His and Her Circumstance

His and Her Circumstance (彼氏彼女の事情) is a 26 episode comedic slice of life romance based on the manga of the same name by Tsuda Masami.  The anime originally aired between the Fall of 1998 and Winter of 1999 and was produced by Gainax.

 

     Miyazawa Yukino is the top student in her class. She is perfect in every way; best grades, good looks, and friendly attitude…just the #1 student. She has a secret…she expends all of her energy projecting that image because she thrives off of praise and attention. She feels that she must hide the fact that she is just a normal, middle class student who has flaws. She is so addicted to praise that she does everything possible to be THE model student. Yet at home she relaxes, lets her guard down, puts on grubby clothes, puts her hair back with a headband and dons her glasses to study until her brain is full. Her family is normal…if a bit goofy. She has two younger sisters and her parents. They live in a normal house and work normal job.  Her parents and sisters make fun of her for being the way she is, which she returns by being snide and overbearing. She sacrifices so much of her life being perfect she has no hobbies or true friends…all she is concerned about is being the best.   At the beginning of her high school career that all changes. 

 

    She was supposed to be the best, have the highest exam score, be the class rep, etc. Then someone else got a better score than her, Arima Souichiro. He is her rival in every way, he has the best grades, is liked just as much as her, is in the kendo club, excels at sports, is easy to get along with, is generally the model student and comes from a long line of doctors. She begins to direct all of her energy to beating her new rival…only in her head.  She feels that Arima threatens her existence; he is what he his naturally, while she is what she is due to putting up a facade and working hard. She hates him to such an extreme that all of her energy is put into becoming even better then he is, excelling above and beyond him, becoming the model student that wasn't even possible before. He surprises her with a confession.   She rejects him instantly, seeing it as an opportunity to hold something over his head.. This leads her to analyzing if he was honest or not, wondering whether or not he was just trying to taunt her. Then she lets her guard down at the worst possible moment.

 

 

    On a Sunday afternoon Arima goes to her house to lend her a CD that they had talked about previously in light conversation. Miyazawa, being the only one home, does not consider the person ringing the doorbell is not a family member.  She answers, looking as she does when she is alone at home, a complete wreck, to Arima…whom she has started to have feelings for.. It is out, her secret, true identity is out, she is no longer the icon of perfection, and her rival in love and society now knows her secret. She fears he will use it against her so she try's to strike a bargain with him to hide her true identity.  He accepts and makes her do his homework. The 'blackmail' only lasts so long before she snaps on him and tells him to do it him self.  In the confrontation she finds out that he too, is hiding his true identity, and the only reason he had her do his work was so he could spend more time with her. Arima works almost as hard as Miyazawa to be the model student he is, to prove to his family that he is not a failure like his biological parents were.  That he will make his foster parents (his aunt and uncle) proud of him. He pushes himself to the limits to be the best at everything for fear of becoming worthless like his real parents. 

    They both know each others true identities and complexes. They make a pact with each other to be their true selves from then on. This leads to the beginning of their romantic relationship and their fellow classmates begin to harbor resentment and ill feelings towards them, most notably Miyazawa. The series follows them through many trials and tribulations with their relationship. Both internal and external conflicts that threaten to destroy what they have together. Between other students, the faculty, their grades and their own insecurities. This is when a lot of the heavy analytical thinking starts to happen, when the characters are constantly analyzing their relationship and finding what is wrong with them that would cause them to not be together. More characters are introduced and the base increases as the series continues. Soon there is a good-sized cast of supporting characters who are both protagonists and antagonists. There is a small side story that deals with a girl who is from the same middle school as Arima that feels he is the only man for her. The arc deals with her home life issues and is quite mature (even though the character in question is not). Another episode delves into Miyazawa's parents past, showing how her parents met when they were barely in grade school. In my opinion her fathers' story is the most emotional, although less than an episode in length. 

    The series was directed by Anno Hideaki, the man behind Neon Genesis Evangelion. Anno’s art direction and story telling style are as prominent in His and Her Circumstance as it was in Eva.  The series is primarily a romance drama, there is some goofy comedy but overall it is about the two main characters relationship and both the outer and inner influences and obstacles their relationship encounters. For a series that deals with a 'typical' high school romance it is quite mature and highbrow in my opinion. There is a certain amount of goofy anime-esque dialog and physical comedy, but large portions of the characters interactions are excellently handled and insightful. I really enjoy Anno's tendency to have his characters delve into themselves as if they were psychoanalysts. He touches upon very real and very profound ideas in the characters conversations and self-examinations that make for a truly enjoyable series.

 

    The animation isn't the greatest in the world, the characters are of the same style as in Eva, there are a lot of Anno's somewhat trademark background scenes…images of real objects, distorted and traced over. This was done to some extent in End of Evangelion. The series is from the end of the 90's, so obviously it is dated but that shouldn't keep people from watching it. The main draw should be the character dialog. This series would work better, I think, as a live action drama…but hey whatever, although it would be harder to convey the techniques Anno uses in the anime. Most of the soundtrack in the series is light and airy classical music, with your run of the mill anime-pop opening and ending themes. I truly enjoyed this mature and engaging love story…it was defiantly NOT run of the mill. For people who enjoy good romances, like Maison Ikkoku, this is perfect for you. Even if you are not a big fan of the romances you might want to watch some of this show just to check out the excellent story telling.