xxxHolic - Production

Production

xxxHolic was conceived when the group Clamp wanted to link the supernatural and fantasy series they made with a realistic one. This idea was further worked with the creation of the character of Yūko Ichihara who would bridge the stories from xxxHolic and Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle. The art style of the manga draws on the influence of ukiyo-e wood prints. When making a chapter composed of about twenty pages, Clamp takes around two days to make the artwork, the time differing with the ones from other series they made. The script of the series made by Nanase Ohkawa, who the other Clamp members ask her about any confusion they have before starting drawing the chapters. The illustrations and character designs are mainly done by Tsubaki Nekoi with assistance from Mokona although Satsuki Igarashi also draws various parts. For the series, they decided to use Japanese and Chinese themes, but avoided using tones. Mokona is mainly in charge of designing the female characters, while Nekoi draws the male ones and all the spirits featured. The artwork is also inspired by Alphonse Mucha who Mokona is a fan of. This leads to all the tankobon covers being gold or silver and then color printed over it. The series was retitled xxxHolic Rō ever since volume 16 because of how Watanuki replaced Yuko as the shop's owner.

When first presenting the idea of running xxxHolic linked with Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, although Ohkawa expressed concerns for the strain the weekly pace of such a series would place on the artists, she whole-heartedly approved. In accordance with Ohkawa's desire for each to have a well organized story, Clamp avoids putting references between the two stories too frequently. The reasons for linking these two series was because Clamp wanted to have two protagonists from two different manga with different personalities, design, yet during the ending they would be stated to be same person, and had to go on different paths. Because Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle was more focused in action scenes, Clamp sometimes took breaks from xxxHolic or create autoconclusive stories so that the storyline between the two series would always be linked. In April 2010, Clamp stated that the xxxHolic was taking longer than what they expected, causing delays to some of their other works. When the manga finished serialization, Clamp felt it was more the ending from xxxHolic Rō, pointing that xxxHolic had already ended. Regarding the series' finale, Clamp wanted to express that while Watanuki's decision to stay in the shop may seem sad for readers, for Watanuki it was his happiness. Clamp was satisfied with people's reaction to the last chapter, as when discussing Watanuki's fate, they were also thinking what is happiness for them.