Customer Reviews

xxxHOLiC: AnotherHOLiC

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Being a XXXholic-holic, I had high hopes for this novelization, but found that it had almost nothing of the qualities that made me love the manga. There is almost no supernatural presence, and while we're told about Watanuki's ability to see spirits, the writer gives no sense of what this would actually be like. All the supporting cast is kept offstage, and since a large part of the manga's charm is Watanuki's love/hate relationship with Domeki, this takes the personality right out of the story. Furthermore, the whole thing is told in an artsy-fartsy stream-of- conciousness style that is just plain annoying. There are three nice drawings by CLAMP, but fans will still want to give this one a miss.

This is a light novel that tries to be a manga collection. And maybe it is the translation, but it just isn't very good.

The book consists of three stories. The first was adapted into the anime as episode 17. It involves a young woman who rejects happiness by acting out in minor ways. The second involves a young woman who appears to be haunted her recently dead friend. And the third involves Watanuki meeting a person who claims to have similar powers.

Part of the problem with the book is the disconcerting and unclear way the author shifts between first and third person perspectives. In addition, either the original author or the translator sometimes leaves off quotes, making lines that characters are saying at the time into statements relayed by others.

Also, the story is entirely too mundane. Only the third revolves anything supernatural. Of the XXXHolic cast, only Watanuki and Yuko appear, the others are all mentioned in passing, but unused.

The first story is fine, but the anime did it better. The second story is interesting enough, but is more like a detective story than a XXXHolic story. Without giving to much away, the 'Holic' of the story is not a 'Holic'. And the third story is just bad. It is like a fanfic intro, in which the author attempts to introduce his own pet version of the rules of the universe. Not that that is bad in and of itself, butit is poorly executed, and the character who introduces the the author's theory is an annoying jerk who spends as much time insulting Watanuki as he does explaining his theory.

The book consists of three stories. One was made into an anime episode (Episode 17) and the others weren't.

The first two stories were well-written, giving an interesting view on the different ways people act and think and are. The third story was quite a let down. Not very well written and very boring. Only interesting part about it was that it subtily mentions the manga/anime, Azumanga Daioh. All in all, an okay read.

I was enjoying the stories, however, the author uses A LOT of references to Japanese culture so it feels like you are constantly reading the bottom of the page where they are explained. So it's definitely not for everyone. It seems to be mostly aimed at avid XXXholic fans. If you fall in that group then you would probably like this book though.