XXXHOLiC #12: the beach filler
Jun. 24th, 2006 08:39 pmDownloaded a Chinese sub again. Man, it feels like my first year in this fandom, with the Chinese fans being my HOLiC crackdealers. May the divinity of their choice bless them.
I actually started a tl;dr summary last night, but my mom and my brothers stopped by and when they were gone I wasn't in the mood. So I guess you're lucky, because I'll try to squish it in one paragraph. Also, maybe that's better since you won't be spoiled.
Surprisingly enough, this episode brings a light over the issue of the changed tales at the 1000 ghost stories saga. There was a reason? Who knew!
The episode is a spinoff of Himawari's ghost story. Yuuko rents or borrows a huge house on the beach and brings Watanuki and friends with her. They're the only ones in the house... or aren't they? Watanuki is awaken at night by a scratching noise -the noise of someone writing in a wall, by the way. He tracks the noise and finds a secret storage room hidden beyond a fake wall besides his bedroom. In the darkness, glowing purple words appear in the walls and ceiling: "get me out of here". Then, a feminine figure haunts him.
Aaaand that's all I can tell you without spoiling XDDDD But I can assure you this episode is so fucking creepy. From the female narrator popping out during half the episode, to the inconclusive ending, Ohkawa's script looks like a twenty-something-minutes Japanese scary movie. Believe me, the episode does scare! There's hope for the "carnivore hand" minisaga.
Besides that, the animation some of reminds me a bit of the movie: it's good at some points, but ugly at some others. The character design, as usual, is good occasionally and weird the rest of the time. Or maybe it was my copy; it was a tad LQ.
Some other plot stuff. There's the mandatory beach scene, of course. To our disappointment, the ladies are in whole swimsuits and not bikinis. Doumeki wears a bermudas kind of swimsuit, although he wears a tee while he's in the water. Watanuki is in his goddamned uniform at the BEACH, making the viewers dispair and feel hot. Also, he doesn't go to the water because of possible watery ayakashi XD
Speaking of Watanuki and Doumeki, I could understand with my limited fangirl Japanese a subplot regarding them that turns out to be interesting. In this episode, Watanuki shows he hates it when Doumeki helps him. Maybe it's a result of having his ass saved so many times by Shizuka. Maybe it's because Yuuko teases him. Maybe it's because he's still jealous when Doumeki is so near Himawari. Or maybe it's his usual better-than-thou pseudo-rivalry.
But really, we see the worst of Kimihiro's pride. He gets angry when Doumeki turns around a stuck water tap he couldn't manage to open. He screams at him when Doumeki offers to help him tidying things up. Watanuki was screaming at him very rudely several times. Meanwhile, Doumeki kept glaring at his friend, probably being annoyed or hurt but it's hard to say, to finally leave Watanuki yelling alone. And the only retort he manages to toss at Kimihiro before walking away and ignore him is his now trademarked "aho" (idiot, asshole).
Doumeki says "aho" too much. [insert your Princess Bride "as you wish" joke here]
And one of these scenes made me realize it can be so frustrating for Doumeki to like Watanuki. He keeps saving him, he keeps trying to help him, but he'll only get screams and angry fits -besides bentos and freeloading food in general. Is Doumeki happy or unhappy that way? Is he like a kindergarten boy who enjoys pissing his crush off, or he's just very unlucky? Or a bit of both?
It's been more than nine volumes, and I still can't see how Doumeki's feelings really work. Perhaps this is why I'm unable to like the ship, no matter what he does: CLAMP explains Doumeki in such a shallow way.
Okay, anyway. Preview. Next episode is actually the wings saga! Winged classmate has deep dark brown hair and brown eyes, just in case you're curious.
ETA: Curses, while I wrote it, Memento made the summary with screencaps. I still reccomend not to read it and be spoiled!
ETA2: I do agree with Garten. Yes, Watanuki's anger was too much. The character development feels frustrating in the anime, but that's to be expected.
Also, now that I think about it, I'm annoyed because kudakitsune's been in his pipe until NEXT EPISODE. How LAME is that? Four episodes with no kudakitsune!
I actually started a tl;dr summary last night, but my mom and my brothers stopped by and when they were gone I wasn't in the mood. So I guess you're lucky, because I'll try to squish it in one paragraph. Also, maybe that's better since you won't be spoiled.
Surprisingly enough, this episode brings a light over the issue of the changed tales at the 1000 ghost stories saga. There was a reason? Who knew!
The episode is a spinoff of Himawari's ghost story. Yuuko rents or borrows a huge house on the beach and brings Watanuki and friends with her. They're the only ones in the house... or aren't they? Watanuki is awaken at night by a scratching noise -the noise of someone writing in a wall, by the way. He tracks the noise and finds a secret storage room hidden beyond a fake wall besides his bedroom. In the darkness, glowing purple words appear in the walls and ceiling: "get me out of here". Then, a feminine figure haunts him.
Aaaand that's all I can tell you without spoiling XDDDD But I can assure you this episode is so fucking creepy. From the female narrator popping out during half the episode, to the inconclusive ending, Ohkawa's script looks like a twenty-something-minutes Japanese scary movie. Believe me, the episode does scare! There's hope for the "carnivore hand" minisaga.
Besides that, the animation some of reminds me a bit of the movie: it's good at some points, but ugly at some others. The character design, as usual, is good occasionally and weird the rest of the time. Or maybe it was my copy; it was a tad LQ.
Some other plot stuff. There's the mandatory beach scene, of course. To our disappointment, the ladies are in whole swimsuits and not bikinis. Doumeki wears a bermudas kind of swimsuit, although he wears a tee while he's in the water. Watanuki is in his goddamned uniform at the BEACH, making the viewers dispair and feel hot. Also, he doesn't go to the water because of possible watery ayakashi XD
Speaking of Watanuki and Doumeki, I could understand with my limited fangirl Japanese a subplot regarding them that turns out to be interesting. In this episode, Watanuki shows he hates it when Doumeki helps him. Maybe it's a result of having his ass saved so many times by Shizuka. Maybe it's because Yuuko teases him. Maybe it's because he's still jealous when Doumeki is so near Himawari. Or maybe it's his usual better-than-thou pseudo-rivalry.
But really, we see the worst of Kimihiro's pride. He gets angry when Doumeki turns around a stuck water tap he couldn't manage to open. He screams at him when Doumeki offers to help him tidying things up. Watanuki was screaming at him very rudely several times. Meanwhile, Doumeki kept glaring at his friend, probably being annoyed or hurt but it's hard to say, to finally leave Watanuki yelling alone. And the only retort he manages to toss at Kimihiro before walking away and ignore him is his now trademarked "aho" (idiot, asshole).
Doumeki says "aho" too much. [insert your Princess Bride "as you wish" joke here]
And one of these scenes made me realize it can be so frustrating for Doumeki to like Watanuki. He keeps saving him, he keeps trying to help him, but he'll only get screams and angry fits -besides bentos and freeloading food in general. Is Doumeki happy or unhappy that way? Is he like a kindergarten boy who enjoys pissing his crush off, or he's just very unlucky? Or a bit of both?
It's been more than nine volumes, and I still can't see how Doumeki's feelings really work. Perhaps this is why I'm unable to like the ship, no matter what he does: CLAMP explains Doumeki in such a shallow way.
Okay, anyway. Preview. Next episode is actually the wings saga! Winged classmate has deep dark brown hair and brown eyes, just in case you're curious.
ETA: Curses, while I wrote it, Memento made the summary with screencaps. I still reccomend not to read it and be spoiled!
ETA2: I do agree with Garten. Yes, Watanuki's anger was too much. The character development feels frustrating in the anime, but that's to be expected.
Also, now that I think about it, I'm annoyed because kudakitsune's been in his pipe until NEXT EPISODE. How LAME is that? Four episodes with no kudakitsune!
