Setsuled's Journal

I ended up going to Fry's and Barnes and Noble with Tim yesterday. I almost bought a copy of Silk Stockings because of Cyd Charisse and because I'd been wishing the Ninotchka story had been an influence on the new Indiana Jones film. But the DVD didn't have commentary and it looked like one of Warner Brothers' lower quality transfers, so I figured I'd be just as well off downloading it.

I almost bought some xxxHolic manga, but decided I'd download some of the anime instead, in case it ended up being like Chobits, where all I could see when I saw the anime were the bad additions the anime added to the original, superior manga. And, well, free is cheaper.

Apparently I accidentally downloaded the first four episodes of the second season, but I didn't realise this until after I'd watched three of them. I'd been interested in the series because it's CLAMP, and I love their style. And it is a thoroughly beautiful series, as well as well animated;



The first three episodes feature a story arc wherein a young man named Domeki incurs the wrath of a spider when he destroys its web after his friend, Watanuki, gets tangled in it. The spider exacts revenge by taking Domeki's eye, but Watanuki asks his witch friend, Yuko (pictured above), to offer his own eye to the spider in exchange for Domeki's. This upsets Domeki who begins researching ways of recovering Watanuki's eye.

Both a sort of juvenile love triangle story and a nicely resonant fairy tale, xxxHolic's not bad at all. I rather liked the demon spider lady in the third episode;








I've seen a lot of demon spider ladies in fantasy fiction. I don't know if this is the best I've seen, but it's certainly nice. There really does seem to be something spider-ish about her big lips. I don't know why.

To-day I finished rough drawings for the chapter 3 script I wrote yesterday (I'm keeping myself a chapter ahead, for those of you just joining me). To-morrow, it's back to the grindstone . . .