Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou

Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou (His and Her Circumstances) is a superb series. The series is adapted from the original Shojo (girl's comic) by Masami Tsuda. Her story line follows the circumstances and romance between high school student's Miyazawa Yukino and Arima Souichirou.

Miyazawa Yukino initially hates Arima Souichirou for stealing the position of top student that she had claimed all through middle school. The ease at which he accomplishes it and his indifferent attitude towards praise infuriates her! Her desire to be viewed as nothing short of a model student leads her to act as if she likes him while internally wishing he'd just keel over and die. Her world is turned upside down when he confesses that he likes her!

As time goes by, both their feelings towards each other and they themselves change in ways they never anticipated. Their unique circumstances are explained by the stories of their parents and friends through out the series.

It is animated in a clean realistic style and switches to a super deformed look for humor. The dual styles works well in this anime as it provides humor while maintaining the integrity of the serious story line.

The show isn't without its faults. It uses a lot of stereotypes and switches between humor mode and serious mode quite often. The last part of the series quite dramatically drops the humor and becomes much darker. This shifting of gears near the end seems a bit extreme (like going from 1rst to 6th) but can be forgiven as the last part is quite engaging and ties everything together nicely. All things considered, I'd recommend this series to anybody who likes romance and a good laugh.

The Main Characters: Japanese names are listed with the last name first.

Miyazawa Yukino is the main character of the series. She is a straight 'A' student, athletic, a class representative and admired by many. But, is it all just an act to get the attention she craves?

Arima Souichirou is also a model student. He more athletic than Yukino but much less open because of his troubled past. Arima is tormented and despised by most of his family for the trouble his father caused them. He lives with his Aunt and Uncle who love him dearly.

Arima's (self proclaimed) best friend is Asaba Hideaki. Asaba is very protective of Arima. He lives by himself and enjoys playing (I hope) the part of a pervert. He can be quite scary. Keep him away from your daughters (even if you don't have any).

Miyazawa Hiroyuki and Miyazawa Miyako are Yukino's parents. Hiroyuki is very protective of his daughters while Miyako is much more easy going. The story of how they became a couple is quite interesting. It is not apparent at first but their are many the similarities between their past and Yukino and Souichirou's present. They have two other daughters, Tsukino and Kano. The final member of the Miyazawa household is their dog Pero-Pero.

Viewers are cautioned that while there is no violence or nudity in this series there are "adult situations".

North America Distribution:

Currently, this anime is being distributed by The Right Stuff International