'xxxHolic' #4 Review

Plot Summary

This volume opens with Watanuki making valentines day chocolate. He makes some extra special for Himawari but she doesn't come to school on valentines day and Domeki eats them (lawls). A mysterious girl appears and takes the chocolate right back out of Domeki's stomach and he goes into a sleep. The girl flies away and Watanuki is forced to ride a massive death bird into the sky (complete with a Mokona pilot) to get the chocolate back and save Domeki. Later, two twin girls are introduced (their names were never stated which I thought was odd) and it's revealed they have a deeper connection. The words they speak can affect one another, such as one girl saying not to drop a plate of food and by doing so causes the other to drop it. The younger sister is often bound by her own words of discouragement. Watanuki tries his best to help her out and have her start saying 'I can' rather than 'I can't'. The final chapter involves flashbacks of Watanuki with an old friend of his. It's revealed that his friend was actually a spirit and had to leave the world and Watanuki's birthday. In current time, Watanuki starts to see random arms appearing in certain places, such as in a tree and coming out of the ground. He sees a group of kids playing near the arm. One of the children notices the arm sticking out of the ground but none of the other kids see it. This reminds Watanuki that fewer people have the ability to see spirits. Since he thinks of this ability as more of a curse, he decides this a good thing and walks away from the severed arm.


After all this reading of xxxHolic, I've come to the conclusion that Del Ray, the publisher, really kicks ass! In the back of every volume, they'll have lots of extras explaining things that people might not understand. For example, references to other Clamp series, random Japanese words that people might not understand, etc. I really like how they take the time to explain things that are strictly for Japanese audiences, rather than simply changing them in the translation to something more familiar for english readers. In situation is Yuko states that Watanuki has come crying to her, just like Nobita! In the back of the volume, they explain that Nobita is from the series Doraemon. They even take the time to explain all about the plot of Doraemon and how Nobita is a crybaby. Pretty awesome. Doraemon kicks ass.

From all the Tsubasa crossovers in the series, I definitely have to read that sometime! I have the first volume but that's as far as I've read, sadly =[
I'm also planning to start reading Clamp's X very soon! GAH, SO MUCH CLAMP!! I promise this entire blog won't be pure Clamp.

xxxHolic #4: 7.3/10

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