I’ve always liked Kare Kano, but I haven’t been reading many of the recent spin-off stories about Arima and Miyazawa’s classmates with the enthusiasm I had for the earlier volumes. In volumes 13 and 14, the focus turns back to our favorite overachieving high school students in love, as Arima decides to embark on a plan of revenge against the family who treated him as an outcast. He doesn’t want to share this struggle with Miyazawa, and she senses that he’s not being completely honest with her. Arima’s long lost unlamented mother shows up, and boy is she a piece of work. Yikes!

Oh those crazy kids? Will love win in the end, or will Arima be consumed by revenge?!!! I’m suddenly very curious about the resolution of the storyline. There are 4 more volumes to go, I think. Netflix has the anime adaptation, released under the translated title His and Her Circumstances. Gainax, the studio that brought the world Evangelion and Furi Kuri, adapted the manga, with Hideaki Anno directing. I’ve only watched the first disc of the anime, and it is a wonderful adaptation, with inventive use of music, manga panels, and titles used throughout every episode for great effect. I’ve heard that the ending of the series is horrible, perhaps because the manga wasn’t finished when the anime show was running, or perhaps because Anno was the director (*cough, Evangelion, cough*), or Gainax ran out of money. I have no idea.