Kare kano

Kareshi Kanojo no Jijō (彼氏彼女の 事情, lit. His and her things< /span>^?), also known under its abbreviated form Kare Kano (カレカノ), ''Kare Kano''^?), is a Japanese shōjo manga, written and illustrated by Masami Tsuda. The story takes place in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture, in Japan; where at "Hokuei" A romance develops between the "perfect student" Yukino Miyazawa and her academic rival Arima Sōichirō; and the relationships of several of her friends. With a realistic theme, drawn in a simple way with few shadows and plots and handling minimal levels of sex and violence, in addition to being a story of love and self-improvement, it is, at the same time, a criticism of Education in Japan and of discrimination. in a country that, despite its civility, suffers from this problem.

The manga was first published in June 1996 by Hakusensha in the Japanese monthly shōjo manga magazine LaLa, until it came to an end in August 2005 with the twenty-first issue. volume, compiling a total of one hundred and two chapters. The Spanish versions of the manga were published by the publisher Editores de Tebeos —formerly known as Ediciones Glénat— in Spain, in Latin America by Grupo Editorial Vid in Mexico, and by Editorial Ivrea in Argentina.

In October 1998, the 26-episode Anime series would begin to be broadcast on the TV Tokyo television network, being produced by Gainax and directed by Hideaki Anno during the first eighteen episodes and the last of the series, and by Kazuya Tsurumaki between episodes 19 and 25, to end in March 1999, in addition to having Shirō Sagisu (known for the musical arrangements made in Neon Genesis Evangelion and Bleach) as musical composer. It has been released in DVD format in Japan by King Records (Japan), as well as in the United States by Right Stuf International and in Spain by Jonu Media.

Plot

Yukino Miyazawa is a Japanese high school student who is the envy of her classmates for her good grades and neatness. However, the exterior of her & # 34; perfect & # 34; it's a facade, a charade that she maintains to win praise from others. In the privacy of her own home, she is spoiled, stubborn, lazy, and obsessively studies relentlessly to keep up her grades. Upon entering high school, she is removed from her highest position in her class by Arima Sōichirō, a handsome young man whose existence Yukino considers a threat to the accolades she always desires, and vows to finish him off. he. When Sōichirō confesses that he is in love with her, Yukino rejects him and brags about it at home. Her little sister, Kano, points out that her rivalry with him stems from her admiration, which made her rethink her own feelings.

Before he can find out if she really hates or likes Sōichirō, he visits her home and discovers her true personality. It is then that he uses that information to blackmail her into doing her job within the student council. At first Yukino accepts him, coming to realize that he is also not the ideal student that she pretends to be. Tired of being used, Yukino reveals herself and Sōichirō apologizes, admitting that he still loves her and just wanted to spend time with her. Yukino realizes that she loves him too, and together they decide to drop their false selves and be themselves, though they initially have trouble letting go of their habits of pretending to be perfect and their competitiveness.

As the series progresses, Yukino is able to open her true self to others and gain her first true friends beyond Sōichirō. It is eventually discovered that Sōichirō strives to be perfect in order to avoid becoming "bad", like the parents who abandoned him. Falling in love with Yukino, he is able to be more true to himself and at the same time finds himself increasingly jealous that Yukino's change brings new friends and new activities in her life, and that she has moments in her life that they have nothing to do with him. When Yukino inadvertently hurts him with this, he becomes even more jealous and timid, and begins to wear another 'perfect boyfriend' façade. in an effort to protect her from her being "ugly".

The return of both parents in his life sends Sōichirō into a dark zone, but this helps free him to be himself, as Yukino and her friends help him learn to lean on and trust others. The series finale shows Yukino and Soichiro in their 30s, with their three children, and gives an update on the various friends they made throughout the story.

Main characters

Throughout the manga, the story mainly revolves around the two central characters and their relationship with their friends.

Yukino Miyazawa ( 野, Miyazawa Yukino^?)

Seiyū: Atsuko Enomoto

She is a 15-year-old girl who is cute, smart, and popular in high school. She is the brightest and kindest model student there can be, however she hides a great secret since she is not really what she appears to be. Rather, she is a middle-class girl who deceives everyone with her good girl mask because she loves to be admired for her intellect and beauty. She is also very self-centered, to such an extent that she thinks she is better than everyone. When she meets Arima she has great contempt for him because she sees him as a threat, as she attracts her attention which, according to her, belongs to her. Ironically, she ends up falling for him. Her name means "Snow". Yukino's blood group is A and her zodiac sign is Leo. Her birthday is August 1st. In the Spanish dubbing, her voice is played by Assumpta Navascués.

Arima Sōichirō (¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü ¢Ü , Sōichirō Arima^?)

Seiyū: Chihiro Suzuki

He is a very handsome and gentle 15-year-old boy who is admired by everyone thanks to his intellect. His calm character and his great ability in sports make him an admirable person although Yukino doesn't think so. She hates him with all her might, seeing him as a conceited man who has stolen all of her admirers. He hides some secrets as well, among them the fact that he is in love with Yukino and he quickly lets her know, besides that his past is very sad so he prefers not to tell anyone. As the series goes by he becomes Yukino's boyfriend. His true personality is revealed as the story progresses as he too hides behind a mask. Arima's blood group is A and his zodiac sign is Aquarius. His birthday is January 29. In the Spanish dubbing his voice is played by Carlos Lladó.

Production

Kare Kano was Masami Tsuda's first full-length manga. When starting it, as she was new to professional manga writing, she had to put the story on hold while she finished both framing where it would unfold as well as the direction in which she wanted her story to unfold.

In the anime adaptation of the first seven volumes, director Hideaki Anno kept the same general scenes and dialogue, but modified the overall setting and focus of the series, making it a " personal relationship case study." Dialogue is emphasized over animation using a variety of techniques, including iconic scenes, production sketches, shots of real-life locations, repeating images, and even the use of animated versions of manga panels (something that Anno would use it again during the production of the FLCL anime) or simply print the lines of dialogue spoken over static screens (another resource used by Anno in the Evangelion anime). However, Tsuda wished to highlight the comedic and romantic aspects of the series, which resulted in a disagreement and the anime's cancellation after 26 episodes.

Media

Manga

The manga consists of 102 chapters (called acts by the author, as a play) that were compiled into 21 tankōbon volumes by the Hana to Yume imprint, also from Hakusensha. This manga would be drawn by the author along with her assistants N. Shimizu, R. Ogawa, Y. Etō, and R. Takahashi, under the supervision of editor S. Taheoka. In addition to the 102 acts, it has 6 extra stories of which three are connected to the series while the remaining three are One-shot; a magazine called Tsudanikki (Tsuda Diary or El Diario de Tsuda, in Spanish), which recounts the daily life of the author; and a special called Last Waltz ( The Last Waltz of Karekano ) , published in volume 21, in which Tsuda writes the last words of her before putting an end to the story. On the other hand, the series is divided into 3 sagas based on the emphasis that the author gave to the manga characters. Said series are:

• Saga Miyazawa, which comprises from act 1 to act 42 and in which the author narrates the story, mostly from the perspective of Yukino Miyazawa, although without being strictly subject to it. In this saga, Tsuda gives preponderance to the comedy about the drama, to the pink themes of a shojō sleeve and, in terms of history, additional to the argument already explained, focuses the focus on the protagonist and his family, being this saga where the biography and love story of his parents is illustrated and where his sisters, Tsukino and Kano, have greater involvement in the plot.

• Saga of the Others, which includes the acts of 43 to 58 and in which the author is dedicated especially to narrating the love stories of some of the friends of Yukino and Sōichirō, although it would also include a parenthesis dedicated to the trip that has the tenth grade in Kyoto and that, although framed in the Saga Miyazawa, it would serve as a prelude to some stories of love that would immediately be narrated in the following chapters. The stories of love narrated would be those of Maho Izawa with a dentist named Takashi to whom the latter has made 12 years of difference; that of Tsubasa Shibahime and her adoptive brother Kazuma Ikeda, to whose story the author dedicates most of this saga; and that of Rika Sena and Kyo SawadaAya's older brother.

• Saga Arima, which includes from act 59 to act 102 and which places the plot two years after the trip to Kyoto, narrates the story, mostly from the perspective of Sōichirō Arima, although, as with Saga Miyazawa, the author is not strictly subject to the misfortune. This saga represents a 180o turn with respect to the first saga, where the author puts all the emphasis on the drama, to the point of almost completely eliminating the comic situations (they would only appear towards the end of the series) and gives it many dark nuances, something uncommon in the shojō genre. As for the story, in addition to the argument already explained, the focus is on the protagonist and the entire family community to which he is part (adoptive parents, biological parents, uncles, cousins, etc.) being this saga where the biography of the Arima family would be related from the generation of Sōichirō's grandfather (Sōichirō).Reīchirō Arima) and where, therefore, the Miyazawa family (with the exception of Yukino and a re-introduction by Kano) would have a lean intervention in the plot; while the intervention of the couple's friends (with the exception of Hideaki Asaba, who has a fundamental role in this part of the series) would also be diminished.

The Spanish versions of the manga were published in Spain by Glénat publishing house and in Latin America by Grupo Editorial Vid, from Mexico.

Anime

Kare Kanowas adapted as an anime series, directed by Hideaki Anno, until he left the project and was replaced by Kazuya Tsurumaki, animated by GAINAX and J.C. Staff and also produced by GAINAX. It was first broadcast in Japan on the TV Tokyo television network on October 2, 1998 until it ended on March 26, 1999 with a total of twenty-six episodes of twenty-two minutes each, leaving the animation unfinished by only collecting the first 7 tankōbon volumes of the manga and the first act of the eighth tankōbon, due to disagreements between the author and the series directors.

The Spanish dubbing of the anime was made only for Spain. The dubbing was done by Teruel studios in 2002.

The series was released on DVD by King Records (Japan) in 2005 in 7 volumes. For the United States it was published by Right Stuf International in 2006, this version includes subtitles in Spanish. For Spain, the edition was made by Jonu Media, this version includes audio in Japanese and Spanish and subtitles in Spanish. Additionally, Jonu Media released a collection of 6 VHS containing the series with the dubbing in Spanish.

Soundtrack

The series soundtrack consists of music composed by Shirō Sagisu, as well as songs written by Fumiya Fujii (Tenshi no yubikiri) and Yosui Inoue (Yume no naka he) which are compiled on four compact discs; In addition, there is a work related to various songs sung by Atsuko Enomoto, Yuki Watanabe and Maria Yamamoto under the direction of Tomoko Takahashi.

Kareshi Kanojo no Jijō ACT 1.0 (彼氏 彼女の事情 ACT 1.0, Kareshikanojonojijō ACT 1.0^?) is the first anime soundtrack album. It was released in Japan under King Records' Starchild label under the catalog number KICA-440 on December 23, 1998. It was released in the United States by Geneon Entertainment on January 20, 2004. The album contains a total of twenty-four tracks., including the opening theme song, "Angel's Promise" (天使の指切り< /span>, Tenshi no yubikiri^?) performed by Mai Fukuda and the ending theme song, «Inside a dream» (夢の中へ, Yume no naka he^?) played by Atsuko Enomoto and Chihiro Suzuki.

Kareshi Kanojo no Jijō ACT 2.0 (彼氏 彼女の事情 ACT 2.0, Kareshikanojonojijō ACT 2.0^?), is the second soundtrack album. It was released in Japan under the King Records label Starchild with the catalog number KICA-449 on February 26, 1999 and released in the United States by Geneon Entertainment on November 1, 2005. This album contains a total of twenty-five tracks, including the song "S.O.S." originally sung by the Pink Lady duo, performed by Yuki Watanabe and Maria Yamamoto, which was used in episode 6 of the anime, as well as the short versions of the series' opening and ending theme songs.

After the first two soundtracks, the album Kareshi Kanojo no Jijō Setsu・Getsu・Ka (彼氏彼女の事情 彼氏彼女の事情Setsu・Getsu・Ka, Kareshikanojonojijō Setsu・Getsu・Ka^?) in Japan under King Records' label Starchild under catalog number KICA-452 on March 26, 1999. This is a vocal album by all three of the Miyazawa sisters' Seiyū: Yukino (Atsuko Enomoto), Tsukino (Yuki Watanabe) and Kano(Maria Yamamoto), with twelve tracks in total including a special version of Yume no Naka he sung only by Atsuko Enomoto.

Kareshi Kanojo no Jijō ACT 3.0 (彼氏 彼女の事情 ACT 3.0, Kareshikanojonojijō ACT 3.0^?), is the third soundtrack album. It was released in Japan under the King Records label Starchild with the catalog number KICA-463 on May 28, 1999. This album contains twenty-five tracks, including modified versions of some songs already released on previous albums.

A fourth soundtrack album Kareshi Kanojo no Jijō ACT 4.0 (彼氏彼女の事情 ACT 4.0, Kareshikanojonojijō ACT 4.0^?), was released on February 23, 2005, although it was only available as part of a compact disc collection including the three previous albums called Kare Kano CD-BOX Soundtrack (彼氏彼女の事情 CD-BOX SOUNDTRACK, Kareshikanojonojijō CD-BOX SOUNDTRACK^?).

An independent album was also released in 2004, produced by LaLa magazine called SONGS: his and her circumstances and in which Masami Tsuda makes a selection of four songs that, in her opinion, should be part of the anime's soundtrack, one of which is the title of act 72 of the manga His and Her Sonnet (彼と彼女のソネット, Kare to kanojo no sonetto^?), sung by Tomoyo Harada and considered by Tsuda to be Kare Kano's "image song".

Drama CD

There are additionally two drama CDs on Kare Kano; both produced by LaLa magazine and author Masami Tsuda, the former «Kare Kano Act 0.0» (彼氏彼女の事情 アクト・ゼロ, Kareshikanojonojijō ACT ZERO^?), was launched in LaLa magazine in April 1999 as a freebie for its subscribers. This disc contains a drama based on Act 0.0 that appeared as an extra in volume 10 of the manga, acted by the same actors as the anime series, and also includes answering machine messages and alarm clock alarm messages, containing a total of 33 tracks. The second disc «Kare Kano Final Act» (彼氏彼女の事情 FINAL ACT< /span>, Kareshikanojonojijō FINAL ACT^?), is a performance of the final Act of the manga «You can't be happier», which was given to the LaLa subscribers in August 2005 as a celebration of the end of the manga, it has the participation of the anime voices and some additional ones for the characters that were not included, it contains a total of 4 tracks.