Kimihiro Watanuki is your average young school kid who just happens to be troubled with spirits, spirits which he would dearly love to get rid of. Salvation comes in the form of Yuko Ichihara, who promises to rid the boy of his troubles in return for him working in her shop - a shop where he meets Himawari Kunogi, for whom he feels a deep affection and Shizuka Domeki, who becomes his rival...

XXXHolic (2006) is an anime series based on a Clamp manga, directed by Tsutomu Mizushima and executively produced by Ageha Ohkawa, Clamp's director and main scriptwriter. The first season ran for twenty four episodes with the second series running in 2008, the show also spawned the inevitable OVA.

This three disc set contains the first fourteen episodes, which given the price is really quite a generous amount. Visually, the anime has stuck pretty close to the style of the Clamp manga, which may cause a certain amount of confusion for those not familiar with the book. People stop playing with the aspect ration on your telly, the characters really are that ludicrously elongated. Like the book it does give the anime a unique style. Some of the complexity of the original manga has had to be dropped as it referenced other Clamp books, without this context the crossover would have been meaningless to the audience, but it does have the negative effect of slightly dumbing down some of the stories.

The first four episodes, on disc one, The Inevitable; Falsehood; Angel and Fortune Telling introduce us to the various characters and detail Watanuki’s first meeting with the witch Yuko who offers him the trade of getting rid of his demons in return for something of equal power - which turns out to be his servitude in the shop. This in turn opens his eyes to Yuko’s world and in Falsehood the action switches between Yuko’s magical shop, where she is helping a customer with a stiff little finger, and Watanuki’s more mundane existence in school. The show quickly settles down into Watanuki either discovering sprit activity or being sent by Yuko on errands.

Disc two contains Game of Letters; Indulgence; Hydrangea; and Contract and covers stories about helping people with such diverse things as computer addiction, to helping water spirits.

Disc three finishes off the first half of season one with Pinky Promise; Lamplight; Confession; and Summer Shade. Oh dear more finger problems in Pinky Promise when a young girl appears with her fingers tied together with the red threads of destiny. Lamplight sees Watanuki and his friends having to tell a hundred tales, failure to do so will result in something most unpleasant. The last two episodes revolve around summer vacation, but of course with XXXHolic this will involve some spiritual activity.

Both the original audio track and the English dub are well worth a listen, especially as you have an English 5.1 option over the original Japanese 2.0.  The set does come with a few watch once only extras in the form of textless opening and closing sequences and an image gallery, so not much to write home about here.

Overall, a good start to the show, which attempts to remain faithful to its source material - though not as convoluted as the original it still provides a good show.

7

Charles Packer