Oh my... really? Probably even more of a reason for me to stick to my pretty manga collection. :(
Good review. It also makes a lot of sense.
Kare Kano tv Review
Yukino Miyazawa, the perfect student. She's got the looks, the grades - everything any girl could ask for out of a school life. She is envied by all the girls and loved by all the boys, and is #1 in her class. The worst part could be the fact that she knows this and loves it. Her mask was her life, and she lived fine within it.
Enter Soichiro Arima, now the perfect guy. Yukino can't help but notice that Soichiro has been stealing her thunder. Born under a rich name, looks to kill and with grades that equal Yukino's, she can't help but be infuriated by his perfect ways. Day in and day out among her diligent studying, she plots to take down Soichiro, to break him.
Then, Yukino gets a curveball. The midterm results come in, and Soichiro bests Yukino by half a point. Meaning he becomes the #1 student in their class. Yukino, angrier than ever, turns to leave the class, but Soichiro touches her and merely whispers..."I love you."
Thus starts a comical romantic war between the two as they continue to try to get under each other's skin. But they only seem to get closer and close until Soichiro then stumbles upon Yukino's dark secret, and after that, the seeds of romance start to sink in...
Story & Characters
The Kare Kano anime was great.
That would be, if I'm talking about the first episode. While the series begin with a solid and well-done plot with interesting characters portrayed upon good art, that's just the beginning, which ends up falling miserably into a bad, bad adaption of the 20-volume manga, created by Tsuda Masami.
Miyazawa Yukino has just gotten into high school, and with her perfect persona just out of middle school with the glory
of being number one, she is shocked to be beaten by Arima Soichiro, a beautiful, genius classmate. Yukino, also being a
beautiful and seemingly super smart student, is crushed - and makes an instant enemy out of the truly perfect and
popular Arima.
Things get a bit rocky when Arima accidentally finds out her true form - a lazy, frantically studying crazed
perfectionist - then confesses his love for her. They eventually end up going out with each other, and the anime is of
their adventures as a couple.
Kare Kano is a wonderful blend of lovely romance, comedy, and the concept of finding who you are in those crazy high school years. It's a very sad thing that Gainax had to run out of money for the series right in the middle, and their efforts turn into the weirdest anime adaptions. In one episode, the whole thing is of stick figures, background music, and voice actors. In the last episode, they appear to run out of money for even that and end up showing in manga format, with the sole audio of a narrator who says stuff like "he goes," and "she says." The dialogue is portrayed in writing.
With the noticible disappointing flop of the artwork later on, Kare Kano also goes through an awful turn. The anime, unable to adapt all 20 volumes of the manga, end up having to cut off, not even being able to make a different ending or a fade off. Arima must be stopped in the middle of his character developement, which can give anyone confusion about his real character, and many other supporting characters are excluded. To make it worse, some episodes are even wasted as flashbacks. Most of the climax and ending is not in the anime, and what appeared to be an excellent series become one of the worst.
Which is really sad, if you think about how many possiblities it had.
Rating:
Art
As I've mentioned before, the technical graphics of Kare Kano are awful. However, in the beginning, when the art
was actually THERE, the style and design where good. It stayed true to the author's character designs, because as a
budding mangaka with Kare Kano as her first major work, Tsuda Masami's work tends to be simple and basic.
The color is basically well done, but nothing spectacular. It has its good points here and there, but generally
nondescript.
The genre and concept of the anime relates well to the art, and sometimes creates a feeling of its own. The backgrounds and setting constantly recurr and are done in a way that fits well with the character designs.
But again, the artwork goes down the drain with the project's budget later on.
Rating:
Sound
The soundtrack of Kare Kano is nice, with cheerful tracks, depressing tracks, and inspiring tracks. All that usual stuff about high school spirits.
The voice actors are generally well-picked. Tsubasa's friends each have their own unique voices, with some debut roles as well. The talented Ishida Akira does an excellent job with Kazuma, although he only comes out for two episodes (*sob! what a sad fact!*). Yukino's voice actress does especially well, with her somewhat smartass and likable tone. Arima's voice is somewhat uninspiring, but that's just my opinion.
One of my dissatisfactions of this cast was of Tsubasa's voice. I really disliked it, because it really didn't fit who she was. The voice in general was unlikable anyway.
Also a note about the narrator - BIG NONO! He was one thing that REALLY didn't make Kare Kano better. I felt that if Yukino or another main character had narrated, it would have been better.
Overall, the sound section of Kare Kano was the most stable.
Rating:
Presentation
I loved Kare Kano, I really did.
I got addicted to the sweet but not sickly fluffy romance of Arima and Yukino, but I was so unhappy with its setup. I don't know if the ending was planned to be that way, or if those recap episodes were meant to exist, but I was just devastated as soon as the stick figures came out.
I didn't even watch the recaps.
Kare Kano had everything that a short anime series needed - a ready fanbase from the original manga, dynamic characters, captivating plot twists and a great plot. The anime adaption used so little of that.
Its setup was sloppy, the planning was less than average, and the ending is probably the worst of anime history. What are left now are only 'what if's.
Still, I enjoyed Kare Kano, and so did others, delighting in the well-applied humor and realistic high school drama scenes.
Oh well.
Rating:
Final Verdict
5.8333 (average)
Reviewed by Rosegirl18, Sep 22, 2006
Comments
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Justice48 Sep 22, 2006
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daos Sep 22, 2006
Eh, I don't like the anime a lot, if at all. Iit goes too randomly from happy to emo, and that random part about Tsubasa..>S Heheh, I think the ending was emo too ne? I think I killed it by fast-forwarding.
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Yamiel1 Sep 23, 2006
A mi me gusta el anime y no me importa lo que digan de que no tiene buenos graficos la historia sigue estando bonita y ademas las caras de los personajes a veces hacen reir demasiado :-)
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Lionhearted911 Nov 02, 2006
you are so right...i hated the anime after the second episode...it was lame and annoying...and i did not watch it to the end...got too bored and annoyed...
great review though...hahah -
beyondmeasure Jul 13, 2007
Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou, by any measure, was a tragedy. Period.
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SchRita Jan 15, 2010
Thanks for the review!
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