Cheap His and Her Circumstances (Vol. 1) (DVD) (Hideaki Anno) Price

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Customer Reviews of His and Her Circumstances (Vol. 1)

There were six episodes on this DVD. Most of the other anime DVD's in my collection contain only three or four. This is a good bargain.

I am a big dub fan, and the voice actors are well suited to their characters. The music is also very catchy. While "His and Her Circumstances" is not an action series, that does not mean it's slow or boring. Enjoy the series.

The finest anime series of all time
Kare Kano is perhaps the most realistic portrayal of teenage romance ever to be displayed, animated or otherwise, and the emotional rollercoaster ride that goes along with it. Hideaki Anno, best known in the US for his hugely successful Neon Genesis Evangelion, puts an entirely new spin on the shoujo genre by including his and GAINAX's own little quirky style to it. The disc itself is a technical masterpiece and has been said to be the most complex DVD ever produced. The show has a large amount of on-screen text used to portray emotions and the innerworkings of the characters and The Right Stuf has done wonders with them, including using various colors, font sizes and fonts themselves that coincide with what they're displaying.

One can only hope that other companies will use this release as an example for the future and that TRSI itself can keep up the standard of excellence they have set forth with this first volume. The slipcase that comes with it is perfect for the tone of the show and has some beautiful images on it as well. This is a must have for any anime fan.

Gainax does it again - another true classic!
Although Gainax is best known for sci-fi epics such as EVANGELION, GUNBUSTER and WINGS OF HONNEAMISE, HIS AND HER CIRCUMSTANCES - better known by its Japanese title, KARESHI KANOJYO NO JIJOU, or KARE KANO - marked an attempt by Gainax to try something new: a high-school romantic comedy. It was also director Hideaki Anno's (EVANGELION, NADIA) directorial swan song in the anime industry before he went on to a career making live-action films. The result is a high-school romantic comedy done "Gainax-style" - meaning it's anything but conventional, pablum or boring.
The characters are not "stock" characters by any means, but there are definite shades of EVANGELION in the main characters. It's easy to see aspects of EVA's Asuka in Yukino, who, like Asuka, strives to be number one and is less than pleased when someone does better than she does. And one could say that Arima is a lot like Shinji - not only does he look like an older and taller version of Shinji-kun, but he had an unhappy home life and parents who weren't around to support him when he needed it. Both are driven to be model students for similar but different reasons. Unlike Asuka and Shinji, however, Yukino and Arima realize their common ground, bond with each other, and begin to fall in love. Theirs is not a fairy-tale romance, however (is anybody's ever, really?) - they have to weather all kinds of storms, both inside and outside of themselves.
I've only seen the first six episodes, but so far, this show is an absolute delight. It moves quickly and features a lot of on-screen text, but not so quickly that you can't understand what's going on. The supporting cast is a strong one too - Yukino's younger sisters, Kano and Tsukino, are adorable and playful but at the same time more wise in the ways of the world than their older sister. There's also the requisite cute animal mascot (Pero-Pero, also spelled Pero^2 in much the same way that EVA's Pen-Pen was often spelled Pen^2), as well as Arima's self-proclaimed best friend, Hideaki Asaba, who has dreams of becoming the next Hugh Hefner and building a harem of beautiful girls called "Merryland" to keep him company. The music - by Shiro Sagisu, who's done a lot of music for Gainax productions including EVA and NADIA - is very well done too. On top of that, it gives a lot of insight as to the pressures that high school students in Japan feel to succeed, and since I went to a private religious high school with very high academic standards myself, I find Yukino and Arima's plight easily relatable.
As if that weren't enough, I think the dubbed version is very well-done. Veronica Taylor's Yukino is terrific and will make you forget that Ms. Taylor was ever Ash Ketchum in "Pokemon." Yukino changes moods so quickly and expresses such a wide variety of emotions, and Veronica nails them all. Most of the other dub voice actors do a good job as well. The two ladies who play Tsukino and Kano actually come out from behind the microphone to host the "next episode" previews - in character. It's obvious that the voice actors all had a blast doing this show, which seems like it would be a harder show to dub than most. One of the better-done dubs I've seen.
All in all, it's definitely a shojo show, but if you're an open-minded guy you'll find a lot to like here too. KARE KANO shows off Gainax's versatility and how they can take just about any genre of anime and, through turning it upside down, make it their own.