Hige vs. Otaku

Director: Tsutomu Mizushima
Production: Production I.G.
Fansubs by Kyuu (1), Mishicorp (2)

After the wonderfully bizarre movie from Production I.G. I can’t help but feel a little spoilt with my expectations for the TV series of xxxHOLiC. The film was excellent, really capturing the feel of the manga and gave Production I.G. an imaginative platform to show their peerless flare for animation. Understandably the TV series operates on a much smaller scale (with a much smaller budget we’d assume) so some perspective is in order before we judge it based on that lovely bit of indulgence. Still, it’d be a lie to say that xxxHOLiC TV isn’t slightly shadowed by it’s feature-length sibling. When you combine the talent of Production I.G. and the budget to do them justice, it’s inevitable that some upstaging would happen. But still, beyond this initial prejudice, the TV series has fared well thus far. Production I.G. is still in charge of the production and Tsutomu Mizushima is retaining his role as director, so things are looking hopeful.

For me xxxHOLiC TV, so far, is ticking all the boxes. How much of a good thing this will prove to be is hard to say. The potential to do some really interesting things is definitely apparent, xxxHOLiC being more than accommodating for innovation (case in point: the film) but with these two episodes Production I.G. are playing it by the book (or manga, hurk hurk).

The characters and locations are set up nicely, capturing much of the personality of the manga without undermining its effortless cool. Yuko is as sultry and enigmatic as I would expect, with her more playful side given a reasonable amount of screen time too. Watanuki is clumsier than his manga counter-part, but this offers more opportunity for comedy and it works pretty well. The fanboy in me isn’t sure about TV Watanuki’s inadequacy in the kitchen, though – him being something of a culinary prodigy in the manga, but this isn’t especially important. He’s represented well and retains a lot of his endearing qualities from the manga. The brief appearances of Himawari and Doumeki didn’t suggest much variation from the manga versions either, though I wasn’t impressed by Domeki’s character design. Granted we only saw him for a few seconds and he was wearing his sport uniform, but his face and hair were strangely misshapen. Either way, I’m holding off judgment until we see him properly in the forthcoming episodes.

The plotlines of the manga are generally honoured well enough, but I did share the disappointment over the ‘nicer’ version of episode two’s ending. The manga had a more brutal, final fate for the pathological lier and it was sad to see the TV series undermining this with a sweeter conclusion. It did gave rise to some interesting discussion between Watanuki and Yuko afterwards and I can appreciate the decision for doing it from a storytelling point of view, but I just hope it isn’t a common occurrence for the show. The darker edge is what makes the manga so appealing to me. I love how the covert moral preaching is underpinned with some nasty demonstrations of the consequences. Let’s hope the TV execs haven’t been throwing their weight around and demanding it to be toned down. Time will tell, I suppose. Still, it could actually be a make-or-break situation for me and xxxHOLiC TV.

From a technical standpoint, the animation and sound is adequate. Much of the character design from the film is kept for the TV series and this is definitely a good thing, but there’s no doubt that this is a TV anime on every other account. But I don’t let me sell it short, xxxHOLiC TV has a good sense of design and a lush colour pallet that portrays the story nicely. There’s occasionally the odd ‘talking head’ but the character design is attractive enough that this doesn’t grate much. And assuming xxxHOLiC TV is going to be an on-going show (in the vein of Naruto or Bleach) rather than the typical 26-episode set, some compromises on the production values are to be expected.

Talking of design, I was happy to see that Yuko’s butterfly motif was given some more exposure in the TV show. It seems quite significant in the manga and I’m curious to see how xxxHOLiC TV will play with it – there being potential for some beautifully rendered scenes in the future.

Audibly speaking, I was quite impressed by the voice acting. I’m not sure how many roles were reprised from the film, but it’s certainly at that level of quality. Musically I found things to be quite underwhelming. The occasional instrumental piece was a nice surprise, but generally things were characterless and insignificant. This mentality is carried on to the opening and closing themes, which weren’t especially bad, just a bit uninteresting. Still, this doesn’t do much to undermine an appealing package, all in all. Let’s hope Production I.G. will keep up the consistency.

Conclusion
I enjoyed these two episodes. True, they weren’t an overtly impressive start to the series but xxxHOLiC has always been a slow-burner, working at its own pace and rewarding our patience. They’ve done a good job of capturing much of what I love about the manga, with the occasional compromise but still honouring its slightly dark, menacing personality and brilliant sense of style. The lack of a Tsubasa crossover was an interesting choice that I approve of, allowing xxxHOLiC some opportunity to shine independently of its sister-title for a change. All in all, I’m interested enough by these two episodes to see how things develop. Plus the promise of a fully animated pipe-fox spirit is almost too much for words. *runs away to his manga volumes to gush for a while* ARGH SO CUTE.