July 13th, 2009 
AstroNerdBoy xxxHOLiC Shunmuki – 02 (finale)
×××HOLiC 春夢記 Episode 02 (OVA/OAD)(final episode)
xxxHOLiC Shunmuki – 02
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Watanuki and Doumeki, having obtained the book Haruka tasked Watanuki with finding, are wondering what to do next when a paper with the Kanji for pond falls out. Assuming this means the pond on the temple grounds they head there. When the paper falls into the water, Ame-Warashi and Zashiki-Warashi emerge. Ame-Warashi explains that it is connected to Zashiki-Warashi’s water because of its purity. As to the reason for their visit, Zashiki-Warashi had heard about Watanuki’s injury and wanted to visit him.
She’s about to fall into the water due to blushing but when Watanuki goes to save her, he falls in instead. While in the shallow waters, he notices an object under a green rock and extracting it, discovers it is the next item they are to find. Ame-Warashi and Zashiki-Warashi depart and as Watanuki warms himself in a large bath, he discovers that the artifact is not just a mirror, but contains a bird symbol.
After consulting with Yuuko-san about the object over the phone, he follows her advice and to find the next clue, Himawari-chan arrives with cream puffs and remarks on how it looks like it will rain. After she eventually leaves, Watanuki remembers her rain comment so he and Doumeki head to where a large number of Japanese umbrellas are stored at the temple. Carved into one of the wood beams of the storage bin for the umbrellas is the bird symbol. Pressing it reveals a small chamber with a key. That key then fits into a small chest that Doumeki remembers no one having a key for.
Opening the small chest, Watanuki finds himself in the dream world and with Haruka, who explains that this treasure hunt was a ritual to get him here so he could meet with Sakura from Tsubasa. Sakura-chan and Watanuki talk for a while with Sakura-chan remarking on how like Syaoran he is. Syaoran arrives followed by the other Syaoran. Before he’s expelled from this dream world, Syaoran tells Watanuki to do what has to be done as the other part of himself.
Watanuki finds himself in a large open space with Yuuko-san standing under a sakura tree. They talk for a bit and Watanuki expresses his desire to grant Yuuko-san’s wish. After they hug, Watanuki wakes up to find Doumeki watching over him. Watanuki’s glasses are missing as they were lost in the dream world. Doumeki wants to eat so an annoyed Watanuki agrees to make something. As he steps outside, he opens his hand to find a single sakura petal there. Over at the shop, Yuuko-san has a similar petal in her hand
Thoughts/Review:
I’m reminded that this is where the manga stories for both xxxHOLiC and especially Tsubasa went off the deep end and never came back. However, that’s a discussion for another time.
The writers here basically took a couple of chapters from the manga and cobbled them together to form a new tale. Having read the manga, I did understand the whole Tsubasa 
intrusion and I am reminded that I need to watch the 2-episode Tsubasa Shunraiki series. Anyway, for what its worth, I guess it worked OK. I always like seeing Zashiki-Warashi and Ame-Warashi so even though their sudden appearance was strange (and not as meaningful as it was in the manga). Seeing Himawari-chan is a plus as well. ^_^
I will say that Sakura-chan’s appearance, while happening 
as it was supposed to, slowed things down quite a lot. If you haven’t watched the Tsubasa Shunraiki OVA or read the Tsubasa manga, this will come across as one of the most bizarre and boring bits ever. Even though I knew the purpose, I found the sequence incredibly slow and though I love crossovers, this is a pitfall that one can fall into when doing a crossover.
I did like the moment between Yuuko-san and Watanuki when he told her he wanted to grant her wish. I felt that came off better as a scene in the anime than it did in the manga.
The ending sets up the possibility of more OVA’s should the Japanese wish to produce them. I’m guessing that will happen once both Tsubasa and xxxHOLiC mangas have run their course.
In the end, I’d say the first half or so of the episode flows pretty well, but things rapidly slow down once Sakura-chan comes over.
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I totally agree about going off the deep end stuff. Nowdays Tsubasa doesn’t seem to even make sense (forget even trying to keep track of how many syaorans and Sakuras there are at any given time, much less their order of creation/birth/rebirth?). It is like the last two episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion only those series at least had been hinting throughout that it was going to be some sort of philosophical ending (although it definitely could have used some sort of transition).
The only thing I do get is that “dead people can’t be brought back.” They can be frozen, reincarnated, replaced with their alternates from another dimension, cloned, not really have died just appeared to have, been killed in a virtual reality that we all thought was reality, it could have been the dimensional double that actually died (thus, the original ain’t dead), or been rescued from the verge of a blackhole by miraculous powers that are now tearing reality apart. But whatever happens they either weren’t dead in the first place or it was all a hallucination and you’ll wake up as soon as your alarm clock starts ringing.
Oh yes, and finally it could be that you’re in a cartoon in which case: if you’re in one piece no one really dies (all the graves are fake), if your in naruto everyone has 2 lives, if you are the only male in a harem you have as many lives as their are episodes and sharp/blunt instruments per an episode, and if your a marvel or DC comic book character you have infinite lives