xxxHolic: Kei
×××ホリック: 継
xxxHolic: Continuation
xxxHolic: Kei is a 2008 anime consisting of 13 30-minute episodes. It can be classified as “occult” and “comedy.” It is the 2ND season of xxxHolic. That being said, for maximum viewing pleasure it’s advised to watch the 1st season first.
I LOVE xxxHolic, being introduced to the title through the 1st season anime, then the manga, and then the 2nd season anime. It’s my personal opinion that you can’t fully appreciate the 1st season anime if you’ve seen the 2nd season or manga, because they made quite a few changes to plot and made it a little less epic, but this post isn’t about the 1st season.
xxxHolic Kei is GORGEOUS. It has deviated from it’s predecessor in both animation and storytelling, the color palette being much more vibrant and eerie feeling. Whereas in the 1st season the animation felt awkward in the tight-budget kinda way, the second season kept the long awkward look for artistry, but made the animation much more fluid. In short, the animation and art yelled “artistic!” this time ’round. It’s very stylistic, which suits xxxHolic.
xxxHolic is about the exploits of high-schooler Watanuki Kimihiro, a boy who can see and attract spirits, and Yuuko Ichihara, a witch who will grant any wish for an equal price. Watanuki is working for Yuuko to pay the price to remove his ability to see and attract spirits. In this 2nd season, it covers several story arcs from the manga that are crucial to Watanuki’s character growth and explores his relationships with the people around him. I love how very Japanese xxxHolic is. From the Japanese occult and myths to Watanuki’s life and cooking, xxxHolic does not repress the Asiatic feel that it should have.
I was very impressed at how xxxHolic:Kei. Instead of drawing out some scenes that many series would choose to have 3-7 episodes to describe, xxxHolic: Kei condensed them into one episode-ers. On the other side, though, they nipped another arc in the bud, which was a real shame for manga-viewers and left anime-only fans a little confused at the importance of a new character. This season had a sense of finality to it, though, so perhaps the higher-ups didn’t want to leave any loose ends. There may very well not be a 3rd season.
Go check xxxHolic and xxxHolic:Kei out. I’ll be posting an episode-by-episode review of xxxHolic:Kei, because I luffs it so much.
Tags: anime, Comedy, Occult, overview, review, xxxholic, xxxHolic:Kei
August 13, 2008 at 7:04 pm |
This series is indeed both beautiful and entertaining. Funny to note how the episode about the traditional game of Mahjong was far more detailed and elaborated in the anime than in the manga, while the other episodes appear to be very similar for both media… So much that many fansubbers directly extracted the text from the manga version for their subtitles.
October 20, 2008 at 4:12 pm |
Yeah xxxHolic was awesome!
That was the only reason I began watching Tsubasa Chronicle, since they were connected. It turned out to be a good anime, but not as good as xxxHolic!