can’t pinpoint exactly why. It’s got an interesting beat to it. The ending is just pure Mokona goodness.
I thought the first episode was ok, but nothing particularly special. The character designs seem a bit more pronounced (in terms of long legs and slender bodies) on screen than on paper, but I don’t count that against the series. The first half of this episode follow the manga pretty closely, but the latter half is more or less original in order to emphasize the wish theme. I found these first few exposition parts a bit slow (same with the manga), but I expect it to get more interesting as the story progresses and more characters are introduced. Next week should pick back up with the manga’s storyline of the woman and her ring.
As a side note, I don’t think that they’re going to be showing the Tsubasa crossover since the black Mokona was introduced here without the white one. Mokona itself is still voiced by Kikuchi Mika (who also voiced Arika on Mai-Otome) and remains as adorable as ever.
I think Suga Shikao songs are generally good. I really liked the ones from honey and clover and xxxHolic movie.
speaking of songs, are you going to post the release dates for this season’s openings and endings Omni?
Yea, sometime after the first week rush. I noticed a lot of singles are coming out on April 26th, though.
I dunno, I preferred the animated versions of them in Tsubasa Chronciles
Is Mika Kikuchi doing the voice for black Mokona in xxxHOLic ?
decent just decent
Guido, of course she is 🙂
Mokona? I thought it was Modoki. =\
hmm… I just finished watching it. I’m kind of dissapointed. I was expecting the xxxHolic movie quality…especially considering the promo provided beforehand, I thought the animation quality would be superb. sigh…
They are both called Mokona Modoki. The white one, specifically, is Soel, and the black one is Larg.
it has comedy!!.. thats wierd..
I don’t know if I can into this, I just can’t get over the art style. They look like mutants!!!
lol they look like bodies look like stickman
I kinda like the series a lot better than a lot of the new spring animes. A slightly biased view since I do adore these supernatural themes and in fact, I prefer the xxxHOLiC manga to the Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle manga.
I like the OP, which is a rarity since I am not too interested in J-pop or anime music.
The character design, style and atmosphere of the anime pretty much stay true to the original manga. The short original story in teh second half of this episode is a little bit boring and I am more looking forward to the next episode featuring the female liar story from the manga.
To muhootsaver: well, not trying to be argumentative but maybe it is unrealistic to wish for movie quality in a TV anime, afterall, there is big difference in budget and production value. But having said that, I also wish that xxxHOLiC TV can look as good as the movie. Unfortunately, money is a huge factor and TV anime that looks as good as movie is a rarity… right off hand I can only think of AIR 😀
Question: does anyone know if there is a HDTV version of xxxHOLiC? The raws I found are all in 4:3 TV format ;–;
Marudashi and Morodashi.
Their names both mean ~ “buck-naked”.
Definitely worth watching. I was rather apprehensive, on account of the only CLAMP anime I’ve ever seen was Card Captor Sakura (which was too childish for me), but this one looks promising. Sure those long lengs and thin frames overall… aren’t really very fetching, but like you sai, we shouldn’t hold that against the series.
> Question: does anyone know if there is a HDTV version of xxxHOLiC? The raws I found are all in 4:3 TV format ;–;
The series airs in 16:9 3 weeks later. On Bs-i? (Not sure, but seems to be common for TBS, see Black Cat and Rozen Maiden)
Looking forward to the animated version of xxxHOLiC, hopefully it can live up to the manga if not better 😀
Pretty interesting OP (for some strange reason it makes me remember ghost busters, I wonder why… so weird, lol).
Hopefully the Anime writers will talk to Clamp when they d ther filler eps to make sure the anime isn’t going to interferred with the manga storyline. There some hints in the vol8 of darker things to come. And earlier vols were setups for it.
Omi, your poll is missing another. i want Mcha Harem anime 😀
Suga Shikao also sung the OP for Boogiepop wa Warawanai 🙂
Gotta love Mokona
first time to see a series released after its movie…
omg the guy is fawking tall LOL =.= ugly
I love xxxholic and can’t wait to cosplay as moro! But the thing is Im not really a fan of tsubasa cronicle to boring that one this version has a flair
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