xxxHOLiC (2022)

I have to keep reminding myself that this newest ×××holic adaptation was a movie rather than a whole series, because I really wished that it was the latter... as it had been for the 2013's adaptation. And as with the 2013 version, I wished that there were plans to make a live-action adaptation of Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles since it does feel out out place to think of Watanuki's existence without having any mention of Shaoran.

That said, having Shibasaki Kou as Yuko was really perfect! I have nothing against Watanabe Anne tbh but I have to say that Kou really do carry the mysterious aura that Yuko had. And that was also partially the reasoning as to why I wished that this current adaptation was also made as a series. Because one can't really get enough of it, seeing Shibasaki Kou's Yuko and Kamiki's Watanuki as well as the rest of the casts.

I love Himawari's actress and she really carried the characters well. But I have to admit that due to the movie's length a lot of her story was revised to fit the time constraints. It made it hard to really relate to her character since the plot was moving too fast. Same can be said about Doumeki tbh. Like I prefer his drama version more, which was understandable since drama Doumeki had time to develop his relationship with Watanuki (and Himawari) compared to the movie version. And movie Doumeki feel a bit too stiff than how I remembered him.

Like the drama, this movie also covered the arc regarding the Spider Lady. But unlike drama, movie place more emphasis on the incident between the Spider Lady and Watanuki... aside from extending further to cover the end plot of ×××holic where Yuko passed the shop to Watanuki. Not that I blame the movie for that (since without the TRC connection it's hard to justify the reasoning for the latter plot to happen) but I kinda wished that movie didn't just speedrun the plot about Yuko's shop being a shop that grants wishes as well as Watanuki's interaction with the customers just to reach the end plot. I mean at most, I wished that the movie plot could be split up into several movie length production rather than just one. I mean, man.... how could movie tease us with a few seconds of Zashiki Warashi×Watanuki yet later forget about it? Like I know people used to complain about the 2013 drama, but I wished that the adaptation this time could be a bit longer.

Anyhow, this was still a great movie. While the lack of TRC mention made the adaptation feel incomplete (since it basically can explain everything about Watanuki's existence and why he needed to be at the shop) it was still nice to revisit the world of ×××holic after so long. Not to mention how perfect the costume department had been for this movie.

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Well, that was very... Japanese. And as much as I looked forward to this movie - I own the manga in its entirety and I watched and loved the anime - I simply didn't like it. Why?

For one, the music was very jarring. Terribly loud, electronic, very... 2001: A Space Odyssey like with the whole droning thing etc. After a while, it made my eye twitch. I really hated it.

Also, I felt like I was actually watching a theater performance. It was mostly filmed in a studio, among very obvious set pieces - the shop didn't even look like a real place - and the performances themselves were so overwrought, especially by the villains. It felt very "even the viewers in the last row need to see I'm batcrap insane, watch me cackle." Yeah.

The only saving grace? Watanuki and Doumeki. This kind of a relationship was what I wanted from the manga and the anime and the movie actually delivered. So brownie points for that.

But... yeah. This? Not my cuppa. Maybe someone who is really into artsy stuff will love it but not me.

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