His and Her Circumstances: V.1 The Appearance of a Normal Life (ep.1-6)

 

 

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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) directorial 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.

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.

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.

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5.0 out of 5 stars IT'S SO... CUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUTE!!!!
Okay, my anime freak boyfriend was making me watch all this stuff like Golden Boy and Cowboy Bebop (which are very good... Read more

Published on Oct 16 2003 by dickensfreak

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't get the box, stop at Volume 2
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... Read more

Published on Aug 8 2003 by Robin Lionheart

5.0 out of 5 stars It was fun and entertaining
I thought it was cool to make an anime story into a every day teen life. The art in this anime is different form other animes. Read more

Published on Jun 28 2003 by caitlin Brackett

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny, romantic, poignant and true
Karekano is a very special series. On the surface it's a classic gakuen (school-life) anime, depicting the lives of high school students in a typical Tokyo suburb. Read more

Published on Jun 12 2003 by Makiko Itoh

5.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly Great!
When I first purchased this dvd I wasn't sure it was for me. This is the type of story normally reserved for younger girls dreaming of meeting Mr. Right. Read more

Published on Jun 11 2003 by Fates Puppet

5.0 out of 5 stars HA! *cough* Yeah, the Reveiw... (CAUTION: minor spoiler)
Hello, and thank you for reading one more of my...reveiws.
I first watched His and Hers circumstances after my friend bought it. Read more

Published on May 27 2003 by evil_space_monkey

5.0 out of 5 stars Great!
This series is great! I've read the original comics as well, and although they're not exactly the same, the anime follows it closely. It's totally hilarious! Read more

Published on April 26 2003 by tina

5.0 out of 5 stars New to the genre
My friends live and breathe anime, so I went out on my own to check out a series or four of my own. What a great investment His and Her Circumstances was! Read more

Published on Mar 23 2003

5.0 out of 5 stars It has a shallow depth. Er, or is that a deep shallow?
Even though this series is about a bunch of high school freshmen, it still has an amazing amount depth. Read more

Published on Mar 10 2003 by George L. Bush

3.0 out of 5 stars enjoyable but...
I found it too repetative and simple or new economic way to animate?.

I had a lot of expectaion because of the japanese animation studio GAYNAX(-produced EVANGELEON... Read more

Published on Mar 5 2003 by hjkim-anime lover

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