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Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou (or just Kare Kano)...
... is a twenty six episode series created by Masami Tsuda and animated by GAINAX at their old-school peak. It's an interesting and deep story that's combined with the look and feel of Evangelion. In America it's known as “His and Her Circumstances”.
STORYLINE
Miyazawa Yukino is a vain girl who loves nothing more than to be constantly praised. Always hiding behind an image of pure will and goodness, she's always been the best at everything and strives for it to always remain that way.
However, when Miyazawa enters high school, she's unexpectedly upstaged by Arima Souichirou who scored better than her in the entrance exams and stole the attention of the school that was meant to be hers.
By pure accident, Arima finds out about the fake image that Miyazawa constantly wears in public and takes advantage of that new found information, setting off a chain of events that force them into a relationship that will test the waters of first love and tempt the fate of their lives. But will it turn out good or bad?
ANIMATION
Direct from the artists of Evangelion, you cannot watch this series without recognizing lots of the same. Being a fan of GAINAX and their animation, I couldn't help but point out to myself an incredible number of items that shared a relationship with its ancestor (at least two dozen or more).
Several of these include their intricate use of shadows, carefully placed to bring out the best of scenes. Ever since Evangelion, my first taste of GAINAX animation, I've been in love with that particular style of lighting. Also noted was the telephone pole and electrical box which made its appearance quite often (at least six times) throughout the twenty six episodes.
Two thumbs up with a 5 out 5 stars for animation, but then we also have to realize that GAINAX is one of the top stars of Japan's anime and they don't disappoint.
MUSIC
As I recall, there was very little music in the series. There was the OP and ED themes, and then some light non-lyrical music here and there that suited the mood, two of which were acoustic guitar versions of the OP and ED themes. There was also a special song for episode 25. Overall, though, I have to say it wasn't all that bad.
“Tenshi no Yubikiri” by Fukuda Mai (OP)
Perhaps my favorite song of the series, but only because of the visuals provided in the opening sequence. The sequence matches the beat of the song, and a lot of the opening is centered around the song. Together they make it all worth it and I watched the opening ever time a new episode came on instead of hitting the skip scene button.
“Yume no Naka He” by Enomoto Atsuko & Suzuki Chihiro (ED)
It's not fair to say that I never really gave this song a fair chance. Maybe it was mostly because I didn't care for the ED sequence which was filled with nothing but some guy with a camera walking around town... Ugh... I don't really like those kinds of ED sequences but I have seen them in GAINAX series' before. Worthy of note is that it's sung by Enomoto Atsuko and Suzuki Chihiro who play the two main characters of this series, Miyazawa Yukino and Souichirou Arima (respectively).
FINAL COMMENTS
Hmm... Kare Kano has the distinct air of Evangelion to it. In the beginning its fun and playful, and retains that somewhat as the series goes on, but also gets a little depressing and dark – but nothing no where near as bad as Evangelion.
OVERALL SCORE: 8.5
I finished the series feeling a little like, “What?”
It was then that I found out that it doesn't follow the story of the manga to its final end, and I'm not exactly sure how much of the manga it's based off of either. The manga began in December of 1995, but only recently ended in April of 2005, but the anime was shown on Japanese TV throughout the year of 1998.
It leaves you wondering about what really happened in the end... I judged this anime as a standalone because of that so if you like GAINAX, wanna see an interesting and entertaining story that's sprinkled with absolute silliness 80% of the time, then get your grubby hands on Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou (or Kare Kano), but you'll probably only find it labeled “His and Her Cirumstances” in America.
.It was domestically released by TRSI (The Right Stuf International) and Enoki Films.