His and Her Circumstances.

2025 January 22

Also known as Kareshi no Kanojo no Jijou, Kare Kano

Op: Tenshi no Yubikiri

"To get special treatment!

It feels weird to review Kare Kano, not because of anything from the subject matter, but because this is still the only anime I've watched that was made by Gainax and directed by seemingly prolific director Hideaki Anno. Kare Kano was made only about a year after Evangelion ended; and I've read that "It shows." It doesn't affect my feelings on the show, but I do feel like I'm missing important context of the inner workings of the company during that time. This anime has a fascinatingly troubled development, which I'll cursory touch upon, but this review will just be yknow, my thoughts.

Kare Kano was one of the first anime I've watched that really made me enjoy made me enjoy Shoujo anime, that schlocky, cheesy, occassionally rom-com-y stuff about high school romances in a country I've never lived in. After watching more from the genre in the future, It realized there were also alot of tropes It deviates from. While ultimately, It's still a high school romance anime at heart, but that's nothing to detest from It, I was pleasantly surprised by It on my first viewing.


"There's a darkness deep inside my soul"

The premise is simple, Yukino Miyazawa is the seemingly perfect girl, class president, stellar grades, and beautiful; everyone envys or idolize her. The reality of it though is that it's all a huge facade, when not at school, she's a slob, she's rude, and she studies and does schoolwork to an obsessive degree. All this for, in her words "To be first place, at all times!" But upon entering high school, she shares a class with Soichiro Arima, a young man who immsensely peeves Miyazawa for arguably being everything she is at school, and more. Though It's later revealed that Arima is just like Miyazawa, where his school prescence is just a facade, unlike Miyazawa who does what she does to be in first, Arima does it to hide from his childhood trauma, he fears that his "true self" will be destructive to himself and others.

The dichotomy of these two and why they do what they do was quite interesting, It's a romance anime, but they become a couple within only the first few episodes after Arima found out about Miyazawa's home life (and was pretty much already smitten from first sight.) Even beyond somewhat hastily becoming a pair, they're also the first real friend of eachother because of how they know of eachothers secrets.

"I'm starting to understand the relationship of these four!"

Removing your mask and becoming your true self is the biggest theme of this anime, and Is what the rest of the plot is mainly about, and I think It plays to It very well. It's very sweet to see these characters figure out more and more about themselves, that they don't have to be weighed down by their past or what their "supposed to be like." The fact that It all takes place in high school helps the overall tone aswell, this would be the age bracket where a real person would be figuring out more of themselves, even If they haven't fully matured. I'm not sure if this was a common case for people who have watched Kare Kano, but It somewhat had me yearning for the days of high school, which is crazy, cause high school sucked for me, but It was a time where I wish I had figured myself out, rather than feel the messiness of trying to figure yourself out in early adulthood.

The other characters in Kare Kano fit in with the aforementioned theme aswell, and how Miyazawa traverses friendships in her true self. Something I really enjoyed was how Miyazawas friend group she, somewhat forcefully integrates into was already a friend group In their own school, which brings alot of antics. Friendship is hilariously foreign to Miyazawa, but despite all the weirdness that comes with It, they do all end up caring for eachother. While it's not anything special for the genre, learning platonic relationships brings a good balance with the romance
and drama of the series. In a romance anime, I would hope the characters are worth caring about,
and I'm happy that they gave me a reason to.

"When I'm with Arima, everything feels easier..."

Speaking of, the romance was surprisingly fun, because of just how weird Miyazawa and Arima really are. They're high schoolers, so obviously they aren't going to really have any knowledge of how to act around eachother, but despite that they go on dates, they get touchy, they even have sex part way through the series, but It's all framed as, realistic, for lack of a better word. Despite the era and country their in, It does remind me of alot of the things me and my girlfriend would do during our relationship in high school, playing around with what we both think we want in a relationship, and figuring out from there. Miyazawa's inner monologing helps with making the romance funnier, thinks alot, but has a hard time putting thoughts to words, even desppite their conflicts, she truly does love Arima.

A contrast I really liked in regards to Miyazawa and Arima surprisingly, were their families, Miyazawa's family were my favorite group of characters in the show. I feel like alot of anime with a similiar plot, the family just sorta, isn't there, But I appreciate how much prescence th rest of the Miyazawa's have. Kano and Tsukino, Yukino's sisters being the more "funny" type of characters and will tease Yukino for her initial vainess and her relationship, and their quirky parents, who have their eccentricities, but really do love eachother and their three daughters.
They even have their whole relationship explained in an episode which I throughly enjoyed.

Arima on the other hand, only has his "parents" who are really just his Uncle and Aunt who took him in after Arima's real parents abandoned him. While Arima cares for his current parents and the feelings mutual, he feels he can never shed the fact that his own parents were bad people, and thinks that he himself, will become someone not worth being with. When Arima first get's his "extreme" introduction to the Miyazawa family, he can't help but feel insecure about Yukino's relationship to her family. I always found that to be relatable.

Family as a theme is something I only realized was such a big part of this series on a consecutive watch, there's another character, Tsubasa Shibahime, who also feels the same insecurities of what a "real family" is like after being with Yukino. I guess this kind of stuff isn't really needed in a romance plot, but the uprising given by your family truly can affect yourself to the core, and also the ones around you.

"I'm sorry dear, draw four!"
"It's the greatest crisis of their whole marriage!!!"

I want to use this section to praise the animation (for the first half atleast) because man, Is It good. I don't exactly know too many animation terms, but It's very colorful and artsy in alot of scenes, and these character move alot, In wacky, borderline cartoony ways. Kare Kano can be a true treat to the eyes. I'm tempted to put like, a bunch of my favorite scenes from this show just to gush about the animation, but I wouldn't wanna spoil It for you.

It would also probably be good to talk about the music, the accompanying score really sets the mood for the moments where high school and young life take front, but not afraid to become more moody for the times where drama takes the scene. It overall feels relaxing, weirdly enough, It reminds me alot of a summer vacation, which I guess Is somewhat fitting for a high school anime.

If you've watched EVA 2.0, you might even recognize some of these tracks, as they were remade for It, Like I said, I've never watched anything Evangelion, but I was delighted to hear newer version of some of my favorite Kare Kano tracks.

I also should note that I watched the english dub of this show, I almsot exclusively watch english dubs cause I can understand them, and I'm curious how these characters would sound. I think It's pretty good, Veronica Taylor though really knocked it out of the park with her portrayal of Yukino, a smooth, cute voice, that can be loud and bombastic when neccessary. I also liked Lisa Ortiz being one Tsubasa Shibahime, cause It just sounds like if she was just doing her Amy Rose voice but a little brattier. Oh, and the performances for Kano, Tsukino, and Miyazawa's parents made me smile, really reminds me of just, a cartoon family.

I've been praising this anime alot to the point, you would believe that I think It's perfect, and to be frank, It almost is to me, in the scope of the genre atleast. The only thing that really brings this anime down are 2 things.

First, this anime has very wishy-washy animation, you have scenes where it's pure sakuga, and true treat to the eyes, as I mentioned earlier, and other scenes where It's manga pages """artistically""" imposed onto the screen, and lots of stills. I've learned that personally, I don't mind bad animation (or lack of animation at all) won't ruin an anime for me, given that It can still entertain me in other ways, but man, you can really see the budget dip part way through the episode run. At the same time, I think the animation team made alot from nothing, one of the more infamous things about Kare Kano was the episode that was made up of paper cutouts and real photos, but I thought that was a really fun episode given the cirumstances (heh.) That said, If you are more critical about animation quality, you probably won't be too pleased with how this anime progresses with It's winding budget.

Secondly, Kare Kano (the anime///) doesn't really have a proper ending, this relates to the "fascinatingly troubled development" I mentioned at the beginning. I don't wanna spoil anything, but I think It's fair for me to say that, If you watch this show, you are going to have the reaction, "That's It? Just like that?". This doesn't straight up ruin the anime for me, but It did quite disappoint me, It brings It down a lot of pegs. To compress the long story about why this is, It was mainly due scheduling conflicts (this applies to the part about the animation quality aswell), corporate meddling from TV Tokyo, and just, not exactly knowing what to do?

There's not too much more I can say about this, but if your curious about how Kare Kano became the way It was, there this great section of video from STEVEM, THE HIDEAKI ANNO PROBLEM that reveals alot about It's production.

Kare Kano I think Is worthy of a of your time despite It's flaws, whether your familiar with other Gainax works, curious about Shoujo, and just wanted something new to watch. I thought It was pretty great, dare I say, a "Classic." Even if this a journey with no destination, It was still quite the ride. (And If you are discontent with the ending, the rest of the Manga still exists)

ED: Yume no Nake e

Oh, and how could I forget about Pero Pero, the Miyazawa family dog.

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