Kimihiro Watanuki

Kimihiro Watanuki

Kimihiro Watanuki

Kimihiro Watanuki (四月一日君尋, Watanuki Kimihiro) is a fictional character in the CLAMP manga, and anime, ×××HOLiC. The manga is currently ongoing and the anime series started 6 April 2006.

Story

Watanuki is a high school student whose life has been a rather difficult one — not only have both his parents died, forcing him to live alone, but he is plagued daily by spirits that only he can see (both the ability to see them and the cause of their attacks are apparently heritable traits—apparently Watanuki's blood smells very delicious to spirits).

On one run-of-the mill day, while Watanuki is being attacked by a monster, he falls over and his hand lands on a fence. Oddly, the monster is instantly repelled. Beyond the fence is a very strange house, and before he knows it, Watanuki has stumbled past the two fence posts and into the courtyard of the house. Two little girls appear at the front door and take him by the hand, welcoming him into the house as a guest. Watanuki argues that he only stumbled in on accident, but a strange voice replies that it was inevitable he stumble in—it was destiny. This voice belongs to the powerful sorceress Yûko Ichihara, and the home he has stumbled into is actually a store that grants wishes.

Yûko asks what Watanuki wishes for, and he replies that he only wants the spirits and ghosts to leave him alone. Yûko agrees to fulfill his wish, but only for an equitable payment—he must work at her store as payment, and when his "diligence" has balanced out his wish, she will grant it. This marks the beginning of Watanuki's very involved part-time job, a fated meeting with a certain quartet from Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE, and so many "chance" happenings which occur not out of coincidence, but "hitsuzen".

At the Shop

Life for Watanuki changes significantly once he starts working as Yûko's assistant (rather, her very indignant indentured servant) who not only cooks (wonderfully) and cleans (diligently), but finds himself performing very odd jobs and learning more about the occult.

Watanuki learns the power of fortune telling, not realizing that it is the beginning of a transformation of himself. One of his biggest problems revealed is his skewed vision of self-worth; he would gladly give up any part of himself in order to help another. This may be the reason why Yûko asked him to work for her in the first place — perhaps nothing was important enough to him to pay for the wish. This causes trouble when others make a decision to help him at their own cost. Watanuki cannot accept that someone would sacrifice themselves for his sake.

Watanuki puts himself in great physical danger to spend time with the spirit of a woman who lost her child while he was still young. He does it out of loneliness and because he does not want the spirit to feel the loneliness he has felt. He continues to accompany the spirit even though the visits cause him to become extremely ill (to the point of coughing up blood). Dômeki eventually exorcises the spirit against Watanuki's will. She leaves thanking Watanuki for taking away her loneliness and reminding him that there are people who would not want to see him disappear. After realizing that Dômeki only attacked her so that Watanuki would not die he thanks Dômeki, and recieves a little hint from Yûko that he indeed would be missed and that he is needed.

In Volume 7 a grudge supposedly intended for Watanuki by a spider whose nest was destroyed by his hand was transferred to Dômeki. However, though he never really admits it, after realizing that when Dômeki decided to help him out of the spider's web, he became handicapped from not being able to open one of his eyes, Watanuki made a way to have the grudge transferred to him by "something worse" to the spider, thus making lose one of his eyes... much to the disappointment and anger of Dômeki. At this stage, there is an obvious change in how Dômeki cares for Watanuki.

In volume 8 of the manga, Watanuki learns that the Zashiki Warashi has been captured by a "Spider Queen" for attempting to retrieve his right eye. Although Yûko warns him of the risk involved, he sacrifices his own safety in order to rescue the girl. When he is also captured and confronted by the spider queen, he crudely offers his left eye and other parts of his body for the return of the Zashiki Warashi.

The spider queen rejects the offer, asking him why she would want something he is just "throwing away." She tells him that he is "treating like garbage" what the Zashiki Warashi and his Kudakitsune are working so hard to get back. Watanuki learns a lesson of self-worth and importance in the chapter.

Relationships and Connections

• Himawari Kunogi - Watanuki's crush and love interest. However, she seems oblivious to his feelings towards her. Also Yuko says that she is "Bad Luck" for him. She goes to the same school as Watanuki and Domeki

• Yûko Ichihara - Watanuki's employer at his part time job in exchange for a wish he had. Their relationship is more of a master-slave and Mentor-student, than anything romantic. In fact Watanuki is more irritated when Yuko plays flirt or seductress around him. Yuko teaches him through experience (often humiliating if not near life and death situations) how he can grow and mature and seek his purpose. What that would be is not yet stated in the storyline.

• Shizuka Dômeki - Classmate and labled him as his rival. He is the opposite of Watanuki's personality. Often they fight or rather Watanuki ranting how annoying it is to be with Domeki, however when he is around Domeki he is safer from encountering any malicious spirits since Domeki is a spirit repellant. He often accompanies Watanuki in his assignments, ask him to make lunch for him, gets him to do chores and saves him most of the time in trouble....much to Watanuki's annoyance. However, it was already foretold that Watanuki will meet someone like Domeki and their relationships are said to run deeper.

• Zashiki-warashi- A Vestal Sprite of pure and innocent spirit. Naive and shy, easily moved to tears has fallen inlove or is infatuated with Watanuki. She gave him a Valentines day choclate but took it from Domeki's body (later returning it to Watanuki). She even risked her life getting Watanuki's eye back from the Spider Queen but the Queens evil spirit was poisonous to her, Watanuki later saved her. So far Watanuki has shown kindness towards her and feels bashful about her affections towards him. But his attention still goes to Himawari

• Kohane Tsuyuri- The 11 year old prodigy in Spirit exorcism. She is introduced in Volume 9. No one has called her by her first name as long as she could remember. Watanuki being the first to call her " Kohane-chan" and be the one to give her first true act of kindness. She and Watanuki share somewhat a bond (storyline for this one still on going). She can also sense that Watanuki is not like normal human beings and that he could understand spirits like she does.

For the Future?

In chapter 2 of Volume 3, we are given our first real hint that Watanuki has a higher purpose to the ×××HOLiC universe than to simply do Yûko's handiwork and have his wish granted. In the final panel, Yûko cryptically remarks, "Watanuki is a good kid, didn't we both think that? Clow..." This strongly suggests that Watanuki's arrival at the store was expected and possibly prepared for, just as Clow Reed and Yûko prepared the Mokona's for the Tsubasa group's arrival and Sakura's staff (the Sakura of Cardcaptor Sakura) well in advance. Yûko also mentions that her store was created specifically for a future event. At this point, the audience can only speculate as to what said event is. It is also worth mentioning that Watanuki and Sakura Kinomoto share the same birthdate: April 1st. Because Clow Reed and Yûko are old friends, there might be something about Watanuki too that renders him as special as Sakura. It can also be noted that Watanuki's first name, Kimihiro, means "Prophet", Yuko's fortune teller friend comments this is a good name for him. Watanuki also displays some precognitive abilities, notebly the morning before he lost his eye he has a dream where half his field of vision is blocked out.

Watanuki having half of Domeki's sight

Watanuki having half of Domeki's sight

Lately in the manga storyline Yuuko has been letting Watanuki experience things on his own to contribute to his growth and maturity. This was explained in Volume 8 of the manga, where the change of his character was shown when he saved the Zashiki from the Spider Queen. This was noticed by other supernatural beings as well.

Currently after the events in Volume 7 and 8 of the manga where in Watanuki lost sight of his right eye after it being eaten by the Spider Queen/Ruler of Spiders in Volume 8, Watanuki now shares half of his right's eye vision with Doumeki.

In the latest chapter of Tsubasa that crossovers with xxxHolic, when Syaoran (the real one) was sent to Yuuko, the last thing Syaoran and Watanuki saw was each other.

Speculations regarding Clow Reed and Watanuki

There have been a lot of fan speculations that Watanuki may either be a reincarnation of Clow Reed or a possible descendant of the great magician. In the Manga Yuuko's inner dialogue did mention something that about how "choosing Watanuki was right” and it seems that Watanuki's arrival was expected and possibly already prepared for. The meaning of what Yuuko's words are still unconfirmed, since the manga and anime are still ongoing. Adding to this fact is a debate if the progression of the storyline of xxxHOLiC will later be a major part in the story of Tsubasa, since Clow Reed has a much larger role in that story, being the father of Sakura in that world .

The reader speculations about the possible relationship/connection of Clow to Watanuki are also based on his appearance. They both wore glasses, are tall and lanky and have a similar facial appearance. Also there are a few CLAMP art works of Yuuko and Clow where he is wearing similar robes that Watanuki has been shown wearing in other pieces.

- Also in the latest chapters of Tsubasa and xxxHolic, where the crossovers between the two stories gets closer. Watanuki feels as if he knows Syaoran very well. ( He saw the real Syaoran visit Yuuko) who is a descendant of Clow Reed. - This topic is very much in debate since unlike Clow, Watanuki has is not showing any powers of magic or creation. In addition the reincarnations of Clow have already been confirmed to be Eriol Hiiragizawa of Card Captor Sakura and Sakura’s father Fujitaka Kinomoto.

- The following are the most frequently seen fan based speculations about Watanuki and Clow Reed

1. Watanuki is Clow Reeds reincarnation

2. Watanuki is Clow Reed in Yuuko’s world

3. Watanuki is a descendant/ascendant of Clow Reed

4. Watanuki will inherit Clow Reed's power

5. Watanuki is a younger version of Clow Reed

Sources

1. http://www.tsubasachronicle.net/ - a comprehensive site including information on TRC, xxxHOLiC and CCS.
2. http://fukanounashigoto.free.fr/tsubasa-holic/

External links

• ♥ A Kimihiro Watanuki Shrine