"Journey and Love of Kindred Spirits"
His and Her Circumstances
1998-99 26 episode TV series
Studio: Gainax
Well, hope everyone had a good
Valentine's Day. Yeah, I know its two days past that I'm posting this
review but I still think it counts. Also, I have reached my 50th
review. Wow, it took me a year and a half to get to this point.
Figured since I started this with a Gainax production, "Otaku no
Video", I will talk about another Gainax production, "His
and Her Circumstances". Full circle and all that jazz...
"His and Her Circumstances",
or Kare Kano, was an original manga by Masami Tsuda. It tells the
story of Yukino Miyazawa, a HS freshman student at Houkei Prefectural
School. She may seems to be a model student: delicate, ladylike,
always willing to help people out. But, it is all an act as she is
very proud, obsessed with grades and appearance and strives to become
the "The Ultimate Queen of Vanity". But, one day she meets
Souchiro Arima, another perfect student. But, she later finds that he
is also a fake, but for entirely different reasons, tying into his
rather unpleasant past. Soon, the two fall in love and strive to
"live for their true selves". Of course that's just the
beginning.
Of course, you would know of this much
if you have even glanced at this show, as it goes out of its way to
dump this info through all the episodes, an exposition overload as
you will. Every episode has at its start a recap of what happens in
the show. Old-fashioned you say, I say product of the times: It was a
weekly show, and internet replay was practically non-existent.
In terms of story, this series shines
quite a lot. I can say that most current romantic comedy slice of
life series in anime are very dull. Focus is on how the main couple
gets together, fraught with misunderstandings and contrived obstacles
(cough Toradora, cough Love Hina, cough cough etc.). Thankfully, Kare
Kano doesn't have that problem. It deals with how Yukino and Arima
get together, sure, but then goes into how their relationship shapes
up, with all the lows and highs, and how that influences their daily
lives. Even when it isn't focused on the main couple, the stories of
the supporting cast (Shibahime's changing family life for instance)
are still interesting, touching on issues of family, relationships
and love. I'm hard pressed to find that in most current rom-com
anime, sorry to say.
Characters are similarly strong.
Everyone in the cast is very interesting, even side characters (like
the main couple's family members or other classmates) that don't get
much screentime. They are all in their own way compelling, from Asaba
the playboy-best friend to Arima even to Yukino's two younger sisters
Tsukino and Kano.
Animation is a different matter. Studio
Gainax produced the animated adaptation of this manga, directed and
written by Hideaki Anno who also helmed the previous Gainax
production Evangelion. The look of this show can be best described as
'postmodern mish-mash'. Take the animation style of the last two
episodes of Eva and apply it to a rom-com anime, and tada! Kare Kano.
Lots of still shots, storyboard drawings, SD chibi, real life
pictures coupled with competent animation all strategically placed
together to create a rather unique look overall. Anno at the same
time reined in a lot of the psychoanalytic babble that plagued the
last third of Eva, and that's for the best in regards to this show.
But, partway through production, Anno
left the project and unfortunately it shows in the later episodes:
Animation gets a bit inconsistent at times and the series suffers for
that. Still, the animation is competent given the low budget that
this production had. Cheap yet charming applies wholly to this
series.
Lastly, the English dub is very good.
This was a NY-based dub, so V.A.s like Veronica Taylor, Jessica
Calvello, Megan Hollingshead, Rachel Lillis, Liam O'Brien, Lisa
Ortiz, etc are featured in this English dub. Most of them do a good job, which coupled with a good
adaptive script by Crispin Freeman, make me recommend strongly that
one watches Kare Kano with the English dub.
Now, I have read some criticism
directed towards this series. First off, is that the original mangaka
disparaged the show as being too comical and not enough romance. To
that I say, bull-pocky. The show has the right balance between
romance/drama and comedy. Sure the comedy is wacky surreal OTT Gainax
for the most part, but that's Gainax for you. Also, in every
adaptation stuff will change-get used to it. Secondly, the Gainax
ending doesn't actually come into play here. The series was canned
after only one season. It doesn't so much as end as it just petered
out. Which is a shame as towards the end it seems to pick itself up
and getting ready to move forward then just stopped. What a bummer.
Final word: I recommend that everyone
should at least check this out, even if you are not a fan of romantic
comedies or jaded/indifferent by Gainax productions recently.
Next review is on Spice and Wolf Season
1, to be released on February 24.
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