×××HOLiC seems to defy any real sense of simplistic genre classification, and that’s a good thing. Given the sheer breadth of its surreal dives into the darkly fantastical, the comic, and the serious, it seems to have all its conventional genre labels connected to one another in inseparable ways. It makes its home in a strange twilight zone. But no matter what particular style or tone it is going for at any given moment, it always seems to move in sneakily smooth motions of change rather than being plopped down from out of nowhere. It sows seeds early that germinate into their fuller blooming later, and at the center of its blooming lies a certain shop that grants any wish. For Kimihiro Watanuki, plagued by spirits that he cannot seem to get rid of, he comes across the shop’s proprietress, the sake-loving, coy, and outright mysterious Yuuko.

(From her early introduction, Yuuko’s physical presence as depicted by CLAMP intrigues the eye with excess, texture, and smoke. As Watanuki enters the shop, we enter a world as seen through Yuuko’s strange, mystifying allure and gaze)

To see the world through Yuuko’s eyes is to be made keenly aware of, to put it in rather odd words, “the relationship between everything and everything.” Every step, blink, word, and thought has a resonance and a meaning, a cause and effect that vibrates and changes the surrounding universe. Whether that meaning is immediately known to us or if it causes consequences that we ourselves are not aware of varies depending on the circumstance. ×××HOLiC makes its narrative out of this idea, and it proves delightfully malleable regardless of your own personal history. After all, there is no one, singular real-world ideology that monopolizes these thoughts. Many of the world’s religions, psychoanalytical theories, and philosophies imply—if not outright state in their texts—an inherent connection between the material and the spiritual, the natural and the supernatural, how the weight of one’s actions and thoughts dictates life’s destiny, or whether there are no coincidences and that everything is inevitable or predetermined (the question of personal agency).

One could easily map Jung’s synchronicity idea, Sartre’s “man is condemned to be free” and “living authentically” analysis from Being and Nothingness, Buddhism, Christianity, or any other construct upon it as our guiding light. When thought about in this way, it clarifies what makes Yuuko a mystifying presence both within the narrative proper and as a reader experiencing the story. ×××HOLiC personifies these numerous, real-world metaphysical beliefs by using Yuuko as the cipher, a characterized embodiment of the thing that we wrestle with and engage in, something that we take comfort in, get frustrated by, but also provides wisdom when needed with a gentle push.

(CLAMP’s sense of paneling helps bring a surreal quality to both the physical space and the inner thoughts or actions of its characters when appropriate, visually complementing the idea that every event / panel has an inevitable meaning or consequence)

×××HOLiC does involve pushing, sometimes with characters kicking and screaming. Whether it be Watanuki grimacing at needing to bring Yuuko’s fourth sake bottle of the day or someone coming to Yuuko’s shop in need of a wish granted, they are at times pushed into situations beyond(?) their control. In a philosophy where seemingly everything is inevitable, this could prove either fatalistic or nihilistic depending on your perspective. But focusing on a “what’s the point” angle means not focusing on the “what do I do about this” matter, and it’s that distinction that makes the manga’s material work. Even in the supposed closed-circuit nature of its themes and presentation, choices are always present. Watanuki's nature defaults to unfailingly be of help, even to the detriment of his own body or happiness. Choosing one possibility out of the many that exist, fueled by the past choices you’ve made and the state of your own mind, means rejecting all the other choices before you. To ×××HOLiC, this fact carries with it all the weight of a world-interacting power. Of course, using that power carries consequences of their own, especially if one claims they’ll pay any price in reckless desperation. With the supernatural and natural world held side-by-side in the manga, one can only imagine the payments and compensations that could form...

(People of all sorts come into Yuuko’s shop to get their wishes granted, some of whom are desperate for an exit, while others have their malice hidden behind veils that, as far as Yuuko is concerned, are as nonexistent as coincidence)

But regardless of one’s motive for making their wishes, everyone as a result is changed in some way, shape, or form, sometimes coming complete with the recurring imagery of butterflies. The core relationship of the series is the prime example. From their earliest interactions, Watanuki and Yuuko sometimes have a relationship akin to a cat being dropped into water – annoyance to the point of sheer frustration (take a wild guess who the cat is). But such a dynamic is to be expected; for the purposes of this story, if Watanuki is to experience the universe through Yuuko’s eyes, it must (not “should”) involve pushback and gradual realization. No worthwhile transformation happens overnight, and nothing worth experiencing doesn’t come without effort.

As ×××HOLiC cautiously warns though, to become aware of something means that you cannot necessarily go back to the way you were before; time, and experience, always push you forward. The series does not say outright that this change is good or bad, but understatedly claims that change is the quintessential—or to use Yuuko’s favorite term, inevitable—aspect of existence, and one that we all must reconcile in our own way. We reconcile it with our own choices at each new turn. When enemies become friends or you make a baseball bat and computer get intimately acquainted with one another, that may or may not be the part of some grand design by God, gods, or someone else. But no matter what design or not-design was in place to make it all happen, choosing or not choosing, along with the changes that come as a result, must occur. There is no pointlessness in ×××HOLiC’s inevitability philosophy; instead, it encourages the possibilities that inevitability brings.

So, if you find yourself needing a wish granted, look, feel, and choose carefully. Then change, look ahead, and regret nothing. The trust you place in your decisions can make wishes and dreams become reality. As Yuuko would say, it’s no coincidence – it’s inevitable.

The following is deliberately separated from the rest of the review, but might be a concern for anyone curious about the material. Because of its nature, I am giving it a spoiler tag, even though no major plot-relevant specifics will be mentioned.