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I just finished watching one of my favorite anime series (it’s also one of my favorite manga series) xxxholic by CLAMP. I love the mysterious nature of Yuuko and her shop. The way it grants wishes, sometimes in a manner that destroys the wisher reminds me of Fuuma, a.k.a. Kamui of the Dragons of Earth. Only the final wish is usually not quite as cataclysmic. It’s not the end of the world, although it could be the end of someone’s world. The focus is on the emotional impact.
This focus centered in a little shop whose curios can be so much more than they seem, a proprietor guarding over knowledge along with others’s desires inspired my own series; Tales of the Navel. Gabrielle is a very different character than Yuuko in her deliberate attempts to create wackiness, not that Yuuko didn’t have her wacky moments, especially with Watanuki. ;) Yuuko’s shop grants wishes. The Navel reunites visitors with a part of themselves they didn’t know was missing. I’m not sure if I would have conceived of such a shop if I hadn’t watched xxxholic and Pet Shop of Horrors. I wonder if CLAMP wasn’t inspired by Matsuri Akino’s fascinating manga (and anime) where beasts from the domestic pet to the mythical take on a human form based on the customer who beheld them, wreaking some sort of karmic destiny upon that customer. Just as I’m fairly sure Akino-sensei was inspired by curiousity about the shop, the grandfather, and the grandson which Gizmo came from in Gremlins. Thus a chain of inspiration is formed from one story to another, creating a series of curious little shops.
Enjoy your visit.
This focus centered in a little shop whose curios can be so much more than they seem, a proprietor guarding over knowledge along with others’s desires inspired my own series; Tales of the Navel. Gabrielle is a very different character than Yuuko in her deliberate attempts to create wackiness, not that Yuuko didn’t have her wacky moments, especially with Watanuki. ;) Yuuko’s shop grants wishes. The Navel reunites visitors with a part of themselves they didn’t know was missing. I’m not sure if I would have conceived of such a shop if I hadn’t watched xxxholic and Pet Shop of Horrors. I wonder if CLAMP wasn’t inspired by Matsuri Akino’s fascinating manga (and anime) where beasts from the domestic pet to the mythical take on a human form based on the customer who beheld them, wreaking some sort of karmic destiny upon that customer. Just as I’m fairly sure Akino-sensei was inspired by curiousity about the shop, the grandfather, and the grandson which Gizmo came from in Gremlins. Thus a chain of inspiration is formed from one story to another, creating a series of curious little shops.
Enjoy your visit.
