Is there such thing as an epic romantic comedy?  If there is, His and Her Circumstances would be it.

His and Her Circumstances is a true miracle.  A miracle for the mere fact that the show's creator, Gainax's own Hideaki Anno – who created and directed the uber-depressing, mind-turning, myth-like Neon Genesis Evangelion – could almost create an equal to the most influential anime of all time.  Almost.  His and Her Circumstances is so close to perfection, though, that it becomes too fine a line.  Anno’s obsessive directorial style has ascended to a new level in His and Her.  That being said, if Neon Genesis Evangelion developed Anno's direction, His and Her Circumstances certainly is the finished and polished product.

His and Her Circumstances is a meditation-like series on being a high schooler in Japan.  Based off the shojo manga going by the name Kare Kano, His and Her is a fantastic slice-of-life comedy that is given a super-kenetic energy by Gainax's production.  Having read the manga, a comparison to to the original and the anime adaption must be made.  Surprisingly, His and Her surpasses the source material by sticking closely to the story, design, and flow of the manga.  By pushing the material in the areas that needed to be pushed and pulling back in others, the manga’s flaws, had the manga been directly translated, are removed for the screen adaptation.

His and Her Circumstances is about Yukino Miyazawa and her blooming relationship with Souichiro Arima.  Miyazawa planned to be the first place running in test scores at her high school, but Arima taking the top spot interrupted her debut.  Miyazawa, whose life goal is to maintain a model student façade, studies hard to defeat Arima.  Soon enough, Arima discovers her secret.  Miyazawa discovers Arima's past and why he pushes to be a model student, and both Miyazawa and Arima soon develop of a relationship.  Thus, the story continues about their trials and tribulations as a couple, and the people they become friends with, and their trails and tribulations, etc. etc.

However, underneath its wildly showy surface lie characters so perfect in their depiction and execution that they may go unappreciated and unnoticed.  Every character's action is logical, expected, natural, and smooth, but at the same time fresh and engrossing.  Gainax's character designs, animation, and most importantly, its hyper-reality tangents perfectly reflex each and every character’s action and thoughts.  Take for instance a device used regularly throughout the show.  In the first episode, Arima is walking with Miyazawa as they go to their train.  Miyazawa actually dislikes Arima and is troubled by his tagging along, yet her “inpreginatable mask,” as she puts it, has Arima fooled as to how she really feels.  Her perfected girly poses are all that he sees, and even though unbeknownst to the audience that he likes her, when the scene shifts from normal anime style to still shots of Miyazawa drawn in manga-esque black and white, it becomes clear to the audience that he is being drawn in by her beauty.

Isn’t that how a normal romance anime works?  That isn’t so special!

When you take into consideration that every time a shift like this occurs and the feelings are hit dead-on, it becomes apparent that Gainax’s talent and Anno’s obsessive direction transcends the material beyond any constraint of a lesser romance comedy.  While the show hits the heart, what may be even more amazing is that the entire series seemed to be one giant experiment on how to create an episode with the smallest amount of money possible.  (Some of the exact same cells from Evangelion, frame for frame, were used in His and Her.)

Gainax's treatment of this show is pristine.  Every episode seemed to be an experiment with presentation, animation, and episode structure.  Some series have two or three great episodes.  His and Her Circumstances has about ten.  When watching the show, the fact slowly creeped up on me.  To me, it seemed Gainax had more fun making and experimenting with episodes than any audience could ever have watching them.  Take for instance the live-action episode, where much of the animation contains some sort of live action.  The school is a paper cut-out pasted into a picture.  Many of the characters are animated by still motion cut-outs of drawings.  A physical cell-drawing is set on fire.  Even sections of normal live action film is used.  Then, to finish the episode off, the closing animation is a video of all the episode’s cells being burned in the back parking lot.  This blatant disregard to conventions makes His and Her a pleasure to watch, even if hardcore shojo stories puts you to sleep.  This style of direction and experimentation permeated to other shows afterwards in all different genres, yet His and Her’s experimentation still seems fresh and vivid.  To exemplify this, His and Her Circumstances is, to my knowledge, the creator of the now overused “disclaimer” asking the audience to sit away from the television and watch the show in a well lit room.  Yet for every case of this disclaimer, His and Her still does it the most tastefully.  Its simple text message accompanied by a well known piano melody places the message across in a funny and light-hearted way, a way that does not beg for laughs, and therefore receives laughs.  Creative experiments like the disclaimer seemed to have been nothing more than Gainax having a fun time making their shows.  However, these experimentations influenced heavily on many shows afterward.

Normally I would not comment on the music of an anime series, since music is so subjective and cannot really be critiqued on other than effectiveness and use, but I brought the subject up so now I must make note of my thoughts.  Gainax created a fantastic instrumental soundtrack for His and Her and remains one of my favorite musical soundtracks.  Using classical music (like Evangelion), the sound compliments the visuals perfectly, especially when simple drawings take place to animation for dramatic moments.

His and Her Circumstances visuals, as it were, are as varied as I have ever seen.  Some parts of Yukino's school is pastel like and very gentle, while other parts are photo-like in their renderings.  The characters can be drawn life like with that fantastic character design, or they can be black and white chibi characters that are five times too short.  Varied as the visuals are, they are never misused.  Every background matches the character's feelings, every shade of black subtly drawn to promote the onscreen feelings, and every exaggerated drawing matching pitch perfect with the character's action.

His and Her Circumstances moves through its plot smoothly and efficiently.  Although there are a few too many recap episodes for its own good, the story remains focused, yet incomplete.  The manga was not finished when His and Her started production, but thanks to Kazuya Tsurumaki, director of FLCL and Gunbuster 2, His and Her wraps up thematically and may be one of the only series to end with a "To Be Continued" before the ending credits.  However, the ending seems fit to this wildly meditative structure.  Its loose stories do not wrap up to anything bigger, except as another person's life story.  Having a ridiculously open ending seems fit, because it was not headed to any one point to begin with.

Ending aside, His and Her Circumstances is a great series and a miracle of a follow up to Evangelion.  It is the greatest romantic comedy anime ever produced and continues to represent progressive anime as well as inspire other series.  With its pitch-perfect visuals, musical score, experimental episodes, and a story structure that allows much to the imagination, His and Her Circumstances remains one of the pillars of classic anime.  Not only did Hideaki Anno find an outlet for a deeper directorial method than Evangelion, he discovered the method in a universal genre.  However, if directorial analyzing is not on the top of your list, His and Her Circumstances is an exemplary series of characterization and operatic love trials.  Do not pass this show up.