xxxHolic Kei
Ep.4 "Yumekai"
It's a dark night and Watanuki is walking by himself. Suddenly he senses something behind him. Something big and dark. He begins to run faster and faster but he can't escape it. As he trips and falls over he turns around to see a giant Mokona holding lots of eggplant!
He then wakes up.
At school the next day he tells Himawari about his dream and she says that it must have been good luck if it was about eggplant as the Japanese legend is that  if the first dream of the New Year features eggplant, and eagle or Mount Fuji you will have good luck. Watanuki then reminds her that it wasn't his first dream of the year though.
Himawari then begins to tell Watanuki about the dream she had. Apparently is was really scary and that something was chasing her and almost caught her. Before she can finish her story though she remembers that she's late for something and has to go. Watanuki gives her some cakes he made and offhandedly says that she can consider them payment for hearing about her dream.
 As their hands touch, Watanuki senses something strange.
Later that afternoon, Watanuki and Domeki are folding letters for Himawari who had something else to do. Watanuki while angry to be working with Domeki considers it good fortune because if he didn't she would be working alone with Domeki.
Domeki begins to tell Watanuki about the dream he had about his grandfather last night when suddenly Watanuki see Domeki eating one of the cakes he made Himawari. He tells him that she gave him some as a present. Watanuki becomes distraught.
On his way home that night, Watanuki gets the feeling that something is following him. He turns around and sees a giant spirit behind him! He begins to run away but is caught and dragged into the spirit itself. Luckily Domeki appears to ride up on a horse and shoots the spirit with an arrow. The spirit disapears as does Domeki and the horse.
 Watanuki wakes up but in the middle of the street where the spirit had been. Yuko appears and tells him it was a dream but one that had become reality. Watanuki then realises that it wasn't Domeki on the horse but his grandfather and that somehow both Himawari and Domeki's dreams had attached themselves to him.
Yuko explains that she had bought their dreams from them with his cakes. They then see the arrow Domeki's grandfather had shot. Yuko picks it up and suggests that they sell it.
Yuko then uses the arrow to find the Yumekai (Dream Seller). The arrow begins to glow and flies through the air towards a post. Yuko explains they have to walk between it and the fence. They both do so and enter a sort of parallel pocket dimension. Once there they both see the Yumekai floating in the sky. They call him down and Yuko begins to bargain with him for some dreams he has which are held within balloons.
They eventually negotiate to trade the arrow for five dream balloons. They say farewell and decide to go back home... through a small gap under a fence!
That night as Watanuki stays at Yuko's once more he comments to himself how he only ended up with two balloons after Yuko taking three for herself as a "fee".
 As he drifts off to sleep he "wakes up" to see Domeki's grandfather sitting in his room. They both talk about Domeki and the recent eye incident. He then shows Watanuki a photo of a young girl wearing a kimono. Suddenly the sound of a balloon popping wakes Watanuki up for real.
Yuko enters and explains that the balloon which contained the dream he jus had must have been sold to the Yumekai years ago by Domeki's grandfather. They both remember that there's no such thing as coincidence, only inevitability.
Watanuki tells Yuko about the dream and the photo. Yuko says that it was of Domeki as a child. Watanuki becomes thrilled about having something to embarrass Domeki with but is disheartened to find that because he didn't take the photo in the dream a physical manifestation of it doesn't exist.
Suddenly Mokona arrives carrying tones of eggplant and jumps on Watanuki. Both he and Yuko begin fantasising about all the eggplant dishes Watanuki can cook for them and all the alchohol they can drink with them.
Watanuki is disappointed that this was all his dream meant.
Today's Crossovers
 A subtle but pretty cool Legal Drug crossover featuring the telephone pole that functions as a doorway to another dimension.
Also worth noting that this pole has recently appeared in Kobato. as well. It seems this little pocket dimension has several purposes in the CLAMP universe.
My Original Impression
Friday, 25th April, 2008
After the three parter Spider Arc this was a nice little stand alone episode that gave the characters some down time but also introduced and continued to develop several new (some major) sub-plots.
The story was overall very close to the manga and I especially loved the Legal Drug crossover with the sub-dimension accessed via the telephone pole. For those that didn't know, this same pole has been seen in Kobato. as well.
Domeki's grandfather made his first on-screen appearance and it was handled very well. I'm also thrilled with the voice actor they chose for him. I thought they were just going to get Domeki's to sound older but they made a really good choice by casting someone who can actually sound the age he is.
Nice to hear several new music themes as well. The Yumekai's European influenced theme especially stood out.
Something that did annoy me though was Watanuki's eyes. They're both blue! One would think one would be orange and the other blue but here they're both the same.
However in this arc in the manga, CLAMP kept his eyes blue as well. Did CLAMP make a mistake in the manga and Production I.G. just copied it? Or are the blue eyes a deliberate decision?
In the preview for the next episode there are shots of Watanuki with blue / orange AND blue / blue eyes!
What do you think's going on?
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