Thanks to barnesandnoble.com for the cover image.

Rating “T” for “Ages 13+”

High school student Kimihiro Watanuki is plagued by spirits called “yōkai.”  Invisible to others, the yōkai have a strong attraction to Watanuki, but he finds these encounters with the spirits troublesome.  He turns to Yūko Ichihara, a powerful witch, to rid him of the spirits... for a cost.  Watanuki becomes a part-time employee for Yūko running small errands dealing with the supernatural and performing household chores.

In xxxHOLiC, Vol. 12, Watanuki seems trapped in a perpetual state of dreaming.  While his dreams give him a chance to spend more time with his friend Haruki Dômeki, he’s been falling asleep a lot.  Watanuki is starting to think that his entire relationship with Yūko Ichihara merely takes place in one of the many dream worlds in which Watanuki seems bound.

THE LOWDOWN:  I haven’t had much experience with the manga-ka (creator) collective CLAMP.  This group of four women is probably the best known manga creators in America.  Their career began in “doujinshi” or amateur comics.  To me, their work in xxxHOLiC could be one of publisher TOKYOPOP’s “Global Manga” or OEL – original English manga produced by American creators and fashioned under the influence of Japanese comics.

I don’t mean that as a criticism so much as I’m trying to say that xxxHOLiC doesn’t seem particularly Japanese or American.  It’s like an exceptional fan production drawn with pretty art and a story that is more poetry and impressionism than it is a narrative.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  With its art having an Erté-like design style and a fairy tale feel, this may appeal to fans of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman.

B-