xxxHolic
Ep.9 "Severed Finger"
This is a rather effective entry into non-manga inspired episodes for the xxxHolic anime. Overall it features an entirely unique mystery of the day kind of of story yet still draws on continuity by further explaining the mythology behind the pinky finger as well as introducing the fan favorite character, the pipe fox spirit!
We start at school with Himawari approaching Watanuki about soulmates and a theory about how they are connected via a red thread which is tied onto each other's pinky finger.
Watanuki interprets this as an indirect confession of her love for him and goes abit crazy but his moment is ruined with the arrival of Domeki who explains to Himawari that a vein in the pinky finger is directly connected to the heart and that in the Edo period there was a tradition where a woman would cut off her pinky finger as a sign of love to her man. This is why the Japanese word for "pinky swear" means "severed finger". Interesting!
On his way to Yuko's after school, Watanuki sees a fight between a man and a woman. He approaches them and they both part ways. Watanuki is at a loss as to what that was all about.
At Yuko's, he and Mokona are hanging out the bedsheets to dry when they notice Yuko has passed out from dehydration on the verandah! He quickly helps her inside and gives her a bottle of water to drink which revives her quickly... however something's not right. He picks up the bottle of water, sniffs it and realises it isn't water at all, but shochu!!! Mokona starts laughing and takes all the credit for the joke. Yuko doesn't mind however as it did the trick and she's now feeling A.O.K!
While they were all together Yuko is reminded of something she was to give Watanuki, a metal pipe. As she's holding it out to him, a bit of fur pops out of the end which reminds Watanuki of a caligraphy brush. Yuko corrects him and explains that it's a pipe fox spirit as the entire little critter floats out of the pipe and immediately takes a liking to him and wraps itself around his neck.
It appears that the pipe fox spirit (I love this guy!) was the payment from the rain spirit in Episode 7 and it contains enormous spiritual energies.
They're interupted by a customer who's the same woman Watanuki saw earlier! Seems she walked into the shop by accident but Yuko claims it's Hitsuzen and asks her what her wish is. The woman claims she doesn't have one so Yuko asks her about her "bad habit". Suddenly black smoke starts to pour from her pinky finger which makes Watanuki recall the woman with a similar symptom who visited the store in Episode 2. Yuko gives her a ring and the woman leaves. Watanuki, afraid that she'll end up like the first lady, follows her. The pipe fox spirit goes with him.
They finally catch up to the woman who was meeting her boyfriend. Watanuki decides to follow them some more but suddenly the pipe fox spirit yanks him back off of the road! He was about to be hit by a car and the pipe fox spirit saved him! As he regains his composure, he notices that the woman and the man have made a pinky promise to stay together forever. Watanuki hears a child's voice chanting about the promise being made and if it's broken, harm will come to the person who made it.
After school, Watanuki and Domeki (who has just been introduced to the pipe fox spirit) spot the woman again. This time she's having coffee with another man who appears to be her boyfriend. Again she makes a pinky promise, this time to meet up on Tuesday in China Town (Yokohama) and the child's voice is heard again.
Watanuki and Domeki follow the woman who now goes to a theme park to meet the first man. They both notice how the woman's personality changes depending on the man she's with and are confused as to which personality is the real one. Eventually a novelty ride catches the boyfriend's attention. One that will test the red threads of destiny that connect your soulmate. The woman hesitates but the man is very excited as he has made the pinky promise with her. The rides ends up being a gilotene where a couple places their pinky fingers at the bottom. If your fingers don't get cut, it means that your love is pure. As they place their fingers in place, the huge black smoke errupts from her finger again and wraps itself around the top of the gilotene obviously jinxing it to really cut their fingers! Watanuki panics and sceams for it to stop. The pipe fox spirit reacts and flies at the couple and explodes into a bright light which purifies the ride and the woman's finger. She's saved.
...or is she? Suddenly all of the men she has been lying to appear for various reasons, all very shocked and angry that they had been lied too. Busted!
Later, Yuko explains that the red threads of destiny that she had tied were cut instead of her finger thanks to the pipe fox spirit. Watanuki raves about how his destiny to be with Himawari. Yuko, seeing no future there claims that his future lies with Domeki, then quickly rubs it off as a joke... or is it?
Today's Crossovers
None today!
My Original Impression
Saturday, June 03, 2006
While this episode featured several bits from the manga such as Yuko's heatstroke and the introduction of the pipefox spirit (my personal fave character!) this episode was pretty much entirely unique to the anime and offers some more elaboration on the function of the pinky finger mentioned in Episode 2.
The story here focuses on a woman who has been dating several men at the same time and taking on different personas when dating each one. I found this ep very fresh as I had no idea what was going to happen! The story wasn't groundbreaking though it was pretty good for one that wasn't taken from the manga series.
I was just so suprised to see the pipefox spirit! Wasn't expecting this little guy to appear at all in this episode!
p.s. Mokona struck me as being particularily masculine this week with his hand movements when asking for sake from Watanuki. The voice actress seems to really be getting the nuances of Soel and Larg down.
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