Plot
See also: List of xxxHolic characters
The series' plot focuses on Kimihiro Watanuki, a high school student plagued by yōkai and ayakashi, spirits with a strong attraction to him. The spirits are invisible to others and encounters with them are extremely troublesome. When he stumbles into a shop that grants wishes, however, events in his life promise to become more unusual. The shop is owned by Yūko Ichihara, a mysterious witch of many names and esoteric renown. For a price, she offers to grant Watanuki's wish to be rid of the spirits. The price, according to Yūko, must be of equal value and so, as payment, he temporarily becomes Yūko's part-time employee. Watanuki's job consists of small errands dealing with the supernatural and household chores. Himawari Kunogi, Watanuki's love interest, and Shizuka Dōmeki, a classmate who Watanuki detests, occasionally join him in his work as per Yūko's request. The three become increasingly close despite Watanuki's annoyance with Dōmeki. Although Watanuki becomes happy with the new friendships he makes, he becomes concerned about Yūko, promising he will try to grant her wish.As the series continues, Watanuki becomes more familiar and adept with the spiritual world with each supernatural encounter. A crossing plotline with the concurrent series Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle reveals that Yūko is actually on the verge of death, and her personal time was accidentally frozen by a powerful wizard, Clow Reed, keeping her alive for ages. As the magic binding her in time begins to dissolve, Yūko's ability to maintain the shop's magical existence fades and she eventually passes on, telling Watanuki that he will finally be free of his ability to see demons. However, Watanuki chooses to retain this ability and his now fully-grown magical powers in order to maintain the shop's existence and take care of it as the new owner. Further cross-over plotlines reveal that Watanuki was created as a result of a wish to turn back time by a shop client Syaoran. While Syaoran was able to go back in time at the cost of being imprisoned by the sorcerer Fei-Wang Reed, Watanuki was created to replace his presence in the natural timeline. As the series reaches its conclusion, Syaoran and Watanuki become trapped in a void by Fei-Wang and the two must pay a price to become free. Syaoran must forever travel through dimensions, never stopping, while Watanuki offers to stay inside the shop forever, and becomes the new owner, granting wishes until the day he can meet Yūko again. As time progresses, Watanuki continues working in the shop, unaging, and is frequently visited by Dōmeki, his assistant, and years later Dōmeki's great grandson. Although Watanuki is able to meet Yūko through a dream, he decides to continue waiting for her, although he has become able to leave the shop if he wants to.
Kimihiro Watanuki (四月一日 君尋 Watanuki Kimihiro) is a high school student plagued daily by spirits who are constantly attracted to him. After meeting Yūko Ichihara, she promises to remove this unwanted ability in exchange for working part-time in her shop until it equals the worth of his wish. He lives by himself due to his parents no longer being around, so he excels in cooking and cleaning, much to Yūko's pleasure. She also sends him on various jobs that often have a spiritual nature. Watanuki is known for a having both a volatile and caring nature to him. While around Himawari Kunogi, he is very excited and speaks in a high-pitched voice, while he expresses irritation while speaking to Shizuka Dōmeki. He generally gets enraged at the often insane requests of Yūko, though he will pay close attention whenever she is serious with him.
Watanuki is essentially an alternate self of the second Syaoran who appeared in the series, having been created to fill the gap left by Syaoran after he decided to turn back time and be imprisoned by the sorcerer Fei-Wang Reed as a payment. Watanuki became the child of Syaoran's parents, and fills all of the relationships Syaoran would have made. Before the series' start, Watanuki gave up the memories of his past in order to help Yūko find Fei-Wang, and help Syaoran. As he then could not remember his parents, Watanuki developed a strong guilt, thinking his parents died due to his fault, and it led to the attraction of spirits.
After Yūko's death, Watanuki resolves to stay and take care of the shop until he sees her again. In order to both stabilize the shop and break free of Fei-Wang's dying curse with the second Syaoran, Watanuki offers up the remainder of his "existence". As a result, Watanuki can no longer leave the shop. He becomes the new master of the shop and takes up Yūko's role of granting wishes to those who come to the shop. Over the next several years, Watanuki's powers become stronger thanks to the fact he did not remove his ability to see spirits. His lifespan also increases and retains the appearance of a teenager for over a hundred years. Over a hundred years after taking over the shop, Watanuki's powers grow strong enough to allow him leave the shop, but decides to remain there.
Watanuki is voiced by Jun Fukuyama in Japanese and Todd Haberkorn in English. Director Tsutomu Mizushima referred to Watanuki as his favorite character from the series due to his personality and that he identifies himself with him. In a xxxHolic poll, Watanuki was voted as the most popular character from the series.
Shizuka Dōmeki (百目鬼 静 Dōmeki Shizuka) is a schoolmate of Watanuki. He lives in a shrine owned by his late grandfather, Haruka Dōmeki, a Shinto priest who taught Dōmeki about folklore and shinto practices during his childhood. However, despite his heritage, Dōmeki has a nearly null ability of seeing ghosts or spirits, though he can sense them, and he has a natural ability to exorcise them.He is part of the school's kyūdō club and often tops school competitions. Dōmeki barely speaks unless explaining folklore or asking Watanuki various of his meals which infuriates him.Dōmeki is voiced by Kazuya Nakai in Japanese and J. Michael Tatum in English.
Despite Watanuki's hatred for him, Yūko often makes Dōmeki join Watanuki in his jobs as his ability to exorcise spirits annulate the attraction that Watanuki has towards them. Utilizing Yūko's shop, Dōmeki gives Watanuki half of his eye after he loses his right eye's vision to the spirits, which allows Dōmeki to see and experience what Watanuki goes through. He also gives Watanuki a large amount of his blood, which Yūko states is changing their personalities. Yūko gives Domeki a magic egg obtained by Sakura while working for her, however Dōmeki does not know what it does or when he should use it.
Four years after Yūko's death, Dōmeki is a university student studying ancient history and often visits Watanuki in the shop. Because Watanuki cannot leave the shop, Domeki provides assistance both with Watanuki's work and by providing essentials, such as food. After six more years, Dōmeki graduates and has become an assistant to one of his professors at the university. In the xxxHolic Rō Adayume OVA it is revealed that Dōmeki is engaged with Kohane Tsuyuri, having delivered his wedding's invitation to Watanuki. After it has been over a hundred years since Watanuki inherited the shop, Dōmeki's great grandson is Watanuki's new assistant, keeping the egg Yūko gave to Dōmeki.
Yūko Ichihara
Yūko Ichihara (壱原 侑子 Ichihara Yūko) is a woman who runs a shop that deals in granting wishes in exchange for something of equal value to the wish; sometimes this is referred to as a soul. She can take anything from a precious object to abstract concepts, such as love and luck in exchange.She usually displays an immature and free-spirited attitude, drinking saké at all hours of the day and forcing difficult tasks upon Watanuki. While dealing with customers or giving Watanuki advice, she is much more stern and offers cryptic messages to warn him and others of impending danger. She constantly speaks of inevitability and how nothing is a coincidence.
Yūko had a past relationship with the sorcerer Clow Reed and both created the two Mokona Modoki creatures in anticipation for the series' events. While she was on the verge of dying, Clow Reed accidentally used his powers to freeze time for her just by wishing for her to open her eyes. After that point, she opposes the sorcerer Fei-Wang Reed who controls the events happening in Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle. Near the end of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, Yūko is revived by Fei-Wang and gives her life as a price to enable the clones of Syaoran and Sakura be reborn as normal humans. Following this, Yūko finds Watanuki and tells him her wish is or for him to continue existing just before her death as she is covered by shadows from the Dream World.
Over a hundred years later after her death and Watanuki has become the shop's owner, Yūko appears as part of a dream she left to Watanuki, telling him he has stayed in the shop for a long time and now is able to leave it.In the Holic Rō OVA, Watanuki receives a recorded tape from a girl. When Watanuki plays the tape, Yūko's voice is heard saying "I'm home,". Yūko is voiced by Sayaka Ohara in Japanese and Colleen Clinkenbeard in English.Yūko's character has well-received by Japanese readers of the series. In two popularity polls held by Weekly Shōnen Magazine, she placed seventh among all the characters in Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle. In the Animage's Anime Grand Prix poll from 2007, Yūko was voted as the thirteenth most popular female anime character. In a xxxHolic poll, Yūko was featured as the third most popular character from the series.
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