Manga Review: Xxxholic Vol.3

                                                      Xxxholic Vol.3Review

In this volume Watanuki and Domeki are sent by Yuko to investigate the school that  a friend of Himawari's goes to which has had the game known as angel-san or prophesy-san has become popular at. Since the students playing angel-san are amaturs they can't control the spirits so the spirits are causing trouble. The spirit is very strong at the school and this causes Watanuki to see the spirit at one point as a group of school girls who are terrified to let go of the pen their playing angel-san with, Watanuki tries to save them only to discover they're not actually real.Watanuki is pushed off the building by the spirits but Domeki ends up saving him although the spirits do injury his arm in the process. In the end the bad spirits at the school are eaten by a spirit snake that was attracted to the school by Watanuki's blood.

The next story in the volume was about a teacher in training who bought a monkey's paw from Yuko even after Yuko tells her that it wouldn't be wise for her to buy it and the teacher is allowed to have it if she promises not to open the tube that's holding the monkey's paw but she of course breaks this promise. The teacher makes wishes on the monkey's paw throughout the story that end up having more and severe consequences but she doesn't realize the possible consequences because she refuses to believe anything bad can happen to her. The concept of equivalent exchange is brought but again with the monkey's paw because each time a wish is granted it has to take the material to grant the wish from somewhere else such as the water for the pool to make it rain, the mirror from the shop and the other teaching students work. The teacher's story ends with her realizing that the monkey's paw is becoming dangerous but also not accepting any blame for her own action, her final wish is to wish all her problems way and the monkey's paw grants that wish by killing her.

The finale story has Watanuki meet and buy food from some fox spirits who were very kind and good cooks. Watanuki was given food to give to Yuko after allowing the young fox spirit to have a part of an arrow which Domeki had stuck in Watanuki's bag earlier. This chapter was very short but it was a nice bit of mythology and a sweet story.

I liked that after Domeki hurt his arm while rescuing Watanuki that Watanuki started making lunch for him and that even though Watanuki claimed he didn't take requests he'd always give Domeki what he requested the next day. I also liked how Domeki said that he believes that the spirits are real even though he can't see them because he has heard Watanuki talk about them often. I really enjoyed that their relationship seemed to get developed a bit further this volume.

I overall really enjoyed this volume with the first story being my favorite but all of the stories were good. I also really enjoyed the artwork throughout the volume. Please tell me your thoughts on the volume.