XxxHolic: Witches are drunks.

Nothing in this world happens by chance. The invisible hands of fate guide our actions, but that doesn’t mean that we can not change destiny. Kimihiro Watanuki is a person who is haunted by a dark fate. His one true wish was to have a normal life, and that wish brought him to a place where fates collide. Watanuki’s life was anything but normal. Haunted by a host of supernatural beings he spent everyday terrified by the prospect of being attacked. Then his strong wishes forced him to enter an odd building that he had never noticed before. The owner of the house tells him that fate had brought him into her shop. Yuuko, the witch of dimensions, runs a store that grants wishes, and she is willing to grant Watanuki’s wish for a price.

Having little of value he strikes a deal to be the witch’s part time employee. Watanuki’s tasks involve the normal maintenance of the store, cooking meals for Yuuko, and putting up with her her selfish drunken behavior. As you might imagine working for a witch brings Watanuki into contact with more supernatural occurrences than ever, but with his energetic personality and Yuuko’s guidance Watanuki becomes able to cope with his very abnormal destiny. Despite having mildly dark undertones XxxHolic manages to be enthusiastically comical. Watanuki’s behavior is so manic that it borders on bizarre. While Yuuko and her young servants jokingly torture their new friend incessantly by forcing him to perform all sorts of demeaning tasks at all times of day and night. Most episodes involve a customer buying
a wish from Yuuko and then not heeding her warnings and suffering dire consequences. The main difference between the anime and manga versions is the lacking correlations between Xxxholic and Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles. So despite missing an integral part of the overall plot Xxxholic is still a wonderfully entertaining anime.