His & Her Circumstances - TV Series Collection

Like a drug, Yukino Miyazawa was addicted to admiration and praise from those around her. She worked hard to become the perfect student, the perfect girl. But that was before... him. Souichirou Arima. The instant she met him, she hated him. Without even trying, he snatched the very glory from her hands by easily acing the high school entrance exam that should have made her the class representative. To take back what is rightfully hers, Yukino is putting all her efforts into plotting her revenge; but was love part of the plan?

From Gainax (EVANGELION), with production by Toshimichi Otsuki (EVANGELION, SLAYERS, NADESICO), chief direction and story by Hideaki Anno (EVANGELION), and character design by Tadashi Hiramatsu (EVANGELION) comes a high-tension story of the heartrending rivalries of a first love. Contains all 26 episodes on 5 DVDs! Special DVD Features: Director's Notes, Translation Notes, Production Notes, Character Biographies, Storyboard Samples, Voice Actor Interviews, English Actresses, Outtakes, Original U.S. His and Her Circumstances Trailer, Phone Messages, Right Stuf Trailers, Scene Access, Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo audio for English and Japanese dialogue, English and Spanish subtitles plus removable "soft" subtitles for on-screen text, and more! Spoken Languages: English / Japanese audio, English subtitles, Spanish subtitles.

Disappointing for everyone

I purchased the entire series for my daughter, which I now regret. Fortunately she is college-age, as it is not for younger viewers, and it is not a shining example of romance. The animation is sometimes very hard to follow. The main character is a hypocrite, and she is very egotistical and deceitful, but changes for the better, to a degree, over time.

The series starts out like a teen girl soap opera, starts to become a love story, but then slowly crashes. In the end though, the girl (Yukino Miyazawa) seems to learn more about life and makes real friends, but by this time, we just don't care.

At first I really did not like the character, I don't think we are meant to. She meets a boy (Soichiro Arima) with a tragic past, and both begin changing for the better. Subtle changes continue happening over time and things get more interesting. That is when the series seems to have been taken over by another group of people. After the couple gets too close, the boy begins changing for the worse. At this point, everything changes too much, even the titles of the stories admit this.

The ending leaves you empty, our interest goes downhill as the series continues to change. Things get too confusing, which is probably why they are always recapping the story lines. My daughter felt the same way about the story that I did, by the end, she too had lot all interest in the story. July 12, 2008

Not your typical anime

This is nothing like your typical anime - so really clear off any preconceived notions because you're not going to get what you expect.

At first the series is very similar to your standard Shoujo anime. The main character is a cannonball of humor and humanity - not the typical wussy female heroine you often find in this genre. She's someone a real female can relate to.

Visually, as the anime progresses, it delves deeper into an avant-garde style of presentation. It becomes less of an animated series and more an experiment in visual storytelling. I actually appreciated this aspect of the series and looked forward to seeing how the story would be told in each episode. From the popsicle stick figures, cityscapes, flashing images, sketch book drawings, etc. everything was very different and very interesting to watch.

The story itself is great - it branches off gracefully from the stories of our two main characters as they progress in high school and develop into adulthood.

The reason I can't give this set a full 5 stars however is that the behind the scenes problems led to a number of useless recap fillers and a hanging final episode. I presume there was the intention of continuing beyond 26 episodes because the final episode does nothing to wrap up any loose ends (although it seems that most shoujo I've watched ends up with a mediocre or unsatisfying ending anyway.) The bright side is that the manga continues well beyond this final episode and any individual who desperately wants to know how all these fantastic and complex characters will end up is able to read on to a very satisfactory and complete ending.

Understanding that this is incomplete, experimental, and yet totally emotionally captivating this set easily earns 4 stars. June 2, 2008

Just a little bit disappointed

The whole series is awesome, I feel that the series could have used another season to tell the story. I did hear that initially that the director and the writer of the story parted ways. I have no idea who left the production.

The story does leave you hanging at the end of the series. I think that they should have left out the recap of the proceeding episodes that happened in episodes 14 and part of 15 and episodes part of 24 and part of 25.

I would say that the whole story is great. All in all I would say this is a great addition to any DVD collection. The DVD set was so good, I am now concentrating on purchasing the manga version of the story. April 14, 2008

Great series but..

Personally,I LOOOOOVE "His and Hers.." but I noticed,that around the 3rd DVD,the show itself went a little downhill. The plot was a bit slow from time to time and for some reason,the animation was a little...bizarre. Its as if the creators were on a low budget. O_O But the 1st two DVDs are the BEST! Its both funny and adorable.

Still, I say, buy this product. This is a good series. Just be warned of the weird animation later on... February 14, 2008

A Great Series

I absolutely love this anime. It's a classroom/high-school drama mainly about a boy and girl falling in/out of love with each other and the obstacles in their path (emotional problems or another girl to compete with, for instance) which prevent them from being together indefinitely. It's actually quite comedic at times. H&HC really has a "manga" style going for it... think Azumanga Daioh, but not as over the top in the comedy.

One of the things I really like about this series is the musical score. It has some great tracks ranging from many styles of music and they fit the mood well.

The box set is also a great value as opposed to buying each of the DVDs individually. I highly recommended this. January 7, 2008

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