Dari: Here I am with another batch of xxxHOLIC chapter reviews, and i’ll have a special one for chapter 200 out soon.
Chapter 194: the 1st Chapter of the Crimson Pearl arc, Watanuki gets a new pipe at the price of allowing a sadistic spider spirit into the house… surprisingly enough, this is a fair deal… for those that don’t remember, this spider spirit is the one that ate Watanuki’s right eye back in volume 8.
The Spider attempts to seduce Watanuki...
Chapter 195: The Spider Spirit is even for flirtatious then before, and makes moves on Watanuki… Don’t fall for it Watanuki! She’s sadistic, who knows what she’ll do to you… maybe eat your other eye.
What is that image Watanuki sees?
Chapter 196: Watanuki uses spider web given as a deposit from the spider spirit to find the Crimson Pearl, but seeing as it’s outside the shop grounds, he sends Doumeki off to follow the spider web.
and so, the girl speaks to someone she shouldn't be able to see...
Chapter 197: Mokona’s sake rations get halved, Doumeki looks at his lifeless egg, once again… and Watanuki visits the apartment building where the thread leads in his dreams. There he meets a gir you can see him. The fact that she can see him makes her not normal, and therefore somewhat important, at least for this arc.
Himawari secretly fangirls over the Watanuki x Doumeki shipping pair...
Chapter 198: Not only can the woman see him, but she can hear him as well… a short discussion follows, but Watanuki gets too into it and wakes up, which is a problem, as he can’t be dreaming while he’s awake… the 2nd part of the chapter is the start of the phone call with Himawari. She’s at a University far away from Tokyo (though this could mean anything from Hokkaido to Europe, though judges by him saying that she might get cold, and Doumeki is going to take something up to her, I’m guessing Hokkaido) and she appears to be missing Watanuki.
Chapter 199:
Love, how sweet
so april 1st is the new Tanabata?
Well, We will be seeing Himawari when the story reaches April 4th, as it seems that is when Watanuki is celebrating his birthday this year, 3 days after his actual birthday.
Furthermore, we learn something very important, Watanuki and Himawari love each other and seem to be going out. Now, I can almost hear the shouts of joy from the fans of the Watanuki x Himawari pairing, and the cries of sadness of fans of other pairing… (personally, I’m a fan of the Watanuki x Zashiki)
However, like Orihime and Hikoboshi, they are fated to meet only once a year, due to the strong magical power of the shop affecting Himawari’s luck (for those that can’t remember, Himawari brings bad luck wherever she goes, so while she her self may not always be the direct victim, it is often someone close to her)
Unlike Orihime and Hikoboshi, they do not meet on the seventh day of the seventh month (which they should meet on, as that would be awesome), but on Watanuki’s birthday, or round about that time. (for those who have no idea who Orihime and Hikoboshi are, and wondering what the hell I’m talking about, read this Wiki article)
After learning all this, we see Watanuki go back to sleep (not too bad a job where you spend most of it sleeping…) and enters the apartment building in his dream again. After a short discussion about the owner of the apartment, the conversation turns to the Crimson Pearl, and to the Spider Lady, whom it turns out, the Woman in the apartment knows, and it turns out the Spider Lady asked the woman to produce the crimson pearl…
Dari’s loving of Chapter 199: 9/10
Orihime — good catch there. I hadn’t considered that story in reference to Watanuki and Himawari only getting to meet once a year but it works.