Season 1 Opening
19 Years Old
The first opening for the xxxHolic anime series simply blew everyone away. Not only was the song, 19 Years Old (or "19 Sai" in the original Japanese) an instant hit among fans but the creative direction taken with the visuals that accompanied the song let everyone know that when watching xxxHolic that they would be in for a treat.
The visuals reflect the feel of the manga. Notice that not one character is viewed from a regular angle. Everyone is viewed off centre (Domeki & Himawari), from an unusual perspective (the first Watanuki) or through some kind of distortion (monkey paw) creating a rather quirky feeling in the viewer while at the same time showing the viewer characters and stories that we're familiar with.
In fact, these opening credits appear to show aspects from almost every xxxHolic manga arc in print as of the series première. Most of these shots only appear for half a second though so I have taken screenshots of every one and as the series progresses and story arcs are covered I will link the respective picture to it's episode to help grow a greater understanding of this great clip and the series as a whole.
19 Years Old was sung by Suga Shikao who previously sung Sanagi for the xxxHolic movie the previous year (2005).
Suga Shikao seems to be the exception when it comes to the average Japanese singer where as he not just sings but also writes the majority of his music.
What surprised me was that when I bought his xxxHolic related singles I found myself enjoying the extra tracks on the cds as much as the primary ones! He has such an interesting voice that I hope there's a second season of xxxHolic just so we can hear another opening theme from him!
Three different versions were released of 19 Years Old. All at the same time with varying qualities. There was the Normal Edition CD which has the Suga black and white cover and the 19 Years Old single plus a karaoke version of the same song and a remix of Sanagi which was the theme for the xxxHolic movie. Next up is the Limited Edition CD which is the same as the Normal one but has exclusive xxxHolic cover art made by CLAMP for the release. Numbers, naturally are limited.
The third release was a Limited Edition CD/DVD Pack which came with the Normal Edition as well as a DVD of Suga in concert.
If you're looking to grab yourself some of these to complete your CLAMP collection, I recommend YesAsia. They're fast, established and offer free international shipping to top it off!
God, I love this opening! Definitely one of the best CLAMP openings to date!
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