Xxxholic: Volume 11

Watanuki is starting to finally mature though still having fits from time to time. Especially where Dômeki is concerned or Himawari is involved. Supernatural events around him though are pushing him to grow up as he tries to help a ghostly classmate and that little girl whose five minutes of fame are proving to be too difficult to handle. Meanwhile Yuko Ichihara, his mistress, is dealing with her own problems as she and her supernatural servants feel a darkness rise around the store.

I think this series is just great and this volume is very entertaining. I hope to learn more about what is going on in volume 12. Something bad is going to happen and there is no stopping it.

This volume of xxxHOLiC looks towards both the past - with cameos by virtually all the supporting cast, and the future - as it finally becomes linked in earnest with it's Tsubasa crossover. The volume includes a visit by the two Warashi girls, who belatedly rush to the scene to make a thankfully unnecessary bedside visit to Watanuki upon hearing of the events of the previous volume; as well as a nice return visit by a fully healed Watanuki and Domeki to the friendly fox spirits and another chat between Watanuki and Haruka in Watanuki's dreams. It also touches on the issue of where the three teens go from the events of the last volume emotionally speaking. Instead of making Watanuki give up on her, the revealation about Himawari actually prompts him to finally ask her out on a date in a gently insistent enough way that she can't politely say no - which in turn leads to Himawari and Domeki arranging for Domeki to always be around to avoid any more disasters. It's arguably not the best decision they could make, as it's really only putting a bandaid on the problem and painfully dragging out the presumably inevitable for all three of them. The biggest issue of all, however, is actually what's going on with the Tsubasa gang, who get significant cameos in this volume which among other things reveal whether or not Fai is going to pull through what's currently happening to him over in Tsubasa. Apparently, the Tsubasa gang is going to make an unfortunate decision that will give Fei Wang the upper hand - and for reasons we still don't know Watanuki is apparently going to have to clean up the mess. This is the volume of truth for those who haven't kept up with Tsubasa, as keeping current with HOLiC's sister manga is going to be pretty unavoidable from now on if one wants to completely understand what is happening. It's also a big volume for Domeki, who's quietly taken aside by Yuko and given ammunition to insure against something bad she senses is going to happen - with Yuko later grimly commenting to the black Mokona that he's going to need all the help he can get soon, pretty much confirming that he's going to be as critical to what is about to go down as Watanuki. We also get a very interesting first meeting between Domeki and Kohane in which the psychic girl, who can instantaneously sense people's true nature, shows an immediate liking and affection for him - and with more bluntness than Yuko pretty much outright upbraids Watanuki for taking Domeki for granted and not seeing what's right in front of his eyes. As bridge volumes go it doesn't get much better than this, our anticipation for the next volumes of both xxxHOLiC and Tsubasa effectively heightened.