Hello and welcome to "Link", www.xxxHolicAnime.net, my news, media and review site dedicated to one of CLAMP's newest manga and anime series, xxxHolic! We're deeply "linked" to Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle. Enjoy your stay & sign up for our newsletter or feed! -- More -->
- Brad
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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Expect the opening and closing credits, Nobody Knows and Honey Honey to be up any day now. I've actually run out of space on my server once again so I need to buy some more space to put the screencaps!
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Just a quick note to let you know that my little information pages for Chobits and Clover are now online.
If you've ever wanted to know a bit about the series that crossover with xxxHolic and Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, these little pages should be of good interest.
Some people have asked me how I keep this site running, well a rather new website (though by the people behind the famous TextLinkAds) that I've been trying for the last few months is ShoppingAds.
Being a new idea I honestly wasn't expecting much from it but I decided to give it a go and have been very impressed with the money I've made so far (within 3 months I got US$50 paid into my PayPal account).
Basically you place an ad on your webpage that advertises related auctions on eBay. If someone clicks on the ad you get money. If someone clicks on the ad and bids in the auction you get much more money.
The look of the code is completely customisable as is the type of auctions presented (you can enter as many keywords as you like such as "xxxHolic" or "Mokona" for example).
You can see an example of a ShoppingAds ad on the right menu.
ShoppingAds is well worth a look. I've found it to be almost on par with Google AdSense and the fact that they pay you into your PayPal account (something AdSense doesn't do) is a huge bonus.
I've been wondering for a while how to label and talk about the second season of xxxHolic and have decided to just go with "xxxHolic Kei" (it's official name) and begin labelling from episode 1+ instead of continuing the numbering from the first season (that bonus episode really makes it hard).
These changed will be reflected in the updated xxxHolic Kei Episode Guide page which has also been updated recently with several upcoming episode titles.
With that out of the way let's get on to my impressions of the new opening credits featuring Suga Shikao's Nobody Knows! (YouTube Link)
In short, I love it! It's very similar to the the first season opening, 19 Sai (19 Years Old) with some thematic silhouette shots of the main characters, the use of smoke and several quick shots of characters from upcoming episodes. The whole thing seems a lot more fun somehow and the pace a lot faster making it, in my opinion, superior to 19 Sai. The song is also really catching and flows perfectly with the visuals.
Funnily enough the new closing credits which features SEAMO's new mix of Honey Honey is also very similar to it's first season's equivalent, Fonogenico's Reason but staying with a very basic Mokona (Larg) based visual over the song. (YouTube link)
One difference though is the massive fan service! Halfway through Mokona begins to multiply and begins walking in a loop across the screen. Suddenly though instead of a black Mokona a white one appears! But before we get a chance to be happy about a Tsubasa connection a yellow and blue one appear and then several cool variants such as a striped one, a cyborg one, a brown furry one and a final cute panda Mokona!!! The whole thing actually reminded me of Episode 37 of Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle which also featured numerous multi-coloured Mokonas.
But what about the episode? It was just simply amazing! Now I'm a huge fan of the first xxxHolic season but within seconds of watching the first episode of xxxHolic Kei I could tell straight away that it was a superior production. The animation quality was quite simply amazing! Easily twice as... no five times better than that in the first season . Some scenes were almost movie quality! However I am aware that the first episode (and normally final episode) of most anime series has better quality animation than the rest of the series but the preview for the next episode at the end also looked pretty amazing.
As well as the animation upgrade there was also one other difference I noticed; the character designs have been changed. While they're still a bit elongated Watanuki, Yuko and the rest have all been visibly shortened and chubbied out to the point where the look is closer to that of the Card Captor Sakura character designs. It's not a major change but there's obviously been a concious decision to make the character less stylised. That's not to say Watanuki still doesn't have his crazed moments of deformity falling all over Himawari. The physical humour is still in tact.
Pretty much everyone from the first season returns for this one which includes all the voice actors, directors and animators. The music (which I love!) is also the same as the first season however I didn't hear any new themes which makes me wonder if S.E.N.S. produced any new tracks for the new season or if Production I.G. will just be reusing what was made for the first season.
Overall xxxHolic Kei is off to a very promising start! If you loved the first season you'll definitely get into xxxHolic Kei. If you were put off by the character designs the first time around, this may be the perfect opportunity to get back into xxxHolic.
Like this site? Subscribe to Link's site feed or email newsletter to get our updates as soon as they're online. Puu!
Something I've noticed when viewing the stats on all my sites is the popularity of the wallpaper pages! So, in an effort to give you guys what you want I present to you the new xxxHolic Wallpapers page!!!
Hope you like them! I'll be adding more every now and then.
Now get downloading!
Like this site? Subscribe to Link's site feed or email newsletter to get our updates as soon as they're online. Puu!
I have been so busy these past few days decorating my tree, buying and wrapping presents, getting ready for my and friends' big Christmas parties but I've managed to put some time aside this morning to make a whole new batch of fresh xxxHolic Icons and Avatars just for you! There are several cool Christmasy themed icons in there for your holiday usage. You may also see a few Legal Drug ones added to the mix. ;) Have fun!
Also as a special gift to my wonderful site affiliates of Link and Loop (check 'em out on the right hand side menu!) I've created a special Christmas card. If you're an affiliate, feel free to download it from here. I'll also be emailing it everyone but just in case some emails fail this will be a pretty good backup. ;)
First up the site's got two new xxxHolic affiliates! Only in Dreams, a fanlisting to Watanuki and Domeki and Within a Dream, a fanlisting for the series' second ending, Kagerou. Hmm... Both of them have "Dream" in their titles. Must be hitsuzen. ;)
Due to the amount of new xxxHolic stuff coming out in the next few months, plus the airing of the second season of the xxxHolic anime, I've added a quick list of the dates and (where possible) links to the preorder pages at Amazon for upcoming xxxHolic DVDs and Manga as well as air dates. Hope people find it useful.
Like this site? Subscribe to Link's site feed or email newsletter to get our updates as soon as they're online. Puu!
As you can probably tell (unless you're reading this in a feed reader) a lot of the cleaning up and resorting of the site has begun! It's looking a lot better isn't it? There's still a lot of work to be done such as fixing the images in the xxxHolic Season 1 Episode Guide but overall I'm pretty happy with the new look.
First of all I'd like to appologise to all of my loyal readers, affiliates and xxxHolic fans. The domain that I was hosting Link on went down and I have been simply too busy to move it to a new domain or even post that much about it's status.
However! Link's back and with it's very own domain name, xxxHolicAnime.net! A perfect partner to my other site, TsubasaAnime.net don't you think?
I'm still in the process of cleaning everything up so you may see some weird fonts and broken links and missing images but don't worry! I'm on it!
Meanwhile, quite a lot has been happening in the world of xxxHolic lately! The second season is only months away from airing in Japan (around April most likely) and the Tsubasa / xxxHolic movie is due for release in English / Japanese Region 1 and 4 DVD format early 2008!
Word on the street is that the first season of the xxxHolic anime series will be coming out on Region 1 and 4 DVD sometime early 2008 as well which would be very welcome. I'll be buying the lot of course so expect DVD reviews with screencaps and info as each volume is released.
Stay tuned for more! The fact that you're reading this isn't a coincidence, it's hitsuzen!
Like this site? Subscribe to Link's site feed or email newsletter to get our updates as soon as they're online. Puu!
Just cleaned up the navigation on the site a bit and added a link to the latest volume of the English xxxHolic manga due for release on the 1st of May 2007 which is up for preorder from Amazon.
As I said on Loop (which now has it's own domain!) I preorder all of my manga from Amazon.com as the often give you discounts and deliver your preorder a few days before the official release date. Well worth a try if you havn't already!
This report is brought to you by xxxHolic #9. Preorder now to get it on the day of release, the 1st of May 2007!
Just a quick update to let you know I've just finished the illustrated summary / episode guides for three more 
Just finished the 
Have been so excited with the latest xxxHolic Kei episodes that I was inspired to create 
The widescreen version of 
Just a quick note to let you know that my little information pages for 
Took a bit longer than I expected but I've finally finished the 
I've been wondering for a while how to label and talk about the 
Something I've noticed when viewing the stats on all my sites is the popularity of the wallpaper pages! So, in an effort to give you guys what you want I present to you the new 
Just a quick note to mention the newly updated 
I have been so busy these past few days decorating my tree, buying and wrapping presents, getting ready for my and friends' big Christmas parties but I've managed to put some time aside this morning to make a whole new batch of fresh 
First up the site's got two new xxxHolic affiliates! 
Continuing the revamp of the 
As promised, I've begun the revamp of the 
As you can probably tell (unless you're reading this in 
First of all I'd like to appologise to all of my loyal readers, affiliates and xxxHolic fans. The domain that I was hosting Link on went down and I have been simply too busy to move it to a new domain or even post that much about it's status.
Just uploaded some new Live Journal, chat room, forum, etc avatars (icons) in the 
