Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou

Kare Kano was a romance anime that could have become incredibly great, if it had the proper budget and ideas from the producer to actually complete the show properly. Unfortunately the stale ending that Kare Kano ended on left myself and I’m sure many other fans in frustration. Based on the popular shoujo manga by Masami Tsuda, Kare Kano is about the blossoming love between two high school students who lived a life of lies, pretending to be the perfect person for their own reasons. Being able to truthfully open up to each other, their initial friendship turns to love. Sadly, life isn’t so easy ... for them as they face many trials to be together.

At first glance, Kare Kano is your average high school romance story. Thankfully, the odd personalities of the two leading characters break the idea of this just being another romance story. Kare Kano does contain the usual shoujo romance story elements when it comes to the trials for our main couple (jealous outsiders, temporary separation). But originality is able to come through with the way the leading characters handle their problems, often ending in a comedic resolve to their troubles. Besides the usual love trials, Kare Kano also features a number of interesting side stories about the support characters, so if you’re not a fan of the main couple, fear not, there are other amusing couples in the series as well. Unfortunately, Kare Kano’s story takes a nosedive with the lack of an ending. The last few episodes continue to build the plot up, but the series simply ends before anything can come out of the previous events. This is one of the greatest annoyances when it comes to Kare Kano, especially if one is not a manga reader.

The animation is more or less quite poor in Kare Kano. Taking into account this show is from 1998, anyone can easily see the budget was definitely not allocated to producing good animation. The first half of the show had its moments, the animation in this part of the series were acceptable. One of the techniques that the producers used was to cut out still images directly from the manga, which can be both a good and bad thing. Obviously this saves the producer a lot on cost of actual animation and some may think it is quite cheap of them. But I would think majority of people feel the black and white manga images added to the atmosphere of the show, especially in the moments they were used (which were when things became more serious). The second half of Kare Kano was when the animation began to lose its charm. More still images were constantly being used. Episode 19 of Kare Kano had the entire episode made up of cardboard cut outs, which were stuck on sticks and moved around (like a puppet show). The last five episodes were horrendous, a lot more of the manga pictures were being used, but rather then adding to the atmosphere, it just made the entire show feel cheap. The final episode barely had any animation at all, simply still images.

The sound in Kare Kano is one of its stronger points. The opening and ending have catchy pop songs that some may or may not like depending on their taste in music. There are also a number of enjoyable piano tunes in Kare Kano. All in all, the background music fitted well to the mood in this anime. A good pat on the back for the Japanese voice actors of Kare Kano as well. The VA for Yukino (the leading female) did a wonderful job in bringing out Yukino’s two faced personality, as did the VA for Arima (the leading male). If anything, the only complaint I have for the Japanese VAs was the one for the supporting character Tsubasa. I only felt her voice did not feel right.

Perhaps Kare Kano’s strongest point would be the characters. The leading couple is two somewhat eccentric two faced people (particularly the female) who pretty much break out of the stereotypical shoujo couple. The leading female, Yukino is an absolute riot to watch. You will witness her stressing over the smallest of things, unbelievable for someone who at first glance seemed to be the most perfect person you could find anywhere. Supporting characters such as Asaba and Tsubasa are also equally enjoying to watch as their odd personalities fit in perfectly with Kare Kano’s quirkiness. Character development is very thorough in Kare Kano, with even Yukino’s parents having screen time to develop their back stories. The only negative feature when it comes to the characters is that even towards the end of the show the characters are constantly built up with development, only to have the show end before anything could happen.

For why I enjoyed Kare Kano, I was previously a fan of the manga already. My favourite character would definitely have to be Yukino for her weirdo personality and decisions to solve her problems. I also really like the ending song, which I thought was perfect. Albeit I was definitely frustrated with how the show ended. The terrible animation was just painful for me to watch (especially the last 6 or so episodes). And I thought it was a poor decision on the producer’s part to end the show like it would end every other episode, and slap on a “The End”. I mean, nothing ended at all.

Overall, despite its obvious flaws Kare Kano still manages to be a favourite amongst the shoujo lovers for its interesting array of characters and somewhat unique storyline for the main couple. If you aren’t normally fond of stereotypical high school love stories, try giving Kare Kano a try. It’s recommended though to continue with the manga after watching the anime if you want to see how the story ends, since you won’t find any ending from here. So yeah, If you like comedy, romance, weird characters and high school settings then Kare Kano will probably be for you.

What's there that hasn't been said about this tale? In all honesty, Kare Kano is a love story through and through. Not to say that it lacks any other aspect besides romance but, it's the kind of show where you become intertwined with the heart more than the funny side-comments or the playful animation. The story is simply about two people in high school who meet, share common-ground, and fall head over heels for each other. Perfect for you hopeless romantics, eh?

Character(s) & Their Development
This one is certainly major for this show. The emotional interaction is at such a high level that at times, I ... was amazed at how lifelike it was. I felt I could meet each and every character if I walked around my own school long enough. It's not that their all completely realistic or even that they have no uniqueness but, the fact is that these people make you believe they exist is some space.

Yukino was certainly a character I had to keep a keen eye on. At first, I couldn't find the strength to actually like her but, by the second episode I found herself thinking the same thoughts I had just that very day. She has an extremely worrisome type of behavior when it comes to her relationship to Soichiro. It's not that she is meek but, it's that she has no idea how any of this is suppose to work because of the way she's lived her life. She was always so cheerful to her classmates, but she was distant. So far away, in fact, that no one could tell until this secret was disclosed when Yukino was not guarding herself.

She finds the relationship to Soichiro difficult at times, and yet that's only because of her own thinking. She thinks and thinks, doubting how well she can read him and be close to him. How much can she give, she really, truly wonders. A lot of the show is her ideals on her love towards Soichiro. I related to her, and at times was dumbfounded how much her very thoughts seemed like they were straight from my own mind.

Soichiro, on the other hand, doesn't get as much time to shed his concept on himself or Yukino as much as his counterpart; however, you don't need to hear his development to really know that he is changing. He becomes much more lively and socially active even though he still holds his own secrets & demons from the person he holds dear. In a way, it's a bit sad that Soichiro never comes to terms with his emotions in the anime, as he is cut off from overcoming his shadows since the show was never finished.

Animation
I've never understood completely why but, the majority absolutely despise the art in Kare Kano. As I said, I can't comprehend it since the studio had such a tight budget and because of that, I think they deserve some slack. The anime was also made in 1998, and there was a huge decline in money during that time in Japan (or something or another). Honestly, I don't judge too hard when it comes to this aspect. Story and characters are much more important to me, and they certainly come up strong while the animation is a tad weak.

Despite all that, the style has a plain cuteness while being soft. I've never had an anime where it was realistic but the style made me think: charming.

Music
The sound had to grow on me before I drowned into the youthful, playful melodies this anime has to offer. While some of it was increasingly fitting, the ending theme always had me bored. While I adored the lyrics, I could never get into the beat, but that was probably just me. The opening was certainly a gem though. I find myself singing to it even if I don't want to, it just had a perfect tune that couldn't deny the anime's own attraction in itself.

Dubbing/Subbing
Oh, I adored the dubbing in Kare Kano. The actor for Soichiro is dead-on, no question. Soichiro is more of an emotionless, hold-it-all-in type of guy and the inexperience of his actor actually aides in defining the character. Yukino had the hyper, somewhat angry, yet politeness you would expect from a role model with a weird personality. I was surprised to find the actress is really the voice of Ash Ketchem from Pokemon though.

Overall
In general, Kare Kano has a slice of the anime pie all to it's own. It's graceful in it's deliverance yet funny within it's own boundaries. The blandness witnessed is some episodes is picked up by the pure innocence of each character's quirks. This is the type of anime that is more than just a simple-minded cartoon, it actually lives and breathes like a human being that can grow and morph. It's charming and realistic in thought and action. There's little Kare Kano misses when explaining a relationship, and it doesn't miss at all the heartbeats, doubts, fears, and sadness faced with a first love. However, this show is not depressing despite situations where characters suffer; it remains optimistic.

This a show that's certain to give you that warm feeling, not for the cuteness (because, in all honesty, there isn't too much of that), but for watching the way these characters live out their lives, hardships, and accomplishments. (Last note: Pick up the manga, it ends the story and it's worth it!)

His and Her Circumstances by Hideaki Anno is among the most polarizing shows I've come across on MAL. People either think it's brilliant and one of the best romance anime ever created, or complete garbage. When you have a MAL rating below 7.70, you KNOW you done fucked up. That means the average MAL user thinks this show is worse than Future Diary or Elfen Lied. Despite this, His and Her Circumstances has a small but dedicated fandom who hold it up as an all time masterpiece. So who is right in this dispute? Are the casuals simply too naïve to notice its brilliance? Are ... the elitists being pretentious assholes again and placing garbage on a pedestal? The answer is complicated. His and Her is both brilliant and highly flawed. In order to enjoy it, you have to look past its many issues.

Pros:

Miyazawa and Arima are one of the most interesting couples in anime. Both suffer from psychological issues and create a fake persona to use in public. As the series progresses, both must learn to discard their masks and be truthful with themselves and each other. Miyazawa has a bad inferiority complex. She is jealous that she isn't naturally a genius or athletic, so she spends all her effort trying to trick others into thinking she is. She has a low self esteem and has a pathological need for constant praise. Without it, she would fall into a helpless depression. Arima was born to abusive parents who were a disgrace to his wealthy, extended family. He is so terrified that he will become like his parents or that people will associate him with his parents, that he creates an angelic persona. Even though many of his extended family hate him anyways, he must act perfectly or he fears he will lose the love of his aunt and uncle who raised him. We create masks to deceive others into thinking we're better than we actually are. However, no good can ever come of lying to yourself.

“Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.” - The Brothers Karamazov

Besides the excellent main couple, His and Her breaks free of several constraints that anime places on itself. Both main characters actually have family that you meet! I want you to think about how rare that is. I've seen over 950 anime and less than 10 of them have 2 main characters that each have a father, mother, and siblings that we meet. Anime characters always are orphans or only have a mother or their parents are overseas. Despite the great emphasis that Japan places on family, anime is paradoxically terrified of portraying families!

You know what other taboo this show breaks? The 2 main characters ACTUALLY HAVE SEX in a shoujo anime! If you're new to anime, you probably can't appreciate how rare this is. Space Brothers lasts 99 episodes and the main couple never have sex or get physical in any way. Nodame Cantabile is the same way. What about Spice and Wolf, which always makes the top 5 for best couple in anime? Nope! No sex, no kissing, nothing. You sit through 26 episodes of economics lectures to watch the main couple get together and...you get a Wonka ending. "You get NOTHING! You LOSE! Good Day Sir!" The only anime I can think of where the main couple have sex are Berserk (good example) and Future Diary (bad example). As a shoujo, His and Her stands almost alone in very rarely explored waters.

Finally, you get all the psychology and character drama of Eva without suffering through the most laughably obscurantist plot in the history of anime. A plot filled to the brim with half baked ideas and homages to ancient mecha like Ideon. The central conflict of the entire series is that the Angels are attacking humans. After 26 episodes you never learn why. After Death/Rebirth and End of Eva, you STILL don't know why. If you want to learn basic, essential plot details without consulting the internet, you have to watch the reboot movies, buy the 15 video games and the Japanese Daizenshuu. Can you imagine any other work of art that's held in any esteem getting away with that shit? "Yeah Bro! I just finished Werckmeister Harmonies. Now I need to beat the video game in order to make sense of it! I got through the circus level, but the whale boss keeps kicking my ass!"

Cons:

The character art is shit. I can't tell which characters are adults and which are children. Miyazawa's parents don't look any older than her younger siblings.

Due to massive budget issues, the first 5 minutes of every episode are a recap using previous animation. That way, they only have to animate 17 minutes of new footage each episode. Even that wasn't enough, so we get popsicle stick characters and animation that's so bare bones it's a joke. Also episode 13 is entirely recap. What the FUCK was wrong with Gainax and meeting their budgets? I think they must have blown all their cash on cocaine and hookers.

The secondary characters aren't really that great. They don't get enough time to really develop, but do get just enough time to steal from the main characters in a way that hurts the show.

The original mangaka allegedly HATED this adaptation and apparently thought it was pretentious. There was even a rumor that she drove down to Gainax, screamed at Anno, and pulled the plug on a second season. Anno went into a deep depression and walked off the series after episode 18. The rest of the anime after that point is garbage. Even the most diehard fans of this show don't watch episodes 19-26. It's like the Post-Kyoto Arc part of the Rurouni Kenshin anime. It's so bad it doesn't exist in the minds of the fans.

Overall:

His and Her Circumstances isn't a series for everyone. However, if you have patience and can get over its shortcomings, you will witness one of the most unique and moving romances in anime! Hell, it just might be the greatest anime that Hideaki Anno has ever made (that isn't Re: Cutie Honey). I can't get my offline friends to watch this one, and half my online friends dislike it. However, I love this anime and beg anyone who hasn't seen it to try it out!

Kare Kano: [ His and Her Circumstances ]

Introduction:

Yukino Miyazawa is what you can call the perfect schoolgirl in any possible way. At first she was very conceited and wanted others to respect ("worship" could be a better word) her. Then she met Arima, the perfect schoolboy in all respects. Her first instict was to defeat this arch-enemy of hers. However, people say that Hate is what`s closest to Love, and as you may have guessed, hatred soon turned to love between these two. Here`s Kare Kano`s story in a nutshell.

Animation:

Gainax did 2K (Kare Kano). They also did Furi Kuri (FLCL) which has a reputation for ... being "weird". Even in 2K you see that same weirdness. In many episodes, the dialogues are written instead of spoken. And often, there is no motion picture, just a set of slide shows to show a scene. You will also notice that there is a lot of scene-display. Like showing buildings, roads, traffic lights and stuff. Another point to note is that the characters` emotions are very much exaggerated, just like in FLCL. Big teeth, hyper-wide grins and the like. Finally, the animation will often reach an extreme climax with shouts, lots of fast actions and just after, die down to a low hum. This can often disorient the viewer. However, the animation is fluid and there are no major flaws.

Sound:

Like in my other reviews, I don`t pay much attention to sound. The OP and ED have nothing special. However, there are some in-movie music tracks that are worth listening. Nothing bad. Nothing great.

Story:

Here comes the interesting part! As you know, 2K is a love story involving the 2 main characters Yukino and Arima. So, expect these 2 to get lots and lots of screen time. The story of 2K evolves around those 2, depicting their problems, how they strengthen their love-bond and how the characters around them react. There is also some emphasis on friendship and helping friends in need. The series will also illustrate people and the problems they face in their lives, particularly in their emotions. The first 20 or so episodes are nicely laid out.

However, there are 2 things I hate: The flashbacks/recaps and the ending. Every 2-3 episodes, you will get some kind of recap. It becomes very very annoying in the end, with a full 1.5-2 episodes of recap. That really annoyed me. Why do we need recaps that often. We are not amnesia patients! It seems that these recaps are there to fill holes in the series, where the people who made 2K had no idea what to do/write/draw. So they just stuffed a recap and it`s a go.

Next, the ending is really poor. Seems that the budget got drained completely at the end of the series. The drawings just suk! Trust me, you don`t want to watch those again. There is almost no sense in the last 2-3 episodes. The main characters completely vanish, leaving only 2 secondary characters and their budding love story. Even then, we are not told clearly what`s happening. You have to witness that horror of last episode to know what I`m talking about. It`s very incoherent and difficult to understand. Basically, that ending totally ruined the whole series. And mind you, we are not told, even in the end, as to what happens to Arima and Yukino, or the other characters. What becomes of the 2 brightest students of the school? Get married supposedly.. We don`t know, we just hope..

P.s. Another annoying thing: The number of times you will hear the name "Arima" in the series is overwhelming!

Character:

I can say that the characters are well developed and well introduced. At least for the main characters. We are given elaborate details about their lives, their likes and dislikes, and the detail particulars about them. Each of them has their own particular personalities and distinct feelings. This is nice to see.

The problem here is that sometimes, characters disappear randomly and without reason. Eg. Tsubasa`s "brother" completely disappears and for no apparent reason! I thought he was going to come into play later in the series when he was introduced, but alas.. he disappeared into nothingness! :S Likewise, the 2 main characters completely vanish from the scene in the last few episodes!

But the way the characters are introduced and maintained through 2K covers for this flaw and earns an 8 from me.

Value and Enjoyment:

Not much to say here. It`s just a nice romance story for people who like the genre. However, do not expect very much from the series. And if you can bear with some dark points, like vanishing characters and difficult-to-understand stories, then you might give this series a try. Personally I enjoyed it for the first 20 or so episodes. But after that, I nearly dropped it. But I didn`t just because I wanted to know how it would end, but I was deceived there.

Not much rewatch value, except if you really like the genre and got nothing else to watch. That`s all from me! :P

You're not going to get what you expect.

At first the series is very similar to your standard Shoujo anime. The main character is a cannonball of humor and humanity - not a dainty wussy female heroine. She's someone a real female can relate to.

Visually, as the anime progresses, it delves deeper into an avant-garde style of presentation. It becomes less of an animated series and more an experiment in visual storytelling. I actually appreciated this aspect of the series and looked forward to seeing how the story would be told in each episode. From the popsicle stick figures, cityscapes, flashing images, sketch book drawings, etc. ... everything was very different and very interesting to watch.

The story itself is great - it branches off gracefully from the stories of our two main characters as they progress in high school and develop into adulthood.

The behind the scenes problems led to a number of useless recap fillers and a hanging final episode. I presume there was the intention of continuing beyond 26 episodes because the final episode does nothing to wrap up any loose ends. (Typical, right? The bright side is that the manga continues well beyond this final episode and any individual who desperately wants to know how all these fantastic and complex characters will end up is able to read on to a very satisfactory and complete ending.)

Understanding that this is incomplete, experimental, and yet totally emotionally captivating this series is recommended.

In all the 106 anime I've watched, Kare Kano had the worst artwork. So bad, that at times it shows manga panels accompanied by words. And still, I can easily say that Kare Kano is one of the best anime I've watched.

Unlike most shoujo anime, it has the kind of depth you can only find at Kimi ni Todoke or Sukitte Ii na yo, and the kind of realism in the story you can find in almost none. Kare Kano will not expand much on the characters' depth, however for the few that it does, it does so effectively and interesting at the point where ... it becomes the main reason for liking it.

We all know that Japanese humor is not actually funny, nonetheless I laughed quiet frequently throughout its duration.

In general terms, it is a most cheerful, funny and alluring anime, except for the sadness one might feel when it starts narrating real life problems, such as psychological ones...sense of inferiority, defense mechanisms, concealment of reality...

Note that the story does not finish in the anime, therefore you will have to read the last chapters from the manga. It truly isn't a bother though, you will want to know the conclusion so much you will do it more than willingly.

To sum up, albeit its drawbacks Kare Kano is not a boring anime-I finished 26 episodes in five days-so, every person watching shoujo anime should try watching it.

We have all known someone who seems to have everything go their way; Individuals who are intelligent, academically successful, outstanding athletes and despite of all that, remain kind and well-liked people. Those of us who do not possess these seemingly super-human traits can be left gazing up at them in awe, wondering why we ourselves cannot be more like them. But whatever outward appearances may suggest, ultimately these people function the same way we do, and the only difference between us and them (social class and genetics notwithstanding) is a question of motivation. Rather than ask ourselves we do not experience the same results, ... we should really question what drives us to behave the way we do, or more to the point, what drives a person to be so unashamedly approvable?

This is the question posed by Hideaki Anno’s Kareshi Kanojou no Jijou, AKA Kare Kano. It’s a romantic comedy which tells the story of high-achiever and self-styled ‘Queen of Vanity’ Yukino Miyazawa, a high school debutante who has just had her hopes of a perfect high school entranced dashed by the equally successful Souichiro Arima. Right from the get go Yukino makes her motivations clear- wanting nothing more than to be adored by others publically and acknowledged as ‘the best’. This does not work out so well when she is beaten in the entrance exams by Arima, who then becomes the class representative and takes the admiration and attention which Yukino so desperately craves. She vows to get better grades than him in the first round of exams, steal his place at the top and then rub it in his over polished face.

So begins the storyline of the greatest romance anime of all time, perhaps the greatest shoujo and maybe even the best sitcom too. The competition on these fronts is admittedly weak, but Kare Kano still comes on strong and, despite possessing a few obvious flaws, remains a stellar overall: If you want solid characters, it has them; if you want something different from the usual fare, this is a shoujo in name only; if you want something artistically interesting, then Kare Kano engages in visual experimentation that would make Studio 4 degrees C blush. In fact, if you think that Neon Genesis Evangelion is the best anime that Hideaki Anno has produced, you are about to discover how wrong you were and be amazed by how wrong everyone has been these last fifteen years.

These may seem like bold claims, but do not mistake them for embellishment or exaggeration. Let us begin by considering the typical Shoujo Romance: we start with a shy and timid, profoundly girlish high school girl as our lead. We introduce her to a teenage boy who is interested in boyish things like sports and is popular in school; his masculinity offset by his caring nature and his almost feminine good looks. He is crafted in such a way as to be desirable in every since, without being intimidating. One speculates that, if a relationship in a shoujo anime were to progress as far as intercourse (which it never does) our pretty heroines would be shocked to discover that their beloved saviour would not have any genitals whatsoever.

This criticism may seem harsh, but let’s not pretend it isn’t fare. It is actually a source of fascination that productions aimed at girls could be, almost without exception, so misogynistic.

Kare Kano is different though. As the series opens, Yukino’s character has not only been getting by without a knight in shining armour, but has been kicking ass in her own right. Her motivations are questionable of course and ultimately driven by her own weaknesses, but her outward appearance is one of strength and confidence. As her relationship with Arima develops, her character changes and abandons her old outlook on life, deciding that she and him together will live life honestly and openly. Even here though the decisions are mutual and it never feels as if the mere presence of a man is prodding the plot forward.


This mature approach to writing a female lead in a romance story is something which could easily be adopted by other anime series, and yet they continue to produce the same formulaic characters time and time again. But this alone is not what makes Yukino a great character; it is the level of depth and progression of her character while remaining true to her established personality. Attempting to completely change your behaviour and world view are not straightforward tasks in real life, and in fiction this is even more apparent. The realisation that she needs to change comes very early in the series but it is not until it nears its conclusion that this is fully realised. Every so often, when one starts to forget about her character’s desire to change, we are prompted with a reminder that it is an ongoing process. It feels very natural.

Speaking of an ongoing process, as mentioned above it is common that shoujo romance stories experience limited progression and can even seem like one misunderstanding after another. These strings of awkward situations are intended to be dramatic, but this is usually not the case if you are unable to suspend your disbelief; a difficult task if you have ever been stuck watching romantic comedies with your mother. Thankfully, Kare Kano abandons this will-they/won’t-they nonsense and progresses quickly; perhaps even a little too quickly. The pacing is similar to that of a real relationship (i.e. it doesn’t take six months for the characters to have their first kiss) and actually manages to discuss the subject of love maturely and convincingly. One particularly memorable example is when Yukino, having learned about something unsavoury from Arima’s past, says: “I love this man, this man who hurts himself for the sake of others”. It was already clear that this was not a mere puppy romance, but this line marks the point where the story unfolding is no longer some teenage fantasy, but an honest and genuine love story.

As for Arima’s character, while he does possess many of the qualities of the stereotypical shoujo male love interest (athletic, popular, girlish appearance, kind attitude) his clean cut appearance and modest abilities belie a character with a troubled past and a deep feeling of inadequacy despite his successes. While he shares Miyazawa’s drive and goals, his motivations and circumstances could not be more different and he turns out to be a rather dark horse. The son of abusive parents, Arima was adopted by his auntie and uncle and feels that he must succeed both to satisfy them and to prove that he will not follow in his parents footsteps. It is a considerably less happy back-story than Yukino’s, yet at the same time it feels just a little too... obvious. What drove Miyazawa to behave the way she does is a complex question which does not have any real explanation beyond a love of praise and special treatment, while it is very easy to pin down exactly what makes Arima the way he is. The second may seem like clearer and better storytelling, but if you consider your own personality, has it been formed rigidly by a single experience from childhood?

Arima’s character is a bit weak in contrast to Yukino, but at the same time Yukino is among the best written anime character of all time, and Arima is still an almighty cut above even the best of his contemporaries. The pair are a perfect match, and for the purposes of storytelling, allowing the audience to clearly see two different paths that could lead to highly driven individuals, both showing that such people still possess weaknesses and experiences troubles that others face, and most importantly of all, that such people are still human.



Kareshi Kanojou no Jijou, better known as Kare Kano, is a series directed by Hideaki Anno and produced by Studio Gainax. But there are no giant robots to be found, nor are there any whiny teenage boys. In fact, this series is a romantic comedy, and the characters are exceptional: intelligent, successful and popular. They are the kind of people that everyone else wants to be.

Mary-Sue! I hear you shout, but you would be wrong. Because while on the surface the cast of Kare Kano appear to be too good to be true, what motivates them and gives them the drive to succeed in this regard is that most pitiful of weaknesses; desire for the approval of others.

Unfortunately, as the series reaches its close it begins –ill advisedly- to introduce other characters, some interesting and some not, but none of which can hold a candle to the lead roles. Their introduction is made necessary as a part of Yukino’s recovery process, but alas they are but meagre archetypes concocted to fill space. Each one has their own background but they are quite predictable and feel like a distraction from the main storyline. Still, it feels that the time could have been better spent on Yukino and Arima, or even on Yukino’s family members, who as supporting cast members go are superb, providing alternative points of view neatly and punching above their weight on the comedy front. Fortunately, there is one episode towards the end of the series, a filler episode if you wish to call it that, which places the spotlight on Yuki’s youngest sister Kano. This is actually one of the highlights of the second half of the series, although its placement is bizarre to say the least. Unfortunately though it is not anywhere near as bizarre as where the series actually finishes.

There are several stories attached to the production of Kare Kano which you may or may not be aware of: the first is that the Mangaka was dissatisfied with Hideaki Anno’s portrayal of the series, and that he abandoned the production in response. Another story is that towards the end of the series, the money supply was running out, and so production values went out the window. The first of these stories is known to be true, and Anno’s directorial influence is absent from several episodes of the series. Unfortunately, the man who took his place – Kazuya Tsurumaki, who later directed FLCL, was unable to continue Anno’s vision and so things just peter out.

The rumour about the money supply may or may not be true, but I consider it unlikely for two reasons- first of all, the windfall of cash in Gainax’s coffers following Neon Genesis Evangelion’s success, and the highly experimental tendencies of the studio in both earlier episodes of Kare Kano itself, and in other Gainax productions. In fact, it could be argued that there is more visual experimentation in Kare Kano, than in productions like FLCL, Panty and Stocking, or anything by Akiyuki Shinbou.

The series manages to frequently experiment with visuals, without them becoming jarring or intruding too much on the storyline. Every episode seems to include a new and interesting way of communicating with the viewer: from Kano and Tsukino using a manga to illustrate Yukino’s complex over Arima to using puppets to review the story in a re-cap episode. These are among the more obvious sequences; some are more subtle, such as a first person view sequence in which Yukino’s sisters run up a staircase. Frequent angle changes are not easy to draw accurately, yet here it is pulled off flawlessly. It also has the effect of emphasising the characters rushing from place to place. It’s so original and so effective, it’s wonderful.

Other motifs worthy of note include the use of establishing shots to provide visual cues and symbolise the emotions of the characters. Kare Kano makes the use of pictures of industrial scenery, water pipes, and traffic lights as interludes between romantic sequences. Initially this seems like an odd choice for a romance series, but as the series progresses this becomes clear. The series also makes heavy use of printed text, reminiscent of the work of French director Jean Luc Goddard. While visually appealing, translating these shots and putting them in subtitles is a challenge and if you are unable to read Japanese then you will just have to accept being unable to read everything. Fortunately, this doesn’t really inhibit you from enjoying or understanding the series and usually the text simply paraphrases what is said in the dialogue.

On the subject of dialogue, the script is exceptionally well written. It manages to avoid sounding overly lovey-dovey or naive, a miracle for a high school romance. The voice acting in the original Japanese version is excellent on all accounts, although you may find one character -Tsubasa Shibahime- irritating if you are not fond of nasally voices. Nonetheless, the acting is of a high standard and appropriate for each character. The English dub, in contrast, is a point of contention. Some consider it to be of a high standard- in terms of acting, this is without question. All of them are capable and each line is delivered perfectly. However, as I see it there is one major problem which rather spoils the effort: Arima’s voice. Arima is a teenage boy, yet his voice is deep enough to make Barry White sound like a tenor. The acting is fine, but hearing such a masculine voice coming from someone in the middle of their teenage years is a bit too much. Ultimately though, the choice is yours to make. But what good is dialogue without music to back it up?

Fortunately Kare Kano is well endowed here too. The opening and ending themes are both catchy pop tunes that you’ll be singing along to every episode. Then there is the background music- incredibly varied and highly versatile: it ranges from happy bossa nova influenced light jazz to capture the relaxation and familiarity of both school and home, to standoffish, heavy riff based rock to accompany conflict. This is to say nothing of the touching piano melody which acts as the refrain.

Kareshi Kanojou no Jijou is not only a masterpiece, but a neglected masterpiece. It’s not perfect; in fact it is flawed in many respects, largely the product of its rocky upbringing. But from beginning to end, it is an outpouring of creative ingenuity which no other production comes close to. Neon Genesis Evangelion may have been the title that enjoyed mainstream popularity and the place in the history books, but Kare Kano is the work with higher ambitions and more radical ideas. Evangelion changed super robot shows forever; but Kare Kano influenced animation as a whole.

Evangelion is what got everyone’s attention; but Kare Kano is the production that changed the world.

Smart anime?! Smart anime in the shoujo category?? It does exist!

Story:
It's rather straight forward in my opinion in spite of the various entanglements the characters encounter but essentially...the story is about a girl and a boy who fall in love, the subsequent emotional development, their interactions with the people around them, the lives of their friends and their romances as well, and of course it's about growing up and finding out who you are as an individual.

Art:
It didn't impress me much but the comedic expressions are funny as hell...it's attractive enough and develops a lot in the manga.

Sound:
I have the ... soundtrack. Very motivating.

Character:
Are total win. Characters are the most important aspect of any series to me. They have to be funny, smart, and confident (or if not exactly confident then they should be trying to get there somehow) and Kare Kano has it all. No one is really dumb here and most of them say what they think or feel or eventually develop enough to do so. The anime isn't quite able to encompass all the lovely character development due to budget cuts and mangaka/producer disagreements but if you get a chance, read the manga. The only character I do not like as much as the rest would probably be Arima...and again if your read the manga you'll know why.

Enjoyment:
I own the series but I do regret that the production company was forced to such lows to produce some of the episodes. The anime does not have a proper ending and if you want one, look for the manga...although I will admit that the anime did encompass a lot of Yukino's arc..which is IMHO the highlight of the series...what follows in the manga is a huge dreary arc on Arima...but in between you'll find some gold when Tsuda decides to focus on the other characters.

Overall:
I like it lots. And if you want to listen to a good conversation between characters instead of long overly macho crap in shounen or hurried "I love you, but I can't love you" crap in shoujo then you're in for a treat. :)

OK so I really liked this anime the characters in it were great, I loved the fact that it is set apart from almost every other anime in this genre with the lead characters not being the typical boy meets girl, boy likes girl (or other way around) but both being to timid and shy to do anything about it, in Kare Kano they get on with it and happily admit that they like each other, I also loved that the lead characters were real in the fact that when at home they were completely different from when out with friends or at school.

What I ... really did not like at all about this anime and the reason that i have given it such a low overall rating is the fact that the last final episodes (25 and 26) do not follow the story line that has been set and are really just filling you in on what has happened throughout the series so far and then the final episode finishes without really giving you an ending, so really it is like the producers thought "hey lets make this manga into the anime" and then halfway through it they got bored of it and decided they just didn't care anymore and couldn't be bothered leaving all the fans going "ummmmm huh OK, so where is the rest?"

Yukino Miyazawa is at the top of her class in both grades and respect. She’s the perfect model student... poised, generous, cultured, the picture of a school idol. But before you can start throwing around accusations of her being a Mary-Sue, she informs you very clearly that it’s all an act. She pretends to be perfect, working her little butt off to not only get good grades, but to make it look easy. Why? Because she loves receiving praise, and Japan has that whole ‘sempai’ thing going on.

Her world is thrown into turmoil when a new student transfers into her class, named Soichiro Arima, and ... his good grades immediately bump her from her pedestal as the smartest kid in school. She declares him her rival, and he declares her... His love interest?

There’s a lot to talk about in regards to this series... I’ll try to touch on most of it... But to start, I can’t restrain myself from gushing about the English dub, which is easily one of the best I’ve ever heard. It consists mainly of some of the best and brightest stars of the nineties, and they all give four star performances. Yukino is a very talky character, whose inner monologues take up a disproportionate amount of the script, and this would be unbearable coming from anybody other than Veronica Taylor(Ash Ketchum, Amelia Wil Tesla Seyruun), who has a distinct habit of throwing herself wholeheartedly into every single role she performs. Her obsession over her grades and her budding relationship is every bit as convincing as her drive to become a Pokemon master ever was, and she never misses a beat on this project.

Christopher Nicholas plays Soichiro just as flawlessly, hitting a wide range of emotions where most other actors would have just gone flat. He’s a damaged boy with very profound abandonment issues, and his motive for overachieving is entirely different from Yukino’s, even though it has about an equally complex affect on his life. He does such a great job that I have to wonder why he only had six other anime roles aside from this one.

Soichiro’s childhood friends consist of Hideaki Asaba... Or Sexy Carlos, as AMV Hell 3 called him... and Tsubasa Shibahime, who has an unrequited crush on Soichiro. Because of course she does. Hideaki is played by Liam O’Brien, and I don’t really think Dr. Tenma from monster needs me to tell you how great he is. He loves his lascivious ladies’ man character, and eats up every sleazy line he’s given. Lisa Ortiz, who voiced my favorite character of all time Lina Inverse, portrays Tsubasa, and she’s able to command the screen even when her dialogue is reduced to growling. Which is a thing that happens. Rachel Lillis also has a handful of roles, and while they’re not as diverse as her multiple roles in Pokemon, she still does a great job.

The other two of note are Yukino’s younger sisters, Kano and Tsukino, but the only really big part they play in the story is the fact that it’s their job to dole out plot summaries at the beginning of most episodes, and the preview at the end of every episode. And who did they cast for these roles? Megan Hollingshead (Officer Jenny, Nurse joy, the Sonozaki Twins) and Jessica Calvello (Excel!). While either of these actors are phenomenal on their own, they work even better together, feeding off of each others’ already boisterous energy.

By the way, i’m going to go briefly off topic to say how awesome it is to have Calvello returning to voice acting. She’s already done a few recent roles for Sentai filmworks, and even some Cyanide and Happiness clips, and now she’s going to be in Attack on Titan! Glad to have you back, and I mean it!

Oh, I should probably say something about the music. There's some nice sounding 60's stuff, but the track you'll remember the most is a very somber piano piece. You'll remember it the most because they play the damn thing over and over and over again.

Since this series was produced directly after Evangelion, I don’t think it’ll be any surprise that it had an abysmally small animation budget to work with. But that’s never the death knell of any anime... Any show can look fantastic even with the barest of budgets. And since Kare Kano is a slow paced and text-heavy romantic comedy, it should have been easy to cut corners wherever possible without really upsetting anybody.

But since this is late nineties Studio Gainax, the order of the day seems to have been ‘make it look like the last few episodes of Evangelion.’ Much like he did in Eva, Director Hideaki Anno overcompensates for the lack of animation money by employing hyper, eclectic visual style that’s meant to distract us, like dangling keys in front of a baby. this is a huge pet peeve of mine, and until now, I always assumed that Bakemonogatari was the worst offender. The art direction is largely directionless, as the breakneck editing frequently jumps from style to style. When we’re not watching the lifeless key frames of the actual material, we’re looking at art-class charcoal sketches, monochromatic manga images, and... I swear I’m not making this up... Actual cardboard cut-outs on popsicle sticks, all in a hilarious attempt to distract us from what little visual flare the soft, pastel-clad series has to offer. There’s no OTHER reason for such a slow paced anime to do this... Oh, wait, yes there is.

In order to talk about the writing that went into Kare Kano, I’m going to have to start by explaining the concept of Show Don’t Tell. Well, a condensed explanation is in order, as it pertains to a visual medium. Basically, telling the viewer about something isn’t going to give them the same experience as showing it to them. If a feeling or emotion can be stated with a simple change of expression, there’s no reason to have the character blab on about it. For example, my biggest problem with Kick-Ass 2 was that the admittedly bold character development was explored through long-winded emotional speeches, rather than actual actions. Show, don’t tell.

Unfortunately, Kare Kano is an extremely ‘telly’ series. Every single plot point is stated to us, sometimes over and over again, and I’m not just talking about the plot recaps. The voice-over narrations between our two heroes are incessant, as they beat us over the head with every thought, concern, or emotion that may be going through their minds. We’re constantly reminded about things that we couldn’t have possibly forgotten, and no matter who’s talking, they won’t shut up about Yukino’s personality, whether real or constructed, or about the fact that her and Shoichiro are changing each other. A good cast can go a long way, but this amount of expositional soliloquizing wears out it’s welcome fast. And don’t even get me started on the constant... And I mean constant... On-screen text.

Basically, it has the pretentious writing style of Evangelion, and the heavily randomized viaual style of FLCL, and that wouldn’t be such a bad thing if it wasn’t for it’s slow pace and limbo-champ stakes.

Which is unfortunate, because when the show actually shuts the hell up for two minutes and develops the characters normally, it can deliver some heart-stoppingly beautiful moments. But they're few and far between.

I don’t think it’s a big spoiler to say that our two leads become a couple, since this is a romantic comedy, but the surprising factor is just how fast they get together. Instead of relying on the cliched will-they-won’t-they dynamic, Kare Kano isn’t a story about them getting together as much as it is about them staying together. And that would make for a really interesting plot, if there was any actual threat to them. Yes, the characters themselves may not be annoyingly perfect, but their relationship damn well IS. Every conflict they ever face... And I hate using hyperbole, so no, I am not exaggerating about this... Is resolved as quickly and easily as possible, before being instantly forgotten. Even the characters that try to get in their way are defeated, befriended, and robbed of any future identity or screen time.

Unfortunately for Kare Kano, my other big pet peeve is when a series spends an entire episode... Or two... On one character's arc, giving them development or a backstory just to drop them out of the story immediately afterwards. When that character is going to be killed off, that's one thing, but when they're going to lose all of their dialogue and literally act like a monkey for the rest of the show, that's something else. And not something good.

Sometimes, even the events revolving specifically around our couple ultimately result in nothing. Here, I’ll give you a spoiler-example. Soichiro was abandoned by his deadbeat father and physically abusive mother as a child. He’s raised by his aunt and uncle, and at one point in the series, we travel with him to his family reunion. And because of some betrayal his father committed, everybody hates him, saying he’ll amount to nothing. You may be saying “Wait, isn’t he at the top of his class?’ Yes, and his uncle brings up that exact point, telling all of them that they’re feelings toward him make no sense. And that’s where that storyline ends.

If having a character point out that something didn’t make sense was enough to make up for the fact that it didn’t make sense, I would have enjoyed Angel Beats a bit more.

Now, here’s the part where I put my money where my mouth is; That entire plot point could have been easily improved. Rather than openly hating him for something he didn’t deserve, why not have them secretly hate him, but wear fake smiles around him and pretend to love him BECAUSE of his grades? Then when they find out that his grades slipped because of his girlfriend, their true natures show! See, by doing that, they could have tied this conflict directly into the main plot. His relationship to Yukino could have been dragged into it, kicking and screaming if necessary.

To address the elephant in the room, a lot of people consider this show’s damning flaw to be the fact that it suddenly ended at episode 26, leaving off without any sort of conclusion. This was done because the manga author, Masami Tsuda, didn’t like the direction the adaptation was taking. She said that Anno was focusing more on the comedy than the main romance, and as such, she refused to let them adapt her work any further. Personally, I think it was unfair and entirely inaccurate of her to imply that this show was moving in some sort of direction in the first place. But yes, I have to side with her on this. I’m actually glad she cut them off, because in addition to protecting her own name, she prevented Anno from embarrassing himself any further.

There's a long list of shows that were inspired in some way or another by this particular series, including one of my first positive reviews, Yamada's First Time. The problem? Almost all of these shows are decisively better than Kare Kano.

For those of you who decided to TLDR by skipping right to my final thoughts, I’d hate to disappoint you, so here they are. Kare Kano is a train wreck. I’m sorry, I know it’s popular, and a lot of people love it, but I have to be honest; This is one of the most badly written and poorly executed pieces of work that I’ve ever seen. It showed some promise in the beginning, but even then, the cracks in the writing were already beginning to show. My expectations may have been a little too high, but even if they weren’t, my opinion of this show would still be the same. I thought it would be the best anime I reviewed this month, but no, it’s the worst. At least This Ugly Yet Beautiful World put forth some actual effort, making a genuine attempt to have a decent story and a consistent plot.

I give His and Her Circumstances a 3/10. If you’re pleasantly intrigued by the idea of watching a circle of talking heads play Uno for three minutes, go ahead and raise it to a 5/10, as no other show will be lazy enough to deliver on that esoteric joy.

His and Her Circumstances: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worshiping and Hate the Gainax.

Wait, wait, I know what you're thinking...

It is an old anime, and it isn't as pretty as Fruit Basket or My Happy Marriage. I'm just asking you to hear me out!

An unpopular opinion, this anime is SO underrated by the romance anime community. It's your typical high school rom-com, cute moments type anime. I would never call this a masterpiece but, if you ever got nothing to watch then, slap on this 26 ep fun comedy.

The characters are lovable and it's just the right amount of comedy. ;)

Say whatever you want - I did watch this in dubbed rather than subbed by ... the way...

Gainax's adaptation on Masami Tsuda's manga Kare Kano is a series that rarely leaves anyone who watches it indifferent. Starting off with a hectic pace, rapid development and unique characters, presents a style and animation that for some might be worth of negative criticism, while for others a true paradigm of originality and visual expressivity.

As for the bigger picture, Kare Kano is a romance. This topic is the main aspect of the series during its first third, in which we find probably one of the most disarmingly honest shoujo romances ever made. From that point onwards, yes: the main couple does get more screen ... time and exclusive episodes, but also other characters appear in scene and gain in importance and development, as well as the comedy aspect of the show increases.

The characters are well portrayed and their development is noticeable. The main lead is very interesting, with her apparently different facets and her unique personality. Considering herself the queen of vanity and always full of pride, Yukino seems to be the opposite of the also talented but really measured male lead. Nonetheless as the time passes they notice how important their relationship is to discover things about themselves and to improve as people in general. It's also quite uncommon and great to find a protagonist for this kind of series that instead of being insecure and dubious when anything happens, decides to act with determination to solve her problems as soon as possible.

The style and its original approach is one of the main sources of controversy and one of the explanations of why is this show so terribly underrated. You might have seen other Gainax's shows that could give you a clue on this matter: a previous Neon Genesis Evangelion or a later FLCL. In order to express emotions and comedy scenes, characters' shape is usually modified in what looks like caricatures. Decoloration and manga-style, minimalist scenes in where the text is simply written are also visible throughout the show. There's one episode in which this is especially hyperbolic and the backgrounds are real, while the characters are just clippings. For the major part of the show these shifts in style are done in a very effective manner, enriching emotion and making sure that the desired mood for the scene is portrayed in the best possible way.

Now the major downside of the series is the fact that drags out a bit for the last eight episodes, with pointless recaps, slower pace, new characters we are not given enough time to care about and, of course, an open ending. From the last 3 episodes 2 of them are fillers and the last one, while having a better direction than the few previous ones, might result in a disappointment for the unaware audience that was waiting for a proper conclusion. Kare Kano was supposed to receive a second season but due to some disagreements between the original creator and the direction this never happened, also with director Hideaki Anno leaving the project before its completion.

As bad as all the aforementioned issues might sound it is important to acknowledge that the great majority of the show is not only a fair adaptation of the manga, but also an enriching one. Its stellar direction pushed the boundaries of a more complete medium like very few adaptations in anime are capable of doing, character designs made the ones from the manga look way more appealing and audiovisuals were spot on for the major part of its airing.

No complains in what concerns to the sound: both opening and ending themes are above average, with the ending sequence changing after every episode. The soundtrack is really befitting for both the occasional wackiness of the show as well as for its more dramatic moments.

In conclusion, if you want to watch a well-built, funny romance story (potentially one of the best of the medium) and you don't mind about dealing with an original animation style or a rather few disappointing last episodes give Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou a try.

Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou is an anime from the late 90s released by Gainax & JC Staff. It was based off of a manga by Tsuda Masami. And, apparently, she was unhappy with the way Gainax handled it which resulted in it not receiving a full adaptation. So, what exactly is wrong with the adaptation? Let's take a look and see what went wrong. Or maybe she was just being overly picky. We'll see. 

Story:

Miyazawa Yukino excels at everything. She's an outstanding student, a strong athlete and is well liked by everyone. There's just one problem. She doesn't show her true personality to anyone outside of her ... family. She puts on a mask because she loves to be praised. One day her major rival, Arima Soichiro, uncovers the truth behind the mask. The pair become friends and quickly go beyond friendship. The narrative from there goes into their ups and downs as well as their relationships with those around them. 

The big narrative problem with this anime is that the last third is really atrocious. Here's the thing. Roughly the first two thirds have a strong comedic aesthetic where problems come up, get resolved in ways that are pretty entertaining  and things flow from there. Roughly the last third throws that out and adds a bunch of terribly written angst and poorly thought out drama. This causes the series to devolve from an entertaining romp to being virtually unwatchable. The ending is trash too. Most anime that aren't going to cover an adapted work entirely have the decency to give some closure and end with some pressing issue getting wrapped up. This one takes the rubbish heap route and leaves every single plot point unanswered. 

There are some lesser problems before that. Yukino's friend, Maho, talks about dating a dude who's almost thirty and no one finds it creepy except the people in the audience who have sense. Hate to break it to you guys in your late twenties, early thirties, but if you're chasing after high school girls you are objectively a complete fucking creep. Same with those of you in your mid twenties. Even early twenties is pushing it given the developmental difference. The anime is also pretty lazy. It features a lot of long recap segments, a full recap episode and two episodes that are half recap. To an extent, I do understand it since the economy was doing poorly, but it still does impact the quality of the work when it wastes your time rehashing to that extent.

On the positive side, the first seventeen or eighteen episodes are enjoyable, except for the recaps. The high levels of humour work quite well. To the point where you can almost completely forgive the lazier elements. If it had maintained that momentum, this could have been a very solid anime. But some incompetent moron working on the adaptation lost the plot. It was probably Zach. No one likes that guy.

Characters:

The characters were never super complex. Even before Zach ruined everything. But this was a more comedic series and the characters did work well in that regard. Then we reach the shite segment of the series and Arima gets obnoxiously angsty and drags the whole cast down with him. They also introduce a male love interest for the girl who has spent the entire series showing interest exclusively in cute girls. Which actually makes me mad. Like, I haven't entirely forgiven Fire Emblem Fates for pulling that shit with Soleil and I liked that game considerably more than I liked this anime. 

It's also a bit annoying that they basically get rid of all Tsubasa's character after wrapping up her arc about her dad remarrying. It's like they couldn't think of anything for her character to do and didn't know how to work her into the friend group. So, they gave up and had her just go feral. 

Art:

This is another area where the obvious fiscal problems resulted in a lot of laziness. There are a lot of scenes where characters will be talking and they'll just show some still images of street lights or some other nonsense that doesn't matter and is just boring to look at. They'll also just cut to quiet scenes of the same kind of scenery for no narrative reason and just linger on it to pad out the episodes. The series uses a lot of boring still images and recycled animation in general. It doesn't help that it has one of the worst drawn dogs I've ever seen in anime. How do you have a dog that isn't even a little cute? Honestly, most of it looks pretty bad. 

Sound:

Here's where the director royally failed. The acting in this can be pretty damn bad. Shintani Mayumi, Fukui Yukari, Kiyokawa Motomu and several other actors sound really stilted in their delivery. There's also a lot of over the top comedic exaggeration that might be fine in more moderation but gets grating when it's employed this often. I'll give the series credit for having some theme tunes that are pretty good, musically. The imagery isn't. The rest of Sagisu Shirou's soundtrack is pretty mediocre. 

Ho-yay:

There's Sakura and her thing for cute girls. There are also moments where both Asaba & Tonami seem to have a thing for Arima. And there's an episode where Yukino's sisters seem to pick up female admirers solely for cheap jokes. Naturally, this episode is at the point where the series has already gotten bad. 

Areas of Improvement:

Lose the badly written, ill conceived angst. There's a place for angst. Preferably, as a temporary shift due to some major events. But it doesn't work in a mostly comedic series. Especially when it just keeps going. 
Do not give the one character who's been portrayed as not straight a hetero love interest. Yes, we get that bisexual people exist. However, there's also this terrible tendency in media to have one LGBT character to earn some "representation points" and then give that character a hetero normative relationship so you don't actually have to deal with any of that queer stuff. Fuck that. Fuck it with something long, awkwardly shaped and covered in literal spikes. 
Have a satisfying conclusion. I get it, Zach is an awful writer and screwed up, thereby making it so the series had to end prematurely. At least give us some closure. End the emo Arima phase and show Yukino's play. Just give us something to make it feel somewhat satisfying. 

Final Thoughts:

This is, honestly, a bit difficult for me to rate. On the one hand, I did enjoy the series for about two thirds of it. And if it had maintained that standard, I could somewhat forgive the lazy, rubbish artwork, the lazy rehashing and even the poor directing. If not for the way it ends I'd be going with a "6" maybe slightly higher. However, the final third is utter tripe and those elements that worked get heavily bludgeoned to the point of being nearly unrecognisable and a whole slew of problems come in to make sure they stay damaged. And if the entire series was like those last eight episodes, I'd be giving this a "1" and making rude gestures in its general direction. Still, I can't bring myself to call it bad given the way it started. So, I'm going with a 4/10 for the whole thing. Maybe I'll go read the manga and it won't have the same problems at the end. Maybe that final stretch is what made Tsuda unhappy with the adaptation. In which case, completely justifiable response there. 

If I wanted to write a review touting the few things that this series had going for it, I could have. But since this series insulted me with its "Oh crap we ended it too early!" storyline, I will cover the good and the bad parts.

I was greatly interested in the story and the characters in the first disc (episodes 1-5). That interest turned to disdain by the third disc, and towards the end it seemed to be getting worse. The series ends on a good note which is all i can say for the last portion.

The main failing of the series is the fact ... that the plot derived from the first few episodes ends shortly before the series hits its midpoint. As is the norm for series that "end before they're over" a flurry of cliches (culture festivals) makes up the last half of the series.

Originally the characters can be identified with and they are very likable. Thats what makes it so sad when the series makes its remarkable dive. It's very likely that one can build a nice place to hide from this anime with all the tools you'll find making up the cast.

I left this series with a feeling of betrayal, the characters had gone from awesome and real, to douches that wouldn't be out of place in the supporting cast of an Inuyasha movie.

If you follow Hideaki Anno's path as an anime director, you may notice his stuff getting more and more bizarre. First, we have his work on Nausicaa, mostly explosions and stuff, then Nadia, a narrative in the standard format, a bit of experimenting with difficult characters and plot twists, then comes Evangelion, a work which challenged many fundamental ideas on anime, like the idea that the ending needs a plot, or that the characters need to be likable, or that mechs have to behave mechanically, and finally, we have Kare Kano.

This is describable as an avant-garde romance, but that wouldn't really do it justice. ... It's more like a refocusing. It sort of works on three levels: the story level, the psychological level, and the allegorical level. However, Anno doesn't seem to want us to see it as any one of those, and frequently switches between focuses. As a result, we get a schizophrenic mess where characters veer wildly between being plot advancement props, symbols, and full characters. It is, quite frankly, a somewhat unpleasant that gives lots of cognitive dissonance. In my honest opinion, Hideaki Anno is toying with us.

What makes this series great is its sudden and unexpected swipes at truth, concealed amidst zany animation and romantic comedy. One example was Arima’s monologue in episode 8, where he talks about an inner voice asking him if he was really having fun. And then he proceeds to describe how it seems like his day to day emotions often just seem to float on the surface of his being, making no impression, just flowing over it. He wondered if at his depths he really feels anything at all. When I watched that, strangely enough I knew exactly what he was talking about, and I suspect that lots of viewers felt the same way. Day to day emotions flowing over the surface of my inner being as water over rocks... that's deep man.

Some of the depth isn't stated outright, but rather is demonstrated. One other example is Arima and Miyazawa both feel they are putting on social airs, not placing their true selfs on display to the public, and yet they are inspired by each other's lies. Both Miyazawa and Arima were profoundly moved by what they thought they saw in the other person as more noble than theirselves, but they were really both equally ignoble on the inside. However, the catch is that they are both becoming more noble on the inside by the false airs they put on towards each other. Lies and deception are improving them. It's an interesting paradox, but it seems to be a fundamental truth about the world.

Ok, so I'm not going to keep bothering the reader with illustrations of what I felt was profound in this anime. Instead, let's look at the big picture. The episodes in which some thought or revelation startled me amounts to maybe 1/2 or 1/3 of the episodes. The rest of the episodes come across as either silly or pretentious. So often, it feels like this show is going to collapse, that Hideako's hands are skillful enough to balance this complicated structure, yet by the end it is clear that somehow he has managed.

The art style works somewhat interestingly, with more simplistic drawings representing deeper internal states, and the most detailed drawings depicting everyday life. In the most detailed drawings, all of the characters have quite attractive designs, especially Miyazawa. I wasn't a huge fan of the simplistic drawings, but their creative usage won me over. The music was very good. I quite enjoy the opening theme, and there was this one piano song in the background sometimes that was quite lovely.

The ending has drawn quite a bit of criticism. Honestly, I loved it, but don't expect a satisfying resolution. The manga goes on, and probably has a more satisfactory ending.

This really should've been good. It really should have been. But it wasn't. I have a soft spot for romantic comedies, and this is one I'd heard about for years, so I thought I'd give it a shot. But after an incredible start to the show, I was just left disappointed in the end.

I'm not going into the story much, because the synopsis sums it up pretty well and going further into it would be too much spoiler so I'll just tell you to read the synopsis on here. If you've read any of the other reviews or seen the ... anime yourself, you know how incomplete the show is. Not just the lack of an ending either. It felt like the story was kept to a shallow point for a long time, and then when it was supposed to start getting serious, it wafted around like "I dunno, should we be serious or not?" There are some serious overtones thrown in sometimes, but it stops short of revealing much of anything, and just when you feel like it's all about to happen.....the show ends. Pack up, go home, and let's just pretend we did a good job. Honestly, this could've been so much better. I plan to go read the manga at some point to find out what happens.

In the first half of the show, there's a wonderful romantic comedy going on. There are usually some review at the beginning of each episode. I'm not a fan of this in most anime, and that includes this one. But it wasn't too bad. There was plenty of comedy, and it was really cute at times. It wasn't really serious about anything for the first half though.

The second half though was just not good. It started to do more reviews. One episode dedicated to reviews at the midpoint is fine, but it felt like half of the last 13 episodes was dedicated to stating what had already happened, with little to no new animation. It's kind of like "the voice actors are still being paid, the animators are not" or something. The budget had to have been seriously cut or something. The second half of the show was about 3/4 frame by frame manga style with some voiceovers. Even if they knew that the story was going to be cut short, there were better ways to end it. First of all, they could have actually deviated from the main story a bit to ensure that there is actually an ending, or had the oft-used open ending feel that kinda goes "we love each other, we don't know what'll happen from now on, but we'll keep trying." That kind of thing would've been fine IMO. Instead, they go off on tangents. Most of the 2nd half actually has its focus away from the main 2 characters. And then when it starts to drift back toward them, the show just ends.

Well, enough ranting. Some scores and explanations on them:

I'll give the story a 4 for all the stuff I said up above. It seemed to be a good story with some pretty deep points, but it just showed flashes of those deep parts, never fully revealing any of it, and then ended abruptly. I get the feeling that if it was finished, it would have been a very good and deep plot. But it wasn't, so I have to give it a lower score.

The art was nice at times. It seemed to try to hod the manga's style. It isn't my favorite style to begin with, but I thought in the first half it was pretty well done at least. The second half, as I said above, seemed to have major budget cuts and at least half the time was pictures thrown up with voices talking about something. Plus, the abundant reviewing where previous scenes were chopped up and handed to you a second, third, fourth, and so on, time. With the good stuff in the first half, I'll be nice and give it a 5.

The sound is where I felt the show was awesome. Yeah, the opening and endings were nothing special. They were good, and fit the show, but nothing special. But the voice actors were great. Yukino was great. Spectacular. Especially early in the show switching from the graceful girl, to the true girl, the evil girl trying to win everyone over. Eventually, it's kind of a mix between the two, but the voice actress portrays it really well. Also, the two sisters are a riot, and their voice actresses are likewise spectacular. One of my favorite parts was watching these two do the episode previews at the end of the show(another thing that was done much less the 2nd half of the show). Because of these three, and the generally good quality of the rest of the voice actors, I'm giving the sound department a 9.

The characters is hard to rate because it's inherently tied to the story. Yukino was just a great character. Her dual personality is hilarious, and is a lot of fun to watch. With Arima, he gets a bit boring, but I got the feeling that part of that was because they were reluctant to start the deeper, more dramatic parts of the show that ought to reveal more of his personality. And indeed, the show ended before much of it was revealed. Shibahime was annoying to me, and they eventually turned her into a caricature of what she was to begin with. The story arc that she got in the middle of the anime seemed to be the last part that was fully budgeted, and it felt out of place with the rest of the story, and because I couldn't stand Shibahime, I almost stopped watching because of it. The rest of the group that Yukino hangs out with has their moments, but most of them seems like it's "yet to come," and once again, the show ends before anything can happen. Yukino's family is hilarious, and it felt like they were setting up to be the comic relief once the show turned more serious. The sisters, as I said above, were spectacular. I'm giving the characters a 7, because I really liked Yukino as well as most of the characters, but felt like they were all a bit incomplete, as was the whole show.

Overall, this show could have been something spectacular. But because the show is so incomplete, and parts of it seem to be terribly produced, I have to rate this overall as a 6. I really wish I could give it more, because Yukino's character is something that really shines among heroines in romantic comedies, but the show was just hopelessly lacking in most ways, especially in the second half after the budget seemed to have been cut. It's really a shame, because I feel like the story was going to be really good. Also, as a side note, I can't help but wonder why this show has gotten so many high ratings. Yes, it shows tons of potential, and the characters are very interesting, and the voice acting is well done, but how can any show that wasn't even completed earn more than a 6 or a 7?

reading some of the reviews done by other users i realise that their compliments to the story and characterisation along with other aspects excluding art and sound, can be primarily thought of as praise for the source material rather than the anime itself. I find it hard to understand their enthusiasm when watching this tripe.

don't get me wrong, the manga was brilliant and although many of the characters where generic it had situations that where altogether new and exciting and to a certain degree the comedy and romance aspects mixed well. But that is in the manga. THIS is the anime.

Where to begin?

Honestly, thia ... anime is so badly done that I felt insulted by the animators, and i'm not even the mangaka, and we all know how he felt about this anime (notice the lack of a second season). There are simply too many problems here that rather than speaking of inexsperience or time/money constraints speak of an inherrent laziness that would make you think that the animators spent most of their time reading the manga instead of animating, since there's so little actual animation in this show.

As far as the story goes, it's good. And in the beginning it follows the source material pretty well, for the story alone you could actually enjoy this anime, if it weren't for the equally fitting half assed attempt to sub this anime which considering this anime was licensed was devestatingly terrible. Entire scenes would go by without any subs and when the subs do appear their in a horrible yellow text that's often blurry and at times just popped in for a few seconds then vanished rendering them pointless. The fact that it began so close to the source material adds further inclinations toward the creators laziness, since copying text from the manga means you don't have to come up with anything new for people to say.

Where the biggest problem comes (and the laziest part of this anime) is with the animation itself (which I dare say hardly qualifies as animation at all). This show has some of the laziest animation I've ever seen, so lazy that it's an insult to the animation industry. Let me break it up into percentages for you:

80% of the anime is just still images from the manga with voice acting over them, and some zooming and panning from the camera.
The remaining 20% is 'gif' like animation where characters move erraticly but consistantly the same way over and over again again, with voice acting over it.

What has the animation industry come to when this kind of shoddy excuse for animation is passed off as consummable by the general public who are, honestly, expecting actual animation to take place. As if that wasn't lazy enough they also couldn't be bother to use colour so the 80% of the anime that remains stationary is in monochrome like the manga. Honestly why bother, you may as well read the manga since this is just audio over the manga 80% of the time.

on the topic of audio, the voice acting in this anime isn't half bad, but this show's budget must have been dreadful, since there are literally only 3 pieces of music in this entire show if you exclude the opening an ending creds. After you've heard funny music for umpteenth time, and romance music 1 and 2 for the umpteenth and a half time you get so irritated and tired of it that you want to smash your face through a combine harvester. Each piece of music is used with respect to situation and quite stoicly at that since there are only three types of situation throughout this show, comedic situation, awkward romance/issue situation, and romance resolved situation. The manga was more detailed and explored more of the characters and their history whereas this show just acts melodramatic hoping you won't notice the rotting cheese they left all over the frames.

The characters are waaaay too melodramatic and although there are plenty of you're average manga character in this it's good to see a stronger female lead, and her friends and character are funny at times but arima is just too boring in this anime since they don't explore his character much beyond aluding to a hidden self which only makes his character seem inhuman since he hasn't really got a very emotional V/O artist.


all in all you should read the manga instead, it's waaay better and not so lazy and half assed like this bargain basement garbage. You might be able to watch it and enjoy it superficially and maybe find the characters interesting. It's justa shame about the cheese.

An analogy: imagine you're listening to a singer perform a brand-new song that has four verses. Their voice is nothing special, but the first two verses and the chorus tell a deeply relatable, at times heartwarming and at times heartwrenching story... then on the third verse the singer stumbles for a bit and ends up having to repeat the second verse, and on the final verse the entire tune changes and is distorted until it's unrecognizable. How do you rate such a song? Was it good overall? Do its exceptional parts outweigh its stumbles and ultimate failure? Does it matter if the sheet music had ... a fifth unsung verse even worse than the performance you just saw?

KareKano was a promising series that suffered a late-term budget and directorial abortion midway through. The honest romance, strong characterization, realistic relationship struggles, and unique art style got abandoned halfway through and replaced with clip show recaps and a back half of episodes that never quite manage to find their footing after the interruption.

If you're feeling like an anime archaeologist and want to see a classic romance series that has the bones of a good story with a depth of emotions, characters who actually push themselves and each other forward, and a sometimes hypnotically calm and thoughtful pace, you could certainly use to flip through a few episodes of KareKano, but it never quite delivers on what it promises at the outset.

That being said, hungry for more, I pursued the manga, which concludes on some... deeply problematic notes with enough red flags to make the Beijing Olympics look tame. You've been warned.

Most of what we see is held back by a limiter enforced by common standards and the fear born from them. In Kare Kano, the two main characters have spent their whole lives suppressing themselves in an attempt to satisfy the expectations of others. The story really begins when they work together to disregard traditional standards, instead choosing to find their own personalities that had barely been given the chance to grow.

Not everything is so dramatic; in fact, comedy makes up a slight majority of the show. The downside is that none of the jokes are funny, because they rely exclusively on a zany feeling ... derived from each character's single gimmick. It feels like a series of halfhearted gags that, in normal shows, would have a tenth as great a presence. But then again, Kare Kano's greatest strength is that it defiantly rejects normality.

Even the animation is far removed. The creators had absolutely no problems using uncolored sketches and text boxes, to the extent that those things are actually as prevalent as regular animation. Some of it, like a live-action episode featuring cardboard cutouts of the characters, is experimentation. Given how persistent some of the qualities are, however, it's more akin to a new style – one that is being fleshed out alongside the characters. It works especially well since Yukino and Arima are such good characters.

Arima is particularly interesting. We're shown enough glimpses of his past to know how he came to be, and enough episodes from his perspective to know how he is, but his intentions are still hard to guess. Despite being a nice guy, there is a profound sense of malice for himself and others that creeps up surprisingly often. It can't be described as evil, but it goes beyond simple insecurity. Yukino has multiple layers as well, but they aren't as serious and in some cases are created deliberately to match Arima's complexity.

Unfortunately, none of the character's efforts amount to anything because the story mires in secondary plot threads and recaps. More than that, the series itself ends abruptly at the beginning of a new arc. Maybe it wouldn't have been so distasteful if the supporting characters, who frequently had their own episodes, weren't hyper-boring cliches. They were though, and it shows.

I won't be forgetting the good scenes from this anime, but when something spends so much time disappointing it's hard to say I enjoyed it.

Kare Kano is the first shoujo anime that I really liked (Excluding Sailor Moon). Kare Kano takes a spin on what could be a normal/ seen it/ shoujo and makes it into something that I was not expecting.

Story: As for the story it has it's cliche moments, but as a whole is very unique and pretty powerful for a shoujo. (Ahh this review is making me sound biased against shoujos)

Art: People may often judge Kare Kano for its art, and while I am not crazy about it, you have to remember that it is one of the older animes. It also did not get ... as much money/hype as a lot of the "prettier" animes.

Sound: I honestly didn't know this show made it to America and was dubbed so I can't tell you about that. However, I can tell you that the Japanese version is amazing. The show is a little old and the subs were obviously done a while a go, so the subbing might be a bit sketchy.

Character: All the characters in Kare Kano usually are very funny. The two main ones, are definitely the main focus, but they do go into backgrounds of the other characters.

Enjoyment: Overall I really liked this anime and I was super-sad to see it end so soon (it was never finished so be warned of the short -abrupt- WTF ending). I had to read the manga straight after this to see how it ended. I recommend this to all who want a good dramatic love story with some surprises in it.