Yukino Miyazawa is the perfect model student. She's smart, pretty, elegant, and super nice to boot. Everyone in school admires her and she's always no. 1 in everything.
What they don't know is that Yukino puts in a whole lot of effort to seem that
way. In reality, she doesn't care about anything except being the best.
At home, Yukino doesn't give a rat's ass about how she looks or speaks. She's quite selfish, brutally frank, sarcastic, and anything but nice.
She also dresses like a complete slob.
All these years, Yukino had been putting up a front in school that fooled
students and teachers alike.
Enter Souichiro Arima. Now he's the perfect model student too. He's handsome, intelligent, talented, and very modest.
The thing is, all these qualities seem to come naturally to him, As a result,
Souichiro gets first place effortlessly (or so it seems) in no time.
Of course, this pisses Yukino off to no end and she proceeds to plot
Souichiro's downfall. Souichiro, on the other hand, finds himself very much attracted to Yukino...
and so their story unfolds.
Review: His and Her Circumstances (Kareshi Kanojyo no Jijyo)
Kareshi Kanojyo no Jijyo (His and Her Circumstances), or Karekano for short, easily makes it to my list of
anime favorites. Yet another gem from Gainax, Karekano is hilarious, crazy, fun, and totally
romantic!
Propelled by the two main characters - Miyazawa and Arima (they refer to each
other by their surnames), everything that happens is seen from his and her
points of view.
I like Miyazawa. She's a very realistic heroine. She's no saint and she knows it.
Arima is the more serious character of the two, as Miyazawa takes everything
in stride despite her more volatile reactions.
The way their relationship blossoms is what makes this anime so good. You can see and feel the gradual maturation of not only their relationship,
but of their own individualities as well.
The first half of the series is flawless. The second half, however, weakens and falters a bit.
Quite a chunk of the latter part is consumed by repetitive summaries of past
episodes. It also attempts to deviate from the main theme of Miyazawa and Arima, giving
more attention to the supporting characters. Now this isn't supposed to be a bad thing.
The problem lies with the way the sub-plots just pop up after an
ultra-climactic first half. It's too sudden a change of pace and sort of
breaks the smooth flow of things.
The artwork is excellent. One of the things that sets Karekano apart from other anime is its unique and
unconventional presentation style.
Some scenes are drawn kare kano manga style, complete with thought and dialogue bubbles. Some feature pencil sketches that move. Some scenes mix these sketches with full-color animation.
Others feature live-action shots, paper cut-outs, superdeformed characters,
etc.
Karekano is an ingenious play of sketches, colors, textures, expressions, and
perspectives. Another distinguishing trait of this anime is the fact that majority of the
scenes are riddled with Japanese text.
This will definitely make reading all the subtitles quite a challenge. The text is meant to further explain and describe what's going on, such as
showing thoughts racing in a character's head.
The songs and music are also noteworthy -- very catchy and pleasant to the
ears. The ending theme is especially cute, and I found myself humming along after a
few eps.
I really, really wanted to give Karekano a perfect rating but some of the
things I mentioned above prevent me from doing so.
Still, I love this anime and will not hesitate to recommend it for viewing and
collection.
Miscellanies: His and Her Circumstances
Karekano characters drink a lot of UCC coffee.
Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou (His and Her Circumstances) | |
| Genre | Comedy, Drama, Romance, Slice of Life |
|---|---|
| Episodes | 26 |
| Status | Finished Airing |
| Aired | Oct 2, 1998 to Mar 26, 1999 |
| Producers | TV Tokyo, GANSIS |
| Studio | Gainax, J.C.Staff |
| Rating | PG-13 - Teens 13 or older |
| Themes | School |
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