Customer Reviews

His & Her Circumstances DVD Collection (Anime Value/Kare Kano)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

His and Her Circumstances is a story of 2 high school students who are seen as exceptional and perfect individuals. Sadly both only put up a front so they can get ahead and please the ideals of others. When they discover that they understand each other rather well Yukino and Arima develop a friendship that begins to form a romance; however, the dark secrets within Arima's past make their relationship difficult, but Yukino tries her best to save Arima from destroying himself with depression.

This DVD set features all 26 episodes and while the series loses some steam in the final episodes, the entire series is definitely worth owning. The writing style and emotional nature of the show is refreshing and pleasant. The DVD set from Right Stuf is well packaged, very well priced, and comes with a nice set of extras. The English dub and Japanese audio tracks are both exceptional.

A fun, romantic comedy. The two main characters are both the stereotypical perfect students, except it's really a facade. The humor is how the facade is revealed and the trials and tribulations the two main characters go through after they start being themselves -- or more to the point, learning who they are.

This isn't a perfect series -- in fact, it's pretty obvious the budget was a big issue by the end of the project. And as another reviewer indicated, the quality of the DVD case could be better. But the first half of the series (especially the first two to three disks) are amazingly well done with insights into relationships, growing, and discovering who you really are coupled with comedic elements. The presentation often uses anga-like elements, giving it a unique style. And it works really well (at least until the budget runs out).

It reminds me of Fruits Basket (though His and Her came out first). Presentation wise, a lot of different Anime styles are used throughout (e.g. exaggerated ones for comedic scenes and more realistic ones for serious ones). And there are lots of tidbits of wisdom. The difference is His and Her is mainly focused on the relationship and discovering who you are while Fruits Basket is more about life in general (including relationships).

Rightstuf also did an amazing job producing the English version. There is a lot of Japanese on screen at times (the manga-like presentation elements) and Rightstuf actually spent the extra time to present the English version in the same area on the screen, using similar colors -- something that sounds easy but is actually very difficult.

The way I look at this series is to consider the really well done first half as the main feature, with the weaker second half as extra bonus material. Or to put it differently, the first half is so well done that most people will overlook the weaker second half.

It's that rare series that manages to be different and yet really good.

Yukino Miyazawa, a seemingly perfect girl, came to high school with the wind at her back, in theory at least. In truth, this model student was actually an obsessive narcissist who works herself ragged to win the praise of teachers and the awe of classmates. Her secret seemed safe, until she met Souichirou Arima, another seemingly perfect student, who ends up outclassing her. She at first doesn't know how to handle this, but then comes an opportunity when he actually confesses his love for her. But what at first appears to her to be as an ace in the hole ends up being the beginning of a life changing year in this unusual series.
The story is told primarily through the eyes of Yukino, the seemingly perfect girl, who in truth is rather eccentric and an absolute delight to observe as she tries to adapt to her new reality. We also get to meet Arima, the nice guy with the troubled past, as well as the large number of additional cast members that come into the story line as it progresses. The story is told mostly in a straight forward manner, but there are several episodes that use flashbacks, occasional live shots, and even partly drawn single frame shots, which make this story all the more interesting. If there is any flaw in this story, it may be that the characters sometimes come off as harsh at times, but not having seen the Japanese version, I can't tell if the dialogue was correctly translated, so there may be less to this than I think.
Do these characters live happily ever after? They don't say. (in fact, at the end, there's a hint of a whole other story line beginning) But I can say that this story is nicely told, and very well drawn. There's a lot to like about "His and Her Circumstances" and I think it's more than worth your time.

This is a MUST HAVE !! I have watched this hundreds of times and it never gets old.

"His & Her Circumstances" eases anime watchers with touching teenager romance, even if quality declined at the end.

This series has suffered from mixed reviews throughout its run. Director Hideaki Anno, known as the director of "Neon Genesis Evangelion," helmed the production of this series. However, the series literally degenerated as the director fought with Masami Tsuda, the original manga artist of this series.

For anyone unfamiliar with the manga, "Kare Kano" is about a girl named Yukino Miyazawa. She is a talented, beautiful overachiever who strives for perfection. She's frustrated with having to compete with Soichiro Arima, a boy who is also one of the top students.

Unlike Arima, Miyazawa is a spoiled slob at home who studies endlessly to maintain her grades. Arima discovers her alter-ego when he arrives at Miyazawa's house to return a Brahms CD he borrowed from her. At first, he threatens to reveal her secret facade by forcing her to do his work for the student council for a few days. However, their feelings gradually deepen for each other. After a small argument, they begin to care for each other.

"His or Her Circumstances" takes a closer look at the complications of high school romance. It also looks into the deeper problems of Arima's own family conflicts. His own parents were blackmailers, who deserted him because of a huge debt they couldn't pay off. Although this series tends to ramble during some episodes, it never loses its charm until the director of the series quit working on the series.

Certainly this series has its flaws. The ending sequence is a boring motion sequences with a live camera in a Japanese high school. Parts of the series were taken out of the DVD because of arguments between animation studio Gainax and the manga artist. The last story arc of the series remains unfinished.

Yet the series never loses the charm it retains in the opening sequence. "His & Her Circumstances" easily has the best opening animation of a shoujo series ever. The theme song, "Tenshi no Yubikiri" (translated as "The Angel's promise"), is a lovely ballad as charming as an American Motown song. Viewers will be even more impressed by Anno's ability to mix the psychological elements of "Evangelion" seamlessly into a romantic atmosphere.

Overall, "His & Her Circumstances" is a must-buy. The warm relationship of Miyazawa and Arima is worth every penny, no matter how you may argue about the unfinished ending. Everything, from the beautiful character designs to the touching anime shading, is too wonderful to pass up.

This is a really good series, but they never finished it! At the end of the DVD it is incomplete so there is no ending. :( then the box is reallllly cheap. When I opened the box, a chunk of it broke off at the side. And one of the DVDs inside doesn't stay in, it always falls out.

A cracking good anime until half way through when it starts repeating itself heavily. I do have to agree with the first reviewer. The case that the five dvds are packaged in is made with some pretty cheap plastic. The tabs that keep the dvds in the case started falling apart on day one. And by day five they were all broken. Invest in some cases to keep these precious dvds safe!

This anime as well as its plot and characters have a lot of potential but this anime as a whole is plagued by issues that the thrill of watching it. They are listed below:

- Has too much filler and drama. It also goes off n tagents which shows the filler that this anime has.

- The plot synopsis constantly keeps on showing at the start of nearly every episode after the first one. It explains thew story to us like we're idiots and didn't understand what we saw, when we actually did. This is one part of this anime's filler.

- There's not enough comedy in it. While there are some funny parts, they are few and far between.

- There's not enough character development, This anime's characters act more dramatic, weird and indescisive rather than quirky, fun and interesting. They act more like the characters from the anime: "Neon Genesis Evangelion," which is not a good sign and shows that these characters need to go see a psychiatrist.

- Hideki Asaba, a character in this anime keeps acting gay towards Arima.

- Kazuma's male friends kissed him too much in one episode.

- This anime doesn't have a conclusion and makes no sense. The plot is interesting but it doesn't really go anywhere and nothing really happens in it.


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"His and Her Circumstances" would've been more developed and had an actually conclusion, its a waste of time. 5/10

My rating has nothing to do with the series. This is my favorite anime series of all, however, I have to give this specific product 1 star because it comes in a poorly designed DVD case. Upon opening my box, I immediately saw what the problem was. The studio producing this anime, Right Stuf, has crammed all five DVDs into a single clamshell case, and this case can barely fit them all. Upon opening the DVD case, two the of the DVDs spilled out and almost hit the ground. After examining the case, I saw that part of the lock that keeps the DVDs in place had broken and could not hold the DVDs in place. While this can be attributed to a damage in transit issue, I also attribute it to the poor design of the case and the cost cutting measures of Right Stuf. To shave off some costs of including individual cases, they're sacrificing the quality and safety of the product by shoving it all in a single, easily damaged, case. Also, the DVDs can only be taken out two at a time and it's inconvenient to swap them in and out, especially with a broken case.

Do yourself a favor and purchase the box set with individual cases. I used to own that unit and it was much easier to use with less stress.