Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou
He sees things that others don't see. He writes things that others don't understand or often don't want to understand. Maybe he doesn't even belong to humans race (this is still an open question). Who will I be talking about? It is obviously, one of the most talked about Japanese directors: Hideaki Anno.
When the news reached me years ago that the Gainax studio was working on a new animated series, my imagination began to run at full speed, leaving the reassuring confines of daily reality to enter universes made up of complex boys, planetary conspiracies, spears particular who come and go and angels who of angelic have only the name. Then the news hit me like a small earthquake: Gainax was working on a shojo.
My imagination, started riding again, this time bringing me landscapes dotted with bloodthirsty lovers and sparkling-eyed girls wandering dreamily in a post-nuclear Tokyo.
So when I had the opportunity to watch some episodes of Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou I immediately understood that perhaps Anno was not the visionary I had in mind.
The plot of the series embodies the idea of the shojo genre in the most classic way.
The main character, Miyazawa Yukino, is a girl who excels in study and sports. She's nice, polite and kind with everyone. All these qualities put together make her very popular among the students of her school. The popularity protects her like a screen preventing others from seeing what she is in the reality.
In fact, in the privacy of her home she becomes a completely different person. She doesn't care to dress neatly and she loses her gentle and graceful manner. Her existence seems to proceed quietly until the end of middle school without anything being able to undermine her perfect girl facade.
The admiration others feel for her drives her to work even harder to achieve the kind of public consideration that deeply satisfies her ego. When she enters high school, however, the popularity she enjoyed before is completely stolen from her by a boy: Arima Souichiro who outclasses her in the entrance exam votes and is well liked by all the students; as well as being a little genius in sports.
An offended Yukino declares war to Arima and desperately strives to pass him academically. Once the results of the first exam session have been released and having obtained the highest vote, Yukino is radiant and more than ever ready to show Arima her triumph. In response, the boy congratulates her on the result achieved and confesses that he loves her.
Surprised Yukino not knowing how to react decides to simply let it go.
One Sunday Arima unexpectedly decides to pay her a visit. When he rings at her door, an unpresentable Yukino attacks him with a flying kick, thinking it was her sister returning from the cinema. The mask has fallen off and Arima realizes what she really is like. Very intelligently he decides to take advantage of what he has discovered to his advantage by forcing Yukino to help him in all matters concerning the committees to which he is a member.
Annoyed by this type of constraint, Yukino verbally attacks Arima accusing him of exploiting her only, without really being in love with her as he had declared instead. At this point Arima reveals that his attitude is actually a simple expedient to spend more time with her.
Yukino gradually realizes that she likes Arima and I'll leave you to imagine how the story continues... The story, although classic from a certain point of view, deals with the topic of the couple's relationship between boys and girls in a more adult way than what does not usually happen in a shojo, moving away from the typical recurring clichés and improbable dramas or plot twists from a 4th category South American soap opera. The protagonists are neither absolute morons (although in some cases the protagonist ...) as often happens, nor semi-perfect characters with whom everyone and everything ends up falling in love.
There are no infinite love triangles, rectangles, rhombuses or trapezoids. It's more a story about what it means to fall in love and how this can change a person's life and attitude.
Hiramatshu Tadashi's character design is clean, essential, made of thin and quite soft lines. Unfortunately it is sometimes erratic. Often the characters are represented in a super deformed version and in most cases the final effect as well as being fun and also aesthetically appealing, but on more than one occasion the drawings seem nothing more than drafts slammed under the camera before be truly completed.
And many choices in terms of direction also seem to follow this type of policy, let's say it clearly, of saving money. The really animated parts are not many. Often there are only semi-fixed scenes that follow each other quite quickly on the screen and voiceovers that speak while the camera focuses on a static cell moving slowly. Sometimes even things are not said, but written.
You find yourself staring at the screen against a background covered in kanji telling you what they mean.
Overcoming the disappointment generated by a realization that could have been superior, however, I must admit that I liked this anime.
Everything has been said and can be said about Anno and his direction, but from a certain point of view (apart from purely narrative choices) his work can do it quite well (when you see and understand some direction that slams in front of you, you don't know if you want to hit him or compliment him).
Regardless of the animation (more than scarce) the episodes flow away very pleasantly, the eye is rarely led to stop on the same cell for more than a few seconds and even when it happens one is too taken by the story to notice. The gags are many and really spot on (seeing the protagonist who behaves like a berserk Eva is something not to be missed).
Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou is undoubtedly one of those television series that deserves to be seen especially for the value and content of the story itself beyond what you may think of Anno, Gainax and their way of working.
