xxxHolic Kei
Ep.2 "Left Eye"
It's night time and Watanuki has gone to help Domeki research in his library to find a way to get him back his eye. He brings several boxes of food for him to eat. Domeki is cocky as usual and doesn't really say thank you which sends Watanuki into a fit.
Afterwards they both begin looking through the books. Watanuki picks up a box and accidentally knocks a panel in the wall out. Before Watanuki can fix it, Domeki sees a book that was being stored in the wall and takes it out. Once opened they're both surprised to see that the book contains the solution to getting Watanuki's eye back!
Unfortunately though the book Himawari lent them opens and out of it bursts a large supernatural snake / worm creature! It dives into the book they just found and begins to eat it's words! Domeki moves to attack it but it rears up at him. Watanuki throws one of his bento boxes on top of the book to contain it and wonders if they should call Yuko to help them.
No sooner does Watanuki say this when Yuko and Mokona appear. Yuko asks Domeki for the four wards that his grandfather had placed around the room to assist in getting rid of the creature. She promises to make him new ones afterwards. Domeki allows this and Mokona sucks them all inside itself and immediately spits them out again.
Yuko shows these wards to the creature which jumps on each of them and eats the contents of each. Once finished it begins to shake and unravels into a ball of thread. Yukoe tells everyone that the creature was a "book worm" and that it thrives on "important words" such as those written by Domeki's grandfather.
Yuko then holds up the book from which the book worm came from and asks who it belonged to. Watanuki begins to freak out over it's contents that have also been destroyed and tells Yuko it was Himawari's. Yuko smiles knowingly hearing this.
The next day at school, Watanuki gives Himawari her book back and appologises over it's messed up contents and tells her that Domeki promised that he would buy her a new one. Watanuki then reflects on why Yuko would have asked who the book belongs to and then remembers that she had told him that Himawari won't bring her all the good luck he thinks she will.
Outside the window a goldfish floats.
On his way home from school, Watanuki begins to see visions from his right side. Suddenly he sees a floating goldfish with his left and snaps back to normal. As he looks up he sees a girl jump over him and eat the goldfish. She then sees Watanuki and tells him that she recognises him and that there's a battle now for ownership of his right eye. She says that she wants it but that "she" wouldn't like that. She then jumps away after another goldfish.
Moments later at the shop, Watanuki relays this information to Yuko who tells him that if they wait any longer they will not be able to get his eye back.
The next day Watanuki is concerned over what he had heard the day before. When Himawari offers to walk home with him though he cheers up. As they part ways on their way home Watanuki once again gets a vision on his right side, this time of a familiar blue haired girl. He's snapped back to normal though by a car crash a few metres ahead of him.
Before he can react he's hit over the head by a paper fan and turns to see all of the Zashiki Warashi's protectors hovering over him. They tell him that they need to see Yuko right away.
Once at Yuko's, they all tell her that the Zashiki Warashi has been kidnapped and that they are unable to rescue her due to the barrier surrounding the area. They then offer Yuko their sacred fan in exchange for her removing the barrier. Yuko accepts the fan but tells them that the fan is too valuable a trade for simply removing a barrier and that she will offer Watanuki's assistance in rescuing the Zashiki Warashi.
Watanuki accepts this and offers to help them. Yuko then give him the pipe fox spirit and with a wave of the fan, all of them are teleported away.
Mokona turns to Yuko and asks if he shouldn't have gone with them. Yuko says that this is something that Watanuki needs to do by himself.
Today's Crossovers
No crossovers today!
My Original Impression
Friday, April 11, 2008
xxxHolic Kei is shaping up to be a very cool series mostly due to the more exciting story arcs and character developments but also due to the obvious rise on production values since xxxHolic's first season.
Last week I thought the series' animation quality could decrease after the first episode (which is usually the case in most anime series) but this second episode didn't disappoint at all! In fact it really impressed in several scenes with the attention given to the smallest of details such as Domeki chewing his food to the smooth movements of the Cat Spirit (also loved her character design!).
The story is moving at a very good pace and while the cliffhanger at the end of the episode was the third such one in the series so far it was definitely the most dramatic with Watanuki being sent on a very dangerous rescue mission.
xxxHolic hasn't really done Action / Adventure before so I look forward to seeing how Production I.G. handles the big scene with the Spider Lady next week.
One disappointment I had with this episode was the fact that while Production I.G. made both xxxHolic Kei and Tsubasa Tokyo Revelations they still didn't link the two and continued to do the indirect crossovering that was seen in the first season where Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles would show the crossover and xxxHolic would complement it with background info on traded items and same character designs but not actually show the same scene.
Fans who have seen the first Tsubasa Tokyo Revelations OAV, The Magician's Message will notice that the clothes Yuko is wearing when she realises the other Syaoran is beginning to awaken are the same ones she's wearing here which places that part of Tokyo Revelations somewhere in the second half of this episode.
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