Yukino Miyazawa is a gifted high school student lauded by classmates and teachers. This apparent brilliance, however, is mainly used as a means to garner praise. At home, Yukino is spoiled and slovenly.When a new student, Soichiro Arima, proves himself the equal of Yukino, her narcissistic edifice is threatened with collapse, so she begins to plot Arima's downfall, whilst maintaining an air of friendship with him. A chance encounter leads Arima to discover Yukino's secret and romance begins to blossom... as they both learn to just be themselves.Kare Kano originated as a manga by Shoujo author Masami Tsuda, later being adapted to anime by Studio Gainax, directed by Hideaki Anno, of Evangelion fame. The anime began as a faithful adaptation of the manga, if somewhat quirkier in style. Halfway through the story the anime takes a completely different direction from the manga, which eventually led to its inconclusive ending, while the manga went on for 21 volumes. The manga version then explores the several parallel lives of supporting characters, as well as the main characters' pasts (and even their families' pasts).Known in English as Kare Kano: His and Her Circumstances. The full Japanese title is Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou, which means just "His and Her Circumstances."
This show provides examples of:
Abusive Parents: Arima's biological mother Ryouko - both when he was a child and when she comes back in his last year of high school.
Author Appeal: Not very noticeable at first, but by the end of the manga, the story was slewing from one story the author wanted to tell to another - trouble was, they were only tangentially related to the main characters the readers cared about.
Becoming the Mask: Yukino wore her mask of perfection for so long that even when she decided not to put on a fake persona anymore, she discovered that her true personality had become like the mask just less perfect.
Arima also wore a mask of perfection, and a few more under the first one. This became an issue in later chapters because the stress of it was slowly destroying his life socially and emotionally.
Beneath the Mask: Arima is insanely scared of what's beneath his.
Hurt Yukino and Souichirou will retaliate - in plain sight of the school advisor and without consequence.
Yukino also memorably snaps into berserk mode, when Tsubasa jealously destroys a picture of her taken from Arima's student ID.
Beware the Nice Ones: Arima may seem the perfect boyfriend — good-looking, caring, chivalrous, understanding — but it becomes clear quite soon that he has... issues. And there's Rika, who at the age of five managed to hit a boy some five years older with a baseball bat, and make him stop bullying her best friend Aya's older brother.
Also Yukino in the same play◊. Tsuda even lampshades it by commenting how, during the play, Yukino's shoulders broadened and her breasts flattened for some inexplicable reason.
Big Screwed-Up Family: The Arima family suffered from a continuing cycle of abuse and heartache. Reiichirou, Souichiro's grandfather and Soji and Reiji's father, was horribly physically abused by his own father because his father couldn't stand how beautiful he was. Reiichirou as a result was disconnected emotionally and abused his own children emotionally. Eiko as a result became a bitter and angry person, but Soji managed to rise above it and become a better man. Reiichirou later connected with another woman, where Reiji was conceived, but harassment from the Arima family caused the woman to attempt murder-suicide with Reiji, destroying the boy emotionally. Finally, Souichiro was emotionally stunted because of physical and emotional abuse he suffered from his biological mother Ryoko, and from the isolation he felt from the Arima family, who hated him because of Reiji.
Black Sheep: What Arima is considered by his entire family, save for his aunt and uncle.
Book and Switch: Done by Yukino, to hide a comedic book behind a more serious one.
Break Her Heart to Save Her: Attempted by Arima when he recovers the his memories of Ryoko's abuse. He then starts pushing Yukino away out of fear to harming her. It doesn't work. Even after he pretty much ravishes Yukino.
Brother-Sister Incest: Kazuma and Tsubasa. Well, sort of, since they're step-siblings. Kazuma is the first to fall in non-step-sibling love with Tsubasa but eventually the feelings are mutual. Their parents are briefly surprised, but completely supportive.
They also met in their mid-teens, so really there's nothing all that sibling like in their relationship.
Can Not Spit It Out: Reiji reveals to Soji at one point that despite his cold nature, their father Reiichiro really does love him but can't ever say it because he always ends up saying the wrong thing to Soji.
Crocodile Tears: Yukino attempts this when initially forced to do part of Arima's committee work. It fails.
Cut Short: The anime ran into even more of the problems with deadlines and budgets that plagued later episodes of Evangelion. It was cut short due to Tsuda's dissatisfaction with the later episodes.
Dysfunction Junction: Including but not limited to the entire Arima family, as wells as much of the main cast.
Ear Worm: In-universe version - In Episode 6, after Yukino and Souichirou share an emotion-charged hug, Yukino is left alone when Souichirou leaves to clear his head. To her horror, a song she really hates starts playing in her head.
The song is SOS by the 1970s' pop band Pink Lady. Yukino's hating of the song has to do with the lyrics (making it a Bilingual Bonus for those who understand them when the song plays).
Eiko, Arima's aunt, also applies, though it is later explained that she had a difficult family life which is why she resents her brother (Arima's adoptive father Shoji) and his family so much.
Fake Band: The Yin & Yang, where Kazuma is the lead singer. Their supposed amazing and revolutionary sound gets away from being shown because they only appear in the manga (and for five minutes in the anime).
Gainax Ending...watch the last episode, and you will HUNGER for Gainax blood...
Gecko Ending: A plot-unrelated ending coupled with not finishing the original arc, apparently due to Creative Differences of the manga author.
Generation Xerox: In the manga, it's shown that Yukino looks almost identical to her mother at the same age. Later, Arima ends up both looking and sounding just like his father.
Good People Have Good Sex: When Soichiro and Yukino finally consummate their relationship, the following pagers make it look like they just did the sexual equivalent of redeeming the souls of mankind.
And for a bit of unintentional hilarity, Rachel Lillis plays Yukino's mom in almost the exact same tone as her Jessie voice (albeit much nicer). She also uses her Misty voice for the nondescript school girls.
One can easily hear Tracey Sketchit, voiced by Ed Paul, in the voice of one of the students in Episode 2 and in the character of Takefumi.
Hidden Depths: Asaba Hideaki, resident Chivalrous Pervert and Arima's extremely supportive best friend. It's not until the very last tankobon that the reader finds out about his awful relationship with his Jerk Ass family and the loneliness it brings.
Hot Dad: Yukino's father Takashi. Also, Tsubasa's father (lampshaded when Yukino meets him and is absolutely starry-eyed at how handsome Mr. Shibahime is. The same also happens with Arima's biological father Reiji.).
Let Her Grow Up Dear: Takashi's attitude toward his sweet little Yukino, and her mother's reaction, are textbook examples.
Lost in Translation: The full Japanese title is a bit of a double entendre; "Kareshi" means "His" and "Kanojo" means "Her," but they also respectively mean "Boyfriend" and "Girlfriend."
Mistaken for Gay: Asaba, by Miyazawa when they hated each other and he revealed his plans for Maryland to her. His choice of words: "I'm going to take (Arima) from you."
No Smoking: Played for laughs many times in the Manga, where in the series resident Author Avatar is smacked around by Yukino for smoking, as well as the series resident Yamato Nadeshiko.
Oblivious Mockery: Reiichiro, the father of Soji and Reiji, is hinted at not understanding that his dismissive attitude towards his children is incredibly hurtful. One obvious example is when he shuns Eiko's dreams of becoming a doctor, and simply asks "What?" when she flees the room in tears.
Rape as Drama: This skates a rather thin line, but during Soichiro's darkest time (when Ryoko resurfaces in his life), he forced himself on Yukino. He sees the act as rape, but when he tells that to Yukino she replies him that it wasn't, because she didn't refuse him either by saying no or pushing him away.
Real Men Can Cook: Apparently true for Asaba and Tonami. Arima still refuses (or very grudgingly complies) to eat what they make, though.
Shout Out: To Hideaki Anno's own Neon Genesis Evangelion in episode 11 of the anime. When Yukino begins to think of people she's met in the past to compare another person to, a quick use of the freeze-frame featureon one's DVD player reveals images of Misato, Kaji, Asuka, Shinji, Rei, and Toji, amongst others. Then later on when she's taunted by the president of a rival class, an imaginary segment has her she growing to the size of a building and looking and sounding very much like a berserk EVA.
In episode 1 Yukino is shown hunched over holding something in her palms, in a pose that is virtually a carbon copy of Rei when she holds Lilith's egg. In the same episode J. S. Bach's "Air" is playing in the background at one point (a piece used in NGE).
Then in episode 23, as Yukino gets on a bicycle with Arima, she starts the process with a close-up on Yukino's eyes (ala Shinji), and says "Unit One", ala Evangelion.
Slasher Smile: Yukino Miyazawa sported a few of these
Stepford Smiler: Both Yukino and Arima. She does it to be praised and get everyone's love and admiration, he does it to hide his problems.
Stock Shoujo Bullying Tactics: After she stops trying to be a model student, Yukino has the entire class stop speaking to her.
Teen Pregnancy: The reason why Yukino and Arima marry few after graduation is that she's pregnant with their eldest daughter, Sakura.
No Periods, Period: At some point, Yukino realizes that her period hasn't come in at least two months and wonders if she's pregnant. Considering the trope above, she's right.
Two-Faced: Yukino is this at the beginning, but grows out of it. Soichiro deals with it for most of the manga.
Interesting in the fact that while Yukino's dual life is played for laughs, Soichiro's is much more nightmare fuel and causes him to be wildly self-destructive.
Wife Husbandry: Asaba, in regards to Yukino and Arima's daughter Sakura. He tries to back off years later, but she will have nothing of it.
Wise Beyond Their Years: In the early volumes, Yukino's little sister Kano would frequently give her advice about her social and love life.
In a flashback in the Distant Finale, Sakura, then age 3, tells her mother Yukino to feel free to go back to work — she and her younger brothers will be fine.
Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Subverted: Tsubasa tries it on Yukino, but Arima isn't fooled one bit.
Yamato Nadeshiko: Shizune, Arima's adopted mother, pulls off all aspects of this perfectly. This includes the "hidden steel" part of the trope, when she ends up coordinating with Yukino to get a chance to deliver a beatdown on Arima's abusive biological mother. Rika is clearly one in training.
Yandere: Arima's dark side has very strong whiffs of this. You slowly see his thoughts morph from wanting to be with Yukino, to wanting to isolate her from everyone and keep her just for himself. His fighting with these thoughts proves that Arima is a good guy, but him imagining tying Yukino in chains does not bode well for their relationship.
Yukino Miyazawa is a gifted high school student lauded by classmates and teachers. This apparent brilliance, however, is mainly used as a means to garner praise. At home, Yukino is spoiled and slovenly.When a new student, Soichiro Arima, proves himself the equal of Yukino, her narcissistic edifice is threatened with collapse, so she begins to plot Arima's downfall, whilst maintaining an air of friendship with him. A chance encounter leads Arima to discover Yukino's secret and romance begins to blossom... as they both learn to just be themselves.Kare Kano originated as a manga by Shoujo author Masami Tsuda, later being adapted to anime by Studio Gainax, directed by Hideaki Anno, of Evangelion fame. The anime began as a faithful adaptation of the manga, if somewhat quirkier in style. Halfway through the story the anime takes a completely different direction from the manga, which eventually led to its inconclusive ending, while the manga went on for 21 volumes. The manga version then explores the several parallel lives of supporting characters, as well as the main characters' pasts (and even their families' pasts).Known in English as Kare Kano: His and Her Circumstances. The full Japanese title is Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou, which means just "His and Her Circumstances."
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