His and Her Circumstances (Vol. 1)

Rating:
Summary: Excelent show
Review: I have watched many animes such as love hina, slayers, chobits,Chance pop session... and this one "Kare Kano"(His and Her circumstances). Since it is posted by most people what the story is about, I'll focus my review on good points, bad points.

Great points: the art is beautiful, the way they draw is very unique, it is almost like reading a manga (japanese comic book), even though I felt like the style changed from episode to episode, but they kept the same beauty of slow motion movements in black and white, which was beautiful. I loved the story and the way it flows.
They did a great job writing stories about the other characters but the main boy and Girl. You get to know them.
The romance in the story is one of the main attractions for me. I loved the way it shows so much innocence, this is an anime I would not be afraid to share with a pre-teen (over 10 years old). There is no violence and the words and not tacky. It is extremelly tasteful. I recommend to anyone.... especially for girls out there that want their special someone to be more romantic.

Bad points: there are too many chapters that were reminding you of what had happened so far, and that kept repeating over and over, and I felt like they were dragging to get to the story.
I know that it is a style of drawing and showing feelings on anime, but I don't really care when they draw the characters with a larger head and monstrous expressions everytime they are trying to pass a point (there is a lot of this in the story).

but overall, great show.
others I recomend: Chance pop session ( which just arrived in the Usa), Chobits ( cutiest thing!), Love Hina, Slayers, Princess Nine.

take care
Daniela Bowers
[e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: Now that's relationship
Review: Beware: Karekano (the series nickname in Japan) IS NOT your usual romantic anime. Gone are the silly relationships between the likes of Belldandy and Keichi, or the excess of sugar of the likes of Miaka and Tamahome, so this is a title that is different from what both shoujo and shounen anime fans are used to watch. Thankfully.

While a shoujo series, Karekano can be easily watched by both shoujo AND shonen fans, as there's something for everybody. What makes it so different? First, the relationship between Arima and Yukina is something that you would expect to see in real life, both of them look perfect on their own way until you get to know them better, so you see that they're just regular humans, living a regular life on a regular city. Just like you and me. No girls coming out the TV or descending from heaven, or pretty boys that saves the girl who just fall in love for her. Even the characters are not depicted as God's gift for beauty on earth, so that's a change.

After Yukina starts noticing Arima (in the worst way possible), they start a hate relationship that actually leads to a romantic affair and turns them into boyfriend and girlfriend. Many would argue what's so special on this. It is the daily routine, the chalenge of staying close with all other things to do, friends and their problems, school and jealousy. And above all, that abstract thing that is love, something that's not for sure, that you can feel but you can't put it in a safe and claim yours forever. And at this point, Karekano turns out to be the best romantic animated series ever.

Produced at Gainax and directed on it's first 12 episodes by legendary Hideaki Anno (which seems to have overdone it this time) and for the rest of the series by the director of Nadesico and the staff at Gainax, this is a clear example that it's not only great animation that counts for doing a great series. You simply have to watch to understand it.

Later in the series the staff even does some experimental animation, which some will regard as bizarre, for me they where cool, and for an episode or two, they sure add some fresh air to the whole animation scene. Of course, later these guyus would work on FLCL, and the exeperience on this series has proved to be effective.

If all your life as as anime fan you have asked yourself on why romance on anime was always on platonic level, then Karekano is the answer to this question.

Rating:
Summary: A Beautiful High School Love Story
Review: Forget anything negative you've read about Gainax's His and Her Circumstances. All the characters are wonderful, even funny at many points, and it's a DVD, I have never gotten tired of watching over and over again. It's a recommended buy, trust me.

Rating:
Summary: Funny, different, touching, moving, and terrific. A treat!
Review: Adapted from a bestselling manga of the same title, this 26-part TV series was unfortunately never finished (based on reports I've read) but delivers, for its first entry, laughs, eye candy, and delightful entertainment considering its from the folks who made NEON GENESIS EVANGELION (as well as NADIA: THE SECRET OF BLUE WATER).

This is not an action-adventure story set in 1880's Europe, or a (literally!) mind-bending drama in apocalyptic, war-torn Japan, but rather a modern day story about two High School students who learn to see each other behind their masks and find the perfect friend -- and love in each other. Popular and brainy on the outside but a sneaky, manipulative slob on the inside, Yukino Miyazawa has ALWAYS been the top student in school... until she is "displaced" by Souiichirou Arima, a soft-speaking young man who struggles to maintain perfection for his family's honor. Jealous of his popularity and successes, Miyazawa plots to get even and eventually manages to top him on the next exam. But Miyazawa's world is turned even further upside down when Arima confesses that he is in love with her! Freaked out, she tries to neglect him, but he sneakily wins her over by blackmailing her into doing his homework for him! The story of how these two "flawed" characters learn about each other and change as a result of their many meetings is moving... and it's also a lot of fun.

What makes the show so entertaining is the style of the artwork and the execution. HIS AND HER CIRCUMSTANCES isn't just a straightforward drama, but full of deliberately exaggerated cariacture drawings of our protagonists' "real selfs", manga-style drawings, contradicting subtitles (in Japanese), pencil-drawings, and a lot more stuff that will have you on the floor. I honestly didn't expect to be laughing so hard, but I was. And, by the time the first volume came to a close, I was disappointed that it ended so soon.

For all its offbeat artwork style, the characters are not cliched exaggerations but real people. Arima is a young boy who is soft-spoken and friendly but also clever and cunning -- unlike Jean, who much too good a guy to do anything mean or hurtful, or Shinji, who is just too shy -- Arima is active and flawed. Yukino is flawed, too -- she lies about being the "greatest student in High School" while being expressive with her envy, hatred, and finally romantic feelings. Like most of GAINAX's heroines, she is also quick-tempered -- but unlike Nadia, whose bratty tantrums felt infuriating considering 1) that Jean did nothing to deserve them, 2) that she's basically much nicer than that to him for a large majority of the show, and Asuka, who was just so nasty that she ended up being unlovable IMO -- Yukino's rages are deliberately exaggerated and funny. Plus, the entire story is told from her point of view... at first. Not only that, the characters actually TELL us what's really going on in those twisted little minds of theirs. This is another big plus to the show, considering that director Hideaki Anno seems to have trouble understanding relationships. (An article said this series was a study of relationships for him. Hopefully he'll learn a thing or two from this!)

Although it is too bad that the show never got finished (mainly because the creators were frustrated at the "limitations" of animation), the parts that are good -- like much of GAINAX's works, it seems -- are treasures (indeed, the first eight episodes and last episodes of NADIA -- as well as Nadia at her nicest to her friends are precious to this reviewer, as are some of the sequences in EVANGELION). This first volume is one of those treasures, and it deserves to be seen.

The DVD is extensively presented -- and excellent. The video quality is exquisite, the audio on both English and Japanese (I spot-checked this track) are solidly mixed, the menus are fabulous, and the subtitles and alternate angle options of switching back and forth between Japanese and English made titles, are clever. The only downside is that, on my DVD player, each time I try to switch the "alternate angle", there is a brief pause that occurs before it happens. Does anyone else have this problem?

There are also extensive liner notes on the DVD that are intriguing to read.

As for the dub? I love it! It uses many actors who lent their voices to RECORD OF LODOSS WAR (Lisa Ortiz, Crispin Freeman, Pete Zarustica, Ted Lewis, and others) and they do a really cool job with their parts. On a side note, I purchased the first volume (and DVD box set) at an Anime convention in New York where I met voice actress Veronica Taylor, who voices Miyazawa -- and, like many of the fans who were on line, I got her autograph. And she was a treat to talk to (in other words, a really, really nice person)! Plus, she nails Miyazawa spot on throughout what I saw of this volume. She said she had a lot of fun recording Miyazawa's lines... and it shows. Another role she's known for is Ash Ketchum of POKEMON, but I think this is her best role ever. And meeting her was a wonderful experience for me.

Sorry about that being off-topic, but this is just another compliment to how much I really got a kick out of this volume. Chances are you will, too.

Rating:
Summary: The finest anime series of all time
Review: Kare Kano is perhaps the most realistic portrayal of teenage romance ever to be displayed, animated or otherwise, and the emotional rollercoaster ride that goes along with it. Hideaki Anno, best known in the US for his hugely successful Neon Genesis Evangelion, puts an entirely new spin on the shoujo genre by including his and GAINAX's own little quirky style to it. The disc itself is a technical masterpiece and has been said to be the most complex DVD ever produced. The show has a large amount of on-screen text used to portray emotions and the innerworkings of the characters and The Right Stuf has done wonders with them, including using various colors, font sizes and fonts themselves that coincide with what they're displaying.

One can only hope that other companies will use this release as an example for the future and that TRSI itself can keep up the standard of excellence they have set forth with this first volume. The slipcase that comes with it is perfect for the tone of the show and has some beautiful images on it as well. This is a must have for any anime fan.

Rating:
Summary: Gainax does it again - another true classic!
Review: Although Gainax is best known for sci-fi epics such as EVANGELION, GUNBUSTER and WINGS OF HONNEAMISE, HIS AND HER CIRCUMSTANCES - better known by its Japanese title, KARESHI KANOJYO NO JIJOU, or KARE KANO - marked an attempt by Gainax to try something new: a high-school romantic comedy. It was also director Hideaki Anno's (EVANGELION, NADIA) swan song in the anime industry before he went on to a career making live-action films. The result is a high-school romantic comedy done "Gainax-style" - meaning it's anything but conventional, pablum or boring.
The characters are not "stock" characters by any means, but there are definite shades of EVANGELION in the main characters. It's easy to see aspects of EVA's Asuka in Yukino, who, like Asuka, strives to be number one and is less than pleased when someone does better than she does. And one could say that Arima is a lot like Shinji - not only does he look like an older and taller version of Shinji-kun, but he had an unhappy home life and parents who weren't around to support him when he needed it. Both are driven to be model students for similar but different reasons. Unlike Asuka and Shinji, however, Yukino and Arima realize their common ground, bond with each other, and begin to fall in love. Theirs is not a fairy-tale romance, however (is anybody's ever, really?) - they have to weather all kinds of storms, both inside and outside of themselves.
I've only seen the first six episodes, but so far, this show is an absolute delight. It moves quickly and features a lot of on-screen text, but not so quickly that you can't understand what's going on. The supporting cast is a strong one too - Yukino's younger sisters, Kano and Tsukino, are adorable and playful but at the same time more wise in the ways of the world than their older sister. There's also the requisite cute animal mascot (Pero-Pero, also spelled Pero^2 in much the same way that EVA's Pen-Pen was often spelled Pen^2), as well as Arima's self-proclaimed best friend, Hideaki Asaba, who has dreams of becoming the next Hugh Hefner and building a harem of beautiful girls called "Merryland" to keep him company. The music - by Shiro Sagisu, who's done a lot of music for Gainax productions including EVA and NADIA - is very well done too. On top of that, it gives a lot of insight as to the pressures that high school students in Japan feel to succeed, and since I went to a private religious high school with very high academic standards myself, I find Yukino and Arima's plight easily relatable.
As if that weren't enough, I think the dubbed version is very well-done. Veronica Taylor's Yukino is terrific and will make you forget that Ms. Taylor was ever Ash Ketchum in "Pokemon." Yukino changes moods so quickly and expresses such a wide variety of emotions, and Veronica nails them all. Most of the other dub voice actors do a good job as well. The two ladies who play Tsukino and Kano actually come out from behind the microphone to host the "next episode" previews - in character. It's obvious that the voice actors all had a blast doing this show, which seems like it would be a harder show to dub than most. One of the better-done dubs I've seen.
All in all, it's definitely a shojo show, but if you're an open-minded guy you'll find a lot to like here too. KARE KANO shows off Gainax's versatility and how they can take just about any genre of anime and, through turning it upside down, make it their own.

Rating:
Summary: Good but with flaws
Review: As an artist I learned a lot from watching this series. I found His and Her Circumstances entertaining and engaging, with moments of true brilliance, particularly in the humor. I can see this title appealing particularly to middle-and-high schoolers and it does a great job of capturing something about those times.

Artistically there is a good amount of experimentation - it's clear that at this point Gainax is moving towards the dramatic and unique style that emerges in Fooly Cooly. If you are a fan of FLCL you will probably dig H&Hc as well, and vice versa.

However, if you are going to follow these series you shoulf be forwarned. First there is a LOT of filler and recycling of animation. It's not too bad in the first two DVDs but then expect to run into entire episodes which are re-edits of existing footage. Re-caps of the story are ok... but doing it over and over to the point of retelling the entire series is cheap.

Worse, there are episodes which are basically just cleaned-up animatics, complete with drawings cut out and pasted on sticks and moved around on video, and tons of pan-and-scans of sketches. This is pretty clearly a way to turn out content without going through the effort and expense of full ink-and-paint. Gainax tries to sweep this under the rug by being "artistic" about it, and you CAN get away with some of that in the name of art perhaps but essentially we have here about 3 DVD's worth of content stretched out to 5.

Additionally as occured in Evangellion the ending is fatally flawed. The storyline is cut off in the middle of nowhere, and pasted over with a putty consisting of psychobabble and a healthy dose of screw you it's over. This is particularly frustrating because the entire series builds up a few subplots which are left totally unresolved.

For instance Arima, the male protagonist, is hinted at having a black temper and murderous jealousy over Yukino, and the last few episodes play this up to an intensity that makes you wonder if the guy is actually a monster. Pretty heavy for a series that started out with the most serious conflict being Yukino getting the silent treatment from her classmates.

So, I'd really have liked to give His and Her Circumstances more stars. I really enjoyed watching it for the most part. But as was the case with Evangellion the story fragments and goes everywhere at once before finally being cut off the way a farmer might put down a rabid dog. Its a shame. Still, get the frist two DVDs and you will have hours of enjoyment.

Rating:
Summary: IT'S SO... CUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUTE!!!!
Review: Okay, my anime freak boyfriend was making me watch all this stuff like Golden Boy and Cowboy Bebop (which are very good...just not girl stuff) But it wasn't until Love Hina and this wonderful DVD came along that I really got into anime. Yukino and Arima are adorable!!! Think back to all your first crushes and boy or girlfriends, and that's this dvd right here. Beside the fact that the Arima and Yukino's voices sound like they're 21 instead of ninth graders, the voice talents are great as well. Plus Arima is a total Hottie for a cartoon character. and all the characters have LESM syndrome which is just sooooo... CUUUUUUUUUUUUUTE.
Be sure to watch this one with your girlfriend/boyfriend!!

Rating:
Summary: Don't get the box, stop at Volume 2
Review: Don't spend extra for the box. I wholeheartedly recommend buying the Volume 1 and 2 DVDs and give them five stars

However, the show's quality drops further than I would have dreamed possible. Ask anyone who's seen the depressingly poor episode 19.

The first two volumes comprise the best of the show, and episode 10 is a fine place to stop.

Rating:
Summary: Emotionally honest anime view of high school romance
Review: "His and Her Circumstances" (aka "Kare Kano") is a 26-episode anime TV series from the studio (Gainax) and director (Hideaki Anno) who'd previously brought us "Neon Genesis Evangelion." Like the earlier series, it's a turbulent tale of adolescence, but with a much lighter tone and absolutely no science fiction or supernatural elements. Its basic premise derives from the mutual attraction of two high-achieving tenth-graders-Yukino Miyazawa, a middle-class girl, and Soichiro Arima, a well-to-do boy. Both have problems reconciling their highly polished public facades with their more insecure private selves. Yukino has a frenetic home life involving two eagerly interested younger sisters (who function as a sort of Greek Chorus) while Arima is an only child with a more restrained home life in a large house where he lives with an aunt and uncle who are his adoptive parents. It all adds up to a thoroughly engaging mix of drama, comedy, laughter and tears.

What makes the series so distinctive, aside from the depth of its emotions, is its freewheeling visual imagination. Characters frequently revert to cartoon/comic strip form to express strong feelings. The frame frequently changes in size and scope. Regular "reenactments" are staged like theater pieces, with dramatic stage lighting. Visual metaphors are frequently used, including traffic lights, dripping faucets and street signs (e.g. "Under Construction" to describe the two teens' budding friendship). Text, both Japanese and English, appears on screen so often that non-Japanese-speaking viewers may want to watch this the first time with the English track on, so as not to have to contend with additional blocks of text occasioned by the subtitles.

The voice acting is masterfully done by both the Japanese and English-language dub casts. On the DVD, the two actresses in each cast who play Yukino's sisters are seen in alternate preview segments telling us what's coming next. The English voice cast is led by Veronica Taylor ("Pokémon"'s Ash) as Yukino and includes such other highly respected vocal performers as Christopher Nicholas, Jessica Calvello, Megan Hollingshead, and Rachael Lillis.