Kare Kano

Hi everyone,

This is going to be a short post compared to my other ones because this is just going to be about a manga that I feel like writing about.

Kare Kano by Tsuda Masami

This manga is probably one of my most favorite mangas. It is a definite all time classic for shoujos as well so if you read shoujo, this is one story definitely shouldn't miss out. (But because it's kind of a mature read so I think it qualifies as a josei in some ways). Well I should actually say "stories" since this is one of those mangas where all the characters become close to your heart as you read and journey through all 21 volumes.

So, the reason why I felt like writing about this manga today is because recently I decided to reread/skim through the manga. I've always thought of it as like the bible of shoujo, the golden story that is shoujo at its best and brightest but I lost touch of it and felt like recently in about a year or so, I forgot what was the reason for why I thought that. Well, because I recently "reread" it, I've rediscovered this feeling and truly, it is (in my personal opinion) practically the bible of shoujo. It really is falling in love all over again. But it wasn't until I finished it that I felt this. I guess it's one of those mangas that has a process and by the time one comes to the end, one realizes just how wonderful the experience and journey was and reflect well on it. This definitely is one of the things I love about completed mangas (just in reference to one of my earlier posts).

Now this story touches on so many aspects. True love, Friendship, Loyalty, Youth (high school), Unconditional Love, Trauma, Family, and so much more. It really hits the core of adolescence in a sense because it really shines through the struggles to maintain or create an identity but also to retain/find one's self as "being yourself." It's because it hits on so much of reality (slice of life genre), it really does carry the reader through a lot and with that, you really feel compelled to love it and really do love it.

With so many aspects that it touches on, there are so many stories to tell as well.

Main story--I don't want to give too much away but the main character story is between a girl, Yukino and a guy, Arima. Both are top students, perfect models that teachers want their students to be, and great leadership skills. However their reality isn't what is reflected, their act is simply a theatrical performance of perfection and only when they meet each other do they crack through this performance with personal happiness within sight. However Yukino's reality is much more simply and exudes the happy and loving family environment she has always been raised in (plus her own little cunning and charming capitalistic attitude). Arima on the other hand has a much deeper and darker reality that he has buried since childhood due to the unstable environment he was raised in a "typical" crazy "noble" and successful family (all that pressure and expectation to uphold family legacy goes back generations before Arima. It's like he's a victim). This main story is spread out through most of the 21 volumes.

Within the 21 volumes, we take occasional breaks with insertion of a fun high school youth life with friends and well as get peaks into the stories of other characters. There are a lot of substories involving the secondary characters themselves (ranging in length from one to a few chapters long). I don't want to list them all since it's kind of a spoiler with introduction of new characters but I'll just say this. It's quite uncommon for any manga to reveal the background stories but this isn't just any manga. Not only do the friends get some background and their own little stories, but we even get to know about Yukino's parents as well as Arima's family history (this one is especially important in order for Arima to break the curse of the Arima family).

This style of manga, this is of an older generation per se (not that old though). It's not as fast pace and it's more "innocent" because it focuses on the more profound moments and relationships of life. It's as though with the complexity of the storyline and the multiple sub storylines, to go too quick of a pace would have ruined the manga but everything just moved smoothly for Kare Kano.

But I must stress that this is different for everyone. Personally, I picked up this manga when I was young (like 11 or 12) and what I consider quite ignorant and didn't really understand the meanings behind the profoundness of most of the mangas I read (the way I read novels was completely different from how I read mangas too back then). It was until I was in high school when I finally picked it up again online and read through everything with my full attention that I realized the greatness of the storyline. This isn't for everyone though and you might not have the patience to last 21 volumes that has not only the main storyline but also sub stories. However, it is definitely worth reading since it is a very different style from what we're exposed to (given what we have from the scanlators). Read it with an open mind and if you can't handle reading some parts, just let it sit for a day, take a break from it.

Sorry if I sounded like I butchered it and was repetitive. I started on this earlier in the week when I finished rereading Kare Kano and I was still really hyped up on the energy and love I felt for it. Personally, I call it the perfect shoujo youth high school life manga =) Friendship, Love, Loyalty, High school youth. It shows love comes in all different sizes and different ways. Also, despite it being an older style, it certainly has a lot of modern and beyond contemporary thinking (this may not be as clear until you reach the end of the story).

That's all, until next time,
tohukyo

(Lol said it'll be short...oops.)