I finished re-watching Kare Kano (or His and Her Circumstances) a couple of days ago, just to see what I'd think of it now, years later since I first watched it. Honestly, while I do like it, I'm not too sure if it's something I can in good faith recommend to anyone. Why not?
It's incomplete, and not in a good way.
But wait, since when was being an incomplete anime ever a good thing? Well, I can think of one from the top of my head that was pretty good, while still being incomplete: Alien Nine. Both series had an unfinished ending, story wise, but I felt that Alien Nine already communicated what it wanted, and that left me quite satisfied. With Kare Kano, however, Anno came oh-so-close to delivering another masterpiece, but sadly never finished the job for whatever reasons. (That pic at the top can be read in so many ways.) Watching this is like watching a studio struggling to keep its sanity (amongst other things), but gradually losing the battle on all fronts. At times I wasn't sure when Kare Kano ended and the Human Instrumentality Project began, towards those later episodes. GAINAX ending, indeed.
On a completely different note, anyone ever see the speed-freak cult classic Vanishing Point, the 1971 film? I'm thinking of checking it out, just to satisfy my curiosity. I mean, c'mon, it's got Cleavon Little in it!
