×××Holic a.k.a. Ein Unwiderstehlicher Drang Sich das Herz Zerreissen zu Lassen
I just finished xxxHolic by CLAMP. Spoilers ahoy!
So.
xxxHolic - which has less to do with x-rated perversions, than with "[insert noun here]holic" in the sinn of shoppaholic, alcoholic or - in my case - CLAMPholic, which you can read as the pathologic need to read angsty stories where beautiful people lose eyes and hope; where, though people may get what they're fighting for, very rarely get what they dream of and no Happy End is ever penned without at least one tear-jerking scene and where nobody (but nobody) will ever have a happy, trouble-free lovestory.
Not that either Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle* or xxxHolic have typically happy ends. Please bear in mind, that I've only read Tsubasa once, and that it's currently packed away in my grandmother's basement (as are the first fourteen of my xxxHolic books), but DAYUM, Clamp!
You really didn't cut anyone in either of these narratives much slack, huh? I mean, it's not like Subaru Sumeragi the poor bastards in most of your other stories have it all that easy either, but compared to Magic Knight Rayearth or even Chobits (which, to be fair, is in it's own special category of fucked-up, in a different way) the "happy" ends were kinda rotten.
Shaoran and Sakura, having fought their way through time and space and defeated the Big Bad, are separated. Him, forced to dimension-hop forever (more or less), while she's stuck in Clow Country.
And then, we have xxxHolic... Yuuko is dead. Doumeki is dead (Btw? This ;__; was my face upon realizing that the "Doumeki" in the last chapter is actually the great-grandson of the one in the series)) and, actually so is every other human we've encountered in xxxHolic except for Watanuki himself. Oh, and Watanuki has lived for hundred's of years trapped in the store, where he misses Yuuko so much, that forgetting her (or, apparantly, just getting on with his life) would bring him even more unhappiness than his current situation does. This end is, by the by, supposed to be happy from word on high. Yeeeaaahh...
Btw, not only did Himawari and Doumeki pass away, but they formed families of their own and the thought of Watanuki having to stay a teenager while watching them grow up, age and drift away into their own adulthood while he's stuck as some kind of half-immortal not-quite-spirit in a store outside of time - ARGH CLAMP YOUR HAPPY END IS SURPRISINGLY LIKE A SARTRE-ISH VISION OF HELL
Whiiiiiich all things considered, I really shouldn't be surprised about, especially not after Clover, which started out melancholic, passed straight through angst and just kept getting worse...
But I apparantly can't help but hope, despite everything. I mean, I like their characters! I care for them, I cry when they lose an eye when they are put trough the wringer and I just want them to be get to be with the people they care about, in the same world, time and plane of reality.
Oh, and I would be awefully pleased if they weren't also already dead, which I'm betting my hat on that Kobato is (either that, or she's some kind of unborn spirit or idk) cuz dammit, if you break my heart with that piece of fluff, CLAMP, I will not forgive you *shakes fist against the sky*
And what the hell is it with the Doumeki family and their clone-look-alikeish faces? I'm just gonna suppose that the great-grandson is actually the grandfather reborn, and they're all "circling" round waiting for Watanuki to get his boss back/get over her *sticks fingers in ear* Lalalala, if there is anything that goes against this theory I don't want to hear~
* do not ask me to explain the plot, the end or... well, anything about TRC. It is good, but also Le Confusing
In short: CLAMP. You keep breaking my heart, you bastards. Now draw faster and finish X!!!! so I can have it broken all over again.
Originally posted at Dreamwidth.
So.
xxxHolic - which has less to do with x-rated perversions, than with "[insert noun here]holic" in the sinn of shoppaholic, alcoholic or - in my case - CLAMPholic, which you can read as the pathologic need to read angsty stories where beautiful people lose eyes and hope; where, though people may get what they're fighting for, very rarely get what they dream of and no Happy End is ever penned without at least one tear-jerking scene and where nobody (but nobody) will ever have a happy, trouble-free lovestory.
Not that either Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle* or xxxHolic have typically happy ends. Please bear in mind, that I've only read Tsubasa once, and that it's currently packed away in my grandmother's basement (as are the first fourteen of my xxxHolic books), but DAYUM, Clamp!
You really didn't cut anyone in either of these narratives much slack, huh? I mean, it's not like Subaru Sumeragi the poor bastards in most of your other stories have it all that easy either, but compared to Magic Knight Rayearth or even Chobits (which, to be fair, is in it's own special category of fucked-up, in a different way) the "happy" ends were kinda rotten.
Shaoran and Sakura, having fought their way through time and space and defeated the Big Bad, are separated. Him, forced to dimension-hop forever (more or less), while she's stuck in Clow Country.
And then, we have xxxHolic... Yuuko is dead. Doumeki is dead (Btw? This ;__; was my face upon realizing that the "Doumeki" in the last chapter is actually the great-grandson of the one in the series)) and, actually so is every other human we've encountered in xxxHolic except for Watanuki himself. Oh, and Watanuki has lived for hundred's of years trapped in the store, where he misses Yuuko so much, that forgetting her (or, apparantly, just getting on with his life) would bring him even more unhappiness than his current situation does. This end is, by the by, supposed to be happy from word on high. Yeeeaaahh...
Btw, not only did Himawari and Doumeki pass away, but they formed families of their own and the thought of Watanuki having to stay a teenager while watching them grow up, age and drift away into their own adulthood while he's stuck as some kind of half-immortal not-quite-spirit in a store outside of time - ARGH CLAMP YOUR HAPPY END IS SURPRISINGLY LIKE A SARTRE-ISH VISION OF HELL
Whiiiiiich all things considered, I really shouldn't be surprised about, especially not after Clover, which started out melancholic, passed straight through angst and just kept getting worse...
But I apparantly can't help but hope, despite everything. I mean, I like their characters! I care for them, I cry when they lose an eye when they are put trough the wringer and I just want them to be get to be with the people they care about, in the same world, time and plane of reality.
Oh, and I would be awefully pleased if they weren't also already dead, which I'm betting my hat on that Kobato is (either that, or she's some kind of unborn spirit or idk) cuz dammit, if you break my heart with that piece of fluff, CLAMP, I will not forgive you *shakes fist against the sky*
And what the hell is it with the Doumeki family and their clone-look-alikeish faces? I'm just gonna suppose that the great-grandson is actually the grandfather reborn, and they're all "circling" round waiting for Watanuki to get his boss back/get over her *sticks fingers in ear* Lalalala, if there is anything that goes against this theory I don't want to hear~
* do not ask me to explain the plot, the end or... well, anything about TRC. It is good, but also Le Confusing
In short: CLAMP. You keep breaking my heart, you bastards. Now draw faster and finish X!!!! so I can have it broken all over again.
Originally posted at Dreamwidth.