xxxHolic
Ep.21 "Nailclippers"
We start off this episode with Watanuki leaving Yuko's with the promise of having the next day off. Yuko, Mokona, Moro and Maru are seeing him off and all are cheerful until Yuko interrupts Watanuki tying his shoes by commenting on his shoes. Seems that they're a new pair. She asks him when he wore them first. He answers that he wore them last night.
Maro and Moro start to freak out and Yuko tells him that it's bad luck to wear new shoes for the first time at night. Watanuki tells her that he doesn't believe in such superstitions and turns to leave but trips on his untied shoelace and falls flat on his face.
Yuko asks him is he believes her now.
The next day, Watanuki spends the whole time in his apartment reading some manga that Yuko had leant him. He looks like he appreciates this gesture from Yuko and enjoys reading the manga to the max.
Watanuki is still reading the manga as night falls when he begins to feel hungry. But as he reaches for his chips, he's dumbfounded to find that Domeki had snuck in and was reading manga right in the corner of his room! Domeki remarks on how he could hear Watanuki laughing from outside then gives him some beef that a visitor to his shrine had given him and requests that he cook them both dinner.
Almost immediately they begin arguing over how to cook the beef. Watanuki wants Kanto style where you boil it in water and then add the vegetables but Domeki wants Kansai style (my favourite) where you cook the beef on the heat and add the salts and soy sauce afterwards. Domeki, tired of arguing throws his beef in the pan. Watanuki freaks and pours his water in, determined to have Kanto style. Domeki retaliates by throwing all the vegetables in at once and then pouring in the soy sauce straight out of the bottle. Needless to say, Watanuki's expression is priceless.
As they finish their meal, Watanuki lies down for a rest but Domeki warns him that sleeping after a meal will turn you into a cow. Watanuki finds this ridiculous and asks Domeki is he had ever seen someone who had been turned into a cow. Domeki replies by asking how he would know if a cow had previously been a human.
That night Watanuki has a nightmare wherein he turns into a cow. When he wakes up he's sweating heavily and feels as if he's pulling a massive weight behind him.
On his way to Yuko's he meets Himawari who asks if he's feeling alright. He says he's fine but then becomes fixated on Himawari's red ribbons that he's wearing.
Himawari tells him how a tea leaf was floating vertically in her tea this morning and that means that she'll have good luck today. Watanuki doesn't listen but instead begins to scrape his feet on the ground and charge at Himawari!
Luckily for her she sees a friend and runs over to say hi, completely oblivious to Watanuki having almost attacked her!
He arrives at Yuko's feeling like Hell, but she quickly gets him slaving away making dinner for herself and Mokona. During dinner, Yuko mentions several Japanese superstitions one of which is to never clip your nails after dark or you wont be with your parents when they die. Watanuki laughs these off as simple urban legends explaining away the nail clipping one by saying that when that rumour started it was dark due to the prices of lamps and it would have been dangerous to cut one's nails. Yuko asks him about the parents part of the myth then. Watanuki has no answer but still doesn't believe it.
Suspiciously, Yuko asks Watanuki to stay the night so he can make pancakes for everyone in the morning. Later that night in one of the bedrooms, Watanuki, thinking about nails notices how long his are and finds a pair of nailclippers strangely on display in the room and begins to cut his nails. Unknown to him as he cuts, a giant shadow begins to grow behind him. The shadow begins to grow until a giant pair of clippers descends out of it and tries to slice Watanuki in half! Yuko enters, throws a kimono on top of him and lunges at the blades with a flower which is cut instead of Watanuki. The giant clippers disappear and the shadows fade away.
Yuko explains that most of the superstitions that had supernatural origins has been given more grounded explanations so that people would believe them and be wary. Watanuki says that he used to believe in things like this, but when his parents died things like superstitions seemed irrelevant.
Yuko tells him that he can't lead his life by one rule as noone has the ability to change certain things no matter how hard they refuse to see the importance of them.
The next morning, while serving everyone pancakes, Watanuki notices a tea leaf floating vertically in his tea. He smiles about the thought of getting good luck. Yuko then sends him into the storeroom to get some alchohol. While out the back he finds the final volume of the manga he was reading and was looking for. He giggles a bit and tells himself that as long as it's fun, he guesses it's okay to believe in some things.
Today's Crossovers
No crossovers today.
My Original Impression
Saturday, September 09, 2006
This was a rather interesting insight into several Japanese wife's tales covering untied shoes, clipping nails at night (this was taken from the manga) and cooking beef incorrectly. Not a bad episode but not great either. I will say though that I lost a bit of respect for Watanuki after seeing his homelife this week. Seriously I love it when he's at Yuko's and the school scenes are interesting but if all he does at home is cook and read manga and laugh about how interesting the manga is (even after time passes) I would rather we not see any more of Watanuki's apartment for a while. Unless of course his neighbours, Kobato and Chitose drop by. That would be worth seeing.
Next week we see the friendly woman spirit arc.
<-- Episode 20 -- >xxxHolic Season 1 Main< -- Episode 22 -->
|
