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Reviewed by Dan Polley Kimihiro Watanuki is an indentured servant to the witch Yuko Ichihara in CLAMP’s 10th volume of xxxHOLiC. The difficulty begins when well water is needed. Of course, Kimihiro is sent out to fetch it. But when he finds a place and steals some well water, he is nervous about the ominous shadow of a figure watching him from a window in the house where the well is located. Unfortunately, more well water is required, causing Kimihiro to continue to make several trips full of water. And each time, he is spooked by the figure who continues to watch him from on high. One day when he’s fetching more water, a cloth given to him by Yuko flies out from where it was being kept, through the open window on the second floor and into the room where the shadowy figure is watching. Since the cloth belongs to Yuko, Kimihiro has no choice but to go and retrieve the cloth before he goes home with the bottles filled with water. But what he discovers inside the house is something that will shock him. Afterward, Kimihiro makes a promise to Himiwari, a girl at his school, and begins to get questionable advice from those around him in regards to it. But one day when he’s walking to class, he learns that maybe the promise will put more blood on his hands than he wants. As a result, he’ll end up owing a lot to Yuko, who tells Kimihiro that he had several benefactors on his behalf. In the end, Kimihiro learns that happiness can be found in places you wouldn’t expect it to be. The art in the volume is straightforward and fairly minimal. Yet there are highly detailed parts that keep it refreshing. The beginning of the volume has a four-page color spread of the firs few pages. And the exaggerated, elongated style of CLAMP characters takes a bit to get used to, but in the end it blends in well with the darkened plot of the volume. The characters don’t stand out too much, but there is enough behind each of them that they don’t feel as though they’re not fleshed out enough. But Kimihiro’s character does seem a little bit weak to be the lead character in a volume. xxxHOLiC is another well-put-together volume by the compendium that is CLAMP. The characters could have used a little bit more to make them stand apart from the story, but overall, the volume is very good. Comment on this review of xxxHolic v10 on the Manga Life Forums. |
6 October 2009
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