Just finished watching the seventh episode of
xxxHolic Kei and while it was a good episode in and of itself I was
really disappointed by the major changes done to the
Tsubasa Tokyo Revelations crossovers concerning the egg/s and the water.
In the manga and in
The Princess' Dream, Sakura goes through a major quest to get the magical egg in a land that has no magic. When Mokona sends it to Yuko though it somehow doubles itself into two eggs. Yuko gives one to Watanuki (probably going to see that in a few weeks in Kei) and another she keeps for a future event.
In this episode of xxxHolic Kei though. The cat girl gives Yuko an egg. Maybe they're just cutting out the doubling effect (as that deals with Fay Wang Reed) so in the anime continuity Yuko gets one egg from the cat girl and one from Sakura. Makes sense but is still a bit unnecessary.
The second issue I had was the well water which is also shown in
The Princess' Dream. It's described as pure water with the powers of nature, etc... but in this episode they find the body of a dead cat in the well. No matter how mystical the water, the fact that a dead animal has been lying in it for a while makes Yuko's gift of the water to the Tsubasa gang come across as a little dark.
Overall good episode, but some of these changes were really not needed at all.
Am glad they left in the Himawari subplot and can't wait for that arc! Next week is the "bell" story. Should be good!
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Being such a short chapter in the manga, it was almost a given that the mahjong episode would involve lots of padding with characters that didn't appear in the manga (such as the Ame and Zashiki Warashis) and humorous side stories (Watanuki reading up more on the game) but personally I've always liked xxxHolic's "filler" episodes as I enjoy seeing the characters interact in their down time and appreciate a look into the world that we wouldn't normally see in say the Spider Arc episodes.
Several of my favourite background music tracks from the series are those that play during the quieter scenes so for me anyway, I found this episode really rewarding.
Something interesting (though very xxxHolic) done in this episode was the presentation of the scores each character was getting throughout the game and the title screens for the different phases. It was basically like watching Yuko, Domeki, Mokona and Watanuki play a game and it worked really well.
We also got to see a humorous look into Domeki and Yuko that we don't normally see. Every time Yuko had her inner monologue I couldn't help but crack up.
Next week looks
really fun. Looks like another half filler, half manga inspired episode but features the return of the cat girl from
xxxHolic Kei episode 2 which I couldn't be more happy about. If there was a character from the manga that needed more time it was this one.
The seasons also look to be moving into Summer next week which is great. Maru and Moro in a water fight! Need I say more?
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Just finished the
episode guide for the second episode of xxxHolic Kei. A great episode!
I also fleshed out the main
xxxHolic Season One Episode Guide and
xxxHolic Kei Episode Guide pages with some basic information and created the pages for the
xxxHolic Kei Opening, Nobody Knows and the
xxxHolic Kei Closing, Honey Honey both now with screencaps!
Pay attention to the
Nobody Knows page each week as each screencap will begin to be linked to the episode in which it takes place in in the same way the
first season's, 19 Sai was linked to numerous episodes.
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Wow, I was really impressed with this episode. Not only was the animation level simply incredible but we got several new music themes plus a very nice voice actresses for the new character, Kohane.
I never really liked Kohane in the manga so I was surprised when I found myself liking her here. The voice actress just did a really good job. Production I.G. also did a rather creative job or showing a bit of her special powers. Very interesting.
Something else I found interesting was the inclusion of more of a subplot for Himawari which is obviously leading up to a Hell of an episode later on in this series. It was cool to see a brief flashback with her and her grandmother.
Something that threw me off though was the fact that the sakura trees were in bloom... but they weren't last week but they were in the final season one episode... If you follow how the seasons change in the series you may find this a bit jarring.
This continuity problem can be fixed though if you just take
the first season bonus episode out of the viewing order. It is a bonus episode after all so I guess it makes sense not to include it.
A great episode that really begins to evolve the series further. Can't wait for next week's xxxHolic Kei episode!
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