Entre elle et lui

I first heard of Kareshi Kanojo no Jijoo when I was looking at Gainax's website after watching the Neon Genesis Evangelion series. It was their next big project after Neon Genesis and after being blown away with that series, I had to see about this next one.

I instantly fell in love with the series, watching it completely through until its sad first and last season run. I felt a bit empty after watching the series and ending with too many open ends. The manga cheered me up, though, buying every tankoubon of the series for only 3 bucks a piece.

There are summaries about the series already, so let me just make my statement on why I fell in love with the series.

It didn't base itself off of the never-obtaining-love plots that saturate American TV shows, such as Gilmore Girls, Friends, Good Morning, Miami, etc. The show gives wonderful depth as to first loves and how relationships build, rather than collapse, like most shows.

My fiance and I enjoyed sitting down and watching this series together because of its honesty and cuteness. Watching the warmth of a first kiss, the first time one holds hands... its very endearing.

I would recommend this to those Shoujo lovers out there, but I would say stay away to fanboys.

After "His and her circumstances" Hideaki Anno has become one of my 2-3 favorite anime directors, and also one of my favorite directors generally. I am still a little uneasy for claiming his anime "Fushigi no Umi no Nadia" is only good, but "Shin Seiki Evangelin" is still my 2nd favorite anime. Anno just simply knows how to connect the styles of Jean-Luc Godard and Steven Spielberg: he is artistic, deep and innovative, but at the same time amusing and light, captivating also a wide audience. I can't wait to find his live action movie "Cutey Honey" somewhere on DVD!

What is "His and her" about? Well, it's a drama/comedy/romance series centering over 2 teenagers falling in love, Yukino and Arima. Yukino is a brilliant character: at home she is wearing glasses and ugly jogging suit, but at school she is COMPLETELY different. She wears contact lenses and classy school uniform to present herself as a perfect, handsome student. When Arima ( I loved his voice in English ) becomes no.1 on the list of best students and she only no.2 she get's furious! But later on they fall in love.

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The directing style is brilliant. If Golden Globes and Oscars would be giving awards to anime TV series, Anno would have surely won one for this. It's truly art to make something out of nothing, and boy, some scenes here are classic. For example, the pilot episode. When Yukino is asking herself how do other people see her she is shown walking together with some girls who are praising her- and in the background the subtitles are saying: "Public approval". When Arima asks her what her favorite music is she is saying Brahms and Mozart, but her "ghost" from her face is saying the truth to the audience: rock 'n 'roll! The intercourse sequence between them in episode 18 ( which is presented in symbolic pictures like glowing spots uniting in the dark ) is pure poetry! Be sure not to miss it!

Still, as much as I love it, I have to admit that Anno failed me on 2 things. One is a minor point: the animation is a yo-yo, full of caricature design that's a little too goofy sometimes. The other one is a major point: the open ( unfinished ) ending. I am so sad that they didn't end this properly because the story was still continuing in the Manga. And I'm afraid there wont be a sequel to this. "His and her" is in my top 10 anime list. It's currently no.3. If it weren't for the awful end, it may have truly been my no.1. But still, it's story about the first love between Yukino and Arima is more beautiful than my first love ever was.

Grade: 8/10

If you like the funny complications of teenagers, mixed with some serious situations, then this is the anime for you. Watching Yukino, I could see bits of myself in her, and while that was scary to admit, it was endearing at the same time. All teenagers want to fit in on some level, and Yukino is the most obvious example of that!

Now mixed that in with Arima: the boy who in every sense is perfect, yet still hides a dark past! There is drama with the comedy, and that just makes this anime believable to watch! Arima is green when another man looks at Yukino and is overbearing of her. Yet even her love doesn't exactly help him.

Through in the other characters such as Kano, Asaba and Maho and this is a winning combination, meaning that you could watch this anime for hours!

That's right, you read it, this is the best love story since Romeo and Juliet. Actually, in terms of content it's better than R&J, because that's love at first sight and it's Shakespeare so it's just very well written. This isn't just the story of two people falling in love, but the story of that love. They fall in love and start dating by the fifth episode and it's no secret to anyone that they are. It goes into so much detail about not only their relationship, but the reasons they love each other, who they are and whay their relationship is. It really is beutiful, but what do you expect from the man who made Neon Genesis Evangelion, he did the screenplay and he directed (up to episode 16 i believe).

The characters in this show is what really gets me interested. Yukino is this shallow attention hungry person who has some serious inferiority complex problems she fixes with good grades and being the best, Souichiro is similar in that he must proove to his family (himself, let's be honest) that he's a person worthy of life and that he is a good human being, as opposed to his parents, who he subconciously takes after but conciously denies. They fill in each others emotional gaps so well, Yukino's energy can support Arima and Arima stoic persona creates a air of confidence for Yukino, they are absolutly perfect for each other in every way. Plus the way the show is presented they look perfect for each other. The other characters deserve mention to, Tsukino and Kano are probably my two favorite characters, there eccentric and cool to watch, Yukino's friend are lively as is Tsubasa.

That aside, the style of this show overall is mind bogglingly good, the constant change in shape, size and color of the world is constantly changing in connection to the characters psychological and emotional state, when they kiss in episode eight, the simple outline style excentuates the emotions exponentially. The way the environment is always an allagory for state of mind and in same ways connectivity and in some ways seperation of the characters is simply amazing, I was thoroughly impressed the first time I watched the series and intellectually involved the next ten times (I've lost count how many times I've seen this series). And one last kudos, the music as always is this laughable combonation of Japanese pop-rock and Bach, just what I would expect from Hideaki Anno. I love this series and it is absolutly my second favorite anime behind Neon Genesis Evangelion.

You have to admit that a great deal of the allure towards Japanese Animation is the relief from the clichés of American Film and Television.

However, if you have watched animé for any real period of time, you'll come to the painful realization that it too has it's own set of horribly predictable clichés.

Take the Romance genre for example. Female Heroines seem to all be infected with the dreaded "Who do I like this week?" syndrome. Love Triangles/Cubes/Dodecahedrons are rampant throughout these storylines.

This is why Gainax's "Kareshi Kanojo no Jijyou" is such a breath of fresh air. Gone are the dizzy female characters with the cheesy inner monologues, gone are the overattractive male characters that exist only as temptations. Karekano is the simple story of a boy and a girl who have difficulty being truthful to others, and the difficulty of maintaining an honest public image (a theme dealt in Gainax Studio's "Neon Genesis Evangelion".) The show smoothly switches from serious drama to high comedy with nary a glaring disparity. Which is how it should be. High School--especially High School Romance--can indeed (at least in hindsight) be remembered by many real people as a very humorous period in their life.

Karekano was directed by Hideaki "Man am I ever depressed" Anno (his first animated work since "Evangelion") and he imbues his world with a unique visual presentation. Characters can be animated in an unbelievably over-the-top way when the situation calls for it. Yet in another scene appear as a beautiful monochromatic pencil rendering that is absolutely dead on emotionally. Anno's style for this series is to show situations in an indirect visual way. The time of day is indicated wordlessly by a series of outdoor vignettes that astonishes me with their verisimilitude. Shots of traffic control lights and construction signs can indicate a character's emotional cycle.

To digress. You should definitely try this series out if your tastes run deeper then a "Fight of the week show" and if you are getting disillusioned with the frustrating unoriginality of many modern animé.