xxxHOLiC: A Midsummer Night's Dream

Information of Anime

Yûko Ichihara gets receives a assignment in going into an old mansion.  Inside the mansion are group of collectors that were invited by the owner of the mansion.  They are invited into the mansion for an auction.  What this auction is is unknown as well as the owner of the mansion.  Along the way, mysterious events occurs where the collectors are disappearing one by one.

Storyline (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Below is a summary of the storyline I've seen.  This section does contain some spoilers.  If you haven't seen the series yet & don't want to be spoiled, skip this section.  If you want to know the story & want to see how I viewed it, read on.

Yûko, Watanuki Kimihiro, & Domeki go to an old mansion after receiving a request from a young girl to find out why she can't go back to that house.  With the owner of the mansion not on sight, the trio follow instructions from notes sitting or floating around the mansion.  Along the way, they meet a group of collectors that each received an invitation to an unknown auction.  Also, they are here because their current collection is incomplete & these collectors are determine to figure out what they are missing.  With this, they are asked to stay for the night & never to leave their rooms.

The movie focuses a lot on Watanuki's encounters with the mansion from narrow tunnels to strange rooms.  Also, one by one the collectors are disappearing from the mansion.  Leaving the room with fear, Watanuki breaks the rule as he roam around the mansion & meeting Domeki & a couple of collectors along the way.  From here & with Yûko's intelligence, it is determined that the owner of the mansion is a observed collector & was collecting people to his collection.  He tries to get Yûko into his collection, only to have his obsession be broken when Yûko tells him about the girl who sent her here.  Here, we learn about the collector's past & why he was obsess with collecting due to the girl's advice about collecting things & him promising her that he'll have an impressive collection when she comes back.  Coming back to his senses, a large part of the mansion is destroyed & the young girl that asked for Yûko's help has turned into an old woman.  She was the girl that the collector made a promise with.  With this, he promises to her that he will not collect anymore.  As payment, Yûko is given to the key to the mansion which she later gives to Syaoran from Tsubasa Chronicles as part of a trade.  The key will play a role in the Tsubasa Chronicles: Nendaiki Torikago no Kuni no Himegimi movie that follows right after this movie.

My Personal Review

xxxHOLIC: A Midsummer's Night Dream makes an impression debut into anime form in a big way.  The movie definitely deserves some attention to be watched.  Although it's short for a full-length movie, it does live up to the hype.  Even if you aren't a fan of the series, it's something you should watch.  However, knowing some about the series beforehand would help.

Animation

The drawings have that CLAMP touch.  The characters are very thin with long bodies, arms & legs.  CLAMP fans will really love these designs as they are true to the manga designs.  Also, the drawings tend to warp a bit.  This is mainly an effect from the mansion's powers & the designs really make it look like those strange European animations you see in film festivals.

The backgrounds are pretty good.  A large amount of it are 3DCGs especially when they get a first person view of the mansion as Watanuki walks around.  It's pretty good that you can hardly make out any fakeness of the walls, floors, & surrounding objects.  The colours are very dull with very little brightness.  The colours tones are very good & sets the mood well.  However, the balance between the characters & the backgrounds stands out quite a bit as you can see the characters being in bold colours.

The animation movements are very smooth.  The movement isn't realistic due to the long body parts.  However, the movements of it is very fluid; especially when Watanuki moves around in very tight areas.  Neverthesless, it's very well done & I was impressed.

Sound

The sound effect have that dark touch.  This is a good thing since it helps sets the mood in the dark mansion.  However, there are quite a number of cute & silly sounds; mainly to setup the comedy bits.  Overall, they are crisp with no fuzzes & the 5.1 effects really help the mood a lot.

The voices are pretty good as they match each character's personality.  The collectors have a good seiyuu lineup as well as they fit their images.  It's a very nice lineup, especially for an anime movie based on a hit manga on its first anime appearance.

The music isn't too bad.  It helped create the mood, but not to a level that I was expecting.  It was still eerie & mysterious.  However, it didn't give me the feeling to make me buy it.

Story

The story is very well written out.  It was mysterious & kept me on the edge of my seat when Watanuki was exploring the mansion.  The outcome was kind of predictable, but it was still filled with surprises.  For an one hour movie, it's not bad & the length felt right.

The ending is good, but not the best.  However, it does the job well.  Personally, I think you need a good background about the series 1st before watching this.  Watching this movie without any background of this series, it was a bit hard for me since I didn't know the characters very much.  However, the movie was nice enough to give some brief background of the characters.  The movie doesn't begin where the series starts.  It's more in the middle & as a side story really.  Personally, I think the movie was really made for xxxHOLIC fans.  However, you can still enjoy the movie if you have no background of it.

As for it tying to the Tsubasa Chronicles: Nendaiki Torikago no Kuni no Himegimi movie, it doesn't really have a huge impact on it.  It was basically Yûko giving the key to Syaoran who would use it later in the end of that movie.  In fact, he gets the key at the end & it would save a town from darkness.  Personally, the link isn't a big one.  Pretty minor instead.

Overall Conclusion

xxxHOLIC: A Midsummer Night's Dream is a pretty good movie to watch.  Even if you aren't a fan of the series or just starting to pick up on it, it's still enjoyable.  However, getting some background of the series beforehand would be best.  With the TV series come very soon, you'll probably want to watch a bit of it until the middle to get a good understand of the series before watching the movie.  If you are a fan of CLAMP or of the series or like mysterious, this is a good movie to watch.  In fact, I would recommend it.

Out of ten, xxxHOLIC: A Midsummer Night's Dream gets a nine from me.  The story is very good & well written for an one hour movie.  It's dark & keeps you on the edge of your seat.  However, if you don't have a good background of the series, you may have problems understand it.  However, I didn't face this problem myself & I didn't have any background of the series when I first started watching it. 

Last updated on January 22, 2008