
The adventure at the school is followed by another episode, in which an uber-confidant young woman shows up at the shop, and she asks to purchase an unusual round container, which Yuko agrees to sell her - on the condition that she never try to open it. The girl agrees, then immediately sets out to open it. She just knows that whatever is in it will not be bad luck for her - maybe for someone else, but she is special, lucky, and such rules do not apply to her. When she does access the object inside, Watanuki sees some very strange things happening, and he has a sinking feeling that, despite the girl's confidence, things are not going to end well for her.
I continue to enjoy my reread of this manga, with its fantastical nature and folkloric elements. My favorite part of the book is a scene near the end in which Watanuki, hurrying back to the store later than he intended, comes across a food cart manned by a fox wearing a kimono. The fox is a Kitsune fox spirit, and Watanuki is kind to the little fox cub who is there, too. It seems that seeing spirits is not always such a bad thing. I love the notes at the end of each volume of this series, which explains the significance of aspects of the book that readers unfamiliar with Japanese culture might enjoy learning about. This book seems to be a bridging novel that allows us to get to know the characters a bit better, but it also introduces some thematic elements that will become important as the series progresses.
Books in the xxxHolic series:
Volume 1
Volume 2
Volume 3
Volume 4
Volume 5
Volume 6
Volume 7
Volume 8
Volume 9
Volume 10
Volume 11
Volume 12
Volume 13
Volume 14
xxxHolic, Vol. 3 by Clamp (Del Rey, 2004)
Have you reviewed this book? Leave a link to your review in the comments, and I'll include it here.
Lovely cover!
ReplyDeleteLadytink - The artwork in this series is my favorite of all the mangas I've read. Glad you like it, too!
ReplyDeleteI'm really looking forward to reading this series in 2010. Have you seen the anime version? Also it looks like it reads alongside Tsubasa, have you read those mangas to? If you are interested the manga challenge is running again in 2010, hope you sign up :)
ReplyDeleteRhinoa - I have seen the anime version - I think Chris (of Stuff as Dreams) mentioned to me once that he really likes it. Because of my kids I'm hesitant to watch some of the anime versions, because they tend to be a bit more "adult" than my kids are ready for at this point - and the girls are not happy if they catch me watching cartoons without them! I would like to try it one of these days, too.
ReplyDeleteI started reading Tsubasa earlier this year, and it made me want to reread xxxHolic, which I'm doing to catch up so I can read them together - I think it will be more fun that way. I think you will love both of these! Yes, of course I'll have to sign up again - I got lots of great reading ideas from the challenge this year. Now if only I could get some extra time to read them all... :-)