Finishing watching His and Her Circumstances few days ago and I can see why people love this show quite a bit when it was shown in North America for the 1st time. It have a simple but great teen romance comedy storyline with a great character development with almost all the main and secondary characters in the show. Also, the show have a good soundtrack which help make the show more memorable. Unfortunately, issue with the budget (a lack of budget), disagreement with the creator and producer of the idea of where the show should go, and an ending which just stop out of nowhere, give me a bitter taste when I finish watching it. I think the best way is to explain what I think about the show itself.
The main story of His and Her Circumstances is you follow two high school students, Yuniko and Arima in their life. At the beginning of the show, Yuniko and Arima live their life of lies, trying to be a perfect person in the class for different reason. For Yuniko, she love been praised by other people. For Arima, his perfection is to proof to his parent (or stepparent) he is a good boy that have a tarnish birth. After an incident early in the show, they both open up to each other, and this friendship will turn into love. Unfortunately, as with life in teenager, it isnt easy for them but they will face them head on together knowing the consequence but will do it for their love.
For the most part, the story is a typical high school romance you see in most anime at that time. What make this show tick for me is the character development. Almost all the main and secondary characters in the show have they own backstory which help shape who theyre quite a bit in the show. Even Yukinos parents have their own backstories in the entire episode which explain them. This is important in this show and any other anime as you want to get to know who youre following and understanding of why they react the way theyre in the show. As for the leading couple, both have very eccentric type personalities with a two face which hide they own secret. For Yukino, she is fun to watch as you see her stressing out for minor things and also spend so much time trying to be the best in her class just so she can feel like a perfect person. This change quite a bit when she meet Arima. For Arima, he is interesting to see as he have problem which he hide from everyone and even with his step parent and want to be perfect just to proof he isnt a bad person just because of his dad and what he did in the past. Like Yukino, this change when he meet Yukino.
Another thing I do like the most in this show is the soundtrack. I notice this quite a bit but the music is very enjoyable to listen to when they play it in the show and help set the mood in the anime quite well. Also, its still enjoyable to listen to outside of the anime mostly from the piano tunes that is used. As for the dubbing, I watch the entire show in English dub and it sound fine for me. I notice the voice who play Yukino sound like someone from the Pokemon series in the back (thinking of Misty a bit). Also, the voice who play Arima sound like someone who is a bit too layback for this character. Kinda feel a bit odd when he start to speak. As for the rest of the character, it sound fine and match quite well to tell the truth.
With this strength of the show, we will have to go to its weakness. One of the weakness I notice literally is the animation. A show that was shown in 1998, it doesnt look good and you can see where the money didnt go to when making this show. Not saying its bad all the way. The first half of the show, the animation look okay or passable. They use manga still technique which added quite a bit of atmosphere in this show and you see this in certain point of the story which add quite a bit of mood of the scene. Unfortunately, the second half of the show is where the animation quality drop like a rock. You notice quite a bit of still images is shown in the episode and less the fluid animation you see in the first half of the series. They did try an interesting style of animation of cardboard cut outs in one episode which move around like a puppet show. I will give them a credit on that as it was interesting to see but did feel odd when watching it as it isnt the style you expected from this show. The last 5 episodes is where you feel the animator just give up and just draw still all the way with little animation shot. Hell, they use more of the manga still scene but by that time it feel cheap when watching it.
Another issue I have with the show is the, Recap Episodes. In most anime show, they use the recap episode when they need to summarize of what have happened in the show. This is mostly used around the halfway point or later to remind the audience of what have happened in the show. This is fine for me but His and Her Circumstances just literally have so many in it and get worst as you get closer to the ending of the show. It feel like the development of the show have run out of idea so, what we got is literally a full or mini recap episodes which fill the space up. It kinda suck as if they remove almost majority of them from this show, you will have enough space to develop the story a bit more, more character development for certain character which come late (aka: Tonami and Sakura arch), and the bloody ending and this come down to the final issue I have, the lack of ending.
In most anime show, you want to have some sort of a closure for the story and characters in the show. Here, they isnt one. It kinda end abruptly just went it start to pick up with the student festival. Its a weird place to end the show. You start to develop more character development with the main and support character and they was an tension with some of them and then just stop. I know they have budget issue and disagreement with the creator of the manga and producer of the show, but at least end it in a way they is some sort of closure. Sigh
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So, with all the flaws this show have, would I recommend AnimeGaf to watch this show? One word, Yes. Even with the flaw, His and Her Circumstances show us of how you can make a good teen romance comedy that isnt the typical one you see in most anime now. I would consider for AnimeGaf who start to watch this show for the 1st time to go read the manga after you finish the show as the ending of the TV show suck and we all want to see what happened to the main character in the show. Which is why I am starting to read the manga because of it.