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alt title(s): Xxx HO Li C 
"There is no coincidence in this world - there is only inevitability"
Kimihiro Watanuki is a high school student who is continually plagued by supernatural monsters and spirits which are magically attracted to him, which are invisible to pretty much everyone but himself, and usually try to devour him. One day, while running away from and nearly being eaten by some spirits, he finds a mysterious shop that grants wishes.
The shop is owned by the Witch of the Dimensions, although she has been known by many other names—even Yuuko Ichihara, the name she gives Watanuki, is only a pseudonym. She offers to grant his wish to be rid of his ability to see spirits, but a price of equal value must be paid. Thus, Watanuki becomes a "part-time worker", which usually involves performing housework and odd jobs for Yuuko, until he has done enough work for his wish to be granted.
Chapters/episodes usually involve a customer coming into the shop and asking for their wish to be granted by Yuuko, having usually negative or dubious results, or they involve some (usually risky) task that Yuuko gives Watanuki which requires his ability to see spirits. However, there is also an overarching plotline regarding a set of dark conspiracies and prophecies that becomes increasingly important in the later volumes.
One of the main themes in xxxHOLiC is the concept of hitsuzen — probably best translated as "inevitability" or "inevitable fate" (although what is inevitable is influenced by your mindset and past choices, this is more like a slightly fatalistic Chaos Butterfly than the Western concept of destiny) — which affects many of the characters' actions throughout the story. Yuuko told Watanuki when they first met that it was hitsuzen.
The Anime has been uploaded in both dub and subtitle formats on Funimation's video portal
This an ongoing CLAMP work and is the darker companion to CLAMP's Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle. There are also many crossovers with other CLAMP works within the story besides Tsubasa. The anime has two seasons, xxxHOLiC with 24 episodes (released in English by Funimation), and xxxHOLiC Kei with 13. Most of the references to Tsubasa were removed from the anime. There has also been a feature-length movie ( A Midsummer Night's Dream) and a 2-part OAD series, xxxHolic: Shunmuki. Another OAD, unrelated to the plot of the first one, will be released in April 2010 along with Volume 17.
The name is pronounced holic, by the way.
This show provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Kohane's mother is seriously messed up in the head.
- Air Guitar: Featuring Maru, Moro and Mokona in the second ending (Kagerou).
- All There In The Manual: Especially in later chapters, one really needs to be reading Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle to understand what's going on. And even then it's challenging.
- And Zoidberg: Yuuko tells Kohane she can "Call on Doumeki-kun. Oh, and Watanuki too." To which he furiously responds "Why am I just an after-thought?"
- Anvilicious: Some of the scenarios are Warped Aesops.
- Aside Glance: Yuuko tends to give these to the audience in the manga.
- The Beautiful People: Even the smoke is pretty.
- Because Destiny Says So: Hitsuzen and the ways to manipulate its effects make up most of the overarching plot.
- Bishonen: C'mon, it's CLAMP. Watanuki might qualify as a manga version of Hollywood Homely, since he's much less popular with (human) girls than Doumeki.
- Big Eater: Doumeki is a chef's worst nightmare — a picky Big Eater.
- Boat Lights: Watanuki ends up with one brown eye and one blue eye after Doumeki gives him half of his... it's a long story.
- Bottle Fairy: Yuuko, with a Running Gag of her always wanting some form of expensive alcohol. Also Larg, to the point that it's a pairing.
- Bunny Ears Lawyer: Yuuko. Kiiiinda crazy for being entrusted with keeping time and space in working order. But when she gets serious, she gets serious, to the point that some people wonder if the above is an act.
- Can't Stand Them, Can't Live Without Them: Normally, Watanuki seems pretty annoyed with Yuuko, and constantly gripes about how troublesome she is. And then we get to see exactly how much he breaks when Yuuko disappears. He gets so depressed to the point where he makes a pact to wait for her as long as it takes, without aging and without being able to leave the shop. Doumeki, of course, is less than pleased...
- Cargo Ship: Shamisen/Plectrum. Which technically isn't a cargo ship since it's actually cat/butterfly. Maybe. It gets confusing when their human forms look like their owners. And it only gets more confusing when you realize that the bit of the plectrum's form we get to see looks very much like a certain dead exorcist.
- The only universally accepted pairing within the CLAMP fandom is apparently Larg/sake.
- Cat Girl: Subverted twice and played with a bit. The Neko-Musume is the traditional Japanese catgirl- a cat spirit that may take human form and retain some feline qualities, such as cat eyes and agility. Similarly, the shamisen is a cat that takes on the form of a human, only retaining her eyes. On the other paw, Watanuki himself has been pictured with cat ears and a tail a few times, and Himawari thinks of him as a cat so often that she bought him an apron with an angry cat on it for his birthday. This makes the recent chapters (involving Doumeki's ideas on the "mating habits of cats") all the more interesting...
- Character Witness: The fox kid from the Oden cart vouches for Watanuki in the Demon Parade.
- Cheshire Cat Grin: Yuuko makes one of these all the time, and if she's not, it's a bad sign.
- Chekhovs Gun: The Tube seen at the beginning of Tsubasa is in Yuuko's store room next to Fay's tattoo and Kurogane's sword. It contains people, whose identities are spoilers. Slightly more subtly is what seems to be a replica of Sakura's staff, the existence of which ends up tying into the story in a big way later.
- Doumeki's egg provides a variation of this trope - we are told, specifically, that the egg given to him by Yuuko will be useful at some point.
- Cheryl Blossom: A monkey wrench has apparently been thrown into the Love Triangle of Watanuki, Himawari, and Doumeki... as it's revealed that the one that's most important to Watanuki is Yuuko, for whom he gives up the right to leave the shop forever, until the day she comes back to him. Doumeki was very pissed, to say the least. But now, apparently he puts up with it and still pursues Watanuki, acting like a husband.
- Judging by chapter 193, or at least it's last page, it's less of a monkey wrench, and more of a brick to the head to said Love Triangle.
- Possibly subverted with the revelation in TRC that Watanuki has chosen to stay at the shop as all of space-time could unravel if he doesn't; but he still promised to wait for Yuuko to come back, and he emphasizes time and time again that he is willing to wait as long as it takes to meet Yuuko.
- Well, thus far in xxxHolic's manga, it doesn't really seem to be addressing that Watanuki chose to stay at the shop to avoid any possibility of screwing up space-time, and seems to instead be focusing on how Watanuki's main reason is for Yuuko. For example this page in a recent chapter, where it clarifies: "That's why he will continue to grant wishes. Again, to meet that person -!"
- Yuuko's relationship with Watanuki seems mostly maternal, so considering the mess the problem is if Doumeki wants a relationship it will have to be on the shop.
- The Chew Toy / The Woobie - Watanuki, gravitating towards the latter as the series goes on. Kohane, on the other hand, is The Woobie all the way through.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Well, Clingy Jealous Fox more accurately, but what Mugetsu lacks in semantics, he/she makes up for in sheer clinginess.
- Cloning Blues: And how. The real source of all of Watanuki's troubles. Yes, all of them. Well, most, anyway. The ones unrelated to romantic troubles, all right?
- The Collector Of The Strange: Not only does the movie take place at a gathering of strange collectors, but it turns out the man throwing the party collects collectors themselves.
- Compulsory School Age: Subverted. Watanuki, after Yuuko's death, has decided to take over the shop, and indicated when this trope was invoked by Doumeki that he would no longer be attending.
- Continuity Cameo: Several from CLAMP's modern-day series, including Sakura's staff from Card Captor Sakura (its story actually ties into the Myth Arc). The leads from Legal Drug also make an appearance when Watanuki is sent to buy Yuuko a hangover cure.
- In a studio in-joke, Maru and Moro can be seen playing with Tachikomas in the second episode of Kei, as Production I.G. animated both shows.
- The manga crosses over with Tsubasa, which is in the same continuity as CLAMP's other fantasy-setting series, unifying both major genres of their work into a single continuity.
- It doesn't really "cross-over" so much as tell two sides of the same story. The protagonists are even technically the same person.
- It seems further suggested that Legal Drug is taking place simultaneously (but independently) of xxxHolic. For example: the urn used by Watanuki to visit the Zashiki-Warashi is the same urn stolen by Kazahaya and Rikuo. Yuuko explains that it was a "special order from the Anything Store".
- Cool Big Sis: Yuuko's manner of attitude and looks fits this very well. Extra points in that she seems to be having some Unresolved Sexual Tension with Watanuki... especially after the recent chapters.
- Creepy Twins: Moro and Maru, Yuuko's two assistants at the shop. It's revealed early on that they have no souls, and later, that they keep the shop grounded between dimensions.
- Crossover: The overarching plot is closely tied to that of Tsubasa, with some major events occurring in both series, and objects and characters moving back and forth through the shop and the Mokonas.
- Dead All Along: A few people. Watanuki's not always been too good at telling the difference.
- Including, notably, Yuuko herself. Although she's cheating- her late boyfriend was a Reality Warper.
- Deadpan Snarker: Doumeki, and boy does he snark. It also helps that Watanuki makes such delectable Snark Bait.
- Deal With The Devil: Because Yuuko requires equal payment to fulfill the wish, many of the prices seem very difficult or problematic. Also, if someone reneges on their payment, the results tend to be rather nasty. Example — One customer`s payment is that she must never be photographed, video-taped, etc. again in her life. Logically, that would be a very difficult thing to conform to. If she ever is, her crime will be exposed for all to see. It's likely she was a murderer, and the punishment for not adhering to the price would be her exposure as one to the public, so she deserved this.
- Doom Magnet: Himawari.
- Double Subversion: The Love Triangle between Watanuki, Himawari, and Domeki. And then, this ends up becoming even more complicated when it's revealed that Watanuki seems to care more for Yuuko than the other two. Yikes.
- The Dulcinea Effect: Watanuki tends to risk his life and go through a lot of trouble for pretty girls he just met.
- Emotionless Girl: Kohane displays very little reaction to how badly people treat her. All this is, of course, building up to a major Cry Cute moment when she reveals herself to be Not So Stoic after all.
- Equivalent Exchange: How Yuuko grants wishes; the price must be neither too low nor too high for the wish involved. This often requires some Literal Genie action to get wish and price to line up, especially since Yuuko tries to avoid wishes and prices equivalent to a human life. That would involve taking on the spiritual burden of murder.
- Even The Guys Want Him: Kimihiro Watanuki. Remember the Love Triangle he thought he was in? Well... he is interested in Himawari Kunogi and she kinda likes him back, but it turns out his "love rival" Shizuka Doumeki isn't interested in Himawari like he believed, but in Watanuki himself. Oh, and you know Zashiki Warashi, that cute girl that's completely shy and has a huge crush on Watanuki? In all likelihood, "she" is a "he," according to a CLAMP interview where they say that her being female is not necessarily the case. Coupled with the fact that Zashiki Warashi spirits are normally described as being young boys and rarely being girls, along with how Ame-warashi usually says "this child" when referring to Zashiki Warashi instead of actually using a gender... yeah. Watanuki apparently has more luck with the male gender...
- Everyone Can See It: Everyone except Watanuki seems to notice that he and Doumeki get along very well, and fit each other perfectly.
- Eyes Always Shut: Larg and Mugetsu. Mugetsu was actually named because of this.
- Expy: Watanuki is actively trying to be a Distaff Counterpart to Yuuko. He's apparently even developed a drug addiction just to get that "lazily smoking" look right.
- Faceless Masses: Seen at least once every episode of the anime.
- Funny Aneurysm Moment: An Anime Insider article that criticized the movie's art for making Yuuko look like "a sexy zombie" took on a new meaning when it was shown that she's apparently not "alive" in the completely literal sense.
- Also, remember when Watanuki found out about Doumeki's childhood secret? Remember Doumeki's reply? I take it Watanuki's answer as of chapter 186 is, "Yes, I do, and I don't care what the fangirls think anymore."
- And all Watanuki's wailing in earlier chapters about how his service at the shop kept getting prolonged and was NEVER GOING TO END? Yeeaah.
- The Glasses Come Off: The frequency at which Watanuki is seen without his glasses is directly proportionate to how serious the story arc is until he loses them in the Dreamscape, only to get them back after making a fateful decision. Usually he appears without glasses in the Dreamscape or when recuperating from serious injury.
- The Glomp: Mugetsu has absolutely no concept of Watanuki's personal space.
- The Heartless: Most of the cases Yuuko deals with and the spirits that attack Watanuki have a "power of negative thinking" element.
- Hime Cut: Yuuko has one.
- Ho Yay: Once again, it's CLAMP. There's subtext not only between Doumeki and Watanuki, but also between Watanuki and Haruka, who he is much more willing to admit fondness for.
- Subtext between Doumeki and Watanuki?! Subtext?!! CLAMP is certainly pushing "subtext" to its limit - hell, recent chapters have Doumeki and Watanuki alone in a bedroom, with Watanuki wearing a loose kimono, discussing about the mating habits of cats, and what it needs for the ideal mate and love. Doumeki especially seems keen on the subject, giving Watanuki meaningful glances while talking about "intercourse" and the one it "longs for." Good god, CLAMP. That sound you just heard was all the fangirls fainting.
- Identical Grandson: Haruka and Shizuka Doumeki look exactly like each other, except that Haruka smiles.
- This actually saves Watanuki's life once. Haruka says that he was only able to enter the death-dream and pull Watanuki back from the brink because he looks exactly like his grandson. You may start squeeing now.
- Also, Watanuki looks almost exactly like his great^x grandfather, Clow Reed. Which is odd, considering that neither his father nor his [what we shall for lack of a better term call] twin brother look anything like Clow.
- Watanuki was made to look like Clow Reed as said by Fei Wong Reed in one chapter. Why, we don't know.
- I Knew It: A large number of fanfics had predicted that Watanuki would inherit the shop and sure enough...
- I Know Your True Name: A genuine fortune teller can read a person's fate and gain power over them knowing only their true name and their birthday. Watanuki thoughtlessly reveals both in the first chapter, giving Yuuko the ability to divine his wish and bind him to her service. She, on the other hand, always uses the alias 'Ichihara Yuuko' and, well, it's not polite to ask a lady's age, now is it?
- Immortality: The shop apparently conveys Type II Immortality on the owner, being outside the normal flow of space-time, and Watanuki specifically states that he will not age now that he owns the shop. He will still eventually die, but will have a much longer lifespan.
- Important Haircut: Himawari gets one to hide the scars she received as the price to save Watanuki's life.
- Impossibly Low Neckline: Yuuko.
- Informed Ability: Yuuko seems to be like this at first; we're told that she's an immensely powerful sorceress, but what little magic she does onscreen isn't very impressive. This is justified by her minimalist 'you-get-what-you-pay-for' approach to granting wishes; most of the time, the wishes she grants simply don't warrant spectacular magic. This is averted entirely in later volumes, when she breaks out the big guns, and it is also revealed that some very powerful magic has been hiding in plain sight from the very first chapter.
- This trope is stronger in the anime adaptation than in the manga, as the anime leaves out the magic Yuuko performs for the characters of Tsubasa. Admittedly, much of the real fireworks are still offscreen, but you see truly magical results more often in Tsubasa.
- Innocent Innuendo: The opening to one volume has Watanuki asking Yuuko if she's sure about something, and her replying that she is and wants him to "give it to her", all looking very suggestive. They're playing baseball, of course, and Watanuki's about to pitch the ball to her.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Watanuki and Kohane. Possibly Watanuki and Haruka too, though Haruka is dead.
- Also with Yuuko, see the comment on Haruka.
- I See Dead People: Watanuki, Kohane, and Doumeki after the whole Boat Lights thing.
- I Will Wait For You: What Watanuki eventually swears when Yuuko disappears.
- Keet: Watanuki at times, though he can switch to being the total opposite pretty quickly.
- Kuudere: Doumeki. Also Yuuko - her sweet smile at the start of Volume 12 reflects this; it is a far cry from her usual Cheshire Cat Grin or knowing smirk.
- Light Is Not Good: See someone with cute little angel wings? RUN! RUN THE HELLS AWAY! Quickly, before they pull out the boxcutter.
- The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday: Yuuko's shop is one of these, except with a twist: a person can only see the shop if they need the shop.
- Love Triangle: Watanuki is convinced he's in one of these, competing with Doumeki for Himawari's affections. The truth is Himawari always brings Doumeki along so that Watanuki doesn't get hurt due to her supernatural bad luck, and Doumeki has other reasons for sticking around Watanuki.
- For extra fun, it seems like he's rejected them both in order to take up Yuuko's shop until she returns, and can no longer leave. As of Chapter 186, Doumeki makes a point of shopping for Watanuki and taking care of some of the chores Watanuki used to do for Yuuko. Himiwari is nowhere to be seen.
- Man Without A Country: Watanuki is a Man Without A Universe. His "price" for continued existance (or something) is to remain in the shop forever - his "creator" Syaoran pays the flipside by never being able to remain in one universe. Both prices are presented as choices rather then punishments- they could pay a different price if they wanted.
- Mars Needs Women: Mugetsu seems to like Watanuki WAY too much. So do some other supernatural beings, but they are at least humanoid.
- Martyr Without A Cause: Watanuki, and at times Doumeki. A major thread in the series is learning to temper the altruistic impulse with self-regard.
- Meaningful Name: Kimihiro Watanuki writes his family name as "April 1st," which also is his birthday. While this alone doesn't mean too much alone, it means a hell of a lot when you realize that April 1st is also Sakura and (presumably) Syaoran's birthday. His personal name is written with the kanji for "prophet". Also, Watanuki names Mugetsu (meaning "No moon"), because of the shape of its eyes.
- Yuuko offers an alternate interpretation for Watanuki's family name:
Yuuko: The reading of his name, "Watanuki", comes from the custom of removing the padding from one's kimono on the 1st of April. An ancient sorcery...To prevent children from suffering from diseases or spectres, they would be dressed in the now unpadded kimono, and the removed padding would become their substitute..."
- For the lazy, that means his "family name" is a roundabout way of saying "decoy".
- Particularly significant when Yuuko is musing that it isn't even really his name.
- It's also said that his original purpose was to take Male Tsubasa place so that the world/timeline wouldn't fall apart, though both Male Tsubasa and Yuuko push him to secure his own place and become his own person rather than just remaining the substitute.
- Likewise, Kohane Tsuyuri's given name means "Little Feather". This becomes significant when she gives up her power to exorcise spirits, which is caused by one of C!Sakura's feathers. Her family name, meaning May 7th, hasn't been fully explained yet.
- Milky White Eyes
- Mistress And Servant Boy: Yuuko and Watanuki. There's a reason they're the page image for that trope.
- Monster Of The Aesop: The cases Yuuko takes on often end up as philosophical meditations.
- The Multiverse: Yuuko's shop is the portal between worlds and dimensions.
- Nightmare Fuel: A good amount, and notable in that, for the most part, it manages to creep the Dickens out of you without anything graphic. The ending to the episode Contract ranks as one of the most horrific moments in the show.
- Not Good With People: The Ame-Warashi is very hostile to humans in general. The Zashiki-Warashi is more of the absurdly shy type.
- Not So Weak: Kohane. It doesn't even occur to her to really stand up against her mother but when she decides her mother needs a good wake up call, for her own good of course, she doesn't hold back.
- Obfuscating
Stupidity Obliviousness: Himawari pretends to be oblivious.
- Omniscient Morality License: Yuuko manipulates and tells half-truths. One of the first clients (other than Watanuki) we see gets condemned by hitsuzen (and proximity to Himawari) to paralysis and death because she told George Costanza-esque tall tales non-stop. (The story was harsh enough that the anime changed it to let the woman live to correct her mistakes.) Yuuko's machinations do not seem to carry a similar price at first but the fact that she's already dead probably has something to do with it.
- Oracular Urchin: Kohane Tsuyuri, a little girl who can see ghosts.
- Our Souls Are Different: THEY GET STOLEN BY PARASITIC ANGEL WINGS!
- Pale Skinned Brunette: All four of the main characters, but Yuuko in particular.
- Paper Fan Of Doom: The weapon of the Karasu Tengu.
- Pimped Out Dress: Especially in the Omake art, as is typical with CLAMP's work.
- Pretty In Mink: Some of Yuuko's dresses.
- Power Trio: Watanuki, Doumeki, and Himawari.
- Punny Name: Maru and Moro's full names, Marudashi and Morodashi, literally mean "streaking" and "flashing", and despite Yuuko's insistence that they're "cute", Watanuki vocally disagrees. Maru and Moro are on their own common suffixes to Japanese names.
- Real Men Wear Pink: Doumeki used to wear a girl's kimono when he was growing up, thanks to a customary belief by his grandfather that doing so would make a sickly child grow up strong. Naturally, when Watanuki tries to rub this in his face, Doumeki's response is a simple, "Yeah, what's your point? Do you want one, too?" Although, later it is Watanuki the one who is wearing kimonos and feminine yukatas.
- Ret Gone: The origin of Watanuki's existence, since he was made to fill the space left by the original Syaoran, who gave up his existence in order to save Sakura
- Yuuko has also been ret-goned from people's memories in a later chapter, as reality adjusts to have had her die when she, er, died. Reality warps and de-warps make tense usage problematic.
- Say It With Hearts: Maru and Moro are prone to this, as is Yuuko at times. Mugetsu is an interesting case in that hearts are the only thing it says.
- Watanuki also tends to do this when it comes to Himawari-chan.
- Self Fulfilling Prophecy: After setting up his side of the Xanatos Gambit pileup in order to save Yuuko from dying/resurrect her, Yuuko apparently sacrifices herself in order to stop him breaking spacetime, thus causing her to die. The last time we saw Fei Wong after this he can no longer sense her presence, and starts hatching a plan to resurrect her.
- She Is All Grown Up: Possibly invoked in Chapter 187, where Watanuki is visited by the older Kohane who is graduating middle school, and he comments on how good she looks in her uniform. When she states that he always says that, his own response is that he's always happy when he says it, which is whenever he sees her.
- Ship Tease: In recent chapters of Doumeki and Watanuki staying together at Yuuko's shop after she disappears you could hear the collective squeeing of fangirls at the sight of them acting like
husband and wife a married couple in a situation that has been the set up to countless Yaoi doujinshi. Sadistic Lady Mangaka indeed, and as of the most recent chapter (186) they're just doing it on purpose...
- Not to mention for all the talk about Watanuki being destined for Doumeki or Himawari, there is an absolute mountain of teasing. Pick any title page with Watanuki and Yuuko in it, and you can bet anyone who hasn't read the manga will ASSUME something's up between the two. And considering that Watanuki is staying at her shop because he knowingly imprisoned himself there in order to wait for her to come back to him after she disappeared, they might not be wrong!
- Chapter 190, page 8, panel two. Maybe it's just the bedsheets, but it sure looks like someone's lying next to Watanuki. And Doumeki stayed over at the shop that night, so...
- And for extra fun, see the reference to chapter 193 in the Cheryl Blossom entry. Along with the revelation that Doumeki apparently sleeps in the parlour when he visits. Sometimes, anyways.
- Shout Out: To the various classic manga Yuuko enjoys and often references to Watanuki's confusion (this Troper can name Cat's Eye, City Hunter, Casshern and Macaroni Horen-so off the top of her head). Watanuki even directly references Star Wars in an early volume.
- For one of his errands, Watanuki has to use a winged backpack containing Mokona.
- In episode 3 of the anime, Watanuki is forced by Yuuko to wear Persocom-ear-shaped headphones. Moro and Maru can be seen reading "The City With No People" aloud at one point.
- In story about the woman with the addiction to her laptop, Yuuko references Lupin the Third by writing "Zantetsuken" on her bat and saying Goemon Ishikawa's catch-phrase, "Once again, I have cut a worthless object".
- Shrinking Violet: The Zashiki-Warashi. Observe!
- Sleep Mode Size: Mugetsu's pipe-size form.
- Smoking Is Cool / Smoking Is Glamorous: Yuuko is smoking something, and though the anime series shows it to be tobacco, it's very likely opium in the manga. Haruka is shown smoking cigarettes (although he's mellow enough for it to be a joint). As of Chapter 185, Watanuki seems to be trying to pick up the habit, in order to emulate Yuuko's manner.
- Recently it's been confirmed that it is indeed tobacco in the pipe. Of course, this means that Yuuko was just being Yuuko and Watanuki is just being a bit obsessed with becoming the shop owner.
- Snowball Fight: A filler episode written by the anime staff pits most of the major players, along with the Warashi, in an entertaining one of these, arranged by Yuuko, which also involves building snowmen.
- There's one of these in a filler manga chapter too.
- Squirrels In My Pants: Watanuki ends up going through this a few times thanks to the Pipe Fox spirit Mugetsu, who has no concept of personal space.
- Stepford Smiler: Himawari's happy face only breaks after Watanuki decides to stay by her even after her Doom Magnet status nearly kills him. A few of Yuuko's clients qualify as well, most recently Watanuki's cooking student who smiles politely when she explains that won't eat her own cooking because she thinks she's dirty (this troper got the impression she means "dirty" in the "girls don't poop" way, but this being CLAMP it's probably a lot deeper than that).
- The Stoic: Doumeki seems to have about two facial expressions, at best. It comes with being the Tall Dark And Snarky Kuudere.
- Tall Dark And Snarky: Doumeki, in a classic CLAMP Seme role.
- Tear Jerker: Yuuko and Watanuki's goodbye in chapter 182. "My wish, is for you to go on existing. That's all I want." *sniff*
- That Makes Me Feel Angry: Watanuki in chapter 190.
- Time Skip
- Through His Stomach: How Watanuki pays Doumeki back for favors (such as saving his life). A lot of their cute bickering is normally over Doumeki making ridiculous requests for Watanuki's cooking.
- Tsundere: Watanuki is a tsundere towards Doumeki. Here is one of the more pronounced instances where Watanuki shows his dere-dere side towards Doumeki.
- Uncanny Valley: Occasionally the TV animation (and especially the movie) slips into this. One reader of Anime Insider wrote in after they featured Yuuko on the cover and asked, "Why did you put a sexy zombie on the cover?" (referring to this image) and managed to just about sum up most people's grievances with the art in one sentence, while simultaneously spoiling a major plot point unintentionally.
- Unknown Rival: Doumeki, who more often than not is involved in Watanuki's Embarrassing Rescue.
- Unlimited Wardrobe: Yuuko never appears twice in the same outfit. As in, when she does, Watanuki panics. On the other hand, Watanuki and company usually just wear their school uniforms.
- Urban Fantasy: The Shop itself is placed between the skyscrapers of Tokyo and some scenes take place near well-known landmarks.
- Weapon Of Choice: Cool, collected, priestly Doumeki does traditional Japanese archery (kyudo) and seems to be a valued member of the school's archery team. (It is also a characterization point that the archery team is a high-status club, while Watanuki has no after school activity besides his part-time job, and is thus much lower in the social hierarchy.)
- Weirdness Magnet: Watanuki, and he hates it, although it's his own damn fault for being subconsciously suicidal.
- Word Salad Title: Takes it even a step further by screwing with the title's capitalization.
- The World Tree: Watanuki and Doumeki join the "Spirit Parade" and meet The World Tree.
- Words Can Break My Bones
- Work Off The Debt: Watanuki's original wish is almost a MacGuffin to put him in this situation.
- Technically Watanuki is working off Male Tsubasa's debt to time, space, and fate itself. Both Male Tsubasa and Watanuki will spend the rest of their lives trying to clear up his debts.
- Xanatos Gambit: Two words: Fei Wong. (Arguably he's got Xanatos Nesting Dolls going on, the outermost doll being held inside the innermost doll.)
- Yank The Cat's Chain: Watanuki having good things taken away from him.
- Yaoi Fangirl: Yuuko enjoys teasing Watanuki about his closeness with Domeki, and hints multiple times that maybe Doumeki is the one destined for him instead of Himawari. Heck, to a degree, Himawari herself ships Doumeki/Watanuki, often commenting on how cute they are when they interact.
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