The Essentials

Name: His and Her Circumstances, Kare Kano, Kareshi Kanojo no Jijō
Genre:: Romance, Comedy, Drama
Episodes: 26
Released: October 2, 1998 – April 23, 1999
Based On: Kare Kano manga by Masami Tsuda
Director: Hideaki Anno, Kazuya Tsurumaki
Produced By: GAINAX, TV Tokyo
US Distribution By: The Right Stuf

Major Japanese Cast

Yukino Miyazawa: Atsuko Enomoto
Souichirou Arima: Chihiro Suzuki
Tsukino Miyazawa: Yuki Watanabe
Kano Miyazawa: Maria Yamamoto
Hiroyuki Miyazawa: Takeshi Kusao
Miyako Miyazawa: Yuka Koyama
Hideaki Asaba: Atsushi Kisaichi
Tsubasa Shibahime: Mayumi Shintani
Maho Isawa: Junko Noda

Major English Cast

Yukino Miyazawa: Veronica Taylor
Souichirou Arima: Christopher Nicholas
Tsukino Miyazawa: Jessica Calvello
Kano Miyazawa: Megan Hollingshead
Hiroyuki Miyazawa: Pete Zarustica
Miyako Miyazawa: Rachael Lillis
Hideaki Asaba: Liam O’Brien
Tsubasa Shibahime: Lisa Ortiz
Maho Isawa: Carol Jacobanis

Scores

Animation: 7/10 (x 4 = 28 pts)
Story: 8/10 (x 4 = 32 pts)
Music: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Coherency/Story Arc: 7/10 (x 2 = 14 pts)
English Dubs: 9/10 (x 1 = 9 pts)
Gut Score: 7/10 (x 5 = 35 pts)

Total: 154/200 (77%)

Review

His and Her Circumstances started out good enough. I found the story of Yukino being jealous of Arima and plotting his demise while at the same time falling for him intriging, the story started going down hill after they got together. Not that there some interesting things about the series – the character development is quite complex (in fact, the entire series is almost completely focused on character development in my opinion, in this case to it’s detriment).

After a while it seemed like the series didn’t know where it was going, and farther into the series the worst this sensation became. After a while, I just wanted to ask “what’s the point again?” It started as the dynamic between Yukino and Arima and ended up trying to portray the relationship of virtually every major character to each other (whatever that relationship may be) and in many cases went into story lines far removed from the two main characters. Perhaps if the series had started with such a broad look implied or stated, I don’t think it was as bad, but how it was scripted in the anime, it just makes it look like the series lost it’s way.

Next, to the animation. While some of this series was animated in the, shall I say “usual” anime style, there were times when it was also drawn in a way that I can best describe as looking like a colored pencil sketch, at least that’s what I recall. In any case, while I usually have no problem getting distracted by how a series is animated, I did have that problem to an extent watching this.

One final note, I may be doing this series a favor by giving it only a 77%. While this wasn’t a bad series by any stretch of the imagination, and I can see why many people may enjoy it, it’s rare that I end up finding myself surfing the web while the subtitled version of the series is still playing in my DVD. This is a clear sign to me that, by the last couple of discs in the series, I was just flat out bored.

First Watched: April – May 2006
Do I Own: Yes
Do I Recommend: Yes, with caveats