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| Review* His and Her Circumstance by Lesaruss (Naruto) Yukino Miyazawa is cute, smart, popular and extremely vain. She lived her entire life relishing in the adulation of her teachers and peers. Souichiro Arima is attractive, smart, popular and ... modest. A conflict arises when Yukino has to compete for the top spot in their freshman class. To her, Arima's success seems so effortless. She wears a mask to cover up her true self, this has left a void in her life; a void that should be filled with the laughter and warmth of friends. It's not until these two come together that they see their lives aren't that different. His and Her Circumstances is a romantic comedy that focuses on two high school freshmen. His and Her Circumstances shows brilliance in its character development. From the seemingly perfect Yukino to the shy yet forceful Shibahme, the characters draw you into the series. I actually care what happens to everyone. This leaves me wanting more each time an episode prompts, "to be continued." The pacing is well done, taking several episodes just to introduce new characters. Other than Yukino and Arima, you don't see a new character introduced until the fifth or sixth episode. However, you are so engrossed, you won't mind. Watching the first few episodes, I couldn't help draw some similarities to my life. Love is defined through different experiences. The awkwardness of Yukino and Arima's relationship should strike a cord with many viewers. On the surface, Kare Kano (His and Hers Circumstance) is about finding your hidden self in the process of discovering love. We share their pain and pleasure in each episode. Deep down, the show is about relationships on many differnet levels. Immediately, I starting watching episode one. The theme song played and the subtitles were in Japanese; I didn't mind. The episode started and the voices were also in Japanese. I'm no stranger to subtitles, unfortunately for me, I couldn't keep up. It became a distraction and slightly annoying. Thank goodness I was able to switch the options and watch the episodes in English. The DVD impressed me with its subtitle menu. You can turn them [sub titles] off for dialogue and for titles. I recommend keeping them on for titles. I viewed volume one without them and missed out on a lot of on screen hiragana and kana. I decided to keep the titles on for the second volume and realized what I had missed. The bonus features are kind of plain, features like: producers notes and bios. After each episode, you see the American voice actors for Yukino's sisters give a synopsis; they're pretty weird, yet you look forward to seeing them each time. During the closing credits, you take a dizzying tour of a Japanese school, music room, ocean or city street. These extra visual gags make this DVD stand out. Story: B + Characters: A Animation: A - Replay Value: C Overall Score: B |
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