Search - xxxHOLiC: The Complete Series Box Set on DVD

No Kei

J. Taylor | Villa Rica, Georgia USA | 08/03/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"For all who know that there are two seasons of xxxHOLIC, this contains only season one. Which is a great season, lots of Watanuki and Yuko time. Doumeki and Himawari are there as well. I haven't listen to the english voices so I can't say how well the dub was done, but I do enjoy the subtitles.

For those who were hoping that the "complete series" would contain the second season, xxxHOLIC Kei, it is not here. Hopefully Funimation will bring it out in a box set soon, as the other distributor discontinued before it was finished, or really even begun good.

I'll still rate it five stars because the price was really good, and the show is excellent. I'll just keep waiting for Kei."

Careful what you wish for

Kellyannl | Bronx, NY USA | 08/02/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Kimihiro Watanuki is an all-around nice guy who would give anyone the shirt off his back. Unfortunately for him, life often isn't fair; and in addition to being an orphan he's plagued by having an aura which attracts often malicious creatures from the spirit world but no ability to protect himself from them. One day, he finds himself in the shop of the mysterious, all-powerful witch Yuko, who tells him that if he basically becomes her indentured servant for a period of time she'll give him the solution to his problem - and Watanuki has reached the point where he's just become desperate enough to agree.

Yuko's solution for Watanuki is for him to seek out his schoolmate Domeki, the calm, collected star of his school's archery team who just so happens to be a natural exorcist - and incidentally the one person Watanuki can't stand due to insane jealousy largely stemming from Domeki being on friendly terms with Watanuki's crush, the lovely, sunny Himawari. Domeki, however, seems more focused on keeping Watanuki in one piece than hitting on Himawari...

So begins Watanuki's journey to end his problem and, because he's a very good person, try to help some of the other customers who come to Yuko's shop - if he doesn't get himself killed first.

The first thing that fans of the Holic manga will notice is that some of the events have been switched around in the anime, which might disorient them a bit but isn't really a huge problem at this point, as the story doesn't start to become too linear yet (it does beginning with the events presumably covered by the as yet unlicensed second season). They'll also notice that all references to what is concurrently happening to the Tsubasa gang have been cut (Tsubasa fans will recognize Watanuki from his brief cameo at the very beginning of Tsubasa), and the Warashi girls have been added to enough scenes to upgrade them to borderline recurring characters rather than guest stars. As with the Holic movie (A Midsummer Night's Dream), the English dub is particularly strong. Sometimes the stars align, and Todd Haberkorn pretty much nails how I heard Watanuki in my head while reading the manga: making us laugh when he goes into houseboy mode, want to slap him upside the head when he's horrid to Domeki, and breaking our hearts in the final stories of this season. His co-star Colleen Clinkenbeard equals him with a pitch-perfect, sultry Yuko; and J. Michael Tatum does fine as Domeki, who is arguably the most difficult character in the series to voice as a boy who's just as good and feels just as deeply as Watanuki but tends to show it in actions rather than words. Even minor characters are voiced extremely well.

All in all, I can heartily recommend this to Holic fans and anyone else who wants to try a supernatural tale.
"

An Acquired Anime For Some But Still Entertaining Just The S

Rich | CA | 08/06/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"While the series is packed with story-lots of ghost,psychic phenomenon/abilities, and the occult it's neither to dramatic or bloody to dissuade anyone from checking the series out. The one thing that I had to get use to was the animation, while not bad it seems the standard for the Clamp series anime shows similar to Tsubasa the series making the characters almost rail thin with long arms and legs with the exception of giving the female characters a little more pronouncement with the cleavage but in all it's nothing to terrible to complain about and the story itself is to entertaining to really argue about. The voice cast for the Japanese actors/actresses were of course very great and the cast that Funimation got for the series were incredible as well. The series won't have the battles and death scenes like Hellsing or Tsubasa so if you're expecting that kind of show you might want to pass this over, but if you're into the more alluring series where you have the characters very well told and with a very decent story-line for a series here's a good catch to check out."

XxxHolic Season 1 box set

Bernard C. Sabatini | 02/08/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is only season 1, not the complete series. Just be aware if you were hoping on season 2 as well. Good series, especially if you are a fan of other CLAMP series. This one is more serious and dramatic than the other series, most notably the companion series "Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles" which runs parallel to "xxxHolic"."