Ranked #248

Kare Kano (Manga)

In typical fashion, I decided to read this manga months after watching the anime adaptation. And, while, the anime remains partly true to the manga, the manga itself offers so much more than what the anime ever could. Not only that, but it continues past the anime's ending point - the cultural festival, or more importantly the stage play that was taking place. As this is actually quite an important part of the story.

Now, I know what you're thinking - 'this is just another high school romantic comedy manga'. You know the ones, boy meets girl, boy likes girl, boy declares undying love fir girl = happily ever after. And for the most part, that is exactly what Kare Kano (His and Her Circumstances - which is the English title) actually is. But there is more to this manga than just a simple love story. The more you read into it, the darker it becomes. While the anime had some of the darker infusions towards the end - the manga delves in deeper. Much deeper. This story contains love, betrayal, secrets, child abuse, self-harm (2 instances), teen pregnancy, and a lot more that really makes it worth reading. All the pain and confusion that a person can (or could) suffer when growing up is all there in the Kare Kano manga.

Like most manga, character development takes place over a period of time, and this is no exception. The more the story progresses, the more complex the character's personalities become. This is most apparent in Arima Soichiro's personality, and this generally starts to take place during the stage play (this is why it's a key occurrence). The art style changes slightly as the manga continues, but it keeps it's style well and is really fitting with the story content. The complexities between the relationships of some of the characters is also well constructed. Apart from the main relationship (Arima and Miyazawa), there are 3 other relationships that are happening - one being a step-brother/step-sister relationship, as well as a high school student dating an adult (however, this particular relationship receives much less attention in comparison to Arima and Tsubasa's respective relationships).

In essence, the reader could possibly relate to any number of issues that occur in the manga better than the anime (with it's slightly off-key ending and no closure whatsoever). This is one manga that I would actually encourage people to add to their collections. read more

Kareshi Kanojo no Jijō (Kare Kano for short) is an amazing journey of a group of high schoolers with the main focus revolving around the power couple Soichiro Arima and Yukino Miyazawa. It is falsely advertised as a simple comedy/romance genre manga. There is so much more to the story, to be specific, there is a very dark side that makes the reader's heart wrench in pain as they watch the character struggle and grow. It has elements of psychological drama that are in line with stories such as "This Ugly Yet Beautiful World," "School Days," "Ef-A Tale of Memories," and "Elfen Lied."

The anime/manga starts off very peaceful and it seems to be your typical comedy/romance. I suggest you stay with the manga, don't drop it so easily. It picks up it's pace...and at this point I will tell you how this manga made me feel, since I can't judge everyone's reaction... The story starts twisting and turning; as soon as you think something is solved, another situation pops up. It all made me feel so anxious...I became addicted. The mangaka, Masami Tsuda does a great job developing the characters...she makes you fall in love with the characters. In most other animes/manga, there is usually one character you yell at throughout the story. Yet, in Kare Kano, right when you start questioning a character's intelligence, they surprise you. Either they do what any sensible person should do (if they think about a situation calmly) or they reveal something that is so emotionally twisted that you can't blame them (or you just feel their pain so you sympathize). Of course, there are characters I didn't like, but it never developed into straight up annoyance--I don't know, it was such an emotional rollercoaster.

IN CONCLUSION, this is a great manga that will take you on a journey. It will make you laugh, cry, grin, hurt, hate, heal, and love. If you really think about it, and draw some parallels between the story and real life, you may even discover something about yourself. Maybe I am glorifying the manga a little too much...you should judge it for yourself, but you won't be able to do that unless you read it...so what are you waiting for? Get started ^_^ read more