So, I’ve finally finished all 26 episodes of Kare Kano, or His and Her Circumstances. My conclusion: worthless for my purposes here. I took 19 pages worth of notes detailing every detail of this show I found worthwhile and I can only think of 2 moments even relatively close to fanservice. The first being in episode 10 where Yukino hides a baby picture of Arima in her bra, not drawn sexually or lingered on and used as a way to make it so he and Asapin can’t get it. She then gives Arima a “sexy picture” of her, which is just a childhood picture of her own. The second I have marked down is in the next episode; Tsubaki presses into Yukino’s breasts and a card pops up, pointing to her and reading “breasts”. This, again, makes Arima uncomfortable, so it seems that’s the route that was intended here.
The show takes the typical romcom further than most by actually having the characters fuck in episode 18, but it’s explained to the audience tastefully and subtly, as she stays the night at his place and the next morning they’re naked together in bed. This show is a lot more adult and mature than most other Shoujo romcoms I’ve seen (which is admittedly few), but it also never lets itself be bogged down, heavily relying on the com aspects. I guess, since I can’t talk about fanservice as there isn’t much here, I’ll instead explain to those who don’t know about the production of this show and the effect I believe it had on Anno’s career.
That line about relying on comedy aspects is actually an integral part of this show’s story. The original mangaka, Masami Tsuda, felt the show was focusing too much on the comedic aspects and not developing the romance enough. This led to many disagreements, eventually causing Anno to quit as head director, at least formally. He began crediting himself as co-director alongside Hiroki Satou, a man mostly credited as producer on a variety of works (and publicity on evangelion, whatever that means).His name was also written in credits in katakana now.
Anno continued on the series as a writer, doing most episodes up until the last three, who were then each taken over by a different staff member. These last 3 episodes feel entirely Anno to me though, so either they did a good job emulating his style or his co-direction was able to pull them through with those last bits of television to send out. I said Mostly before because it’s said episode 19 was actually written by Hiroyuki Imaishi, which I for one 100% believe. Seeing how the two worked on a good deal of projects in the same studio it’s not hard to believe he’d have a role here too. Episode 19 is probably one of the most out there ones in the series and was a serious highlight in my viewing experience.
Along with the manga and anime seeming to clash tonally, it seems the anime ran concurrent with the manga’s publication. This is cited as to why there are so many recap portions of episodes as the series continues by IMDB, and a time crunch didn’t help either. The OP wasn’t even included in many episodes when first airing, assumedly due to time constraints and allocating resources. I do believe the recaps are done very well, each one feeling distinct and fun in its own way. That doesn’t excuse the fact that both episodes 14 and 15 are entirely recaps. That’s 2 episodes back to back. The further in you get, the worse it is, taking up even full halves of episodes like in episode 24, but at least it never got that bad again.
Surprisingly enough, the Pokemon franchise also potentially had something to do with this whole fiasco. Remember the banned episodes? Yeah, those ones. The ones where James has inflatable tits and people wave guns around willy nilly. If you do, you probably remember the porygon episode, which caused 685 viewers to be hospitalized due to epileptic seizures. This event actually caused many japanese television studios to develop guidelines having to do with flashing lights and things like stripes, swirls, and concentric circles. According to nausicaa.net after an interview with Ryouko Muramatsu, Anno may have also left production in protest to some of these guidelines. It seems a bit strange to me but I’m sure I’m missing information anyways.
With such a hectic and tumultuous production, it’s no surprise Kare Kano was the last tv anime he fully directed and wrote (working on projects Petite Princess Yutie and Sugar Sugar Rune alongside other directors). After that he went on to create some live action films and shorts, nowadays mostly working the Evangelion Rebuild films. Thing is, though, he’s supervising director of the Rebuild series. The main director is actually Kazuya Tsurumaki, Anno’s protege and director of works such as FLCL and Diebuster. Anno’s studio, studio Khara, also produces the Japan Animator Expo, which releases shorts featuring many talented creators. It really does feel that Anno is putting in the effort to give other animators the platforms they need in order to foster their talent, and I think this can be tied back to his experiences with Kare Kano.
After television studio regulations, creative differences, and two series with serious time-crunches and control issues, Anno decides to focus on live action film for a bit. He keeps his anime beginnings close to him though (watch Ryusei Kacho for evidence of this), and eventually comes back into the fray with the Cutie Honey live action film and Re: Cutie Honey, a 3 OVA series. Rather than direct it himself, though, each episode he gets another director to help him out and lets their influences run rampant (the first episode is by Hiroyuki Imaishi and, just like episode 19, it’s a blast). Next, he rebuilds the Evangelion franchise, handing off the reins to his protege. Whether you enjoy the changes the remakes made or not, it’s important to recognize the source of these changes: the franchise is basically in new hands now. Anno is just overseeing the whole thing. After the 3rd film releases and a long pause before the next entry, as in we’re still waiting, Anno develops the Japan Animator Expo in order to continue to allow up and coming animators to flourish and do what they want.
Sure, I’m overlooking a few things and this narrative doesn’t take everything into account, notwithstanding the fact I don’t know the man personally, but, as a narrative, I like the implications it has. It solidifies Kare Kano as a pivotal moment in Anno’s career, even maybe more so than Evangelion or Nausicaa. Sure, it might not be as action-packed or influential as Eva or Gunbuster, but it’s hard to discount its importance. As a standalone show, I think it’s great. Looking at the context surrounding it, it gets a bit messy. But, when looking at Anno’s career from then on, it becomes clear; Kare Kano is absolutely a game changer.