xxxHOLiC Manga Chapter 188

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Maru and Moro attempt to sneak in and wake Watanuki up, but he surprises them by already being awake. Mokona reports that Doumeki will return after college and Watanuki has Maru and Moro clean to prepare for their guest.

Later, the customer arrives, a blind woman who’s dressed in a kimono and who’s carrying a large package. She’s led to a chair and despite being blind, she finds the room lovely based on her other senses, including Watanuki’s smoking pipe. She opens her eyes and Watanuki compliments her on them, causing her to tease him about the rest of her.

Finally, as Maru and Moro go get tea, the woman gets to the purpose of her visit and unwraps her package, revealing a sanshin — a three-stringed musical instrument akin to a banjo.

Thoughts/Review: Hmmmm. I guess I was totally assuming when I thought that xxxHOLiC was coming to an end. Tsubasa has ended (and about time too) but xxxHOLiC continues unencumbered by that other manga (though I bet that it is possible that we’ll see some of those Tsubasa characters at some point considering how that manga ended). I looked and since no announcement has been made for xxxHOLiC ending, I guess that it will continue with Watanuki being the shop owner. If that’s true, then I hope to see Himawari-chan as well as Zashiki-Warashi return. I wonder how long CLAMP will continue xxxHOLiC in this fashion?

Regardless, we continue into this new story where we now get to meet the customer. Considering the range of cursed things that the shop has handled before, I guess the sanshin is cursed as well. Interesting that the customer is blind though.

What will interest me most is how Watanuki grants wishes. CLAMP has implied that he takes damage somehow, either mentally, physically, or both. Yuuko-san granted wishes based on making the customer pay an equivalent amount for the wish. If Watanuki isn’t doing that but paying the price on a personal level, then some of these wishes he grants must take a lot out of him.

There’s something that I wonder — considering Maru and Moro are still alive and the shop still exists, might Yuuko-san be connected with that?

As I consider things, I can’t see how they can have much of a manga if Watanuki can’t leave the shop, thus forcing all the action to come to him. Well, I suppose Doumeki, Himawari, or other characters could take more of a center stage, but that really would shift the focus of the manga, which to date has been centered around Watanuki.

Well, we’ll see where CLAMP takes things. I hope for good things in the future.