Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou

10 reviews - 48.0 total score (Explanation of the rating system)
avg. score: (4.8)

10. h8er13

Written and directed by Hideaki Anno, of Evangelion fame, Kare Kano is a fun and refreshing anime combining elements of high school drama and comedy in a tight knit, psychologically driven union.  Miyazaki Yukino hides behind the façade of student perfection, until she meets a rival, Souichiro Arima, who in turn also bears a secret, but of dark origin. Together, they mature and finally understand each other, as well as themselves.

Although not necessarily an emotion stirring anime, such as Marmalade Boy, Kare Kano succeeds in portraying its characters effectively by revealing individual personal histories, which gives the audience an adequate psychological understanding of everyone's actions.  The artwork also shifts from completely insane to somber genuineness, much like if one was to change channels from FLCL to Evangelion constantly.  The animation adds to the great visual storytelling of Kare Kano.  The music was just as effective and the opening and ending sequences are also catchy.

However, one of Kare Kano's only downfalls stems from its repetitive use of backtracking events, along with its slightly less than satisfying ending.  According to the interview of the seiyuu on the DVD release, there seems to be mentions of a sequel or second season of Kare Kano, either in production at the moment or in its initial developmental stages.  If there is a sequel in the future, the storyline is supposed to add a greater focus on another character, which you will know and understand if you have seen the last few episodes of Kare Kano.  I haven't seen or heard anything else of the development of a Kare Kano offshoot, so it might have been just a rumor or has been cancelled.  Anyway, this series is highly suggested, especially if you enjoy slower paced anime and high school dramas with the artwork of FLCL.

9. Yogi

This is high school romance, and it is PERFECTLY done. Each one of the many and varied characters are individuals in and of themselves, each with their own quirks, hopes, talents, and inner daemons. There are no clichéd situations here, no artificial conflicts or misunderstandings to further the plot. Just two people who are trying to live the philosophy "To thine own self be true." The comedy is fall out of your seat perfect, the dramatic elements causes you to feel the emotions of those involved. The show also has a bunch of Gainax people directing it, making strangeness a requirement. Watch it, now.

8. Iodine

A high school romance series might seem an odd followup project for the creators of Evangelion, but it's not as strange a fit as one might think. This seemingly simple story of two very intelligent young people, who fall in love and have to deal with the unintended consequences, actually has quite a lot of depth too it. Arima and Miyazawa are both complex and imperfect, each with their own set of problems to overcome. The crew really outdid themselves this time. The writing is exceptional, delving deep into the motivations and fears of its two main protagonists and showing us what makes them tick. The story takes them down a path that forces them to confront the inevitable, including one decidedly mature episode that really pushes at accepted norms. Like most of GAINAX's offereings, the series goes a step futher than anyone else would dare, with very satisfying results. Minor players are well-rounded and well used, particularly the dangerous Shibahime and Miyazawa's boisterous family.

The studio's penchant for experimental visual stylings is alive and well, especially in the later episodes. The lovely animation is limited as usual, but this in itself becomes a style of sorts, bringing the show much closer to its manga source. A lot of the fun comes from the juxtaposition of the expected pastoral romance visuals with wildly exaggerated slapstick comedy. Anno's involvement is obvious, but restrained this time around. Structure problems are the show's real failing, as it resorts to a few recaps too many and sets up a final arc without giving us a resolution. Still, the series is GAINAX at its best, a romance with some edge to it, that introduced some of the most priceless characters ever to grace the small screen.

7. End of Hearts

Kare Kano is a masterpiece from Gainax. It is filled with wonderful and hilarious characters that you will fall in love with. They are all wonderfully developed, each of them ever so real. The relationship between Arima and Miyazawa is very unique in which they must better understand each other, but at the same time have different personalities around the people they consider their friends. The romance aspect of the show was very well done, each character is very complex in thought, so it would be natural that characters would take a long time understanding one another. I also loved the humor in Kare Kano. In my opinion, Kare Kano is the funniest romance ever. The character interaction is hilarious, especially when Miyazawa goes nuts on everyone. People pick on Kare Kano’s short fall, the production of the ending. For the love of, they ran out of money, and give them credit because I’d rather watch the paper episode than most animes out there for these episodes are still done beautifully despite the low budget. If you haven’t seen this already, by all means do all you can to do so.

6. Arcage

If I was only to review the first half of the complete series then I'd definately give it 5 stars for being one of the best romance/comedy shows out there but the later half really slacked off. The story is about Yukino who's a top female student at the school who has 2 different sides, while being the perfect model student at school she transforms back to her normal self at home (far from perfect). Her dreams of being no.1 at high school was shattered when she met another boy called Arima who happens to be better than her at everything so she starts planning horrible things to be done to him and nevertheless it never happened since Arima found out about her true side (the one only her family gets to see) and all sorts of things starts to happen. This show is extremely funny to watch at the start but you have to be competent in reading the on screen Japanese characters to really get the humour. The supporting cast is also vivid and really plays a nice role in developing the main plot with Arima and Yukino, you'd be amazed at the diversity of personalities Gainax was able to come up with. Animation is nice as a whole but the over-use of still frames really stands out like a sore thumb later on when it's apparent that they're out of budget or something. Music is similar to Eva with mostly light hearted tunes and I personally enjoyed it quite a lot. While there are a lot of good stuff to be said about Kare Kano, it does have some very obvious downfalls, mainly during the later half where you start getting recap episodes where you stare at the screen and all you get are recaps of previous episodes which lasts for the entire episode! There are about 2 of those in the entire show but the bad doesn't end here, there is NO ending at all to this show. At the end of episode 26 you're left with a to-be-continued sort of thing with no loose ends tied up. Actually, I know the manga wasn't finished so they couldn't do more but they could at least finished it off properly. I felt like as if I was watching something half finished when that happened and it really detracted from the overall enjoyment the show provides. Even with all those obvious downfalls, I still recommend people pick up this series just for the excellent first half (or 2/3) which I'd have no problems giving 5 stars to.

5. Jin

Kare Kano is a very rewarding anime. At first hearing about this people get the idea of a Love Hina rip-off but Kare Kano is so much more. Kare Kano provides tons of funny comedy and a very deep emotional connection with their characters. The characters are easy to relate to and the plot is very good. The animation is excellent, though towards the end it seemed to lose budget, but I still found the animation at the end extremely unique and funny. The series towards the end seemed to hit a roadblock and the ending will leave you wanting more. There's many rumors but from what I've heard the manga wasn't complete at the time and the director left. But nevertheless this anime is pure gold. Pick it up as soon as you can.

4. X-MAN

Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou (aka. Kare Kano / His and Her Circumstances). Directed by Hideki Anno. Anno also directed the TV series and movies for Neon Genesis Evangelion. This series is a classic. Without even realizing it, I was hooked. It gave me a feeling only few shows have giving me before. There aren't even words to express how good it is. The cast is magnificent and the writing is unbelievably good. With that in mind let it also be known that I'm not big on Evangelion. But Kare Kano had it all.

Going from Middle School to High School, Yukino Miyazawa is a phony. She's intelligent, beautiful and loves being number 1. She's the perfect student. The truth gets out when a boy named Arima Shoujiro (Top male student and very active in sports) discovers she's a lazy liar! But he himself is living a lie as well. Arima takes a liking to Yukino. Not long after they start dating. There were made for each other. Kare Kano gets even better when they introduce Asaba or (Asa-pin to many), my favorite character. Unlike EVA, Kare Kano doesn't take itself very seriously.

I don't think I'm really spoiling anything the intro to the show doesn't make clear. I love the characters, the plots, the animation and the entire quirky approach. This is not your typical everyday love story. It's very realistic yet amusing. It's full of weird camera angles and editing. Amazing music and beautiful artwork. This series will show you how to love an anime. This series is great fun. Experience it for yourself. Even with some of it's flaws it's still a 5 to me.

3. Olmanek

Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou (His and Her Circumstances, Kare Kano), despite the numerous labels it didn't take long for me to remember this title, I only started watching Anime after Evangelion, and prior to delving into the depths of anime I was convinced that Eva was the be all end all series and everything else would cower in comparison, my ignorance was quickly exposed as I encountered various series; Kare Kano was one of main ones, this series is absolutely brilliant, Gainax are famous for their ability to analyse the desires and motives of their characters, but interestingly, in this series, Gainax change their attitude a bit, they manage to exploit the character traits for humour and to increase the empathy and realism of the character and explain more and more why they are the way they are. The humour is amazing; clever, manic, slapstick all mixed together and I'd be amazed if you didn't find a lot of humour to appeal to you during the first 16 episodes, however, after episode 16, Gainax appear to have run out of budget or story or interest in this series or perhaps all of these things, and it shows, also I am yet to verify this but I believe Hideaki Anno left the series at about episode 16, which if true is staggeringly believable, there are episodes of mainly city scenery with characters talking amongst themselves Eva style, cut out characters replacing animated ones, and episodes devoted to summaries of the events thus far. The first 16 episodes show a fantastic series of well designed, intriguing and realistic characters, along with good animation and brilliant humour, all of which deserves 5 stars, but after episode 16 it just descends into strange self indulgent tripe, and to top it off, the ending, isn't even an ending at all, imagine the outlandish feel of Evangelion's TV ending, and then get rid of any sense of conclusion or intriguing alternate realities, and there you have it. The first 16 episodes deserve 5 stars, the remaining episodes deserve 2 or 3 at most.

2. Himiko

Hmm...I can only use one word to describe this anime series...'different'. Gainax once again astounds us with a new anime but this time, they made it more simple than Evangelion. Yukino Miyazawa is a high school student who is basically hiding in her shell. She is well liked and very popular, seen as the role model of the school....LIE! In truth, she is a very deceitful person with a different view of herself. She is often selfish and usually only cares what others think until she meets a young boy who is almost her identical twin (not literally). Arima Shoujiro is in the same grade as Yukino and takes a liking to her as most of the guys in that class do already ;) Since he has a distinct feeling about her he takes extremes to get her to notice him...i.e. blackmail. Soon the plot deepens as they become more involved with one another and self discovery is the key to this series. Believe me this is FUNNY. Some of the scenes in here are absolutely priceless ... just watch it!

1. Dreamer

Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou (His and Her Circumstances), or as better known on the net as Kare Kano, is what the creative minds at Gainax have come up with between Evangelion and FLCL. At first, I was going to pass this, as shoujo is not one of my favorite anime genres. However, something glued me to it. Is it the charming characters or the extremely funny atmosphere.. I don't know.. But one thing for sure, this is a must-watch for romance and comedy fans alike. Starring Yukino Miyazawa, the perfect-pretending student who loves to be praised. All was well for her until the High School entry exams where she's placed second... the new challenger, Arima Soujiro stole the spotlight from her which made her vow to avenge him.. It annoyed her that he is more perfect than her. That started a battle over the crown, but as time goes by, things change in different directions. There is really nothing like this series in terms of the art styles but be warned, there is a lot of writing on screen. Too much of it especially at the final episodes, it become a bit confusing.. But overall, this is a funny series that packs a good story with it.. don't miss it when it is released commercially in Spring 2002 (hopefully)!