×××HOLiC: Difference between revisions

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{{quote|''"There is no such thing as coincidence in this world - there is only inevitability"''}}

 

 

 

Chapters/episodes usually involve a customer coming into the shop and asking for their wish to be granted by Yuuko, having usually negative or dubious results, or they involve some (usually risky) task that Yuuko gives Watanuki which requires his ability to see spirits. However, there is also an overarching plotline regarding a set of dark conspiracies and prophecies that becomes increasingly important in the later volumes.

 

 

The Anime has been uploaded in both dub and subtitle formats on [http://www4.funimation.com/video/?page=show&b=107 Funimation's video portal]

* [[Because Destiny Says So]]: Hitsuzen and the ways to manipulate its effects make up most of the overarching plot.

* [[Bishonen]]: C'mon, it's [[CLAMP]]. Watanuki might qualify as a manga version of [[Hollywood Homely]], since he's much less popular with (human) girls than Doumeki.

* [[Blank Book]]

* [[Bottle Fairy]]: Yuuko, with a [[Running Gag]] of her always wanting some form of expensive alcohol. Also Larg, to the point that [[Cargo Ship|it's a pairing]].

** Yuuko's pretty snarky, herself.

* [[Deal with the Devil]]: Because Yuuko requires equal payment to fulfill the wish, many of the prices seem very difficult or problematic. Also, if someone reneges on their payment, the results tend to be rather nasty. Example -- {{spoiler|One customer`s payment is that she must never be photographed, video-taped, etc. again in her life. Logically, that would be a very difficult thing to conform to. If she ever is, her crime will be exposed for all to see. It's likely she was a murderer, and the punishment for not adhering to the price would be her exposure as one to the public, so she deserved this.}}

* {{spoiler|[[Distant Finale]] / [[No Ending]]: The final chapter is (basically) Watanuki and Doumeki hanging out, except that it's Doumeki's grandson (who still has that egg), and they're talking about how a dream of Yuuko has informed Watanuki that it's safe to leave the shop.}}

** {{spoiler|There is an Ending, if poorly executed. Watanuki still chooses to stay, waiting. The closing line states he waited as long as it took and they certainly met Yuuko again. How? It doesn't explain, until then he had an 'unique happiness'.}}

* [[Martyr Without a Cause]]: Watanuki, and at times Doumeki. A major thread in the series is learning to temper the altruistic impulse with self-regard.

** Doumeki is heavily implied to be more of a [[Love Martyr]] - he's willing to make [[Heroic Sacrifices]] [[Ho Yay|for Watanuki's sake]].

** Yuuko offers an alternate interpretation for Watanuki's family name:

{{quote|'''Yuuko:''' The reading of his name, "Watanuki", comes from the custom of removing the padding from one's kimono on the 1st of April. An ancient sorcery...To prevent children from suffering from diseases or spectres, they would be dressed in the now unpadded kimono, and the removed padding would become their substitute..."}}

*** {{spoiler|Particularly significant when Yuuko is musing that it isn't even really his name. The mysterious item that Doumeki brings to the shop also senses that "Watanuki" isn't his real name.}}

*** {{spoiler|It's also said that his original purpose was to take Syaoran place so that the world/timeline wouldn't fall apart, though both Syaoran and Yuuko push him to secure his own place and become his own person rather than just remaining the substitute. Think about how unlucky he was at the start of the series, before Yuuko and Syaoran pushed him to value his own existence he subconsciously drew misfortune to himself because he knew he was a substitute and not meant to exist.}}

* [[Mega Twintails]]

* [[Milky White Eyes]]

** {{spoiler|By chapter 213, we find out that the Doumeki visiting Watanuki at this point is Shizuka Doumeki's great-grandson. Meaning Shizuka Doumeki got married himself and is probably already dead given that Watanuki realizes he's been at the shop for more than a hundred years at this point.}}

** {{spoiler|Not that Shizuka Doumeki/Watanuki really needed any more help sinking, but Rou revealed at the end that Shizuka Doumeki and Tsuyuri Kohane got married. Oh, and Kohane loves Watanuki. So that's another ship sunk.}}

** Not to mention for all the talk about Watanuki being destined for Doumeki or Himawari, there is an absolute mountain of teasing. Pick any title page with Watanuki and Yuuko in it, and you can bet anyone who hasn't read the manga will ASSUME something's up between the two. {{spoiler|And considering that Watanuki is staying at her shop because he ''knowingly imprisoned himself'' there in order to wait for her to come back to him after she disappeared, they might not be wrong!}}

*** Although, as revealed in ''Tsubasa'', {{spoiler|he may have chosen that price because he couldn't come up with anything else quickly enough. He even [http://www.onemanga.com/Tsubasa_Reservoir_Chronicles/232/08/ acknowledged] that he knew that the price wasn't quite right. It's true that he had already made his decision to wait for her, but the method might have been less self-sacrificial if ''Tsubasa'' had ended differently.}}