The fourth episode of xxxHolic is now up for download subbed right.... HERE.

This report is brought to you by xxxHolic #7. Preorder now to get it on the day of release, the 30th of May!

Man, I can't wait for next week! It's a combination of two bits from the manga, both of which I love: The fox stand and the Shiritori game!

Anyway, back to the present. I really liked this episode. There were no major bad spirits and nothing really epic happened but it featured some nice downtime with Watanuki, Yuko and Larg (the black Mokona) as they go about getting forunes told. It's very accurate to the manga and features some great new music towards the last five minutes.

This whole episode just gave me a warm happy feeling. Despite the completely different genre, I felt like I was watching a Ghibli movie. Wierd I know. I just found this episode to be so... nice.

This report is brought to you by xxxHolic #7. Preorder now to get it on the day of release, the 30th of May!

Thanks to CLAMP NOW for posting this. The RAW for episode 4 can be downloaded on bittorrent HERE.

Edit: Actually, that one seems to have no seeds. Try THIS ONE instead.

This report is brought to you by xxxHolic #7. Preorder now to get it on the day of release, the 30th of May!

The guide to the second episode is online and can be read HERE. No pictures yet. Still waiting for the widescreen release.

This report is brought to you by xxxHolic #7. Preorder now to get it on the day of release, the 30th of May!

Grab Episode 3 subbed HERE.

This report is brought to you by xxxHolic #7. Preorder now to get it on the day of release, the 30th of May!

Loved this episode! Had the best animation so far in the series (a LOT better than Episode 2's), more great music and a fast paced story that covered the mystery of the week and each character's personal arc. Very well done. Very faithful to it's manga version and they kept the crossover items of Chii's ears from Chobits and the white Mokona chess piece from Tsubasa Chronicle.

Can't wait for next week! This series doesn't disapoint... though I really want to see some proper Tsubasa Chronicle crossovering! It looks like though, they're doing all the manga storylines that don't have a crossover with Tsubasa first and will most likely introduce the white Mokona and the Tsubasa team mid-season and include all the crossover eps in the second half.

I wonder if they'll add the Legal Drug crossover?

This report is brought to you by xxxHolic #7. Preorder now to get it on the day of release, the 30th of May!

You can download the RAW for episode 3 HERE.

This report is brought to you by xxxHolic #7. Preorder now to get it on the day of release, the 30th of May!

Holy shit! (Is that even a swear word anymore?) Just watched the music video for the series opening song, 19 Years Old and... I can't see any way this would make it on air outside Japan. Maybe in Australis on SBS or something. Definitly not in the US. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a prude. Nudity, fine. Masterbation, fine. Rape (scripted, not real), fine.... but "Oh, she's being raped... but wait now she's enjoying it..." ... not so fine. A very well made music video (especially for a Japanes music video [most suck and are dated]) but it's message and sensibilites are a little too Japanese for me.

Anyway, you can view it here: On YouTube.

Make your own decision. I like the butterfly connection with xxxHolic.

This report is brought to you by xxxHolic #7. Preorder now to get it on the day of release, the 30th of May!

Decided to do what I can with the episode guide asap and simply add the screencaps later, when the widescreen version is released. Check it out HERE.

The guide to the second episode is coming soon.

This report is brought to you by xxxHolic #7. Preorder now to get it on the day of release, the 30th of May!

Yay! While the widescreen version hasn't aired yet those wanting a sneek peek at the FULL version of the serie should check out Animax's site as they have the first half of the first episode avaliable in WIDESCREEN!!! It's not exactly DVD quality but it will give you an idea about how "zoomed in" and "clipped" the pan and scan (i.e. square) releases have been. As I predicted it looks amazing! So much more to look at!

The official site has also updated their Episode 1 summary to include WIDESCREEN screencaps of the episode! Looks soooo good!!!

This report is brought to you by xxxHolic #7. Preorder now to get it on the day of release, the 30th of May!

This episode went really well. Paced wise it was very close to the manga storyline and the music was hauntingly wonderful and suits the show amazingly well. The character designs are spot on and it left me waiting for more xxxHolic anime goodness!

One problem I did have was that I found the whole episode had a kind of "zoomed in" feel to it which made the animation's lines look a lot thicker than they would in the show's original widescreen presentation. Another reason why I can't wait for the widescreen release is the fact that so much is cut off and missing just offscreen to the right and left. When Yuko was talking about the little finger I could barely even see what Maru and Moro were doing. This show was made for widescreen and pan and scan detracts from it a lot.

One change that I didn't like with this episode was how the woman with the lying habit didn't die like she does in the manga. She simply went to hospital and learnt her lesson. This is very strange as the who airs around midnight and is made by Production I.G. who have made such series as Blood+ who aren't exactly censored.

Overall a good interpretation of the manga (despite that woman living). I'm still curious to see how Tsubasa will be incorporated into the series. There have been some cossovers with CCS Sakura's staff last episode and next week looks to include Chobits Chi's ears. The movie crossed over well and that was made by the same guys that are doing this series, plus all the same voice actors are being used.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

This report is brought to you by xxxHolic #7. Preorder now to get it on the day of release, the 30th of May!

The first subbed release for episode 2 of xxxHolic by a THIRD subbing group! How many people are doing this series??? Download it HERE.

In other news, I've decided to proceed with the episode guides but will not add screencaps until the widescreen eps are released or I get the dvds. Whichever comes first.

This report is brought to you by xxxHolic #7. Preorder now to get it on the day of release, the 30th of May!

The RAW (unsubbed, only in Japanese audio) second episode of the xxxHolic anime series is now online for download at X-Raws. Enjoy!

This report is brought to you by xxxHolic #7. Preorder now to get it on the day of release, the 30th of May!

I just watched both of the released subs and while both were very well done (and had such a better picture quality than the RAW thank God!) I found the [Kyuu] release to be more natural with the dialogue and easier to understand. Overall I think it was also a lot more accurate as well so it's my reccomendation, however I'm still waiting to see if either sub group will resub the series with the widescreen versions when they're aired! That will be the deciding factor.

This report is brought to you by xxxHolic #7. Preorder now to get it on the day of release, the 30th of May!

Thank you Chibi Yuuto for the heads up! There will be xxxHolic drama cds! Yay.

This report is brought to you by xxxHolic #7. Preorder now to get it on the day of release, the 30th of May!

The English subtitled first episode of xxxHolic is ready for download HERE by Shinsen. It is the Pan and Scan version though, but hey, it's subbed! There is also a DIFFERENT subbed version HERE by Kyuu. I'll compare both when the downloads finish.

Note, as I did with my Tsubasa site, as soon as the series is licenced, I will cease giving links to the torrents. Currently Tsubasa tv series and the movie have been licenced as well as the xxxHolic movie.

This report is brought to you by xxxHolic #7. Preorder now to get it on the day of release, the 30th of May!

A special thanks to kacpy who posted a comment with the info that the widescreen version of each xxxHolic episode will air 3 weeks after the pan and scan one on a different channel. I also read on another anime blog that it'll be coming out next week. Hmmm... either way, we'll be getting a better quality xxxHolic! Wooo!

This report is brought to you by xxxHolic #7. Preorder now to get it on the day of release, the 30th of May!

Well, I forgot to tape the episode so I had to wait for the torrent to be put online. Easier said than done. The first version online was in a wierd file format and the second one (which I did download) is in Pan and Scan and all the colours seem to be undersaturated.

Now, the style of this series is very artistic, almost like thos watercoloured xxxHolic manga pics but I'm really hoping that the person who captured this ep for the torrent has bad settings. The whole episode just looked like it had been watered down.

As for the Pan and Scan (i.e. NOT widescreen), this suprised me a lot but I'm pretty sure the show was produced in Widescreen and the person just had a square tv. Almost all the shots look like they've been cropped. Production I.G. is very much at the forefront of Japanese animation and I would be VERY suprised if there was no widescreen version. It's for this reason I won't be placing detailed summaries or screencaps. I want to post the best stuff and I'm waiting for either a better capture or the DVD release in June.

So, how was it? I rather liked it. All the voices were on from the movie and seemed to be in top form. Special kudos to the opening theme for including almost every arc from the manga in it and I'm sorry, but the dancing Mokona ending just looked budget. Boring!.

The story followed the manga very closely, though missed out little humor things like the dictionary definitions. I was a little confused with where this sits in continuity though as there's no White Mokona (still asleep or has the Tsubasa gang already arrived? If so, that doesn't match up with the movie). There was no mention of Clow or the original Mokona. I'm really hoping these plot points are added in the next few episodes and I'm REALLY really hoping that was get at least a mention of the Tsubasa guys and maybe see an alternate version of Tsubasa Chronicles Episode 2.

Off to a good start, though I'm not sure at this stage if continuity has been chopped up or simply reordered and shifted to a later episode.

I'll give it a 7/10, and if I can get a widescreen version with proper colours I'm sure I'll revise that score.

This report is brought to you by xxxHolic #7. Preorder now to get it on the day of release, the 30th of May!

Wow, those CLAMP guys don't waste time do they? Only a day or so after the first episode airs (which I'll be posting about very soon), the Official Site announces the first volume of the DVD release which will come with a limited edition box with exclusive art by CLAMP (similar to the Tsubasa Season 1 release).

The first DVD will come with textless opening and closing videos, a postcard, a book and a commentary by an as of right now unknown performer.

No pictures of the artwork yet, but stay tuned!

This report is brought to you by xxxHolic #7. Preorder now to get it on the day of release, the 30th of May!

A commercial for the xxxHolic anime series is online HERE and on April 1st no less! Happy birthday Watanuki and Sakura!

This report is brought to you by xxxHolic #7. Preorder now to get it on the day of release, the 30th of May!