Sometimes, you may watch an anime and think, "This could be better." It could even be an anime you quite enjoy, but you know that if there was less of one thing and/or more of another, it could be even better. The proof is that you've read the manga for it, and you enjoyed it enough for you to watch the anime before you realize what the thing holding it back was. Such is the case for Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou (Kare Kano for short), or His and Her Circumstances in English; I couldn't praise the manga enough for its deep story and character development, but although it's also there in the anime, I found myself complimenting the shortness of the budget (in a sarcastic way, of course) more than that.

In case you don't know what Kare Kano is, it follows a girl named Yukino Miyazawa, who is seen by her classmates as a perfect model student but is actually a "queen of vanity", desperate for the praise of her peers. However, upon starting high school, she gets one-upped by a classmate named Souichirou Arima....and needless to say, she does NOT take this well at all. As if that's not bad enough, however, Yukino's secret gets discovered....by Souichirou, of all people! As it turns out, Souichirou isn't as perfect as he seems to be, and from here, the two of them end up becoming friends. Eventually, they fall in love and begin a relationship, and this series then follows them in their lives as a couple, where they strive to remove their respective masks.

The story of Kare Kano was very good. Of course, some of the comedic scenes were stretched out for longer than necessary, the recaps were slightly annoying, and the anime doesn't pick a good spot in the manga to end at; however, the anime kept a lot of important plot points, and I enjoyed seeing them. I also enjoyed seeing the characters again; although I feel that their actions and interactions with other characters had more of a comedic feel to it, they still felt like actual human beings rather than just tools for getting laughter out of us, and they got a decent amount of development. I still found myself liking Yukino and Souichirou's relationship; it's still a very ideal relationship, with the two of them genuinely caring for each other and making each other better people. Accompanying the good story and great characters is a rather impressive musical score; the opening and ending themes ("Tenshi no Yubikiri" by Mai Fukuda and "Yume no Naka e" by Atsuko Enomoto and Chihiro Yuzuki) were songs that I really wouldn't mind listening to again and again. Finally, the voice acting was surprisingly good; Veronica Taylor did a good job at portraying Yukino's character, among others with other roles in the anime.

Okay, now, time to get the one thing holding this anime back out of the way: the animation. At first, it seems like despite this anime's age, Gainax and J.C.Staff's animation work is very well done; however, as time goes on and the tight budget runs even lower, the animation quality suffers. Surreal animation, still images, and recaps ended up being relied on more and more as time went on, and it got quite annoying. Sure, the surrealism works in some areas, such as scenes that show Souichirou's inner turmoil, but other times, it's rather distracting from the plot. I mean, come on, people! We're here to watch a romantic comedy anime about a couple letting their true selves show, not to stare at pictures of the setting of said romantic comedy anime! You won't be able to believe how many times during the second half that I said, "I think they're running out of budget."

Despite all of that, however, Kare Kano is a good anime, and I'd recommend it to people looking for a good romantic comedy. However, if the budget problems become too much, read the manga instead. Either way, the circumstances of these two young lovers are those that can't be avoided.