Entre elle et lui

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.

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.

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!

The way its animated reminds me of post man pat cause its quite old and gives me that vibe.

Kareshi Kanojo no Jiyou, or Kare Kano for short, is a great series. It tells the story of a pair of high school students, Yukino and Arima, two over-achievers who finally loosen up when they meet each other. The series details the ups and downs that they have in their new relationship as it blossoms into romance.

The show alternates between comedy and drama, with the art style alternating to fit the situation. The balance of extreme comedy and drama is wonderful. It shows how life can be deadly serious one moment and undeniably absurd the next. This is a show that no one should miss.

P.S.: To fans of the film My Neighbor Totoro, be sure to watch episode 11. It's got a hilarious gag you don't want to miss!