This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.leafmarks.com & Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge's Exalted Permission. Title: xxxHolic: Rei Volumes 1 & 2 Series: xxxHolic: Rei Author & Artist: CLAMP Rating: 3 of 5 Stars Genre: Manga Pages: 392 Synopsis: Watanuki, Yuko and the gang are back. Or more precisely, they are here "again". While the shop continues to cater to customers, Yuko and Domeki make cryptic remarks to each other about Watanuki's "choice". My Thoughts: Both these volumes only received 3 stars because it felt like CLAMP was milking the money machine instead of telling a good story. The stories about the customers are as creepy, yet similar, as ever and the interchange between Domeki and Watanuki is a bit stale. On the plus side, having Yuko back is wicked nice. Lordy, now there is a woman! I'll probably continue to read this series as it is released here in NorAm, but based on these 2 volumes, I certainly won't be buying the series. I liked how the original ended and this hasn't changed my mind about that." ( )

To my delight and surprise, CLAMP has started a new manga series in the xxxHolic universe. xxxHolic: Rei Volume 1 by CLAMP is somewhere in the middle of the old series before Yuko's disappearance, though it shares the same name (Rei) as the ending few volumes.

The shop is visited on alternating days by women who claim to be each other's best friend. They have identical phone charms where one is clean and the other is beat up. One of the women bears scars eerily familiar to those of the phone charm.

Anyone familiar with CLAMP's work, and especially's Watanuki's story, will recognize the theme of linked destinies — or more precisely, linked hitsuzen. But there's a twist where one's state of mind, or state of heart, determines the path a curse takes, and it's now how you'd expect. ( )