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And we’re back back back once again!
It’s been 8 years! And an entire year without a new CLAMP manga chapter. I feel rusty! (joking)
I have missed writing my reviews, but more than that, I have missed reading new CLAMP material!!
On to the chapter itself…
The color spread is gorgeous, as we would expect. I love the concept. It’s the typical mirrored illustration that is so familiar to CLAMP but with a twist. To me, it feels like Watanuki is not aware of Yuuko’s “presence” but she can tell of his, on the other hand. I was a little concerned about how Yuuko would look after the influence of Clear Card, but she looks like her usual “XXXHOLiC” self — although it may be too soon to judge from a single illustration.
We start off with a beautiful dream sequence. Watanuki seems concerned that his “mark” (the bird) crushed Yuuko’s “mark” (the butterfly). What could this mean, given that Yuuko is already dead…? It’s almost like the butterfly wants to fly freely but the bird prevents it from doing so by engulfing it in its wings and thus crushing the butterfly to shreds…
The Zashiki Warashi-lookalike girl is still staying at the shop. We still don’t know her name and she is wearing yet another kimono, even though she doesn’t have the same measures as Yuuko. Where did that kimono come from? Did Watanuki or Maru/Moro sewed it for her? Maybe this is irrelevant…
We are then introduced to what could be a new concept in XXXHOLiC: “whatever will be, will be”, which Watanuki himself compares to “hitsuzen”. However, the brackets used for “whatever will be, will be” are simple ones, while the brackets used for “hitsuzen” are more elaborated, which could imply that it’s a concept that might not for very long (ie: not as important). When it comes to Ohkawa-sensei, the type of brackets do matter!
Still, this hits Watanuki in a certain way. This other, alternative version of “hitsuzen”.
Watanuki meets Haruka again in a dream, and he tells Watanuki that everything comes to the place and time they are meant to, including that girl (of course).
Haruka reminds Watanuki that his powers have become stronger than he thinks and reminds him that this rarely means happiness to the ones who possess such strong powers. CLAMP’s law of balance applying hard here.
Before leaving, Haruka asks Watanuki where they are, who answers that they are inside a dream. Haruka then says that Watanuki can move and talk inside this dream… is he giving a hint to Watanuki? Will he be using a dream to send things over or communicate with someone?
We are reminded of the crimson pearl and the dragon egg. I’m so curious about these two itens, as I’m sure everyone is! Will they be used together for the same purpose? Or is each one of them meant to be used individually?
It’s interesting to see that Watanuki has not yet reached the same level of power as Yuuko as the shop owner. Even though Yuuko might not have known the purpose for each and every item stored in the shop’s warehouse, she knew that each item had a purpose and would find its owner eventually. I don’t think Watanuki knows that for sure just yet. I think he is learning that now. We are witnessing his growth.
The art for this chapter is great. It doesn’t feel like 8 years have passed at all. Granted, Nekoi-sensei did most of the art, but still, kudos to CLAMP, this will translate seamlessly for those reading from the tankobon.
18 pages for this comeback chapter (which is about the typical size for an opening series in Young Magazine). 76 pages so far for volume 5. We’re almost halfway through volume 5.
XXXHOLiC Rei will be taking a break on the next issue of Young Magazine (which is a double issue for Golden Week). Chapter 58 will come out on May 12th.
I wasn’t excepting a break so soon… but maybe they want to tie the release of volume 5 with the CLAMP PREMIUM COLLECTION edition of CLOVER in October/November.
Update: at the end of the chapter it’s revealed that XXXHOLiC Rei will be a biweekly serialization. Thus the break on the next issue.
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4 thoughts on “XXXHOLiC Rei – Chapter 57 (Updated)”
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It’s good to be back, it has been ages since last chapter.
The dream sequence at the beginning gave us the answer to the question we had been worrying about all these years: how is Watanuki going to defeat Yuuko in a power match? The black Mokona is a hundred percent certain that Watanuki cannot win. If Yuuko is after the sashiki warashi, there was no way for anyone to defeat her, her powers were just too great. In this chapter Watanuki finds out he NOW actually has the power to defeat Yuuko. Which leads me to think that the old him (maybe hundreds of years into the future) has returned in time to the moment he inherited the shop, when Himawari and Doumeki were still alive… but that is just a theory for now…
Whether Yuuko is doing this to save Watanuki from a worse fate or if it is all a misunderstanding and Yuuko is actually trying to help we will find out on later chapters…
With the restart of this series I think there are two important things to keep in mind:
1 Watanuki met the real Yuuko when Syaoran met the real Clone Syaoran
2 Kohane is nowhere to be found in Rei (I would have to reread it all to confirm, but I think she hasn’t even been mentioned)
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I don’t think there will be a showdown between Yuuko and Watanuki at all…
I don’t think Watanuki has to “defeat” her.
Actually, I don’t even think that’s really Yuuko.
And you’re right: Kohane hasn’t been mentioned in Rei at all.
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*TSUBASA SPOILER ALERT*
Yes, maybe you are right, earlier in this series Watanuki had to decide what the fake Yuuko from the beginning was. Maybe the thing that’s after the zashiki warashi is not that fake Yuuko but another fake Yuuko born form his desperate wish to see her again… That is why the black Mokona could sense the aura of Yuuko around the zashiki warashi lookalike.
Even now CLAMP has not confirmed who created Fei Wang. At the end of Tsubasa, Fai mentioned that Fei Wang was the personification of a wish left behind by someone with enormous magical power: maybe that someone was not Clow, but Watanuki from the future, who subconsciously created him. Maybe that is why Fei Wang was so obsessed to surpass Clow and resurrect Yuuko, and maybe that is why the symbol of the bat sometimes appears in xxxHolic, very prominently on the storefront and the inside of the shop where Watanuki delivers the cage with the moonlight birds that is so relevant now. Also, Fei Wang’s objective was just to say something to the resurrected Yuuko, maybe it was just a simple “welcome home”… Quite sad.
Kohane, the black Mokona and Watanuki can all see and talk to the dead, and yet, none of them can talk to Yuuko. CLAMP gave Yuuko a special death: she died swallowed by darkness (she did not even leave a body behind), maybe the same kind of darkness where Fei Wang and all the “Syaorans” ended up in at the end of Tsubasa, and incidentally, maybe that is why Fei Wang was there in that darkness, because he too was a Syaoran “variation”, in concordance with the theory that maybe he was born from future Watanuki.
In short, Yuuko is not simply dead, she was erased from existence… Thus, you are right, the thing that is after the zashiki warashi is not Yuuko, but something more sinister that only Watanuki could have conjured up, as he demonstrated at the beginning of Rei when he created a fake Yuuko and his fake life with her.
And yet Watanuki met the real Yuuko in the dream where Hana and Sakura sent water to the Utaki.
Let’s hope the dream of him shattering the butterfly does not mean Watanuki will have to shatter an image/clone of Yuuko he created.
Lastly, I want to mention that maybe this series is taking place in “the future”, Himawari could be a very very old lady at this point, and both Kohane an Shizuka dead, ugh, its quite possible with CLAMP. But I like more the theory of Watanuki returning in time to when his friends were alive.
Let’s wait for the answers, but it’s great to be able to theorize again about all these characters and universes.
Thanks for always bringing us the news and insights =)
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I like these theories better =)
I also long to find out about Fei Wang’s true nature. I am a firm believer that it’s a manifestation of Watanuki’s own wishes (which would be quite another paradox). When Fei Wang died, he was shattered into pieces (same way as the clones). There was no body left behind. It’s clear to me that he wasn’t a regular human being.
It could be the same for Yuuko. This “Yuuko” could be a sort of manifestation of Watanuki’s wish or a “left over” of the reality that he created to help Syaoran (like an “after effect”, a disturbance).
About Rei taking place in the future. It is somewhere after the events of XXXHOLiC but before “Rou”. But we don’t know how far ahead, as you said.
Is this Doumeki the same Doumeki that we know from the classic XXXHOLiC? Or is it his son?
Let’s wait for the answers, but it’s great to be able to theorize again about all these characters and universes.
True!
Thank you for leaving a comment! I truly appreciate it!
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