xxxHOLIC Rei Volume 1

“It is all the result of man’s wishes.”

Kimihiro Watanuki is a high schooler who – in order to escape the spirits that have been pursuing him – has become the domestic help of the dimension witch Yūko who runs a little shop that grants wishes. In spite of his constant complaining about the extra work, he enjoys cooking and usually makes lunch for his school friends Domeki (the stoical son of the local temple priest) and the pretty Himawari. The gorgeous, long-legged Yūko is fond of drinking, and providing nibbles and food to accompany her tipple of the day is one of Watanuki’s frequent challenges – but this is never as challenging as the problems brought to the shop by Yūko’s customers. Their wishes often hide much darker desires which frequently lead to Watanuki finding himself in danger from supernatural forces.

‘Yūko, Watanuki, Domeki and Himawari are back!’ proclaims the blurb and if you read xxxHOLiC through to its conclusion in Volume 19, you’ll be wondering: How can that be, especially after everything that happened in the final volumes? Well, the four talented mangaka who form CLAMP are renowned for crossovers between their works (for example, Watanuki appears in BLOOD-C) and introducing alternate and divergent plot lines. So, forget what happened at the end of the main series: we’re back to the basic premise that made xxxHOLiC so successful before the story wandered off into complicated (and some would argue unsatisfying) territory. Maru and Moru, Yūko’s strange little girl helpers, are back – but there’s no sign of black Mokona, the rabbit-like magical creature, or its white twin/counterpart from Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle (the original crossover with this series).

The first visitors to Yūko’s shop are two young women – although never together – who insist that they are best friends, they even have identical cell phone mascots. Why, then, is one of the ‘best friends’ so accident-prone? And then there’s the case of the empty apartment next to Watanuki’s – empty, except for a television…and a disembodied voice that only Watanuki can hear. All it says at first is, “Hey.”

The art is as elegantly gothic as in the first series, with striking contrasts of flat black and white, and ornately curling lines and wisps indicating the presence of spirits. As in all the previous volumes, one can learn a great deal about snacks to accompany different Japanese alcoholic drinks from the useful notes at the back of the volume (Watanuki is a good cook and Yūko is an enthusiastic consumer of alcohol). Stephen Paul’s translation flows well and the only slight regret is that there is no gorgeous glossy colour frontispiece as offered by Del Rey in all volumes of the first series.

In Summary

Beautiful to look at, subtly disturbing in content, this is a return to form from CLAMP. If you’ve never read any of the original series, this is a good place to start; if you enjoyed the first series, you’ll be more than happy to revisit characters that you’ve come to know and love.