News
Live-Action xxxHOLiC Show's 2-Minute Promo Streamed
posted on by Egan Loo
Japan's WOWOW premium television station began streaming a two-minute "Hitsuzen" (Inevitability) promotional video for this month's live-action television adaptation of CLAMP's xxxHOLiC manga. Lead actress and model Anne (Yūko Ichihara) introduces the video, discusses the show's fidelity to the original manga, and encourages people to watch the show.
The program's website also announced that singer chay performed the ending theme song "You tell me." The official xxxHOLiC portal site opened with introductions to the new projects such as the xxxHOLiC: Rei manga, the upcoming art book, the bunko (trade paperback) reprint of NisiOisin's xxxHOLiC novel, the live-action series, and the promotional "hijacking" campaign in Tokyo's Shibuya ward.
The story follows Yūko — a witch who grants people's wishes, but in return the person has to give up something precious — and Kimihiro Watanuki, a high school boy who has visions of Ayakashi (spirits). One day, Watanuki encounters Yūko and she promises to get rid of the spirits that torment him. In return Watanuki must work in Yūko's shop and help her grant other people's wishes.
Shōta Sometani plays Watanuki. Masahiro Higashide, Karen Miyazaki, Naoto Takenaka, and Yumi Adachi play Shizuka Dōmeki, Himawari Kunogi, an Ayakashi in the form of a doctor, and Jorōgumo (mythological creature), respectively.
Keisuke Toyoshima is directing off scripts by Jun Tsugita, and singer/songwriter Shikao Suga is performing the theme song after have done so for the earlier xxxHOLiC anime projects.
The eight-episode live-action series will premiere on Japan's WOWOW premium television station on February 24 and run every Sunday at 11:00 p.m. The original manga ran in Kodansha's Young Magazine and Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine from 2003 to 2011, and its compiled book volumes have 12 million copies in circulation. The story will continue in xxxHOLiC: Rei, which has been delayed from February to early March.
Del Rey Manga published published the original manga in North America, and Funimation released the first television series and xxxHOLiC the Movie: A Midsummer Night's Dream in North America. (The movie will run on WOWOW this Sunday, one week before the live-action show.)
Thanks to Vito Plahuta for the news tip.
