天下制覇

I wasn’t expecting so much cleavage this episode.

Impressions:

First off, I question the physics of the xxxHOLiC world. Yuuko slipped through the space between the wall and the pole with no problem whatsoever, but Watanuki got stuck. That would seem to indicate that Watanuki has a larger chest that Yuuko. I’m not certain I want to contemplate what that means in the grand scheme of things. It certainly frightens me. Maybe Yuuko just greased herself up before heading out… not that that line of thinking leads me to a better place. There’s also Yuuko’s reading material. I don’t remember a cheesecake bikini cleavage shot every time they showed the arrow, but hey… suddenly BOOBS. Yuuko… why were you even reading softcore porn magazines while sitting on Watanuki in the first place?

Outside of the random boob machinations, pretty much exactly the same as the manga. Not too terribly much interesting though. More setup and foreshadowing for Himawari’s arc and all the weird/random extended Watanuki dream adventures. The accordian music was certainly unexpected and strange during the dream seller’s visit, but I guess it sort of fit. Haruka (Doumeki’s grandfather) was formally introduced and he’ll be a recurring character in Watanuki’s dreams for a long while to come. Kohane showed up in the preview too. I’m not a huge fan of her character, but I do like the majority of the stories that she’s a part of.

At night, an evil spirit courses down the street, drawing ever closer to Watanuki. He turns around and sees it as it draws near. He runs from it through the streets, but it grows larger and becomes a giant Mokona.

And that’s the dream he had for the new year. Himawari thinks it’s amazing, putting Watanuki into ecstasy. Brief reminder that good new year dreams have a hawk, eggplant and Mt Fuji. Watanuki’s just had an eggplant. Wonder what that means… EHHHHHHHH!?

He asks Himawari about her dream… but she says it was a bit scary. It wasn’t something she understood, but a nightmare where she was trapped and kept running, but could never escape until… oops, time to go elsewhere.

Watanuki pulls out some madelines and gives them to her. As he hands them to her, he thanks her for telling him about her dream and the madelines glow strangely as she takes them.

Later, Doumeki and Watanuki are hanging out as well. The usual ranting antic over Himawari ensue. Watanuki’s thoughts turn to wondering about seeing through half of Doumeki’s sight and wondering if he’d spy on Doumeki making moves on Himawari for it. Finally, he notices Doumeki snacking on the madelines and has convulsions. Doukemi idly thinks to himself that he had a dream about his grandfather, so Watanuki yells at him to shut up.

Watanuki walks through the street at night. He senses something, but turns and there’s nothing. He continues, but he definitely feels something. He walks faster and a strange light glows behind him, covering the street. He starts to run, but turns at the last second as a giant evil spirit appears behind him. It drips ichor and looks at him, totally dwarfing everything. Watanuki tries to run, thinking that he’s caught. Just then, it grabs his leg and begins to drag him in. He struggles, but can’t escape.

Then, a man on a horse rides up and shoots an arrow at the monster dispelling it. The arrow falls next to the temporarily stunned Watanuki. The man is Doumeki. (OR IS IT!?)

Watanuki screams as Yuuko sits on him. People who go to sleep in the street get sat on after all. Watanuki is confused and wonders where the spirit and Doumeki went. She tells him it was just a dream. Watanuki thinks that’s strange, but the arrow from his dream is on the ground, glowing next to him.

Yuuko and Watanuki retire to some swings. Yuuko explains where the dream came from… isn’t it something familiar? That was Himawari’s, not his. However, he purchased it. He didn’t give her any money… but the madelines acted as the purchase.

Since he also ‘traded’ madelines with Doumeki and heard his dream, Watanuki saw that one as well. Wasn’t that fortunate!

It’s strange for someone to buy a nightmare, but Watanuki didn’t know what he’s doing. There’s only one thing to do now… sell his dream.

Yuuko wonders where to find him, and CLOSEUP ON WATANUKI’S PORN. Whew. The arrow rises up and spins. It points in a direction. Watanuki starts to walk past the pole, but Yuuko stops him and tells him that they have to pass through the gap between the pole and the wall. She somehow manages to compress her chest enough to slip through with no problems. Watanuki’s chest gets stuck.

I’ll let you come to your own conclusions about what that means for determining which of the two has a larger chest.

Watanuki feels that something strange happened as they passed through, and Yuuko tells him that they’re in a different world now. See? There’s a tapir flying around on balloons while accordian music plays.

Accordian.

That’s who they’re looking for, the dream seller. It hears Watanuki spazzing and flies over. It greets Yuuko, but then sees what Watanuki’s holding and demands it. Watanuki hands him the softcore magazine. The dream seller starts reading it right there in the street.

GET A ROOM.

No, that’s not what he wanted… he wants that dream. The dream seller ups the offer to buy. Two of his best. Watanuki’s a bit confused… so the offer goes up again. Yuuko steps in and reminds him that he knows the value of that dream, so should be prepared to pay full price.

She picks out the best of his best and the dream seller reluctantly agrees and gives five dream balloons to Watanuki. He then sobs about the deal, but Yuuko tells him that he knows it was a great deal. He inserts the arrow into a balloon and it glows brilliantly. It really is a great dream and he’ll enjoy raising it. Watanuki is still a bit baffled by everything.

The dream seller mentions that he’s going to the fox’s place afterwards. Small talk before Watanuki interrupts and asks the dream seller if he could give one of his dreams to the fox udon place’s son. The tapir is confused for a moment, but then says that Watanuki really is a rare and good person. He’ll make sure the fox kid gets it. The tapir then floats away.

Watanuki asks if he really is a strange person. Like you’re going to get a straight answer from Yuuko. How do they get home now? The same way… no… through a smaller gap under a fence.

Watanuki prepares to go to sleep, grumbling all the while. His dream balloons are teathered up near him. As he drifts off, he sees someone sitting in the doorway.

It’s Doumeki… no it’s not. It’s his grandfather, who refers to Doumeki as Shizuka. They look pretty similar.

Watanuki says that he doesn’t really understand their relationship, but he feels like they’ve gotten a little closer because of their eyes. His grandfather shows him something good that he can use against Doumeki… a photo from when he was young.

Watanuki wakes up. One balloon is gone. He wonders what that was, and Yuuko in her kimono PJs tells him it was a dream. He thinks it was a continuation of the previous dream, but Yuuko points out the popped balloon and says that Doumeki’s grandfather must have sold him a dream long ago. Watanuki thinks that’s quite a coincidence. There are no coincidences… only fate.

Yuuko asks what kind of dream it was. Watanuki says that he showed him a photo of Doumeki when he was young… in a girl’s kimono. Watanuki eagerly looks around the room for the photo, but Yuuko reminds him that if he didn’t take it in the dream, he won’t have it now. Watanuki despairs for a moment, but then realizes that he can still blackmail Doumeki.

He’s then attacked by Mokona with eggplants demanding that Watanuki prepare them. Bring on the sake. So that’s what Watanuki’s dream was all about.

Preview:

At an everblooming sakura tree, Watanuki encounters a medium.