I'll preface this by saying that for the longest time, I was a diehard xxxHolic fan: I've read the entire manga, watched every episode of the anime multiple times, even read the NisiOisin light novels and listened to the first few Horitsuba Gakuen drama CDs. I would eagerly sink my fingers into anything related to it. Despite my bitterness at the ending which lingered for many years (and let's be honest, still does), it remained one of my favorite stories and I still hold it and its characters dear to my heart.
When I heard about the 2013 live action TV drama, it was rather some time after the initial airing, as I had stopped keeping up so closely with manga and anime releases in general. Somewhat skeptical but a little curious, I decided to give it a watch. But for whatever reason, I did not end up finishing the series. I think maybe it didn't vibe with me, maybe something about it just didn't click or feel right, or like the characters weren't really how they were supposed to be. After 3 or 4 episodes, I ended up unmotivated to keep watching.
The fact that there was another live-action adaptation in 2022 similarly flew under my radar; I didn't notice it, or if I did, I forgot about it completely, until I just recently stumbled across a gifset of the new film, which looked much more impressive and interesting than the previous adaptation. Piqued, I decided to give it a watch for old times' sake, and went in with few expectations but hoping to get a nice little jolt of nostalgia.
What I got instead was a delightful and enjoyable film, and a more fascinating adaptation than I expected. What I initially believed would be something with only a superficial resemblance to the original manga, was instead a thoughtful and deeper reimagining that, though not without its flaws, has given me a new perspective on one of my most beloved of series.
The biggest and most crucial change the film makes is perhaps the fact that Watanuki doesn't hate Doumeki on sight. It fundamentally changes the dynamic between the two of them, doing away with the constant push-pull from Watanuki's side where he dislikes Doumeki but needs him around. Most of the series' comedy comes from this, but it's a comedy that really only works in a drawn medium. While I won't deny that "angry cat" Watanuki has brought me much entertainment, without the format of chibis, it doesn't really come across as funny; rather, irrational, and the kind of exaggerated overreactions in the manga and the anime are impossible to pull off with live actors.
Yet this change and this loss (if it can be called that) is not a bad thing at all. Why? Because it makes the development of the relationship between Watanuki and Doumeki more natural. With no constant irrational animosity from Watanuki, they feel much more like friends, and thus Watanuki's anger that Doumeki sacrificed for him feels more natural and appropriate, and Doumeki's sacrifices themselves feel much less one-sided and cruel. He's not just paying blood and organs repeatedly for a guy who doesn't really care for him much, he's paying for a guy who chose to hang out with him through a time loop. The relationship feels much more balanced.
It may be somewhat blasphemous for me to say this as a long-time xxxHolic fan and equally long-time DouWata shipper, but I genuinely like this change, even though it changes something so integral to them. As I mull this movie over, I'm beginning to wonder if the one-sided hatred in the relationship wasn't terribly contrived from the start, a placeholder barrier for CLAMP to throw in until they came up with more solid, plot-related reasons to keep the couple unrealized. Even aware as I am that part of the reason that Watanuki was so drawn to Himawari was because he wasn't supposed to exist and the world itself sought to eliminate him and thus made him subconsciously suicidal, and therefore, he was likely repelled by Doumeki for the same reasons, when all those Tsubasa-related plot complications (that were of such detriment to xxxHolic's overall narrative, in my opinion) are removed, one is left with loose ends and motives that don't make sense... such as Watanuki's irrational hatred for Doumeki, which is never really explained well in the manga in the first place. I even recall on one of my rewatches or rereads how most of the things Watanuki blows up about are extremely silly and petty and sometimes Doumeki is doing nothing at all objectionable. Funny, yes, but in moderation.
Furthermore, my favorite parts of xxxHolic are probably the parts where Watanuki stops yelling at Doumeki for five minutes and they actually get things done. I have very fond memories of the middle part of the A Midsummer Night's Dream film where they begin to run through the mansion in search of Yuuko and attempting to unravel the mystery, as well as Kei overall and the Shunmuki OVA. Maybe in hindsight, after a while, it began to get a little tedious, in spite of the fact that as the series went on, Watanuki's animosity cooled (and for the record, I'm not opposed to nor do I not understand the concept of tsundere, I do get it). But in my opinion, xxxHolic was always at its best when it leaned into its horror elements, and those naturally were more serious in nature, and while of course it's possible to have levity even in a horror story, I genuinely can't say I'm terribly missing that comedy here. It would have been completely out of place with the tone of the whole film.
So again: I really like this change, and not just because I'm a happy shipper seeing an old favorite ship getting fresh fuel. Watanuki feels like a somewhat different character here, but I like this new version of him very much because he feels more... human, shall we say, more realistic and grounded. His outbursts of emotion feel much more poignant here when the other part of the time he's quiet and unsure of himself, adrift and bereft of connections, emphasizing how desperately and recklessly he flings himself into and at things and here the focus is more on his finding himself and finding a place in the world. There's a much darker beginning to the movie where he's introduced not only with the iconic fleeing-from-ayakashi opening per the manga but as contemplating suicide, which is both a nod to his "subconsciously suicidal" thing from the manga, but also paints a sharper image of him as horribly alone and with no reason to live, desperate for only peace, which sets up his later attachment to the other characters well. In a roundabout way, it also provides explanation for why the ayakashi are continually drawn to him, as he's constantly mired in negative emotion as well. The manga never looked at him from this angle, as by the time it began to truly plumb his background, his existence was explained via Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle connections rather than making him a standalone character, so I really, really enjoy this. It makes sense, and a sense which is held consistent throughout the entire film without convoluted space-time shenanigans.
And most of all, it's still Watanuki: the Watanuki who will throw himself away in an instant for others while claiming that he doesn't want anybody else to get hurt; the Watanuki who recklessly tries to take on others' burdens but doesn't share his own; the Watanuki who values others but doesn't value the self that others value in turn. It's still Watanuki, who does everything one-sidedly and only begins to show growth when he reaches out and relies on others as well instead of attempting to take on everything himself because he believes his own existence doesn't matter.
The rest of his character remains perfectly intact, and indeed, feels like it was expanded on well with what space they had: Watanuki demonstrates genuine happiness working at the wish shop, something which he was always tsun about in the manga; Watanuki enjoys eating lunch with Doumeki and Himawari with no constant complaining about Doumeki's presence; Watanuki doesn't complain about Yuuko's outlandish requests or errands or is tsun to her either, particularly because this time, even the exact circumstances of his wish are different.
Rather than Yuuko telling him to work at the shop to pay off his wish, she only tells him that she's been looking for a servant, but later on, he asks her if he can stay there, despite the fact that at that point he's clearly beginning to reconsider his wish after his eyes have proved to be useful to someone. It's another subtle but notable and fresh change. So instead of Watanuki effectively being caught in wage bondage to pay for his wish as the baseline for the whole series, there is Yuuko's generosity and lenience permitting him to remain and learn about her work and himself in the process. It changes Yuuko's character subtly in a good way: through her kindness towards Watanuki, she's established as someone emotionally lofty yet still good at heart, even though her strict side emerges later, rather than someone ambiguously taking advantage of Watanuki and whom Watanuki wasn't even sure would uphold her end of the bargain at times, as she was at the start of the manga. It also means that everything Watanuki does at the shop after that point--cooking, cleaning, assisting, errands--he's doing mostly of his own volition and not because he's ordered to, further emphasizing that he's happy just to be needed and useful to others, which has always been an important part of his character. Even after Yuuko asks him whether he's found something precious with which he can use to pay for his wish and he says he hasn't, she doesn't press the point or kick him out.
And so here we come to the biggest pitfall of the film: unless you're already familiar with the story of xxxHolic, you're going to be a little lost and a little let down, because as well as it pulls everything I just talked about off, there isn't nearly enough development between the characters in the film for it to stand alone. To me, it's a fascinating and very enjoyable take on the story, but I really have to admit that if taken as an original work, it needs much more. The development is both too rushed and too truncated, which I can also understand from a writer's perspective, because how can you possibly cram 10 volumes' worth of character development into a 90 minute film? You can't, it's impossible. So I can see why they chose to incorporate a time loop into the plot: through living the same day over and over, Watanuki gets closer to the other characters (particularly Doumeki, to my delight; I could scarcely believe my eyes at the two of them hanging out together at the festival over and over again).
Returning to the point, though, even with that, the character development still feels a bit lacking. We don't really know or see why Doumeki and Himawari care so much about Watanuki, particularly Doumeki, which is especially egregious because their bond is one of the important points of the film. There is no mention of the scene where Doumeki sees Watanuki cradling the dead cat, so we're left to fill in the blanks of just why Doumeki cares so much about him—unless it's meant to be taken as a little baffling, with Watanuki as well unable to comprehend why Doumeki cares about him... or taken as a crush, which would be in line with the manga. Rather, we only get to see the three of them hanging out at lunch, which allows us to see why Watanuki cares about Himawari and Doumeki--they treat him, a loner, kindly after an accidental meeting, and make an effort to befriend him despite his at-times weird behavior--but the vice versa is a bit lacking. However, I don't think even the manga really explains this to begin with, so maybe I'm looking for answers that don't exist in the first place.
We also don't know why Yuuko cares so deeply for Watanuki. Inasmuch as they included a montage of Watanuki’s time at the shop, if you pay attention to the dates on the calendar, you'll see that he's only there for two weeks. I would personally have made that part longer to emphasize Watanuki learning about the rules of the shop and more life lessons with Yuuko to show them bonding more clearly and foreshadow his taking over, though I acknowledge I'm not sure how that could be done. It's easy to see why Watanuki cares about Yuuko, but the vice versa is a bit nebulous.
But I'm aware that this problem stems from the fact that speedrunning the entire manga in a single movie is a bit of a tall order, particularly considering the anime had about 40 episodes total (counting the original run, Kei, Shunmuki, the film and the Rou OVAs) just to cover the main arcs, even if some episodes were just filler and the first series was mostly the early monster-of-the-week stories and Kei is where the best meat is with the Spider/Eye arc, the Kohane arc, and the Himawari arc.
There are few details glossed over that I wish they'd kept, in particular the fact that Doumeki paid the blood that Watanuki had lost in his fall and not his eye, as that was an entirely separate payment. Speaking of, I can't believe they actually mixed up the eye colors: Watanuki's eyes were blue, and he got one of Doumeki's golden eyes, not the other way around. A bit hilarious, honestly. I would've also liked to see a hint of the overlapping vision from the shared eye, and how said shared vision helped Doumeki become able to see the ayakashi as well; that could've easily been worked in during the fight against Jorougumo and the scene when they fire the arrow together. There was also a missed opportunity to have the lonely woman ghost approach Watanuki when he was despairing on the bench rather than Jorougumo; Jorougumo could have approached him afterward, further underlining his desire not to see ayakashi. The cameo of Zashiki-warashi and no mention of either Ame-warashi or the Ajisai incident is also a bit strange. The "Yubikiri" girl's introduction was also a bit awkward as there's no mention of her initial problem being that her pinky finger was stiff lately, and only then does Yuuko give her the ring; instead she rambles about her lies and Yuuko gives her the ring, which makes a bit less sense. It probably wasn't the right incident to open with, though of course I acknowledge that very quickly the "wish-granting shop" evolved into a general "supernatural problem-solving shop" in the manga.
That aside, I did enjoy the movie's takes on the other characters in general. Himawari lands this great balance between genuine charm and sweetness yet still feeling bitter over her burden; it's clear that her fate weighs heavily on her but she's trying very hard to remain positive nonetheless and project that positivity. The way she leaves town was also well-handled vs the manga. Yuuko has the right amount of mystery, elegance, and grace, with a certain gentleness towards Watanuki that isn't out of place, and she's also much less vague with her answers, which makes her feel more grounded. Her soft-spoken manner of speaking is also perfect. Doumeki is blunt and laconic and little awkward, exactly as he should be, and I think he was played especially well; the moment where he runs into Watanuki at the festival and just holds out the strawberries at Watanuki is adorable and so him.
I find it interesting yet somewhat reasonable (perhaps I should say predictable) that the main villain is Jorougumo. She's the closest thing the series has to a recurring villain of its own rather than someone from outside (Fei Wong Reed), so she's probably the best choice, though here she's more straight-up villainous than as affable and ambiguous as in the manga.
Jorougumo having enough power to trap Watanuki in a time loop is also a bit of an eyebrow raiser, if only because her powers aren't well established beforehand. You'd think something like that would be more in Yuuko's vein, as the Dimensional Witch, though the fact that she says it's because of the power she got from Watanuki's eye is probably meant to be a nice bit of a foreshadowing to Watanuki becoming the next Dimensional Witch. Again, without the Tsubasa plot tumor, leaning into the angle that Watanuki has latent powers of his own was the right move.
On that note, the sealed evil that Yuuko has to give herself up to seal I found to be rather lame, and if they weren't speedrunning the whole series to end with shopkeeper Watanuki, maybe that wouldn't have been necessary. An adaptation merely of the Spider/Eye arc would have been enough, especially as (much like Jorougumo herself), it's one of the most memorable arcs in the story, but maybe it would be difficult to pull off without the basis of everything that came before.
On the other hand, I can't really complain too much about finding a convenient excuse to make Yuuko disappear if you are going to speedrun, as almost anything is an improvement on the original (cough Tsubasa plot tumor cough). The final conversation Watanuki has with Yuuko also leaves her fate much more ambiguous rather than Very Definitely Dead And Not Coming Back as in the manga, so Watanuki's choice and fate feel a lot less grim and pointless—though notably, here he does not say that he's going to wait for her. As the primary beef I had with the ending (namely, that he insists on waiting for her despite her being dead and encouraging him to be free and hurting everyone around him by doing so and thus dumping all his previous character development; I can only speculate CLAMP did it solely to be tragic for the sake of it), even this simple and subtle change is a breath of fresh air. Yuuko is gone, and Watanuki grieves her, but resolves to fulfill her wish and live, and he takes on the shop not because he's waiting for her but because the shop needs a shopkeeper and he's the best and perhaps only person for the job. Yuuko is gone, but "people meet each other when they need to": you can take it that when she needs to meet him again, she will. In addition, Watanuki openly smiling when Doumeki makes the decision to stay with him is another subtle but welcome change: Doumeki doesn't silently disapprove of Watanuki's choice to stay at the shop, and Watanuki doesn't try to push him away, but rather, accepts and is glad that Doumeki is with him.
On a lighter note, while I did enjoy the ED theme, I can't help but joke that it isn't xxxHolic without Suga Shikao. Surely they could have gotten another track of his? But it's alright, the song they did use was good.
The visuals are also much more impressive than what little I remember of the 2013 series. The rendition of the signature black smoke is particularly striking, as is the smoke of Yuuko's pipe, and the more vibrant colors and special effects give it that extra pop reminiscent of the manga, especially within the shop, which I think was especially lovingly rendered, with its gewgaws and baubles which hearken back to the A Midsummer Night's Dream movie and the collector mansion. Yuuko's, as well as Maru and Moro's, outfits are also stunning as they should be, and I also really love Yuuko's final appearance where her silhouette is refracted through multiple prisms. It communicates its concept perfectly. I feel like the movie really captures the vibe of the manga well, and even the a-dream-but-not-really elements echo those final few volumes where half of what happens is in a dream. The inclusion of several of the most iconic and striking of the manga illustrations just before the title drop is a small touch that I also appreciated.
On the whole, I think the film writers adapted the source material quite masterfully, working with what they had and incorporating more than I expected in the little touches and cameos. Despite the large changes made, it still feels like xxxHolic. They still managed to capture the core themes of the story of the inevitable and belonging to oneself and others within the framework of the supernatural, and the characters still feel like they're the same characters. I finished the movie mostly satisfied, and as evidenced by the length of these impressions, it gave me plenty of food for thought in a positive way, and now I want to turn my mind towards how the rest of the story might work into this alternate universe.
I enjoyed it. I'm happy I watched it. I'm happy to see new life breathed into these old characters I love. I'm definitely going to give it a rewatch.
