XxXholic 11

As much as I always, ALWAYS love new volumes of this series, I was pretty bummed by the numerous connections to Tsubasa in this volume. Usually it’ll only be one reference every volume or so, but there were many references in this volume, and an entire chapter dedicated to the crossover. I just… don’t like being taken out of the story like that.

Most of the story in this volume is just about picking up the pieces from last volume. A few people stop by to visit Watanuki and see how he’s doing after the accident, and the characters sort of acknowledge (or don’t acknowledge, in Watanuki’s case) what Himawari admitted to last time. One supernatural character that stops in mentions that Watanuki is the rarest item that Yuko owns, which is kind of funny and intriguing at the same time.

We do get one of the good old-fashioned shop stories that I like so much, this time about a girl who is given bells when she is afraid to be in her house by herself. Watanuki is always so empathetic, and it’s always hard to see him so sad when things like this don’t work out well. The girl apparently goes to the same school as he and Himawari et al, but… well, of course all is not what it seems.

Lots of stuff story-wise is revealed in this volume, too. So much so that I was a little hesitant to believe so much was given to me for free. We get a name for the pipe fox spirit, we get to learn what it is that Maro and Mauro do, we get a handful of even more cryptic hints about who/what Watanuki is, we get a few new magical items introduced, some more bad things happen to Watanuki, and… well, we get Yuko telling us on the last page that this is the beginning of the end. I’m ready to find out what it all means, and I’m really hoping the end is as good as the rest of the story has been.

I don’t think we’ve really seen them yet, so I was happy to see Watanuki’s new eyes in two different colors are shown on the first color page in this volume.  I’m always sort of surprised that there isn’t more of an indication that one eye is different in the black and white art… but that may be that part of me is disappointed that he didn’t get an eye with a ridiculously tiny pupil like he should have.