Synopsis: Watanuki, without knowing it, buys a dream from Himawari and Doumeki.

I know this entry is already late. By now, those who are watching xxxHOLiC Kei have probably read gazillions of summaries for this episode from gazillions of anime blogs. So if a detailed summary no longer interests you, dear reader, you can skip the sordid details and go to the end of each post, where I will be writing my thoughts on each episode.

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Watanuki dreams of being alone in the street. Some darkness comes after him and he runs to escape it but that darkness eventually catches up with him. It turns out to be a giant Mokona riding an equally gigantic eggplant.

Watanuki relates that dream to Himawari at school the following day. Himawari finds it cute. She says it must be a lucky dream since it had an eggplant. Watanuki then remembers an old saying about Mt. Fuji, hawks and eggplants. He says that if the first dream of the year is of those things, there will be good luck. Himawari comments that she understands how Mt. Fuji and the hawk can signify good luck, as both are celebratory. But with regards to eggplant, she wonders why. Watanuki, too, has no clue.

Watanuki then asks her about her dream. Himawari pauses for a while then tells him she had a rather scary dream. Her dream was somehow similar to Watanuki’s. She was walking alone when suddenly she heard footsteps following her. She tried to run away but it was impossible. Himawari, however, doesn’t continue her story since she suddenly remembers she has to go to a committee meeting. She apologizes to Watanuki. Watanuki then gives her a pack of madeleines that he baked the previous day. He tells her it’s a token of gratitude for telling him about her dream. Himawari receives the pastries and Watanuki feels something weird.

Later that day, Watanuki and Doumeki meet. Doumeki explains to Watanuki that eggplants were significant because in olden times, it was hard to harvest them at the start of the year (and thus dreaming of an eggplant at the year’s start would really be lucky).

Watanuki then wonders why he is helping Doumeki with some tasks. Doumeki tells him it was his own decision. Watanuki remembers it was because Himawari promised to help Doumeki but couldn’t make it so Watanuki volunteered to help in her place.

Watanuki grumbles but eventually thinks he made a good decision. After all, he wouldn’t want Himawari and Doumeki to be together, just the two of them.

Watanuki then notices Doumeki eating some madeleines. He realizes it was the one he baked. He gets annoyed that Doumeki is eating it. Doumeki tells him that Himawari gave it to him.

Doumeki mentions to Watanuki that he dreamt of his grandfather and a horse the previous night. Watanuki, however, isn’t interested.

As Watanuki went home that night, he feels as if he is being followed. He doesn’t mind it at first but the presence behind him is getting stronger. He runs but it’s still there. He looks back and sees a huge cloud-like spirit with a single eye in the middle. Watanuki runs but the spirit grabs him. Slowly, it envelops him.

A man riding a horse comes. He aims an arrow towards the spirit and releases it, hitting the eye. The spirit implodes. Barely conscious, Watanuki notices the man looks like Doumeki.

Watanuki later awakens only to find out that Yuuko is sitting on his back. Yuuko tells him that if someone lies in the middle of the road, he’s bound to be sat on. Watanuki then remembers what happened earlier. He tells Yuuko about it but Yuuko tells him it was only a dream. She then points an arrow that lay on the ground. She says it was a fulfilling dream.

Yuuko explains that a fullfilling dream is a dream the same as the reality that follows it. Watanuki tells her he didn’t dream being chased by such a spirit. Yuuko says someone else must have dreamt of it. Watanuki then remembers Himawari’s dream but could not believe how her dream was fulfilled for him, not for her. Yuuko tells him that her dream became a fulfilling dream because he bought it from her. Watanuki says he doesn’t remember giving her money but Yuuko says it could be things other than money. He then remembers the madeleines.

Watanuki is still confused, especially about the man on horseback. Yuuko tells him it must be Doumeki’s. dream Watanuki remembers Doumeki mentioning about his dream (although he ignored it). Watanuki then realizes the man on horseback was Doumeki’s grandfather. Yuuko comments that it was good that Watanuki gave the madeleines to Doumeki too. Watanuki retorts that he wasn’t the one who gave it to him.

Yuuko says that valuable dreams are the ones that are normally bought and that buying nightmares are quite rare. Watanuki says it was because he didn’t know.

Yuuko then tells Watanuki to sell the arrow to the Dream Buyer. She suggests of using the arrow to guide them to this Dream Buyer. She touches the arrow and it floats in the air pointing to a particular direction. The direction the arrow pointed was a small space between an electric post and a wall. Yuuko tells Watanuki that they must pass through that narrow place. Watanuki complains but he follows after Yuuko.

As he passed through that narrow space, he felt something weird. Yuuko tells him they are in a different world already. She points to the sky and Watanuki sees a tapir-like spirit floating in the air through balloons. Yuuko explains that it is the Dream Buyer. He buys dreams, raises it then resells it.

The Dream Buyer descends. He says it’s been a while since he’s last seen Yuuko. Watanuki notices that the Dream Buyer speaks in Osaka-ben. Yuuko asks the Dream Buyer how his business is going. The Dream Buyer replies that it’s steady but there are only a few people whose dreams are of value lately.

He sees the arrow Watanuki is holding (along with some ecchi magazine that Yuuko brought). The Dream Buyer asks Watanuki if he can buy it. Watanuki gives him the magazine thinking it was what the Dream Buyer wanted.

Anyway, the Dream Buyer asks Watanuki if it was his dream. Watanuki replies it wasn’t exactly his. The Dream Buyer asks Watanuki to sell that dream to him, for it is a very valuable dream that is now quite rare. The Dream Buyer offers two of his balloons (which are actually dreams) to Watanuki as payment. He says those were especially reserved valuable dreams. Watanuki doesn’t know what to do.

Yuuko tells the Dream Buyer that he should be able to recognize the worth of the dream arrow. She tells (teases) him that he might not get another chance to buy it. Yuuko then picks five balloons. The Dream Buyer compains, saying those were very special dreams but Yuuko tells him they’re exactly what the dream arrow is worth.

Watanuki hands the dream arrow to the Dream Buyer who pushes it into a balloon (to Watanuki’s amazement, the balloon didn’t burst). It gave a bright glow instead.

The Dream Buyer is pleased. He says it’s a really great dream, he looks forward to raising it. He thanks Yuuko then says that he’ll celebrate by eating at the Kitsune Oden Ramen-ya. He invites Yuuko and Watanuki but Yuuko tells him they’ll have to leave soon since the path between the worlds will close in a while.

Watanuki approaches the Dream Buyer and asks him if the ramen-ya is the one run by a father and son. He says that he has eaten there before. Watanuki takes one of his dream balloons and gives it to the Dream Buyer. He tells him to give it to the son from the ramen-ya as a thank you for helping him during the demon parade. The Dream Buyer is touched that a human would thank a fox. He says that the owner of a valuable dream also has a valuable heart. He receives the balloon and assures Watanuki he will give it to the young kitsune. He then floats in the sky again.

Watanuki is a little puzzled though. Yuuko tells him he was being praised.

Anyhow, they have to return to their world. Watanuki dreads passing through the tight space again. Yuuko tells him they won’t be passing through it this time, but instead, they will pass through an even tighter spot.

As Watanuki prepares for sleep, he watches two of the dream balloons tied to his bed (Yuuko has the other two). Feeling tired, Watanuki lies down and falls asleep.

Watanuki wakes up to find a man sitting outside. At first, he thinks it was Doumeki but realizes it was Doumeki’s grandfather. He asks Watanuki if Shizuka, his grandson, is hard to deal with. Watanki replies that he doesn’t know if he could call Shizuka “hard to deal with” or he just doesn’t understand him. He says Doumeki has a terrible attitude and he always meddles with his affairs. Watanuki then touches his eye and says it was something Doumeki chose. Watanuki pauses then says he doesn’t like how Doumeki put himself in an unrecoverable situation for his sake.

Doumeki’s grandfather smiles. He says Doumeki is tough. He then shows Watanuki a picture of Doumeki.

Watanuki awakens. Yuuko, who is standing at his doorway, tells him it was a dream. Watanuki wonders why he dreamt of Doumeki’s grandfather. Yuuko takes one of Watanuki’s balloons. It bursted in the night. She says that what Watanuki dreamt was probably something Doumeki’s grandfather sold the Dream Buyer years ago.

Watanuki could not believe the coincidence but Yuuko reminds him that there is no such thing as coincidence, there is only hitsuzen.

Watanuki remembers the dream. Doumeki’s grandfather showed him a picture of a young girl wearing a kimono.

Yuuko says it was probably Doumeki. A strange glimmer appears in Watanuki’s eye. He searches for the picture. Yuuko asks him if he asked for it but Watanuki didn’t. Still. Watanuki feels victorious about the fact that he knows Doumeki dressed up as a girl when he was young. Watanuki’s visions of blackmail, however, are interrupted by eggplants crashing upon him. Mokona has gathered eggplants upon Yuuko’s request for an eggplant banquet.

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This was just an ok episode, I think.

Anyway, some might wonder if there is anything significant about the Dream Buyer speaking in Osaka-ben (the dialect spoken in the Osaka region of Japan). Well, the Dream Buyer’s dialect plays upon the stereotype of Osakans as merchants. Historically, though, Osaka was an important commercial center of Japan and there were more merchants in Osaka than there were samurais. It would then be fitting for the Dream Buyer, a merchant of sorts, to be speaking in Osaka-ben.

One thing that somehow puzzled me about this episode was Doumeki’s mention of his dream to Watanuki. Did Doumeki know about Watanuki’s dream buying and was protecting him? Doumeki, after all, has protected Watanuki in many situations. That is even one reason why Yuuko always tries to put him and Watanuki together.

Or was Doumeki’s mention just a casual one, to further illustrate hitsuzen, roughly translated as inevitability. As Yuuko always reminds Watanuki, there are is such things as coincidence, there is only hitsuzen. If that was the case, then it was fated for Doumeki to tell his dream to Watanuki. Interesting, don’t you think?

In his dream, Watanuki tells Doumeki’s grandfather that he hates how Doumeki put himself in an unrecoverable situation for his sake. When you think about it, isn’t that what Watanuki did in the first place, when he took the spider’s grudge so it would leave Doumeki? Watanuki sure has learned a lot from Jorougumo.

I wonder if the other balloons, especially Watanuki’s remaining one, will play a significant part in the plot later on. There is, after all, only hitsuzen.

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