Kimihiro Watanuki is a young boy with a cursed gift. He has the ability to see evil spirits, and somehow they seem attracted to himself. One day he meets a misterious woman who names herself Yuuko. She claims to have the means to end his torment, but she never works for free, and she wouldn't help him until he works for her enough to pay for her services. Thus he starts to work in her shop and discovers that in that place, nothing is what it seems. (from Anime News Network)

Fansub Groups:

Shinsen-Subs
Mishicorp
Kyuuketsuki
Hirameki Fansubber

Characters:

The protagonist of the series is Watanuki Kimihiro who has the ability to see evil spirits that usually follow him. He also has a hard-working and dedicating personality that is later stated by Yuuko herself, but he can sometimes act very funny when he's put in a surprising situation or when he see's something surprising and panics). Yuuko is the next main character and she seems very powerful and somewhat creepy. She makes very high demands for Watanuki and promises to full fill his wish as long as his amount of work is equivalent to his wish. Maru and Moro are Yuuko's helpers that always repeat eachother or a phrase that someone else says. Mokona is another character that looks like the serie's mascot (rabbit-like) and is also Yuuko's drinking partner. Shizuka Doumeki, who doesn't seem to show his emotions, is one of Watanuki's classmates who he dislikes, but Yuuko believes that Doumeki is much more compatible (meaning that he will bring Watanuki more luck) with him than Himawari Kunogi, which has a sincere and calm personality.

Story:

This story is based on its popular manga counterpart and begins with a character, Watanuki Kimihiro, who stumbles on a shop of wishes after being chased by evil spirits. Yuuko Ichihara grants wishes as long as an equivalent price is exchanged. Watanuki wishes to not be able to see spirits and for them not to be able see him and in order for his wish to be granted, he must work for Yuuko until his debt is paid off and she will grant his wish. So the story starts off from there......

Animation:

I have to admit, when I first saw the characters they looked abnormally tall. However, the artwork is unique and in episode 1 it seems like it has a good quality, but the animation is not as good as the movie in my opinion.

Music:

The OP in xXxHoLiC now is "Juukyuu-sai" by Suga Shikao. As usual, he does a great job with the singing. The ending song was "Reason" by Fonogenico, which shows a cute dancing Mokona and sounds ok when considering the lyrics and music.

Verdict:

Ever since I've seen episode 1, I've decided to stick with it because it's very interesting, a little creepy (in a good way), and it has some interesting stories. Each episode seems like it shows a certain characteristic in humanity. Overall, it's a very good series with lots of unsolved mysteries that I have yet to see.
I would give it a rating of: 8.5

Pics:






Pics from Memento's Anime Blog (an absolutely awesome blog site with tons of different series, but beware of HUGE spoilers)

Sounds like it's worth taking a look at.
Good job on the thread. I'll come back with
my thoughts later :)

The second episode has an insulting animation. Insulting to the fans. Personally the storyline of the manga is way better, but watching the characters actually MOVE it's a good enough reason for me to watch the anime.

By the way, the OP and ED are to die for (Suga Shikao's voice is so sexy)

ecristy85

The second episode has an insulting animation. Insulting to the fans.

I agree with you on that. The animation was disappointing (not horrible) and I expected it to be better. At least the movie was better. In episode 2, some of the characters were unproportinal in a few scenes, but I watch xxxholic for the story. So I don't really care because it's not THAT bad.

Um.. i find the animation fine..the style took a while to get use to because i didn't read the manga
..too fantisyish story for me though
prob something i leave to watch when i get bored

The movie will ALWAYS be better (because it is, a movie), but if we compare every following episode with the first one, then we can say it was bad. As in really BAD. when Maru and Moro first appear in the second episode they don't have any animation at all; it doesn't look natural (they're kids, they should be making a ruckus, like in the manga).

ecristy85

The second episode has an insulting animation. Insulting to the fans. Personally the storyline of the manga is way better, but watching the characters actually MOVE it's a good enough reason for me to watch the anime.

By the way, the OP and ED are to die for (Suga Shikao's voice is so sexy)

Cris. you're right >_<the second episode was...yeah...I refuse to believe that was xxxholic. -_- the movie's animation was so well done it raised my expectations on the tv series too, but I guess it can't be helped cause it is, afterall, an episode which had only a week's time to produce >_<

I LOVE, absolutely ADORE the op. It's SO CUTE (the lyrics). and yes...Suga Shikao's voice is indeed quite sexy ^_^ and he's really talented too! At least this single's (19sai) songs are all written by him ^_^ and it has been a while that I have loved an entire single ^_^ the remix of Sanagi is also very good.

I can't wait to listen to the full version of the ed, but they won't release the single until mid-May...sadly >_< I can't stop the Mokona dacing in my head when I listen to that song ^_^

Well I'm on epi.4...they have stuck to the manga's storyline except for the first episode, because they have to leave out the TSUBASA bits. I wonder why...just because they have already shown them in TSUBASA...they could link the tv xxxholic to TSUBASA so easily, like the manga, why didn't they do that?

The oppening is my favorite part..the music and the part where those little girls were about to kiss xD
i haven't read the manga.. so i can't compare it .. but i have watched tsubasa and the artstyle and the animation is similar to tsubasa, and i'm a freak fan of the stupid serie, so i really like the whole idea.

Haha, the art style of xxxholic is no where near the art style of TSUBASA, although they're both drawn by Mokona-sensei. Episode 4 adds little bits of animation to lengthen the episode, but those scenes enhances the manga plot, so I was happy ^_^ By the way, what do you think about Watanuki's voice? The seiyuu is in two more anime (as far as I'm aware)currently, all of them leading roles ^_^ I have not paid much attention to that particular seiyuu before...for Watanuki's voice, I think he did the serious parts really well, although I think his voice is a bit soft when Watanuki is screaming--usually to Tomeki XD

I've been watching it, and I saw the movie, and I have to say that it is just an awesome show. I love how in the beginning the spirits would cling to Watanuki and he'd freak out, looking like he was crazy to the other people. ^_^ It's a show worth watching, in any case.

I can't stop mokona from dancing everytime I listen to that song too (downloaded the tv version).

I think Watanuki's seiyuu is PERFECT. His voice just fits in, you know that's how Watanuki's supposed to sound (at least for me). I can say the same with all the other seiyuus (omfg, Zoro's voice is Doumeki's voice), especially Mokona. To say I watch the eps again just to hear Mokona's voice is an understatement. Darn it, it's so cute!

The animation really did throw off the second ep. It's not bad considering that the story didn't involve any violent moves (like the third one), but really, even CCS has a better animation in all episodes.

You can watch the 19sai video clip song in youtube. I don't recommend it to underaged members.

O.o there's a series? @@ wahh ~ I had no idea xD!
I've read the first 2 mangas =P
It's pretty good -^-^-
I'm trying to get the tird one though ><

I wanna watch the series ;-; and the movie T.T

Hehe, I actually really like Watanuki's seiyuu now ^_^ his voice is so kagoi~well not so much when he's doing Watanuki's though, I like him as Gakuen Heaven's Keita~Tomeki's voice is indeed just what I had imagined XD his tone of unconcern is so fitting XD ahhh Mokana's voice is very cute indeed~well I noticed that since TSUBASA, but yeah. Himawari's normal, not much surprise there...a lot of seiyuus can be her voice. Haha, Yuuko-san's seiyuu keeps getting better and better, especially the transitions from seriousness to sudden playfulness ^_^

The 19sai PV is...yeah...as cris said, not suitable for underage fans -_- I don't understand why he needs those scenes...I mean, the lyrics is very suggestive, but still...to go that far on an anime's op's PV...^^;;

I watched the first episode and wasn't impressed. It was on the boring side.

I'm a big fan of the Manga. I was kinda dissapointed when I saw the first episode (Black Mokona already? Like, WTF?!) but the other 3 episodes were kinda good in my opinion ;) I think Watanuki's voice is GREAT, same goes for Doukemi.