I’m not sure what it is about the romance genre, but more often than not, I’ve seen way too many movies, books, and even anime that manage to botch the romanctic aspect in one way or another. Sure, there are plenty of good romance stories out there, but more often than not, I find myself underwhelmed by most of them. I feel like most romances either focus too much on the “will they or won’t they get together” gimmick, focus on two characters who are extremely bland and lack chemistry without giving me a reason to care about why they should get together, or they just take forever to develop the damn relationship at all. If you dislike these cliches as much as I do, then you’d be glad to know that there is a show that completely ignores these cliches and only focuses on the good aspects of romance that seem to be glossed over by most other shows of it’s genre. And that show is none other than today’s topic, Kare Kano, or if you prefer the English title, His and Her Circumstances. Without further ado, let’s get on with the review!

• Producers: Studio GAINAX, JC Staff
• Directors: Hideaki Anno, Kazuya Tsurumaki
• Episode Count: 26 episodes
• Licensors: Nozomi Entertainment (US), Madman Entertainment (AUS)
• Availibility: No legal streaming. Available on DVD both subbed and dubbed

Story:

Yukino Miyazawa is a first-year high school student who gets good grades in school and is envied by all her classmates. However, her model student act is all a facade in order to win the praise of students and teachers. At home, she is spoiled, sloppy, and is constantly studying to keep up her facade. However, her reputation is at risk when a new student, Arima Soichiro, tops the exam ranks and everyone starts paying attention to him. This causes Yukino to become extremely jealous of Arima, which leads to her obsessivley studying more to try and outdo Arima. One day, when Arima comes to visit Yukino at her house, she accidentally reveals her true self to Arima. Knowing this information, Arima uses it to his advantege and blackmails Yukino into helping him do his large amounts of school work. From there, the two’s bizarre relationship begins to develop into friendship, and eventually love.

One of the things I absolutely adore about Kare Kano is that it’s not afraid to delve into the multiple conflicts that are present in a romantic relationship. I feel like most romance anime don’t have much conflit outside of the “will they or won’t they” bullcrap or whatever keeps the two characters from being together, but Kare Kano delves much deeper than that. From things like romence getting in the way of school preformance to how the preception from others changes after entering a romantic relationship, Kare Kano is not afraid to look into these problems and study how the characters deal with these situations.The conflicts feel realistic and are not forced in for the sake of pointless drama, the way the characters react in those situations make sense, and it allows for some very solid character development. I also really like that when the rare romance cliche shows up, it’s done really well. The best example of this would be in episode 10, where they introduce a rival character who is jealous of Yukino’s relationship with Arima. Usually, these kinds of characters are done poorly and have no reason to be angry with the leads, but they really pull it off by giving a good reason why she’s jealous of Yukino. I won’t give away any spoilers, so you’ll just have to go watch it for yourself.

The pacing of Kare Kano is also quite refreshing for it’s genre. It doesn’t take forever for the two to get together in order to drag out the story (I’m looking at you, Nisekoi), and they give them just the right amount of development before they get together. And even with the characters getting together pretty early in the story, they still used that time to their advantage to establish why the two leads feel the way they do about each other and how they started to form a romantic relationship over the span of those 4 episodes, so nothing feels rushed either. The only legitamate problem I have with the series is that the credits roll a bit too soon. What do I mean by that? Well, back when the show was being produced, there were some creative differences between Hideaki Anno and Masami Tsuda, the original mangaka. She didn’t like how GAINAX was adapting the show because she thought they were focusing too much on the comedy and not enough on the romance. Because of this, she refused to let GAINAX make another season, causing the ending to feel a bit unresolved. I personally disagree with how the mangaka feels and thought GAINAX did a great job with how they adapted everything, but I guess that’s just how things go in this business. Though if my only complaint is that I wish there was more, then that just goes to show how well-made the show was with the amount of episodes it got.

Characters:

The #1 thing that you absolutely need if you want to make a good romance is a likable cast of characters. After all, if I don’t care about the characters, then why should I care if they get in a romantic relationship or not? Luckilly, Kare Kano excells with its characters, especially when it comes to the two leads, Yukino and Arima. The two are just so damn likable and relatable that you just can’t help but love them as much as they love each other. Even with Yukino initially holding a grudge against Arima at first, it makes sense why the two are in a romantic relationship. They both have this facade they’ve been putting on for the sake of recieving approval from their peers, so it only makes sense that they’d both be happy being in a relationship where they can be theirselves without worrying about what others think of them. The two share amazing chemistry and play off of each other extremely well, making them super enjoyable to watch. Not only that, but we also get to see how being in a relationship has caused the two to develop as the show goes on, showing progress with the relationship even after they get together.

Aside from the two leads, the side cast is also very solid. While most of them are used for comedic relief, they’re still very fun to watch whenever they’re on screen, especially Yukino’s family. Whenever they’re on screen, they never fail to get a smile out of me. Now that’s not to say that there’s no development from the side cast, on the contrary. The side cast gets some very solid development, and we get to learn more about them as the show goes on. Aside from the aforementioned episode 10, One of the best examples I can think of in in episode 16, when we see how Yukino’s parents first met each other. I was surprised at how heartfelt and emotional that episode was, given the characters that were being focused on. Not only that, but the events in the backstory build upon why the characters act the way that they do now. After all, a good backstory is supposed to build upon a character, not define them, which is what more shows need to take note of (*cough*akamegakill*cough*). Overall, Kare Kano has an extremely well rounded cast of likable characters and great chemistry from the two leads.

Animation:

Kare Kano was animated by Studio GAINAX, who worked on some of the most well-known and positively recieved anime out there, namely Neon Genesis Evangelion, FLCL, and Gurren Lagann. If you know one thing about GAINAX, it’s that the studio is notorious for it’s budgeting problems, with one of the most infamous example being the last two episodes of Evangelion. With that said, Kare Kano is no exception to GAINAX’s budget syndrome, and it really shows. However, what it lacks in animation budget, it makes up for with the direction. The staff at GAINAX have really found some creative ways to work around the show’s low budget, be it with stylized manga-esque panels, or with paper cut-outs of the characters. It kind of reminds me of FLCL with it’s frequent use of unique art styles, which is always a good thing because FLCL is one of my favorites from GAINAX. So in spite of it’s shoe-string budget, Kare Kano never fails to be interesting to look at.

Sound:

Kare Kano‘s soundtrack is pretty freaking good. The show has some of the best light-hearted music pieces I’ve heard in any show. I often find myself listening to the OST whenever I do work around the house or during studying sessions. The soundtrack just has a certain charm that not many shows can replicate. The opening song, “Tenshi no Yubikiri”, is a really catchy and upbeat song that captures the general feeling of the series, and the same can also be said about the show’s ending, “Yume no Naka e”, which is also a very good song, albeit a bit of an aquired taste. As for the voice acting department, the dub is very much your standard early 2000’s New York-based dub. And with any NY dub, you’re going to get a lot of actors who have been on Pokèmon at least once. So if you’re wondering why Yukino sounds a little bit like Ash Ketchum, you now know why. Personally, I don’t have much of a problem with the dub, though it doesn’t really stick out as a particularly amazing dub to me. From what I have seen of the show subbed, the acting is fairly solid there, but I can’t fully critique it due to the fact that I know jack all about the Japanese language. Either way, you can’t really go wrong with the dub or the sub, and it all just really boils down to which one you personally prefer.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, Kare Kano is a fantastic romance anime that just has to be experienced. The show delves into the more interesting aspects of romance, the series doesn’t take too long to get the two leads together, the characters are all lovable, the visuals are interesting despite the low budget, and the soundtrack is really good. The only issue is that the show ends a bit too early, but even then, that doesn’t stop me from loving this show to death. If you want a fantastic example of a romance anime done right, then I highly reccomend you check out this show as soon as you can! Other romance anime, please take note!

Final Score: 9/10

Alternate Reccomendations:

FLCL

Both Kare Kano and FLCL are heavilly stylized and comedic GAINAX shows that take advantage of their limitations to create something visually interesting. They’re also both very interested in exploring the minds of the characters, though with FLCL, it’s more literal than metaphorical.

My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU

Both SNAFU and Kare Kano are considered to be some of the more character study driven romance anime out there. Though what seperates them is that SNAFU‘s main focus is on the high-school setting and how the main character feels about his surroundings while the other is primarily focusing on the relationship between the two characters. Either way, if you’re looking for another very well-written “romantic” anime, then SNAFU would be right up your alley.

So next up on Star Anime Reviews, we’re going to tackle our first not-so-good anime on this blog. If you’ve been following my other projects for the past 24 or so weeks, you’ll probably know what I’m talking about.

Next review will be Akame ga Kill!. See you then!